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Josie's Giant Adventure
Hello All
I'm actually in the South Island now, but thought I'd write a bit about the North.
I arrived on the 28th of December and the true gent Simon picked me up from the airport at 4.20 am, and picked Emma up the folliwing day at 5something am. Thanks simon.
On my first day we went boogie boarding at a lovely bay just north of Auckland which was cool, then had Christmas Day Mk II at Simon & Rosie's flat. We all had a lot of fun playing with our presents and listening to proper cheesy christmas pop songs. The day after when Emma arrived, Simon took us on a whirlwind tour of Auckland in his car Cecil. Although Cecil is thought of highly enough to have a name, we didn't care enough about him to remember which car park we'd put him in at one point. Not just forgetting where in a car park you left the car - forgetting where the entire car park was! We looked really intelligent to the various security guards that helped us find him.
We went up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands for New Year with Simon and co. which was excellent fun. The bay of islands is pretty touristy but lovely, and the journey up there was very pretty too, stopping at a stunning beach for a barbeque lunch. On New Year's Eve, we caught the boat from Paihia over to another village, Russel. We had a few drinks there and aquired party hats and blowers, then returned to Paihia on the boat where there were totally amazing views of the stars - I've never seen so many. Back in Paihia there were fireworks at midnight. Then we went onto a bar where they serve beer in the smallest glasses in the world - they must hold and 8th of a pint!
From me and Emma, thanks very much to Simon, Rosie, Steven, Wes & Julia for a great new year and thanks to Simon & Rosie for the hospitality. As predicted, it was all great fun and a shame to be leaving so quickly, but for a small country, there is far too much to see and too little time! So onwards.
Emma and I headed down to Rotarua. It smells of eggs. We went on a cable car to get a view of the city and lake, and went on a luge which was excellent fun. We saw bubbling smelly mud and steam and went to the Polynesian spa which is pools of naturaly heated (eggy) water which is supposed to have healing properties. In the evening we went to a Mauri night thing. It was very touristy and cheesy, but we think that's probably the only way we would get any insight into Mauri culture and it was good and interesting. We also saw glow worms in the forrest. We then went down to Taupo and spent a day doing a long walk to a waterfall then onto a place with more bubbling mud and geysers which is called the craters of the moon as that's what it looks like. After the return walk we had a well deserved relax in the river where a natural hot water spring joins the river.
Then onto Wellington, driven by a bus driver who should not have a driving licence - he did not know how to drive and by the time we got there we felt sea sick. We didn't have a lot of time, but went up to the top of the Botanical Gardens to get a view of the city and walked through the gardens which are beautiful. We met Jason in the evening and it was excellent to catch up.
So onwards south.
Josiexx
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