Today feeling a little hungover we didn't really do to much even though I was up for taking a trip to Devonport (just a short ferry journey) by the time we sort of woke up and go ready it wasn't really worth going. We also ran into Gemima and made plans to go to the bar later that evening.
We decided that we must do something today so what was easy to do, doesn't cost too much, and involves little walking.......SKYTOWER!!!!
An interesting fact is that the Skytower is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere and as it was just round the corner from our hostel and gave a decent offer to backpackers we decided that we would do that. It did give pretty decent views of Auckland but the best part about it was watching the people do a “Skyjump” which involves being connected to a bunch of cables and launching yourself off the Skytower to fall about 200 metres to a target at the bottom. It seemed to give a bit more resistance than either of us expected but still seemed like it would be good fun.
When we got back we ran into some more people we knew from the Kiwi bus our room mates from Franz Joseph and sat round talking to them for a while before making the our best curry to date. We then went to the bar and had drinks with some more people from the Kiwi bus Susan and Kerry.
Well that's all folks!!! Well for me and New Zealand for a little while at least. We caught a plane the following day getting to the airport around midday where we would be chilling out in Fiji for a week so Ollie has an easy time of the blog.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Thursday, 14 May 2009
I Don't Want You Out Of Eden Forever - Auckland, New Zealand
A walk up to Mount Eden was on the cards today. First of all we made some sandwiches so that we could have a feast whilst on the tallest volcano in Auckland. It was a fair distance from where we were staying and uphill most of the way to reach the “base” of Mount Eden then a short climb up to the summit. Here we celebrated with the lunch we had made earlier and there was much rejoicing. The hill gave us pretty good 360 views of Auckland including Eden park stadium where the Crusaders would be playing the Blues the day that we leave, we were unlucky not to be in a city whilst a rugby match was on. That is match in the Super 14 competition between the South (represented by the Christchurch Crusaders) and North (represented by the Auckland Blues) islands. On our way back we decided we would walk through the park and go to the museum which was free!!!
The museum was pretty large and had a wide range of Maori items as well a small dinosaur exhibition, information about volcanoes and other stuff stuff related with Auckland and New Zealand. The best thing about the museum was a room where you would get a feel for what it was like when the Volcano slight off Auckland erupted.
In the evening we were lured to the bar for free pizza and as it turned out Sam and Nick our room mates in Queenstown were in the same room as us again. The rest of the evening was spent in the bar where we entered a speed pool competition and Nick, Ollie and Myself were knocked out by the same guy, who lost in the final quite comically. Some of us had a bit too much to drink that night and we all didn't get back too early.
The title comes courtesy of Rachael Harlow and Transatlantic who's music always reminds me of good times and home so I must thank you guys for that.
The museum was pretty large and had a wide range of Maori items as well a small dinosaur exhibition, information about volcanoes and other stuff stuff related with Auckland and New Zealand. The best thing about the museum was a room where you would get a feel for what it was like when the Volcano slight off Auckland erupted.
In the evening we were lured to the bar for free pizza and as it turned out Sam and Nick our room mates in Queenstown were in the same room as us again. The rest of the evening was spent in the bar where we entered a speed pool competition and Nick, Ollie and Myself were knocked out by the same guy, who lost in the final quite comically. Some of us had a bit too much to drink that night and we all didn't get back too early.
The title comes courtesy of Rachael Harlow and Transatlantic who's music always reminds me of good times and home so I must thank you guys for that.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
A Hobbits Tale - Auckland, New Zealand
We were finally leaving Rotorua, Yay!!! and taking the Kiwi bus for the last time to complete our journey through New Zealand. We saw a few people from our South Island bus getting off in Rotorua before getting on the same bus through to Auckland, it turned out we would see them later in Auckland before we leave New Zealand.
The bus stopped off in Hobbiton, well Matamata the closest village to the place where the Shire was constructed for The Lord of The Rings films. We got a couple of photos of the sign and Gollum statue in the town and headed to the Subway via the Sushi bar to get some breakfast/lunch. The girl at Subway thought I was from New Zealand, I think it was because I mumbled a little bit but she also commented on how nice it was to serve the people from the bus as we were all so polite, which made me feel quite happy.
Back on the bus it was another couple of hours to Auckland so our driver put the film the Bucket List so we were entertained on our way to Auckland.
