Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Would recommend reading this with a brew- as this blog is going to be a good long one, lots of things have been done over the last two or three days!
So we left the luxury of the Waihi, the swimming pool, the slides, the jacuzzi! - It was a tearful goodbye!!! - Heading to the karangahake gorge around 40k inland, after some jaw droppingly great scenery on the way, and a few near crashes after getting giddy leaning out of the window looking at the gorge, we arrived. Wanting to take in the scenery we had two options, one walk was two hours long that ends with the views of the gorge, the other walk was just 30 minutes and took you straight through to the views. Full of ambition and ready for a good long walk.........we took the 30 minute one, well we're not stupid!??! Anyway great views as you walk down the caves that they dug out for the gold mine, they've blown holes out of the side of the tunnels that they now call windows, so you walk from window to window admiring the views on the other side! Fantastic!
Any way onward and upward to the next place. So they have this drink over here, its called L & P and if you've never had the pleasure of basking in its glory, its brilliant, its like drinking summer in a bottle! Anyway its called Lemon and Paeroa, and Paeroa is a place not too far from the gorge. All we can say is that now we've been there, we've done that, but for the life of me i could not get the t-Shirt! I tried!
Now it was chance for rick to man up (while maria slept) and get the longest driving part of the trip done, Paeroa to Taupo - I did have John Mayer to keep me company for this journey though. The driving here is like what you imagine driving through the out back of Australia to be, absolutely nothing for miles upon miles and then out of nowhere a small town that looks like its out of the 50's but amazingly has a great feel to it!
So we arrive in Tauranga, the city looking onto the bay of plenty, this place is wicked! really clean, on the edge of the water. So here we gave ourselves a mission. more on that in a moment....
This weekend we're heading over to Taupo to meet up with my sister, her Fiancée and friends. these 'nutters' have decided to take part in the Taupo 160k bike ride, that's 100miles on a bike! ........like I said 'Nutters'!! Maria and I, along with Amanda's friend Guiney, have now become their -racing support crew- (sounds important doesn't it) ha-ha
Anyway, so our mission in Tauranga is to get T-SHIRTS made so the -race support crew- has its own 'kit'! so off we head to an internet cafe for some MI5 work on finding a place to help us out! We eventually find a place and get it all sorted! Pick them up in the morning and we're made!
We spent the night camped in a site on the edge of a beach, not before a quick dip in the sea though. (told you we weren't stupid)..oh and a jump on a giant jumping pillow..or trampoline as there more commonly known!!
The next morning we headed for another walk up Mt Maunganui, this is also a dormant volcano, and a blummin' steep one at that, these no wonder these kiwi's are so fit, all their activities include steep hills! When we rocked up at the top though, all was worth it after seeing one of the most breath taking views I've ever seen! 360 degree's of amazingness! We spent half the time at the top watching in amazement at one of these big ocean freighters navigating out of the small port! That was pretty cool! Then after the walk time for another dip with a difference, baths like any normal swimming pool, but out doors and with warm salt water out of the sea, very cool but very weird!!! Then a Pizza from Mr.Pizza..what a coincidence he makes pizzas and his name is Mr.Pizza..what are the chances! :o)
After picking up the t-shirts we headed off to Taupo, knowing we would be a day early we had heard rumours of a camp-site with another pool! Speeding into Taupo we noticed the preparations for the weekends race had started, the atmosphere in the town was excitement bordering on giddiness! We arrived at the site and our excitement for a swim boiled over, the car was still practically moving and we were in the water!
The next day we had hours to burn before the racing team arrived, so what do you do in New Zealand when you have ours to burn? Jet boating!! The most exhilarating thing we've both ever done! whipping in and out of white water on the fastest boat in Taupo! doing 360's and skimming trees by millimetres at speed, it was just COOL! half way through the driver announces 'wowe im still a little drunk' joke or no joke thats not what you want to hear heading for a waterfall! Fantastic! And hearing rick scream like a little girl was just the icing on the cake!!
After this we headed to a dam that opened its water gates everyday at 4pm, we watched in amazement as billions of gallons of water filled up the rived below the bridge we where standing on. Amazing! if we can figure out how to put the video on here we'll try!
After meeting up with the racer's we headed over to see old friends of ours, Ally and Erin, they had a place over the lake were we stayed for a couple of nights while the race was going on! that night we had a great Kiwi BBQ and got ourselves an early night before the 5am start for the race, harsh time in the morning for people considered to be on holiday!
THE RACE started, with 160k ahead of them this estimated 6 hour ride was no easy feat! but not to worry, they had the -race support crew- with them!!! We raced over to the half way point, on the way we passed the elite athletes, these guys we're going fast. we saw them in a large group swooping around a big corner, peddling like mad going downhill!!! They really are nutters! anyway word has it that they would finish the race in just over three and a half hours! impressive! We arrived at the half way point with cameras, chants and a horn that sounded like a clowns nose! (in kit too i might add) to give support, we must have cheered on at least 8,000 out of the 11,000 competing in the race waiting our members to pass us..our contingents passed us doing good time with no problems. We headed the long way around to the finish to see them come in.
After a finish worthy of the chariots of fire everyone made it back safe and in a time better than they thought they would, It was now time to kick back and relax with a few drinks and another BBQ! After first thinking she was slightly nuts im now very proud of my older sister and the team as a whole, but lets face it, it was the -race support crew- that won the day! ha-ha!
The next day we watched the Kiwi's stuff the French in a performance that made me feel happier about England loosing the previous week, had breakfast and headed off back to Auckland.
So now we've reached the end of our first camping trip, whether it has been the highs of seeing Orca whales or the lows of camping under a plum tree, all of it has been a good old laugh!
Head back now to an endless amount of washing and the plotting of our next trip!!!
- comments