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Greetings from the land of the Kiwis!!
The weather is a whole lot colder here, weve realised our feet get very cold walking around in flip flops...however weather wise we have been very lucky as its mainly been cold but blue sky and lots of sunshine so we cant complain. So we began in Aukland which isnt really the real New Zealand, not half as pretty, its mainly a city so we didnt spend long here. The main highlight was climbing up mount Eden which was once a Volcano and could still erupt at anytime. Pretty cool! We also did a little bit of shopping as we realised we needed some winter clothes as its pretty nippy here!
Next stop was Rotorua which is the Geothermal capital of New Zealand. We are both still a bit baffled how this is all possible even after learning a lot about it. When you arrive you immediately get that eggy smell (the sulphur) which can be a bit off putting when you first wake up to it. Our first day on the bus we stopped at the hobbit movie set which was set in the middle of some guys farm....he is now the richest farmer in NZ very lucky man. We skipped on the tour as we arent the biggest hobbit fans but it was still good to see all the rolling hills and sheep! Our first evening we headed to the Polynesian Spa which are mineral thermal pools all around 40 degrees C, that are outside overlooking the lake. We went when it was dark which was good as we got to look over the lake and see al the city lights. It was very surreal sitting in a hot bath in the rain and cold at night!!
The next day we decided to see what all the geothermal stuff is really about so we went to the only living thermal village where the Mauri people are completeley living off the thermal pools, using it to cook and bathe etc. We went to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, we took a picture of the real name of the village which is a stupid number of letters in it i have know idea how they say it! They have their own language which consists of just 17 letters from the alphabet so it makes no sense whatsoever but there you go. So i should also mention that we chose the worst possible day weather wise to go the village as it was terrential rain ALL DAY!! It was a half hour walk to get there so by the time we arrived we were soaked and spent the whole day freezing but we powered through and it was funny at the same time, we looked a mess!! We went on a tour of the village, our guide was a Maori lady whos grandfather used to live in the village so she knew alot about it. Some of the hot springs are too hot to get anywhere near to it, the hottest is above boiling point but scientists are unable to measure its depth etc as its too hot to get near it so they just have to keep it contained and watch it to see what happens next. They also showed us the steam boxes that they place under the ground to cook their 'hangi' meaning food from the ground. Its like a giant slow cooker so the food tastes amazing, we sampled some sweetcorn its the best sweetcorn weve ever had ha! We ended our visit with a traditional Maori performance which was lots of singing and dancing and the men even did the Huka, not sure how you spell it which was amazing and quite scary especially the crazy faces they make!! The next day we chose a dry option as it was still a little rainy, we went to the Rotora Art and History Museum which again had lots of Maori history so this was cool. After we went to the local park which even this has mud pools and hot springs that you can wander through. It is cool as everywhere you look there you see steam coming out the different parts of the city, seems so odd!!
After Rotorua our next stop was Taupo, home to nz's largest lake, it is enormous!! Our main reason for visiiting was to do a skydive as its a good place to do it so we had two days booked in to try and go. The first day was thick cloud all day so it got cancelled and by day two we were expecting the same but woke up to blue sky and immediatley started to panic as we realised we were doing it!! The bus came to pick us up and before we knew it we were being suited and booted and watching the safety video and meeting the guys we were going to be strapped to!!..mine was very good looking ha! Then within about 5 miniutes the cloud moved over and we had to wait, you can imagine our emotions one minute we were panicking and trying to psche ourselves up and the next we were sad because we couldnt go, it was stressful!! We ended up hanging around for a few hours to see if it wou;d clear long enough to go but sadly it wasnt meant to be and we were sent home :(. However Taupo was not all sad as on our first night we went to the local pub quiz with our bus driver and the rest of the group, we ended up coming 4th in the quiz not too bad out of around 16 teams. We had a good mix of nationalities which helped :) After the quiz they asked for 3 groups of pairs to compete to win a $180 dollars cliffhanger swing, vicki suddenly jumped up and dragged me along. We were up against 2 Israli men around our age and 2 older kiwi men, we were then told it was going to be a physical challenge...great! We had to do 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, a wheelbarrow race tot he toilets and back, spin around 10 times and down a pint of beer, between us we could do it however and the event was timed...very serious hehe somehow we ended up doing it in 1 minute 1 second, vicki chugged the pint in a riducoulous speed although she did spit out some froth at the end but that was allowed!! the isralis mucked up on the wheelbarrown and took 1 min 4 seconds however the kiwis were very quick and did it in 1 min 1 second and 9 milliseconds so we just scraped it!!!! you can imagine how excited we were to win, we were jumping around and screaming ha!! we then realised we actually had to do this swing which alot of people told us is scarier than a bungy!! we decided to go for it on the first day when our skydive got cancelled. It was terrifying but amazing at the same time!!! Best prize ever!!!
So after the excitement of Taupo our next stop was the Waitomo Caves which alot of people had bigged up to us so we were expecting big things. We decided to just go for a walkthrough of the caves to see the gloworms which was pretty impressive when they all light up around the cave but actually not quite as spectacular as we were expecting but i think thats because we knew too much about it. It still had to be seen! After the caves the bus took us to Tongario National Park for the night and we were lucky enough to arrive to snow as the last few days there was loads and loads of snowfall across the country which is a bit earlier than the kiwis expected. The snow was awesom,e however we werent expecting it so me and vicki got on the bus in the morning in our flip flops and so walking along with our huge bags in the snow we looked pretty stupid and our feet were soooo cold, they were even hurting when we finally got inside! we did man up though and unpacked our trainers to venture out and play in the snow, a very fun evening!!
Our final stop in the North was Wellington, this is arguably our favourite city yet on the whole trip!! its just got everything you need, bars, shops and lots of restaurants but is surrounded by mountains, very surreal again!! We met up with Justine, our friend from Portsmouth and went to watch the NZ smash the french, the kiwis are sooo serious about rugby, as expected so thje pub began very tense and quickly became mental with the kiwis dancing around after they won! one guy even fell off the table he was dancing on top of!! NExt was the lions which was then very tense for us and turned out to be an amazing game, we went mental when the guy slipped on the final kick, silly ausies hehe after all the excitement we finished the night in a 90s club dancing to old school tunes. Justine got so excited that she face planted at one point, however she quickly recovered jumping up and carried on throwing shapes hehe. The rest of wellington was spent seeing the sights like the botanic gardens, riding the cable car and visiting the museum, beacuase its free but was actual;ly really good as its all interactive sop we could be kids!!Justine also treated us to an amazing meal, best food weve had in ages which was very nice of her. All in all wellington was really good and the whole of the north island was amazing, sooo pretty all the bus rides we never get bored as theres too much to look at, including hundreds of sheep.
Next stop is the south island which weve been told is even nicer and more spectacular than the north, we will leave you to decide which you prefer from the photos and we will be in touch again soon.
Miising you all lots xxxxxxx
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