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Published: April 29th 2008
April 12th - The Museum
We began our North Island experience with a lengthly visit to Te Papa the free museum in Wellington. In contrast to the art gallery in Christchurch this was excellent. Loads of colourful, yet highly educational exhibitions. I came out of it feeling extreemly knowledgable. This lasted all of 10mins and now 2 weeks later its all a distant memory!
April 13th - Winnie!
Sunday the 13th April and its time to pick up our van. Of all the beautifully painted flowery, patterned vans we end up with winnie the pooh! Unfortunately not being the greatest of pooh fans the novelty is slightly lost on us! In order to find the van who we affectionately call Winnie we had an exhausting day attempting to communicate with possibly the scattiest women I've ever encountered! Hours and many streets plodded along we find the scatty women next to Winnie. After a brief and chaotic introduction to our van and the street rules in NZ (luckily they drive on the same side as us) its time to get behind the steering wheel! Driving out of Wellington was a terrifying experience, but we safely escaped and even managed to buy
groceries on the way. We headed north towards Mt Bruce via some very sharp zig zagging mountain roads. We soon learnt that maybe we should have placed our food more securely as it ended up covering the entire back of the van, tins rolling down the street when the door was opened! (Dad if it isnt already too late this is a good tip!). We found a nice secluded layby and set up for the night, an incredible effort as it was the first time in trying and pitch black!
April 14th - Driving in the rain
Today we drove. Thats pretty much all we did. We were hoping to do the Tongariro Crossing the following day so were heading to Okahune to book the shuttle. Then what would turn out to be 3 days of continous heavy rain began. Needless to say the hike we wanted to do was cancelled. There was a giant carrot in Okahune-not all was lost. We were then told by a slightly misinformed information center employee to head to Waitimo the caves for some black water rafting, as these were underground so wouldnt be affected. By the time we reached Waitimo it was
Found the loo roll
Where would we be without it?!dark and still raining heavily.
April 15th - Giant rabbits and black water rafting
It rained all that night. We went to the black water rafting was cancelled, the caves were flooded! Change of plan yet again. We headed straight to the nearest information centre for some wet weather activites. One of these activities was a quirky Angorra rabbit shearing shed. The rabbits were massive, more like sheep! To be shawn they have their legs tied up much like they are being roasted over a fire and out cane the clippers. The rabbits didnt seem to bothered, more relieved to be rid of all that ridiculous fur!
We managed to find a cave company that was still running as it was weir controlled. After a good 15 minutes of forcing ourselves into the thickest wetsuits iv ever seen topped off by some white wellies, a hard hat and miners head light we were ready! At some parts we were wading through water so deep we couldnt touch the bottom, fortunately we had rubber rings to help us. This will sound like an obvious comment but it was so dark down there, when the torches were out you couldnt see
Huka Falls
Annoying tourists always getting in the photo!! anything, scary when you could hear the waterfall getting louder! In some of the cave glowworms provided some light. During the way through we had to jump of a 3m waterfall and slide down a 6m waterslide. As the water levels were so high the current was strong and one of the group badly twisted their ankle. The final section the part I enjoyed the most was a meandering cave with strong currents, clinging onto our rings you had to hope that no limbs or heads were bashed on the rocks!
April 16th - The Bungy!
We got up early today for the bungy! The first time we went the walkway back from the bottom had collapsed so we had to come back in a few hours. We went back and the boat engine had broken so again we were told to come back in a few hours. The final time we went after hours of anticipation and fear we were allowed to jump. We decided to do a tandem, we bravely headed out to the end of the platform to have our feet tied up. Still feeling relatively brave we stood up and began shuffleing to the edge.
