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Captain Tom's Voyage of Discovery
Kia ora!
Sorry about the lack of update over the past week and a bit, I have just been having too much of a good time to sit down and try and remember what I have been up to!
Well the North Island (the smaller of NZ two main islands) was a good few days! After meeting the rest of my group in Auckland and being introduced to our host and driver (Scottie and Scot respectively) we rocked off on our longest journey of the tour - all the way to Auckland's Sky Tower...Ok it was the shortest journey of the tour. Got some pretty good views of the city and had a good laugh as the two crazy Danes, Erik and Soren, got their faces painted hehehe.
Our first real stop was the town of Rotorua...or Stinky Town to any one who has been there. The reason for the stink is that Rotorua is full of thermal springs throwing out that nice eggy, sulphur smell you may remember from GCSE chemistry! The first night was a good laugh. After a group of us had got over the traditional 'what's your name and where do you come from?' we all proceeded to educate each other in the culture of our home nations. What I mean by that is that two English lads, two Danish lads, one Irish girl, one Swiss girl and one Californian girl all spent about 3 hours drinking cheep wine + beer whilst explaining how words like 'thong' describe a completely different item of clothing in the UK than they do in Oz and that 'bloody w***er' is a British term of ''affection''!! On the first full day I decided that a nice relaxing raft ride down some grade V rapids ending in a 7m waterfall drop would be a laugh! And guess what? I fell out. Twice. The first was after the 7m drop (I was in the front so its harder to hold on) and the second was when our raft capsized and I ended up getting my head trapped between two rafts. After getting back on to dry land, I took a crazy ride in a monster truck. Which was nice.
Next stop was Taupo. On route to Taupo, Scottie made us all play a game of 'guess the theme tune'. Basically, he would play a theme tune and which ever side of the bus got it first got a point. I was in my element and was frequently mocked for needing less than 2 seconds to get tunes like 'The A Team' 'Dr Who' or 'Star Wars'. With only one question left, each side of the bus was tied 30 points each. Alas, I was not able to guess in time that the tie-breaker was in fact a club re-mix of Phantom of the Opera. I decided not to mention that I have the original on my I Pod. As I have a pretty poo history with my ears, I was advised to give skydiving a miss so instead I took a trip on a f***ing fast jet boat. We were doing 360 degree spins, power slides etc, etc. Apart from getting very wet, it was hilarious.
Our North Island adventure ended in the nation's capitol, Wellington. The day we got into Wellington, the city had been hit with massive storms and the Cook Strait had been getting swells of up to 6m. Guess how we were getting to the South Island? Across the Cook Strait. Whilst in Wellington, I managed to go to the Lord of the Rings exhibition which was awesome: lots of costumes, sets, weapons, etc. After dosing myself up on travel sickness pills, we got on the ferry. Wooooo!!!
My journey continues...
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