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26th FEB
It was an early start this morning as the bus picked us up at 8 to leave for mercury bay. 1st impressions of the bus: basically travelling made easy! they hand round sheets and you just tick where you wana stay and for how long and the driver books it all for you! brilliant! Its pretty cool because rather than just driving straight from one place to another you stop and see anything cool along the way! Today we stopped off at Cathedral Cove for a swim..it was about half and hour walk down to paradise..the sea here is FREEZING compared to Fiji! Of course we were the only 2 girls to get in and jump off the rock! when we arrived at Mercury Bay we just went for a walk along the beach and watched a film with a few people from the bus, its a really quiet little town!
27th FEB
Another early start this morning, we had to make our way down to Rotorua. We stopped at the hot water beach for a bit. its so wierd you can see steam and bubbles coming out of the sand and you can dig yourself your own hot pool! The water is boiling though so you can't sit in it for very long! pretty sweet though! We also stopped for a bit of a trek over a river..you can see from the photos this country in very picturesque!
When we got to Rotorua a few of us went luging (basically go karting down a mountain!) it was a lot of fun! We then rushed back to our hostel to have a quick shower before we went to Tamaki which is a traditional Maori village. This was brilliant! Someone from your group gets made a 'Cheif' (unfortunately this can only be a man, we were very upset!) and when you get there the Maori Chief (as you can see from the pictures, a very scary man) chants while the warriors come and challenge the visiting chief's to see if they come in war or peace! They then have to accept the peace offering and only when you hear a woman singing can you go into the village! It was a wicked experience, they take it so seriously we were firmly warned we couldn't smile, mimic or even move! Apparantly one of the chief's a few weeks ago poked his tongue out back to a Maori warrior and got his nose broken! Had to be an English guy!
They performed a show for us which included the best Huka we've ever seen! then came the best bit of the evening.. the Hangi, a traditional Maori feast cooked in their earth oven using hot rocks! It was soooooooooooooooooo good!
28th FEB
The next day we made our way to Waitomo which had the best accomodation we've stayed in so far, we had a room to ourselves and everything! luxury! On the way we had the wierdest experience of our lives. We stopped at a rabbit shearing place and watched a massive fluffy bunny being shaved..weren't really sure what to think but we couldn't stop laughing!
It was in Waitomo we did the 5 hour black water rafting, this involved abseiling down a 35m, very small hole into the glowworm caves where they made us turn off our lights and attached us to a flying fox, it was pitch back (obviously) and we flew through the caves, so cool! We then had to jump into the freezing cave river off a cliff with our tubes and float through with our lights off staring up at the glow worms, there were millions of them! We climbed 3 waterfalls and swam through eels! We loved it!
1st MARCH
We got a bit of a lay in this morning as we didn't leave til 10 which was nice! On our way to Lake Taupo now! Lake Taupo is the biggest fresh water lake in the world! You could put singapore in it and still have room to swim! We were supposed to be skydiving as soon as we got to Taupo but the weather was too bad so hopefully we'll get to do it tomorrow!?!? We went for a mexican dinner with everyone off the bus and then hit a few bars, was a good night out!
2nd MARCH
TODAY WE THREW OURSELVES OUT OF A PLANE AT 15000 FEET!!! It was the most amazing feeling ever! We both want to do it again so much but don't think we can really afford it...Daddy!? PS sorry parents for the phonecall but we weren't really thinking straight when we hit the ground, the adrenalin rush you get from it is amazing! Can't wait for you to see the DVD! :)
3rd MARCH
Still not feeling completely back to normal we got on the bus and made our way to River Valley. On the way we went for a walk to see a waterfall..Some crazy people jumped off of it!?! Well..after throwing yourself out a plane your invinsible aren't you?! (only joking mut we were very careful!) Soph was the first girl to go, Alice wasn't far behind (we feared for her life for a second as she slipped but DON'T PANIC she's still alive!)
River valley is exactly that..a valley with a river through it and NOTHING else! Its in the middle of nowhere but it was a really cool place, we swam in the river which was so cold and then got in the hot tub as we watched the sun go down just behind a waterfall..BEAutiful! We opted for the cheapest dorm and got a bit of a surprise when we entered it, instead of seperate bunk beds it was one massive one! it was so funny, one big slumber party!
4th MARCH
We got up early this morning and went pony trekking through the mountains and watched the sunrise! it was so surreal! Alice is a little scared of horses so she was put on Chesnut, the calmest most dosile horse ever very obedient and chilled out, just what she wanted! Soph on the other hand was put down as a beginner too but told them she 'Didn't want a really slow horse, something with a bit of excitement!' So...she was put on Gypsy, the most mischievious horse ever! They got on very well by the end though, cantering through the fields and chasing the cows!
when we got back to the lodge everyone was waiting for us to get on the bus so, no time for a shower (again) We STINK! we hopped on the bus and started making our way to the capital, Wellington. It was the worst bus drive ever..it was so hot, the air conditioning wasn't working properly, we were in jeans from the horse trek, everyone shut the windows so they could hear the film they were playing which was...fight club! Very light hearted film for a bus ride!!! We have never been so happy to have showers in our lives as when we arrived here!
Went for a few drinks in the bar with the bus mates which turned out to last until 4am..time flies!
5th MARCH
Today...We have been to the National Museum which was.....crap! We felt like we were on a school trip and got very bored and so us with a few others made a swift exit! had a little walk and now on here! We have to be up ridiculously early to get the bus to the South island tomorrow so we want to take it easy tonight but not sure thats gona be an option as everyones trying to persuade us to come out already! uh oh!
NZ is tiring but SWEET AS! STILL having fun, STIILL being safe, STILL missing you all and STILL hoping your all ok!! Much love, Soph and Alice x x x x x x x x x x x x
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