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1 March
I arrived in Auckland this day. I slept in a very nice hostel called Bamber House. After dropping my stuff I went up on Mount Eden to enjoy a beautiful 360 degrees view of Auckland. I saw a lot of people walking to a stadium, apparently there was a rugby game starting in 5 minutes, unfortunately I was already too late to go, since I still had to cook a delicious pasta with shrimps. But I figured out that there is another game on the 23th of March in Christchurch, so I will definitely go to see that game. In the evening I drunk a beer with Don from Amsterdam after cooking and went to bed early.
2 March
I planned to go to Auckland today, but I heard that there was actually not so much to see in Aukland, so I decided to play tennis. Don and I beat the guys from Scotland and Italy with 6-2, 6-0. After the match it was time for a workout on top of mount Eden. A much better place to do a workout than in a gym full of oversized, sweating people. In the evening we went out in Auckland with a group of around 15 people from our hostel. It was good fun. I went back earlier than the rest to listen to the radio report of my football team at 2.30 am. They won 1-0, I have to admit that I fell asleep during the break.
3 March
The stray travel bus would arrive early this morning and this bus is supposed to show me all the amazing spots in New-Zealand. We start on the north island and end in Christchurch on the south island. Actually, I had quite boring people in my bus. The first stop was Hahei. We started with a walk to the scenic view of Cathedral cove. The beach of Hahei was truly beautiful with white sand and blue water just like you see on postcards. We also saw two stingrays in the water. After trekking to the Cathedral cove we went to Hot Water Beach. If you dig a hole on that beach, really warm water comes up and you can make your own sort of jacuzzi. The water was really hot and boiling at some spots, so you had to make sure to mix the hot water with the cold water to avoid burning yourself. We ended the night with a BBQ.
4 March
This day it was time to visit Raglan. Raglan is a very famous surfspot and thus I hired a surfboard over here to catch some waves. The conditions were not very good though, but it was nice to stand on a surfboard again.
5 March
Waitomo was our next destination. Waitomo is famous because this place has a lot of caves. With a group of 8 persons we signed up to go abseiling, crawling and rock-climbing in a cave. But on the way there our bus got a flat tire. After the greyhound experience in Australia I was afraid to sit in the bus for the whole day again. Fortunately, the organization of the caving adventure sent us some vans to pick us up. We struggled in the cave for approximately 4 hours and were 80 meters under the ground at a certain point. We did the abseiling from 2 waterfalls and 1 big wall. It was nice to experience this activity once, but I don't think I will ever do this again.
After the caving the bus was already repaired and we continued our trip to Rotorua. Here we did a cultural stop in a Maori village, named Mourea. The Maori are the native locals from New-Zealand. We slept in a marae, which is a public house where the Maori have funerals, weddings and so on. First we had to do a ceremony to be permitted into the village. The three chiefs greeted us and we sang for them. They made prayers and after giving a hand and touching their nose with your own nose twice they welcomed us in their village. They prepared a dinner for us and played some songs for us. In the evening they entertained us with telling stories, dancing, singing and showing the world-famous Haka. They taught us to do the Haka and we performed it on stage. After watching the video I have to admit that I have a very bad feeling for rhytm. I liked this evening very much, the Maori people were very open and social and they enjoyed themselves by showing us their culture.
6 March
After a lovely breakfast with the Maori people we were going to raft the Raitoko river. We would raft 3 waterfalls and one of these is the highest commerial waterfall in the world, it was 7 meters long. The rafting was really cool! After we dried up we continued our way to Taupo. We made a stop to see the Huka falls and continued to Taupo again. It was time for a skydive!! I originally signed up for the 12.000 feet skydive, but when I was there I decided to change it to the highest possibility, 15.000 feet (approximately 5 km. I believe). The flight to 15.000 feet took 20 minutes and was beautiful. The taupo lake is the biggest lake of New-Zealand and the landscape is beautiful. The feeling when you jump out of the plane was amazing! The freefall took around 55 seconds and felt very powerful. Then the parachute opened and I immediately asked whether I was allowed to steer the parachute myself. I was allowed and did a couple of 360s and turns. When we landed I was still full of adrenalin, it was such a good adrenalin rush! It was certainly the most impressive activity I did in my life for me and I will certainly do it again sometime. In the evening we went out in Taupo. In the morning there was a lot of turnover in the bus and gladly enough these people were much more fun.
- comments
Semko "With a group of 8 persons..." Met wie ben jij allemaal op vakantie? Of is het via een organisatie? Vet man
Denise Lee Martin, super gaaf!! En vooral alle activiteiten die je onderneemt. Mooi om te lezen wat je allemaal doet en ziet:) Ik blijf je blogs lezen en het maakt me steeds jaloerzer! Hopelijk ben ik volgende maand aan het genieten ver weg;) Klinkt goed allemaal Martin en volgens mij ben j een surftalentje:):)
Rob Timmer Potverdomme man. Al die fantastische ervaringen die jij 'even' meepak'! Iedere jongere in de wereld zou die ervaring mee moeten kunnen maken. Niet alleen die geweldige avontuurlijke dingen maar ook de ontmoetingen met al die andere culturen. Geniet ervan!