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Went to Cathedral Cave and Gemstone Bay again on Tuesday morning but the sea was still too rough to go snorkelling so had to abandon that idea, we may call back there before we leave New Zealand in March if we have time. Left the Coromandels and headed towards Rotarua. Rotarua is famousfor its sulphur pools, and you know when your near them as they smell similar to traveling past Port Talbot but about 10 times stronger. We stayed at a campsite/hostel about 5 miles outside Rotarua, and about 5 minutes from the lake.
On Wednesday I went rafting down the Kaituna River, which has the Tutea Falls, the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world; it has a drop of 7 meters straight down. The rafting was great, we went down some good rapids and waterfalls before getting to the 7 meter drop off, I can't remember what the Mouri name for it was but it translated to "fish food", which is what they say you are if you go over there. The raft I was on was the last to go down and the only one to flip over. It was all over so quick, the guide shouts "down, down" and you sit in the raft, tuck your chin into your chest and hold on as tight as you can, the next thing your upside down in the water under the raft trying to get to the surface, hoping that you come up and that the waterfall does not drag you back in and push you down under the water again, which it did to one bloke, they were just about to go in and find him when he popped back up. I have got pictures but they are on a dvd and my netbook as no dvd player so will have to wait until I can use someone's laptop, will then put some pictures up.
In the afternoon we did a 2 hour walk in the Whakarewarea Forest, but got soaked about 30 minutes from the end when it started to rain, it is strange to be raining but still really hot.
Thursday 8th December, left Rotarua and headed for Turangi, stopping of at Lake Taupua. Dai has now lost 3 pairs of sunglasses since we left, he only had the last pair he bought for less than a week, and he'll struggle for 2 weeks hoping he'll find them then by another pair.
Have changed our plans for Australia and Asia now, we are going to do just one month in Australia instead of two, and two months in South East Asia so that we can visit Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos as well as Thailand. Am looking forward to these countries as they will be completely different to what we would have already seen.
- comments
Mam Glad you didn't drown yourself and tell Dai to stop being such a tight.... and buy himself new glasses when he needs them
BRUCE LIKE I SAID BEFORE ?? YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPEC SAVER.S, LOL. TAKE CARE BRUCE...