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Hello everybody. Have we had a fun packed week or what! We spent Sunday in a glider taking in all the sights that Auckland had to offer, well Gem did anyway. Phils glider didnt want to stay in the air for very long so he got the shortened sightseeing tour, still it was a great experience and Neville (my dads godfather and 'one of' New Zealands top gliding instructors) and Maureen (Nevilles wife) made us feel so welcome that we really enjoyed ourselves.
On Monday we took off in the Kehoes car and headed south to Rotorua which is advertised as extreme sports capital of NZ. It should really have been advertised as the smelliest town in the universe thanks entirely to the sulphuric hot pools that the town is based around, absolutely disgusting. Anyway we got over the smell and made our way to the worlds first Zorb ride. If you dont know what Zorbing is it basically consists of climbing into a big rubber ball full of water and getting pushed down a hill. Totally stupid but brilliant fun, hopefully its the closest either of us will come to getting trapped inside a washing machine.
Tuesday was a little less ridiculous, we decided to take a cable car ride to the top of a big hill which i dont know the name of, but instead of walking back down we 'luged' back down on dangerously fast, poorly maintained little karts. After Gem had finished complaining that the handlebars hurt her hands, she discovered she was a natural racer and gave Phil a well deserved beating in the luge race.
On Wednesday we drove down to Lake Taupo and took the silliness one step further by doing a 50 metre bungy jump over a river canyon. Gem, a bungy veteran, did the honourable thing upon seeing that Phil was a nervous wreck by going first thus leaving Phil standing on the platform by himself with no one to offer words of encouragement other than lots of squealing Korean tourists. Despite her previous jumps Gem almost bottled it but after some terrible language and a little tantrum aimed at the jumpmaster she leapt gracefully and actually touched the water of the river before boinging around for a little while. Phil, was a different kettle of fish. Despite shaking like a little fairy boy on the inside he gave of an icy cool aura and didnt hesitate in leaping off the platform. It may have been something to do with the fact that having paid for the jump the ticket was non refundable so it would have been a waste not to jump. It was such an exhilarating thing to do and im happy to report neither of us suffered detached retinas. Phil is now determined to do the worlds biggest bungy jump which is located in Queenstown and is over 140 metres tall with the added danger of the jump platform being a cable car suspended in the middle of a canyon.
We spent Thursday in Auckland seeing the sights and then packed our bags as it was finally time to check out of Hotel Kehoe. After an early start and a sad farewell we spent the whole of Friday sat on a combination of trains and mindnumbingly slow buses as we made our way from Auckland down to Wellington which is the last stop on the North Island before we hop on the ferry over to the South Island where we collect our campervan. Wellington seems nice enough, but having been on a train for 12 hours we're far to tired to go out and the ferry leaves at 8 tomorrow morning so on that note, good night.
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