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Hey Guys
It has been ages I know!! And I do feel like I'm neglecting the blog at the mo!! But honestly you don't have any time to yourself on the Kiwi Experience Bus, you're totally on the go!! It has however been great, and this is what I've been up to the past week and a bit!!
Okay Wednesday Morning (12th March) we left Auckland and set off to Mercury Bay (Whitianga). Our Kiwi Bus Driver Phillipa was lovely, very funny. After visiting Mt Eden (one of many dormant volcanoes in Auckland) we arrived in the Coromandel Peninsula and spent the afternoon at Cathedral Cove - a beautiful coastal spot, it was absolutely beautiful. We spent the afternoon sunbathing and then went to Hot water beach! There were hundreds of people there digging their own hot pools, we found one already made and dipped our feet in! the water was sooo hot it was amazing!!!!
We got to our hostel, checked in and had home made spaghetti bolongase and garlic bread for dinner!! A few red wines later I was jolly we went to the local bar and some of the gang did karoke! It was very very funny!!
The next day we left at 7.15am and set off to Rotorua which is the geothermal and cultural centre of New Zealand. En route we stopped at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve and explored a native bush clad gorge, swing bridges and a one km long tunnel. It was pitch black so we all had to form a train and put our hands on the person infront's shoulders!! Was very funny!
Also on the way to Rotorua some people went zorbing! I personally don't see the fascination in this! Rolling down a hill in a giant ball for 40 bucks and it only lasts 20 seconds! That could instead buy a lot of wine which will hopefully last longer than 20 seconds!
The other activity on offer was luging, now this was great fun!! It involved driving your own cart (basically a big plastic tray) down 5km of tracks and trails!! In order to get up to the beginning of the track you had to go on a gondola, I had sweaty hands and feet by the time we reached the top! I don't know what is is with me and heights, going up I'm a nervous wreck but going down I love!!!
So anyway I began with the immediate course which I loved, then we decided to all race each other on the advanced track and after three minutes I had skidded into the corner and came to an abrupt halt! Luckily for me no injuries, I managed to jump off in time!! The last ride I decided to go back to the intermediate track!! Between each ride you had to jump on a skyswing (similar to a ski lift) which took u back to the start of the track.
I didn't like the first ride but loved it by the last time and Phillapa had even talked me into doing a sky dive in Taupo…something I had never considered even doing!.
In the evening we went to a traditional Maori Hangi and Concert in the evening with Tamaki Tours.It was a really good night, lots of yummy food and our driver was a legend.
The next morning we were all rather pleased to be leaving Rotorua, mainly due to the horrible smell of rotton eggs you get there. En route to Waitomo we visited Te Puia - a large geothermal reserve and Maori Arts and Crafts Centre. This was a really interesting morning, we saw bubbling mud pools and Kiwi birds! And at the end the girls had to learn Poi (a form of juggling, or object manipulation with balls on ropes, held in the hands and swung in various circular patterns, whilst singing) and the boys the huka (a traditional genre of M%u0101ori dance). We took a video of these activies and I'll put them on facebook for you to see at some point! They're quite funny!!
Just before checking into the hostel we went to a very random rabbit shearing place!! We witnessed a giant white rabbit being sheared!! It was a very odd experience! The poor rabbit looked petrified and the lady shearer had to tie up his paws and feet and stretch him out on a long machine! She kept assuring us it wasn't causing him pain and I'm sure it wasn't but it's not an experience I'd like to repeat!!
At this point I'm going to tell you about three of the most adrenalin fuelled and challenging days of my life!! They say NZ is the adventure capital of the world so I decided to face my fears and have three days of full on scary s***!!
The entire journey to Waitomo I was extremely nervous this is because I had signed up to the Black Water Cave Tubing. Basically, Wai means water, and tomo means cave and the local caves, under the green Waitomo countryside, are made out of limestone, which is basically very old dead fish (in this case about 40 million years old). Black Water Cave Tubing involved getting in a wetsuit, some white gumboots, a miner's helmet (with a light!) and sitting on a tyre tube floating and walking through caves!! Yes, I looked very attractive indeed!!! I explained to the instructors that I am not only claustrophobic but also have a fear of water! They didn't seem too worried for me so we set off in the van to the cave's entrance! Before we went into the caves we had to jump backwards into river from 1.5 meters sat in our tyres!! This alone was a petrifying experience for me and to my horror I went under, swallowed a s*** load of water, began hyperventilating and choking on water whilst trying to undo my very restricting wetsuit. By the time I made it to back onto dry land I was very very upset and told the instructors I would not be jumping backwards once inside the caves!!!
The actual cave experience was fine, I didn't feel claustrophobic at all, the problem was the water, I wasn't very stable on the tyre and was so scared to going under again that instead I wore it like a rubber ring and swam through the caves!! We all had to get in line and hold the feet of the person behind so were in a long train and then turn off our lights so that we could see glow worms (which are essentially maggots)!! We also had to turn our lights off for the last five minutes and find our way of the cave in the pitch black! When we saw daylight I was sooo pleased and very proud of myself.We enjoyed warm bagels and tomato soup once we'd had nice warm showers!! When we returned to the hostel I was on a high that I had survived and got through day 1. Soph and I got ready in our lovely twin room (we got a twin room at price of a dorm! What a treat!) and headed to Curley's the local pub. Now this was meant to be a quiet evening in preparation for my sky dive the following day, however we all know how so called quiet nights turn out, yes that's right by 11pm we were steaming!!!
