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Hey All,
Been a few days since I've updated you all.. been crazy busy since we started our National Pass, starting in Auckland last Friday..So here we go...
So Friday we left Auckland early.. in the wind and the rain.. and headed up Mount Eden.. one of Auckland many dormant volcanos.. great views of the city! We then travelled East.. into the Coromandel Peninsula where we checked out Cathedral Cove and the famous Hot Water Beach.. two hours either side of low tide, you can dig a few inches down to find hot sand and water!.. Friday was a horrible day windy and rainy yet we still all stripped down to our bikini's and shorts and headed out to the beach armed with several spades to dig down.. and true to form, the sand on your feet walking along was cold (more so given the weather of the day).. yet dig alittle down and you find hot water! Digging our own got pools we all sat there in the middle of a storm! Nice!
The water temperature which can be as hot as 64°C.. (Very hot!), which filters up from two undeground fissures located close to each other.. where surrounding volcanos have developed huge underground reserviours of superheated water.. during these hours either side of low tide the water escapes to the surface.. causing bums to burn!
We arrived at Mercury Bay/ the small town of Whitianga where we stayed in a lovely little hostel owned by a couple who cooked us all Bolongesa with garlic bread.... mmmmmmm lovely home cooked meal! We spent the evening inside playing cards, pool and darts.. There's basically nothing in Whitianga, and it was still raining bucket loads!
The next day we woke early to head to Rotorua.. we all climbed back on to the bus half asleep at 7am, eager to head an hour south for our breakfast stop before a planned day at Karangahake Scenic Reserve to explore a native bush-clad gorge, swing bridges and the history of gold mining in New Zealand... well that plan didn't quite go to plan!..
We had only been travelling about 40 minutes before we had to travel up into a mountain range.. nothing unusual about that in New Zealand.. however going up also means we had to go down.. driving down in the valley we suddenly realised all the rain of the past few days had caused serious flooding to the lowlands! The bus driver managed to drive through the first lot of floods.. which was about half a metre.. thinking we had made it, we then reached a small stretch of road with flood waters either side.. we were stuck! Water forwards and behind us! Then it suddenly hit us all we'd gone through quite deep water and ALL of our travelling suitcases and bags were under the bus in a luggage hold.. b*****!! We made a human chain and one by one brought all the bags into the isle of the bus! Check out the pictures! There was about 30 of us all with at least 60L bags each.. thats a lot of bags and people to fit into a coach! You'll see by the pictures we couldn't see the people of either sides of the bus whilst sitting!
We realised there was already a car and van already parked on the little bit of road with us.. after talking to them we realised they had already been there an hour themselves and had been monitoring the water levels which had risen since they got there.. Our driver annoced we were going to have to sit tight for a while to wait and see if the floods would go down.. Great!
We ended up on that little road for 5 and a half hours!! Watched 2 films.. had a sleep.. played some football and one guy even got his fished rod out!.. No one wanted to tell him he was actually fished on what was actually a road underneath all that water! So 5 and a half hours later we gained 3 cars, 2 vans, 2 food lorries and our coach.. all still wanting our breakfast and a toilet other than a half fooded bush!.. we all decided the waters had receeded enough to give it a go.. Wooo through! Got to the other end of the water and climbed up the hill to find all the local emergency services had closed the road and there was around 6 miles of traffic..!
Finally we arrived in Rotorua..New Zealand's most active volcano zone.. so much so it smells really badly of egg.. which is actually sulphur due to all the volcanic activity and due to the town only being situated about 15-20km above the earths Lava chambers.. the usual is about 35-50km! After an hour or so you hardly notice the smell anymore :)
We checked in and headed straight out to our booked activity for the evening to Tamaki Maori Village - a traditional Maori hangi and concert.. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, prior to the pre-european times, we got to hear stories, history, love stories, the tradional huka dances and an amazing traditional Maori cooked feat cooked in the earth. It really was amazing and definantly a highlight of the trip!
After our firsts nights stay in Rotoura we spent the next day checking out the town and we went on a Skyline Gondola up Mt Ngongotaha 487m above sea level where we played 'Luging'.. a great fun gravity ride of a 3 wheeled cart around fast race tracks.. great fun!
The next day we head West to Waitomo.. a small town of only 49 people.. the only activity and tourist attractive is the Waitomo Caves.. 40 million years of limestone where we went Black Water Rafting.. invented in New Zealand where you tube and raft 40 metres underground! Scary and not good for people that like small spaces or jumping off underwater waterfalls into freezing cold water! What an experince though and we got to see millions of glow worms!
The following day we headed to Taupo.. a very popular travellers destination, a town of the shore of Lake Taupo, situated in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand.. Lake Taupo is New Zealand largest Lake which happens to be the caldera of a massive volcano under the water! Lake Taupo is the site of the world's largest eruption in the last 5,000 years. The results of its earth shattering creation can be seen everywhere with active volcanoes, spetacular steaming cliffs, geysers, boiling lakes, bubbling mudpools and floating pumice...Also known as Adventure Capital of the North!
Lake Taupo is where I did.... MY SKYDIVE AT 15,000 FEET!! Even still saying it I can't believe I did it! I honestly thought I was going to be a mess, some of the girls even cried.. I assumed that would be me! But the minute we got in that plane and I was strapped to my instructor I was fine! I was so excited and the adrenaline just kicked in when we started to climb to 15,000 feet above New Zealand! I was first in my group.. my instructor pushed us to the door of the plane, dangled my legs out of the plane and pushed us out, heading head first for the ground! We free falled to almost 13,000 feet which took about a minute.. thats a minute of falling through the air with no para-shoot opening!! Then out comes the shoot and we glide the rest of the way down doing spins and tricks around the lake before I put my feet down on concrete again! The whole experience only takes about 6 minutes but god was it worth it! It's something like I've never experienced before but I loved every second! And yes I did think I was going to die for a split second! The rest of the night as you can imagine was a drunken mess all celebrating the fact that we had just survived! Will of course also loved every second and now I'm slightly worried he's going to take it up as a hobbie around the world!!
We left Taupo the next day heading through Tongariro National Park, where there is some amazing walks, the guys played golf and the ladies sunbathed, before some scenic pictures of Mount Doom and the valleys and waterfalls where Lord of the Rings was filmed.. beautiful place check out the pictures :) Before heading off we managed to find the time to jump of a 6 metre waterfall! Pictures enclosed :) Then spent the night in the middle of nowhere called River Valley.. as the name suggests in a Valley! Was very pretty!
We left early and arrived yesterday in New Zealand's Capital... Wellington.. also known as Windy City and blimey is it windy!! The city is the undisputed capital of culture, the arts, restaurants, fashion and nightlife. It's home to the largest cultural attraction in New Zealand, Te Papa Museum- where we spent the day today..
Just chilling in Wellington for the next few days.. we leave here on Tuesday 15th (My Birthday!!) and head on the 3 hour ferry crossing from the North to the South Island of New Zealand and arriving in Nelson- Sun shine capital of New Zealand!!
.....Blimey we've definatly done alot since last week! Missing you all :) x x x
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