Final leg of my little tour was Tauranga/ Mt Maunganui . I didn’t really do much there apart from lounge on the beach and read a few books. Riveting stuff ehh. By the way Bill Clinton: my life, $14 can’t go wrong. Anyone who can find a book with a better price per page e-mail me. On the Friday I shot back up to Auckland for the night to watch the Blues Vs Warratahs in rugby at Eden park, $25 (9 pounds) for the ticket and 2 free pints. Not bad at all. I arrived back in Kerikeri last Saturday [View Full Entry]

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After Rotorua I moved south to Taupo. I originally viewed Taupo as a base for doing the Tongariro crossing. However it turns out that Taupo is a great place. I never really read up on Taupo so maybe it was a great place in the eyes on everyone else already, I just don’t know. The hostel I was staying at (Rainbow Lodge) was a great place too. I couldn’t really tell you why it just was/is. YHA take note Like I said though before discovering Taupo to be a great place, I originally went there to do the Tongariro crossing. [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Rotorua on 17/03/07. You can smell the place before you arrive as it is surrounded by sulphur pools, mud pools etc… The intensity of smell tends to vary a bit depending on the wind. On day 1 it smelt like raw sewage, day 2 the smell had subsided a little. This might have just been my snout playing tricks with me though. It’s kind of strange Rotorua as you can just go off wondering around public parks the only difference is that they have bubbling mud holes scattered around all over the place kicking out a lovely steaming [View Full Entry]

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More about the glow worms in a mo , trying to keep things kind of chronoligal here. I shall be bold though and predict the life of a glow worm shall steal the show. I did my 1st bungee jump off Auckland Harbour Bridge the other day. It was only 41 metre’s high which sounds a bit pathetic. Strangely enough though 41 metre’s seems quite high when you are actually up there on the edge of a plank. When you jump they film you so that you can look back on your jump. I tried to some kind of photogenic/aesthetically [View Full Entry]

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I finished at the Kiwi orchard a few days so I have really just been lazing around generally. A few of us from the hostel went kayaking up the river that is at the bottom of the hostel a few days which was pretty cool and all importantly FREE. I have now found another job doing pretty much the same thing as before but at a different orchard this time. The place is called Orangewood orchards. Orangewood is a bit misleading as it is actually a kiwi orchard. What is so wrong with kiwi wood?! Anyhow not to worry. The job [View Full Entry]

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Spent the 1st week of “vacation” in Auckland getting all the boring stuff out of the way i.e. Bank accounts, tax numbers etc …….. However I did meet up with Laura (sister) and Paul (Laura's boi) which was good as I hadn’t seen them in over a year. We managed to pack in a few bits and bobs such as going for a meal at the top of the sky tower and going to Kelly Tarlton’s ice world which was errrrr unique. On my last night in Auckland I managed to win a bungee jump off Auckland Harbour Bridge. The free [View Full Entry]

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