A few of the lads and Julia (German girl!) took part in a round the world beer contest and had to drink ten pints of different beers!! We were soo proud of her when she finished and if that wasn't enough she continued to drink shots and red bull!I put radio head's 'creep' on the juke box and gave my all singing or should I say screeching along to it! There are videos on facebook and they're not pretty !! They will make you giggle though so take a look if you're feeling brave!!! I also decided to whip off my bra and make all the lads try and get it to land on the stag's antlers that was on the wall! Similar to the game I played in Byron Bay, Australia. This time however I didn't get my bra back, no one was tall enough to get it down and so I made the landlord promise he would leave it there for at least five years!! He replied that it was a family place so I'm not really sure of the whereabouts of my bra, however I'm deeply gutted as it was from M&S and cost twenty quid!!!
Over the course of the evening we for some reason decided to call each other team Germany or Canada, or Scotland, or UK depending upon our country of residency!! These team names have stuck for the remainder of the trip and people who meet Callum who aren't even on the Kiwi bus even call him Canada!! Back at the hostel, I pretty much woke up everyone on my floor by shouting and screaming,knocking on people's doors and running away!! Gillian (my new Canadian friend) said she was awoken to me shouting 'team Scotland, we invite you for some heaving petty in room 8!!' How I cringed the next day when she told me this!
I awoke to a very sore head and indulged in giant cooked breakfast!! This didn't make me feel much better though and on the coach on the way to Taupo I felt very ill indeed. Everyone had a great time taking the piss out of my antics but assured me I was a 'very special girl' being able to bring so much happiness and laughter to soo many people's lives!!! Not only was I feeling hungover, but as I had my sky dive at 3pm that afternoon that was making me feel sick enough as it was!!
After hugging Soph goodbye we were picked up by the skydive mini bus and made our way to the airfield! I decided on jumping from 12,000 feet (as opposed to 15000) and having a DVD/photos.We had to sit around for 3 hours before we even got in our jump suits! And in this time I had to contend with a very dry mouth and having a wee every ten minutes!!! The reason for the delay was the main plane was broken therefore you could only fit three jumpers in the small plane and it's usually ten! Some people were turned away so we were very lucky we got to jump that afternoon. Eventually we got the call and I met my instructor Charley, a huge American guy who was very friendly indeed and made me feel quite calm!! I have butterflies as I write this, reliving the moment but I can assure you it was the best bloody thing I've ever done in my life!!
The plane we were in was tiny and we were all very snuggled up I was practically sat on Charlie's lap and he was holding my hand and rubbing my arms to keep me warm! It was bloody freezing up there and we were jumping bare foot, my feet were numb by the time we had reached 12000 feet. The time came to jump and I'm so glad we went first. I shut my eyes and took deep breaths as we bum shuffled towards the open door and then suddenly we were free falling!! You have to keep your mouth shut and breathe through your nose and I struggled with this!! Most people do superman poses as they fall I however had my eyes firmly shut and just concentrated on trying to breath!! I had written I love u Ben (my nephew!) on my hands but struggled contending with the wind to even put them out in front of me for the camera man!! Anyway the thought was there!! I hope little Ben will be proud of me when he watches that DVD in years to come and sees his auntie Shell jumping out of plane!!
Once the parachute opened it was the most amazing thing, at first I was like, 'is it open is it open are we going to live!?!' And Charley was like 'yes we're going to live!' Floating through the sky was truly amazing, when we landed I was so overwhelmed I burst into tears!! Charley gave me his hand but I didn't' feel a handshake was enough so instead lunged at him and gave him a giant cuddle! He was my hero afterall ! and had kept me alive!! Some people say doing a sky dive is once in a lifetime activity but I would definitely do another one!! Afterwards we got our free t.shirts watched the DVD and for the rest of the evening I was totally hypoactive! I was walking fast, talking fast, eating fast!! I've never scoffed a big mac meal as fast as that night I can tell you!! Yes that 's right, despite weighing myself at the Skydive Centre and learning I have indeed put on two stone in four months I chose Mcdonalds for my tea!! I swear I am the world's worst dieter!! Anyway I had a relatively early night due to a very early start the next day but I hardly slept that night, the adrenalin was still pumping and I was on cloud nine!!
So, finally we got a day off to chill and what did we decide to do with our day off! Get up at 4.45am and do the Tongariro Crossing Walk.
The trail, widely acknowledged as the country's finest one-day hike, is found in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's first national park and a world heritage site. It encompasses three volcanoes: Ruapahu, Tongariro, and the perfectly formed Ngauruhoe
The walk took us just over 7 hours but was totally worth it. The photos are pretty amazing. If I hadn't have had my iPod I don't think I would have coped though, I had to play some very motivating tunes!!I fell over a few times whilst climbing down from the red crater. I think my arse crack may have been on show for some lucky person behind me taking a photo of the picturesque scenery!! NICE!!
We slept all the way back to Taupo on the minibus and met up for a lovely Italian meal in the evening before having farewell drinks in the hostel bar.
The next day Sophie, Charlotte, Callum and I joined a smaller bus for an 'East As' 4 day trip, which I will tell you all about next time!!
I hope you all had a very happy easter. Until next time take care of yourself and each other. Lots of love from me xXxx
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