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Published: December 8th 2007
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Van
What a purchase Hello friends and loved ones
I am just gonna give you the latest from NZ, and what we have been up to.
It is so different here to all the other places we have been. A lot cooler. we did experience some good old English weather two days ago, it rained all day and i was freezing. It was like our summer. they do say that the weather here is the same as at home. We are also not lazing about on beaches as we were before and we are camping, so very different and very good fun. The van is still a ledge and we love him. I call him Allan the motor home!!!!! I only call him this as he was bought from Allan motors or something, and it has the name on the back of the numberplate. Mart says i am a geek!!! maybe?
well from where we last left off in Owera, we have done lots. including a bungy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i did'nt but mart did. he loved it. will talk of this in a mo. we headed to Hamilton after Owera. This was a nice town. the largest inland town in NZ. We had great
Inside the van
Just for you guys to see it better weather there and bumped into a nice couple that we saw at our first camp site. Funny how many of the same travelers you see. all doing the same. Some days we just either follow or get followed by another couple. All have the same ideas on what to do for the day. Its funny. We kinda just say" ah hello again."
We walked from our campsite into town here, and had coffee and lunch in the park. was nice as it was very pretty and nice and sunny. apart from that we just read our books and chilled in the van. Mart now very happy as we eventually, after looking in about 25 book shops over the weeks, have found the second and third lord of the rings books for him to finish reading. he is a fan!! It was really good though as we were about to buy them at a book shop for 24 dollars each and then found them for 8 dollars for them both. Absolute bargain. We always look forward to cooking tea each day. well mart does. hope that trend keeps up for when we get home!! It is nice to be cooking
Hamilton
Waikato river your own and not eating out all the time, like we were in Asia.
After Hamilton, we headed for the day to a coastal town called raglan. this was a nice drive along the coast. It was quite dull that day though, and mart did not go for a surf. We had a walk about, and then our plan was to go to some hot pools about 25km away. well this was the plan!! we ended up getting lost. Don't know how. the stupid maps we think!!! Anyway after the de-tour we ended up at the hot pools, which were in the middle of no where and they were empty. No one around apart from the dodgy camp site owner who we thought looked a bit scary. We decided we did not want to stay anywhere deserted so we headed off to get down to waitomo. Again we got lost (marts fault, as i always read maps and plan my rout, he just drives and goes by his sense of direction) any way we got on the main road in the end. It was annoying though, as where we had traveled, if we had traveled it correctly, would not
Ranglan bay
The longest left hand surf break in the world have been far, but as we got lost we wasted half a tank of fuel. Allan was worn out!!!!!!!!
we ended up in a town called Waitomo. This is where all the caves and glow worms are. It was wet that night, and we just had a cosy night in, in the van. The next day we went to the Glowworm caves for a tour. this was well cool. the caves are beautiful. Made of limestone and they are thousands of years old. All the glow worms were so nice to see. We were not allowed to take photos, but mart being the lad he is, took the camera in, in his pocket, and took a sneaky few shots. The glow worms did not come out, as he could not have the flash on, but the one of the caves is good. It was so dark, and we were on a little boat in underground cave rivers, and we all just looked up, it was like looking at the sky and seeing thousands of stars. really gald we did this. Shame it was raining so heavy as we would have stayed in Waitomo and walked about and seen a
little more. we headed off that afternoon to Taupo. Taupo was really nice. Marts favorite so far i think. it was unfortunately peeeing it down on that first day, must have been the whole of NZ in rain as Trudie emailed to see if we were o.k in the van. we just walked about the town trying to find an internet cafe. we were drenched. had the pack-a-macs on and everything. thankfully the rain eased off the next day and we had a nice day sightseeing. We went to the Huka falls. This is part of the Waikato river that flows through NZ. it is massive, and these falls are so big, it is because the river gets so narrow, and so the water is all rushing through this small area. really good to see. As we love the falls so much, we went off to look at some more later that day!!!!! this waterfall though is shut off by a damn. It opens at certain times in the day to let the water out. We got there just in time to see the water start gushing down and filling the pools of rocks beneath us. we also walked around
the craters of the moon!! no, not the real moon. just a place called this. It is where volcanic sights are, and all the steam comes out from the ground. It stinks of eggs too. We walked around and were a little disapointed as we only saw one mud pool. This is where the bubbling mud is coming from under the ground. there are lots of of volcanic places to see where we are now which is Rotorua.
well to end up i will let mart tell you all about is bungy jump he did this moring. It was brill to see him do. I am never doing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey everyone. Well i am still buzzing with adrenaline, and the jump was over 4 hours ago. It was the most nerve racking, exciting, scariest, adrenaline pumping thing iv ever done. It was soooooo cool. We saw the bungy the day before, and i was saying to soph "this looks a bit small, i thought it would be bigger than this, il do it easily". Boy i was wrong. We had to wait a day or 2 for the rain to stop, so i jumped this morning before leaving
Huka falls
Fierce flowing falls town. When i had paid and was walking out to the edge, the fear kicked in. I posed for a photo, but was pure white. I had to sit down as the guys strapped my ankles and attached my to the bungy cord. He then said "right off you go", and i was like "what now? thats it? oh sh#!." I stood on the edge for a while looking down, and kept swaying forward as if ready to jump, then pulling back, as i was so scared. Then i went!!!!!! It was the strangest feeling in my body. The sicky, stomach-turning feeling you get when you dream that your falling towards the ground about to hit the bottom and you wake up!!! but this was no dream. I felt that i was falling so fast aswel. it was wild. At the bottom, you get plunged into the river below, before the cord springs you back up and down a few times, before being lowered into the safety boat below. I couldn't stop smiling and shaking!!!! What a really great feeling, yet completely terrifying at the same time. Rock on!!!!!!!!
Well, off for a walk around now, speak soon, enjoy
the blog. Love mart and soph
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mum and dad c.
non-member comment
knew it was coming
Pleased to read the latest blog. We all knew that the bungy jump would happen some time whilst you were in N. Z. and now it has. You have done it now and by the sound of it it was worth every penny and the wait.I must admit i was hoping you would think twice about it and decide not to.Still now you have and everything went according to plan i dont have to worry any more.Glad you really did enjoyed it that much still on a high hours and even a day or two later.The photos were good too.Sophie im so glad one of you is sensible anyway.Well another wet windy rainy weekend here in wonderfull Plymouth infact all over England as a matter of fact.Helen is in London at the moment staying with auntie Jackie and Uncle Andrew for a long weekend organized by Ashley as a birthday surprise for her.I hear they are off to see Chicago tonight in the west end after a hectic day shopping on Oxford street ect.I have been busy writting christmas cards today whilst the christmas c.ds. play in the back ground but im only about half way through.They will get finished over the next day or so.Off out tonight with the Asda checkout ladies tonight to Chambers for our Christmas meal should be good laugh as i know who going out.Well we will speak soon im sure.Everyone is fine here except for a lot of cold germs going around everywhere.You know what i mean.Take care always love mum and dad xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx c christmas meal cham chicago