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Tom & Anna's World Tour
Dear All,
We thought that no-one read our postcards, but seeing as they are being read and even printed off, it's about time we wrote a good'un!! Well, we arrived in New Zealand on the 19th August, a bit later than expected as we stayed on in for a bit in Fiji. We flew into Auckland and stayed there for a couple of days to get our bearings, organise a few trips in other parts of the country, and also hire a campervan! We thought that hiring a campervan would be a bit more economical compared to paying for individual bus or train tickets, or going on a tour bus, as we would also have to pay for accomodation in hostels, along with eating out a lot, rather than cooking our own meals in the van! We have picked up a scouser along the way, we met him in America on our Trek America tour and it just so happens that he is doing a round the world trip just like us and is stopping in the same countries!! So all 3 of us have split the cost of the campervan hire. We have been on the road for just over a week now, and have seen and done plenty!! Our first destination was the Coromandel Penninsular, where we dug our own hot pools of water on hot water beach. The water was about 65 degrees, a bit too hot to dig a bath for us to lie in. Also the tides were quite high, so whenever we tried to dig a larger hole to dip our feet into a wave would wash it away!! Good fun though. We then drove onto to Rotorua, which is a town renowned for its thermal spas and baths. It's a lovely city, just a shame that the thermal areas emit a large amount of sulphur into the city, so the smell is a bit much to bear at times!! hee hee!! Rotorua is also renowned for its adventure tourism, which includes activities such as Zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant hamster ball); the Swoop (a bungy with a 3 person sleeping bag attached); the Agrojet (a super fast speed boat, it reaches speeds of up to 100km/hr in 4 seconds) and last but not least, white water rafting over the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world (it stands at 7 metres!). Needless to say, we did it all!!! Next we moved onto Taupo, which is a city that most backpackers go to to skydive, as it is the cheapest place to do it. We were just going to go along to watch Chris (the Liverpudlian) skydive, but the excitement of it all got the better of us and we decided to do it!! They were tandum jumps, so all we had to do was get harnessed up, strapped to the proffessionals and jump out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet.....easy!! hee hee!! It turned out to the best thing that we have done on this round the world trip so far, completely exhilerating, and something that both of us would do again!! We then moved on to Palmerston North, only for one night as it was mainly a stopover so that we wouldn't have to drive so far to get to Wellington, where we were getting the ferry to the South Island. We left the North Island on 30th August. The ferry from Wellington to Picton took approximately 2 hours and was a very smooth ride. We arrived in Picton early afternoon, and decided that it was best to head somewhere else straight away, as there was not much to see or do. We decided on Nelson, which was only a couple of hours away. We stayed in a nice campground and played mini golf, then headed onto Murchinson. This was a very small town with only the essential amenities at hand, it made a nice change to staying in large and well known cities. Next we drove to Hanmer Springs, which is mainly known for its nearby ski fields. However, due to the mild winter there is little snow, so the conditions for skiing are less then ideal at the moment. Here we did some archery, Tom was very good, as he is at everything, and Anna did better than expected (meaning that she actually hit the target a fair few times!!). The highlight of Hanmer Springs was the quad bikes!! We had a very nice guide who took us round a mountain dirt track for a couple of hours. The bike was a bit tricky to control at first, as we had to hold the throttle with our thumbs and change the gears with our foot, but by the end of it we were pro's!! Great fun!! We are now in Kaikora, which is a seaside town. We are staying in a carpark right next to the sea at the moment, very nice view to wake up to. Weather permitting we are going to do some dolphin watching!! We will keep you posted on the rest of our ventures! take care!!
xxxxxx
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