The Bungy
At the bottom is the boat that picks you up, the people give you an idea of how big it was. All the previous bravery vanished, we were petrified! Woje was saying 'just give me minute' and me convinced the man was going to give us a helping shove off the edge was telling uder no circumstances was he allowed to touch us! Luckily (perhaps) as we did a tandem we had to go together otherwise the one left on the edge would get pulled off anyway. One.....Two......Three......Bungy! We were gone. Not an eligant dive like you see in the pictures but we somehow managed to go feet first holding onto each other in fear. We seemed to spend a long time bouncing up and down before we could grab hold of a pole and be lowered into boat.
To finish off the day we went to a Maori evening. It was fantastic. We had a traditional welcome, a tour of the arts and crafts and a look at some sulphur terraces. We then tucked into some hungi, a traditional meal cooked in underground ovens. There was veg, meat and sweet potatoes followed by steamed pudding and custard...yummy! The best part was the performance, men and women in traditional dress performed dances and songs. Including the famous Haka (like in the
rugby) a very intimidating performance. They then asked all the men in the audience to attempt to learn the Haka. It was hilarious, like watching out of time aerobics!
April 17th - Eggy smelling sulphur
Wai-o-tapu today. A large area of solidified sulphur formed from geysers and sulphur springs. We watched a geyser errupt, a very gentle, high tower of water lasting for about half an hour. Then we visited the gluping mud pools and back to the main site to see the caves, craters and pools. It had been raining all day but the colours of the pools were still beautiful. Another long drive followed, stopping briefly in Tirau mainly to take photos a giant sheep and dog made out of corregated iron.
April 18th - Rugby
Watching the rugby was amazing. The cheifs, 8th of 14 teams (and the team we were supporting) were playing the crusaders 1st in the table and so far unbeaten. Before the game began we had pre-match entertainment; cheerleaders, mascots, even miniture ponies! The Chiefs did not let us down, leading 18:0 at half time. The first few minutes of the second half were tense, the crusaders scored in the first
5 minutes. But fear not! The cheifs continued to play well and won easily. (Aside from Kate - best discovery at the rugby game, seel battered gaint sausage on a stick for a pound, brilliant!)
April 19th - Waiting
We had to wait around today to find out if the weather would be good enough to do the Tongariro Crossing. It was. Yet another long drive to the base of the mountains.
April 20th - Mt Doom!
5.30am start, frost on winnies windows, we put on every item of clothing we could. The hike was beautiful and very dramatic along the base of Mt Doom from lord of the rings. It was cold, walking on frozen ground. Just when I thought it couldnt get colder the cloud came in. I have never been so cold in all my life, I honestly thought if we sat down we would die of cold! Thank goodness for those socks! The other side of the cloud it was tropical in comparison, we had survived! Theres a very strange hiking trend in NZ, brightly coloured, striped, skin tight long johns with the shortest possible shorts over the top!!
April 21st - Coromandel
Peninsular
Visited Paeroa, the home of L&P a fizzy drink which Wojie loves. Up to Hot Water Beach, today it was Cold Water Beach. The tide sisnt go low enough so the warm pools and hot sand could well have been a myth. Catherdral cove was more of a success. A half hour walk to so lovely rock formations. We drove for hours to find a suitable layby. Found one on the top of a hill. Cooked, got into bed, then we heard a scary noise. It sounded like someone breathing heavily so out of bead we got climed through to the front and drove of in our PJs to escape the 'monster'!
April 22nd - Driving
Drove up past Aukland.
April 23rd - Toilets, trees.
Visited some 'world famous' toilets. They were pretty as far as toilets could be but world famous is pushing it! Then to the bay of islands a busy tourist place, we managed to find a quiet bay where I went for a dip. Then came the biggest trees in NZ. Huge 6m diameter trunks, they really were massive.
April 24th - Nothing
Only one day with Winnie left. We parked up
by the beach and didnt do anything all day - bliss!
April 25th - Goodbye Winnie
A sad farewell, we had come slightly, very slightly attached to winnie! Then to our hostel, a cramped dirty place with a drunken manager in charge. Luckily we only had one night here.
April 26th - Hello Australia!!
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