Auckland is most definitely the largest of all the cities in New Zealand. After a brief stop at the Kiwi Experience office we were at our hostel on Queen St where we saw a $10 pizza and beer deal that evening in the bar so we decided to do that as we felt lazy.
The bus stopped off in Hobbiton, well Matamata the closest village to the place where the Shire was constructed for The Lord of The Rings films. We got a couple of photos of the sign and Gollum statue in the town and headed to the Subway via the Sushi bar to get some breakfast/lunch. The girl at Subway thought I was from New Zealand, I think it was because I mumbled a little bit but she also commented on how nice it was to serve the people from the bus as we were all so polite, which made me feel quite happy.
Back on the bus it was another couple of hours to Auckland so our driver put the film the Bucket List so we were entertained on our way to Auckland.
Auckland is most definitely the largest of all the cities in New Zealand. After a brief stop at the Kiwi Experience office we were at our hostel on Queen St where we saw a $10 pizza and beer deal that evening in the bar so we decided to do that as we felt lazy.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
It Sinks... It Really Stinks - Rotorua, New Zealand
As we were stuck in Rotorua and there wasn't too much to do on the cheap we decided that we would have a lazy start to the day and so didn't get up too early. It was a pretty lame day weather wise but it was more that we had explored Rotorua the other day and didn't really know what to do with ourselves today. We decided that we should have a lazy day and go to watch Star Trek at the cinema as we had heard pretty good things about it. This turned out to be a really good move and we were very impressed and both could have watched the movie again straight away it will be hard in our opinion for anything to top the film this English summer.
Monday, 11 May 2009
I Do Love The Smell of Sulpher in the Morning - Rotorua, New Zealand
The town of Rotorua is pretty much in the middle of the geothermal activity zone, with number of geysers, lots of hot springs and mud pools in a park across the road from our hostel causing the whole town to smell like rotten eggs. In the morning we decided to check that we were booked on the bus to Auckland the following day but when we rang up we found out that there was no bus going to Auckland on the day that we wrote on the booking sheet before going to Waitomo meaning that we had to spend another day in Rotorua, not ideal.
Although the weather looked pretty ominous we decided that we would do a walking tour of the city which started at the Museum, where we both decided that we had seen enough museums for the time being and it also wasn't free. From the museum we doubled back on ourselves heading through Princes Gate, a Maori structure that was moved there a few years back, and heading down towards the lake. We then followed the lake all the way to an old Maori village which had a pretty impressive meeting hall and other Maori carved statues. We then got a little lost and ended up walking through the hospital which we figured out was just across the road from our hostel and as our next stop was to check out the springs which meant we didn't deviate too far from the tour. There were quite a few springs in the park, one of note was actually hidden away a little bit but was the main contributor of the gas so much so that it was hard to actually see the water in it. The walking tour finished at the information centre after which we went to subway to read a few leaflets that we picked up at the information centre, as well as seeing to the hunger problem.
The rest of the day we spent in the hostel and in the evening we went for a drink with Lee and Lindsey the couple that we went on the caving tour with.
Although the weather looked pretty ominous we decided that we would do a walking tour of the city which started at the Museum, where we both decided that we had seen enough museums for the time being and it also wasn't free. From the museum we doubled back on ourselves heading through Princes Gate, a Maori structure that was moved there a few years back, and heading down towards the lake. We then followed the lake all the way to an old Maori village which had a pretty impressive meeting hall and other Maori carved statues. We then got a little lost and ended up walking through the hospital which we figured out was just across the road from our hostel and as our next stop was to check out the springs which meant we didn't deviate too far from the tour. There were quite a few springs in the park, one of note was actually hidden away a little bit but was the main contributor of the gas so much so that it was hard to actually see the water in it. The walking tour finished at the information centre after which we went to subway to read a few leaflets that we picked up at the information centre, as well as seeing to the hunger problem.
