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Hello Again,
Just got back to Auckland from our week of touring the North Island with Contiki. What a hectic week it has been. Three hospitalisations, 1 airpocket in a parachute while someone was skydiving, 1 near arrest, 1 police escort home, lots of money spent on Jagerbombs and lots of other madness.
Everthing started Tuesday night. We found out the group were due to come to our hostel to have dinner, so decided to meet them their. Chatted to a lot of them and was a nice chance to get to know them all before the tour.
7am (no, it's not all lie ins as you may imagine!) Wednesday morning, we met the group at the Hotel they were styaing at. Here is where we met our tour guide, Hoover. Turns out she can down a pint in 3 seconds apparently and was very quick to tell you this!
The coach set off by 7.30 for the long drive ahead. First stop was a small town called Bulls. Was a really small town with a really nice community feel to it. Turns out they even had a friendship club! All the shops in town tried to adapt Bulls into their name. There was Bankabull, Befriendabull and Great rates at the Hotel - No Bull - to name a few. We had a blind date session on the bu, a bit of a get to know you, where everybody switched seats and got to know each other.
When we finally reached Taupo, it was a pretty rushed drop off of the luggage for us as we had to set off for Jetboating. Jetboating over Huka Falls was so much fun! We did a ton of 360 degree turns, had a really fun driver and got really wet! In the evening, we went for a dinner cruise party over Lake Taupo (a lake as large as San Fransisco) witht he rest of the tour group. Everybody had to dress up and the theme was no clothes! Fortunately, you were allowed to wear something, you just had to make it all yourself, no clothes allowed.
Thursday
We set off early and headed to the Zorbing place. 1 guy, disclocated his arm and had to go to hospital (2 hospital trip, first was a girl who passed out twice white water rafting and was airlifted to hospital). After this, we went on a tour of Rotorua and saw the famous boiling mud pools. We Saw a pool which had mud boiling at 200 degrees and also visited the most photographed building in New Zealand - The museum of Rotorua. We were warned by Hoover not to go out at night and we soon found out why, just walking around. We saw a pub which had a sign in the window - the sign read - NO GANG TATTOOS, NO GANG COLOURS, NO GANG CLOTHES. Lucky we had a night in the hotel planned anyway. For dinner, we had a meal cooked Hangi style - which means the food cooked over steaming ground and also watched a cultural Maori performance, where Tim leanrt the Haka dance with the other guys on stage.
Friday
We were up early, again and off to a sheepshow. Sounds awesome right? Well it was. We saw over 20 different types of sheep with all different types of wool from all over the world. Watched as the trainer got three dogs to round up the sheep - jumping on their backs at one point, was pretty scary.. if you were a sheep that is. The trainer was really funny too and got the crowd really involved. At one point there was even a sheep auction and we watched as he sheared a sheep in record time in front of us. Had another guy go to hospital today after there was an airpocket in his parachute while he was skydiving (third one). After this we headed out to Waitomo. Here Tim and I went on a 1 hour Glow worms cave tour. Leanrt loads about the caves and the glow worms - which are actually a type of maggot, by worm sounds much nicer apparently and had a quite boat ride in the caves looking up at the worms, like a night sky. The town was dead, all in, there was about 4 buildings, so everyone had a pretty chilled out night.
Saturday
Long drive today - over 6 hours. First, we had a quick stop in Auckland for some lunch and then it was off to Paihia, in the Bay Of Islands. In the afternoon, Tim and I went parasailing. Had a fantastic time and saw some incredible views up there. The parasail we did was the highest in the Southern Hemisphere at 1200 ft. Would definetely love to do it again! In the evening, most of our group headed out to the Pipi Patch for some cheap drinks and lots of dancing. Had a great night. $4 drinks and lots of dancing on tables and the bar. Good Times.
Sunday
Up early again, yay! Had a free day to ourselves today as most of the others were off on excursions around the Bay. Tim and I decided to get the ferry out to the nearest town - Russell. Saw some lovely views on the ferry of the Bay, probably better that the Ferry across to Manly from Sydney really. In Russell, we checked out the local museum, the police station and all the shops in town, there wasn't many but it had a really great small town feel to it. There was a mini petrol station with two pumps, a small police station, a supermarket, several estate agents, a fish and chippie, a pub called The Pub, an ice cream parlous, a Thai place, an Italian, a post office, liqour store, gift store and a hairdressers. If i lived here, i'd never leave. They even do Ice Cream burgers - ice cream in between two cinnamon buns lightly toasted.
Monday
Back to Auckland after a really fun week :)
Next stop Queenstown and then we are meeting up with Natasha, a girl who lives in Auckland, who me met on our last Contiki in Oz. Good Time and Happy Days, cant wait!
Will write soon
Love Tim and Ro xxx
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