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Hello all, as you may know I have now finished in New Zealand am and am in Oz which is all good. It's taken me a while to get round to updating my blog but here it is for rest of our travels in NZ!
We left Queenstown after 6 days of drunken thrill seeking which was all good but left me not feeling my best and thinking I'd spent a bit too much money! Headed back to Christchurch for the 2nd time but only stopped for the one night before carrying on back to Kaikoura where again we only stopped for the one night and didn't get up to much.
The next stop on the list was Wellington at the South end of the North Island. I had a few days in Wellington which were all pretty relaxed, did a bit of sightseeing and shopping and quite a lot of suffering with manflu!
From Wellington we headed up to Taupo which was a really nice drive with lots of great views (again). We had a night out lined up in Taupo for a mates birthday and all ended up going in fancy dress... Only dressed as pirates this time with the birthday girl as tinkerbell but we looked good with our swords, earings, eyepatch, hat and fake tattoos...hmmm. A good night was had by all but eyepatches and alcohol don't mix particularly well! I wasn't feeling great the next day but went to the thermal spa area for a dip in the hot spa, very surreal sitting in a stream which has hot water running down it but helped the hangover no end.
We also did the Tongariro crossing from Taupo which is an 18.5km walk over some of the volcanic reigon including up near mount Doom from lord of the rings, there was some spectacular scenery but it was hard work and my legs knew about it by the end! That was about it for Taupo as the rain came for the next couple of days meaning we didn't really get out much before heading to Rotorua.
Rotorua stinks of rotten eggs. Not particularly pleasant and you don't seem to get used to it either! Never mind, at least I don't have to live there! We had quite a lot lined up to do in Rotorua including white water rafting and the Abyss - like rafting in caves with lots of glow worms and stuff. Had heard that both were really good from others that had done them but we didn't get to do either as the rain meant it wasn't safe. We did make it to a Maori night where we learnt about their culture and had a traditional meal which was all good and also saw the thermal village with it's geysers which were quite impressive.
Auckland was our next stop and it was odd to be back in a big city again. Made the most of it by getting out on the beers straight away until the early hours, can't remember much! Saw some of the sights in Auckland from the Skytower which was good, decided not to jump off the skytower as it looked a bit tame compared to the bungy!!
We met up with Matt, one of Steve and Fuzzys former workmates from back home who is now living in Auckland for the next couple of days and he showed us some of the area around Auckland including a very empty beach with very big waves! Spent a bit of time boogieboarding as a bit of training for our surf camp in Oz, it was cold but nothing like Whitby!!
Our last stop before leaving NZ was the bay of islands where we spent 4 days before heading back to Auckland to fly out. The bay of islands was really nice, the weather came good and we had a nice hostel with a decent bar (beer was still pretty s***ty though!)
We took a day trip up to Cape Reinga which is right at the Northern tip of NZ on the 2nd day which was amazing, the views were again amazing - see pics! and the bus driver was a bit of a nutter! The day included sandboarding which was a bit scary, driving along 90 mile beach (which is 52 miles long). We saw where the Pacific meets the Tasman sea and had various other stops with things to see and do.
Our final activity was a boat trip round the bay in a boat called 'The Excitor'. Not sure about the name, it wasn't overly exciting but it was a really good way to see everything including a large pod of dolphins up close.
Bar a couple more nights on the beers that's pretty much it for NZ, was a great 6 weeks and i'd definately go back again given the chance! All the pics should be here for all to see now and i'll attempt to update my blog again in a few weeks time for the beginning of Oz...
Tom
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