The rest of the day we spent in the hostel and in the evening we went for a drink with Lee and Lindsey the couple that we went on the caving tour with.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
A Caving Advenure - Waitomo, New Zealand
A bacon sandwich to start the day as we set off to do a caving adventure tour in Waitomo meaning we had to be on the bus for 7:30am. There were a couple that we knew from our south island bus also doing the Abyss today so we waited for the bus together. A minibus arrived just after 7:30 and we were on our way to the caves. We got to the centre about an hour before the actual tour started and as I was struggling to open the lock on my large bag I just took it off the bus so the driver could leave. I continued to struggle with my poundland lock (I guess it is to be expected, it had been stiff for quite sometime) eventually I got the lock off and managed to get my towel and swim shorts as it turned out we needed them. I did actual struggle to even get the key out of the lock, I don't think I be using it again.
Snappy and Andy were going to be our guides for the day and we had about 10 people in our group for the Abyss. We started by getting all the gear that we would need which included: wet suit, waterproof soaks, a wet suit jacket, thermal top (Ollie got one of these), helmet with light, a couple of carabina, and a device I can't remember the name of which allowed us to abseil. We then had a short drive out to the hole we would be abseiling down and a quick lesson on how to abseil before taking it in turns to abseil the 30 metres into the cave. Me and Ollie had a bit of a wait at the top cause we decided to go in last but we would only have had to wait in the cave anyway. We both abseiled down with relative ease although a couple of points I decided that I was going to fast so stopped myself a little abruptly which hurt my back a little bit.
Once in the cave we could see a few glow-worms with our light turned off then we were off through the cave along a few narrow passage which took us to a zip-wire known as the flying fox. This would allowed us to get down to the next part of the cave otherwise it was a 20 metre drop into relatively shallow water. Once everyone was down the bottom we all sat over the edge about a 5 metre drop to the water to have a hot drink and a biscuit little did we know that we would be jumping off the rock onto our tubes (rubber rings) a few moments later. We were then told by Andy to jump off the rock and land on the tube, I was convinced that I was just going to fall out to the tube straight away but managed to stay in but oh my the water was pretty darn cold, bit of a shock to the system.
We then went tubing down the river feeling pretty cold to begin with when we stopped briefly to turn out our light and check out the glow worms, which Snappy told us were really just glowing fly lava that first of all fed off their brothers and sisters before forming their maggot stage on the walls and finally reaching their fly stage surviving for just enough days to mate where the male would die and the female would die after giving birth, so really we were in glow-maggot caves. We continued to tube down the river before briefly stopping and then going the other way back to where we originally jumped on the tubes. We then were told we were getting of the tube and wading for the rest of the trip this initial bust of water into the wetsuit made us very cold again.
We then explored parts of the cave wading through some deep water and some very shallow water always nearly falling over because of the constant change of depth of water under our feet and rocks. We waded down a couple of small waterfalls before getting to some very deep water where we swam/waded under a narrow gap in the rock.
The final part of the expedition would have us climb up two waterfalls and we were told that it was pretty tricky but we would be given guidance of where to put our feet and hand so we could climb up. The first waterfall was a good 5 metres high and wasn't too difficult to climb but really did look it when you saw other people doing it. The second wasn't quite so high and wasn't quite as hard to climb up but it had no pool of water at the bottom to fall back into if you did slip! We both made it over the two waterfalls with relative ease and then proceeded out of the tunnel to see daylight for the first time in a couple of hours.
We then caught the bus to Rotorua where we arrived at about 6pm.
Snappy and Andy were going to be our guides for the day and we had about 10 people in our group for the Abyss. We started by getting all the gear that we would need which included: wet suit, waterproof soaks, a wet suit jacket, thermal top (Ollie got one of these), helmet with light, a couple of carabina, and a device I can't remember the name of which allowed us to abseil. We then had a short drive out to the hole we would be abseiling down and a quick lesson on how to abseil before taking it in turns to abseil the 30 metres into the cave. Me and Ollie had a bit of a wait at the top cause we decided to go in last but we would only have had to wait in the cave anyway. We both abseiled down with relative ease although a couple of points I decided that I was going to fast so stopped myself a little abruptly which hurt my back a little bit.
Once in the cave we could see a few glow-worms with our light turned off then we were off through the cave along a few narrow passage which took us to a zip-wire known as the flying fox. This would allowed us to get down to the next part of the cave otherwise it was a 20 metre drop into relatively shallow water. Once everyone was down the bottom we all sat over the edge about a 5 metre drop to the water to have a hot drink and a biscuit little did we know that we would be jumping off the rock onto our tubes (rubber rings) a few moments later. We were then told by Andy to jump off the rock and land on the tube, I was convinced that I was just going to fall out to the tube straight away but managed to stay in but oh my the water was pretty darn cold, bit of a shock to the system.
