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New Zealand - North Island Part 1
Auckland
After a 13hour flight (and a whole day missed out!) we arrived in Auckland very early wednesday (30th Sept) morning. We hadn't been able to book our accommodation in advance so we spent the next few hours hanging around in the airport, ringing hostels to try and find a cheap room at 6am! Eventually we got through to one and caught the bus into the city centre. We checked into the hostel, then decided we should organise our transport around NZ for the next month. We browsed the net, went and got quotes from campervan and car hire companies and finally decided we would use a bus company called NakedBus for the north island and hire a campervan for the south island.
The next day we did some sightseeing around Auckland. We went up the skytower and got some amazing views of the city, visited Auckland museum for a dose of Maori culture, walked around the botanical gardens and along the shop lined streets near our hostel. We left Auckland on October 2nd to head to our first stop, a small town called Hahei.
Hahei
We stayed at a lovely lodge in Hahei, which was right near a very quiet beach. The weather unfortunately wasn't great so although we went for a walk on the beach, it wasn't really sunbathing conditions! From Hahei we caught a lift with a couple of german girls who had their own car to a place called Hot Water beach, where we dug wholes in the sand (for ages it seemed) to find the hot water below, then sit and relax in our own little bath!! It seemed like a great idea, but the hot water was under the sand where the waves were, so every time we started digging our holes filled up with cold water from the waves! It was still good fun, despite the weather being grey and rainy. The same afternoon we walked to a place called Cathedral Cove, which was only accessible by a 45minute walk. The cove was very pretty with clear water but it would have looked a lot nicer with a blue sky! From Hahei we caught our next bus on 4th October to Rotorua.
Rotorua
The weather was awful most of the time we were in Rotorua. It was pouring down when we arrived Sunday evening, and was pretty rainy the next couple of days too. Monday we decided to visit Maori cultural centre Te Puia and Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley. We learned some more about the Maori culture and saw a tribe perform the Haka dance in a traditional Maori meeting house. We also walked around the thermal reserve and saw the well known Pohutu geyser erupt. That evening Jess was very sick (from what we can only presume was a badly cooked sausage!) and spent the whole night in the toilets!!! Lee played nurse all of Tuesday while Jess stayed in bed the whole day recovering! Wednesday we decided to have a relaxing day at the Polynesian Spas, which was a collection of hot pools overlooking Lake Rotorua. The weather was gorgeous and the view across the lake was stunning. That afternoon we caught our next bus on to Taupo.
Taupo
The main reason we visited Taupo was to do a skydive, so as soon as we arrived we booked our skydives for the next day, with fingers crossed the weather would be nice. We were picked up from our hostel and taken to the 'Skydive Taupo' office at the airport. We got all geared up and were waiting for the plane to come back from the first lot of jumpers it had taken up. However, when they came back a few of the people had not been able to jump due to the cloud suddenly closing in whilst they were up in the air. So our skydive was postponed until the weather cleared up a bit... we were pretty gutted! The rest of the day we kept our eye on the weather but there were no improvements. The next morning as well, we were hoping it would be nice, but no such luck. Because we were on a time restraint whilst in NZ we had to make a decision to move on in case the weather didn't improve and we ended up wasting days in Taupo. So Friday lunchtime we caught a bus to Turangi, disappointed we never got to jump!
Turangi
Turangi was a very brief stop, as the weather was horrible and there wasn't much to do there except the Tongariro Crossing, which, as it was pouring with rain the whole time we were there, was not on our list of things to to! So the day after we arrived, we caught our next bus on to Wellington.
Wellington
Again, we used Wellington as a brief stopover, before catching the ferry to the south island very early Sunday morning. We planned to explore Wellington on our way back to the north island later in our trip. The ferry crossing was lovely, with gorgeous weather and stunning scenery... much better than the boring old ferry crossing from England to France! And so we left the north island and arrived in Picton, a small town at the top of the south island to begin the next part of our journey!
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