We then went tubing down the river feeling pretty cold to begin with when we stopped briefly to turn out our light and check out the glow worms, which Snappy told us were really just glowing fly lava that first of all fed off their brothers and sisters before forming their maggot stage on the walls and finally reaching their fly stage surviving for just enough days to mate where the male would die and the female would die after giving birth, so really we were in glow-maggot caves. We continued to tube down the river before briefly stopping and then going the other way back to where we originally jumped on the tubes. We then were told we were getting of the tube and wading for the rest of the trip this initial bust of water into the wetsuit made us very cold again.
We then explored parts of the cave wading through some deep water and some very shallow water always nearly falling over because of the constant change of depth of water under our feet and rocks. We waded down a couple of small waterfalls before getting to some very deep water where we swam/waded under a narrow gap in the rock.
The final part of the expedition would have us climb up two waterfalls and we were told that it was pretty tricky but we would be given guidance of where to put our feet and hand so we could climb up. The first waterfall was a good 5 metres high and wasn't too difficult to climb but really did look it when you saw other people doing it. The second wasn't quite so high and wasn't quite as hard to climb up but it had no pool of water at the bottom to fall back into if you did slip! We both made it over the two waterfalls with relative ease and then proceeded out of the tunnel to see daylight for the first time in a couple of hours.
We then caught the bus to Rotorua where we arrived at about 6pm.
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Fly me to the moon... - Taupo, New Zealand
The weather today was good enough so that we could actually do something which was quite amazing as we thought it was still going to be raining quite hard today. We decided to make the most of the break in the wet weather by going for a walk to The Craters Of The Moon, no that isn't an exaggeration it was geothermal site a few kilometres outside of Taupo. The walk started with us going past the sight of the Taupo bungy which was on a ledge extended over the river Waikato and as we saw one person jump we were very tempted to have another go. The walk continued to an adventure playground where I just had to go on the zip wire, sometime you just have to do these things. Back to the walk again we followed the Waikato river to some hot springs and then continued on route to the Huka falls as we had to pass this way to get to the Craters of the Moon. We then saw a guy pass us followed by his white dog, this really meant nothing to us at the time but a couple of minutes later a women dog walker asks us if we had seen a white dog. It turned out that the white dog had bitten some poor guys foot further up the track *pulls shirt collar*. We walked passed the Huka falls to a picnic site a little further up. This is where Ollie started to sing song about raining which quite obviously was going to jinx the fact it had stayed dry and quite sunny up to this point.
The Craters of the Moon was still a good 30 minute walk up hill once we had found the right direction. The walk around the geothermal site took about 30 minutes and we saw a lot of steam coming from rocks and some quite impressive mud pools. We were sick of the smell of sulphur by the end though. Thanks to Ollie it started to rain whilst we were walking around although it was only a brief shower, so enough time to take our coats out put them then for the rain to stop. For the journey back we decided to walk along the road hoping that it would be quicker. It wasn't really any quicker and it also began to rain and didn't really stop until we reached a sign welcoming us to Taupo, still another 3km to the centre of town.
Once back at the hostel we were hoping to see some of our Kiwi Experience friends but the hostel was still really empty so we just sat around in our room for a bit having a rest from our walk. When the Kiwi bus did arrive nobody that we really knew was on it although we had heard that it had broken down for 2 hours.
The Craters of the Moon was still a good 30 minute walk up hill once we had found the right direction. The walk around the geothermal site took about 30 minutes and we saw a lot of steam coming from rocks and some quite impressive mud pools. We were sick of the smell of sulphur by the end though. Thanks to Ollie it started to rain whilst we were walking around although it was only a brief shower, so enough time to take our coats out put them then for the rain to stop. For the journey back we decided to walk along the road hoping that it would be quicker. It wasn't really any quicker and it also began to rain and didn't really stop until we reached a sign welcoming us to Taupo, still another 3km to the centre of town.
Once back at the hostel we were hoping to see some of our Kiwi Experience friends but the hostel was still really empty so we just sat around in our room for a bit having a rest from our walk. When the Kiwi bus did arrive nobody that we really knew was on it although we had heard that it had broken down for 2 hours.
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