Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Evening people. Despite all the best advice from James & Leslie when we were in Oz we went and did it anyway. We bungeed. At the same spot they did as well. We thought that while we were in NZ it would be rude not to, especially as Taupo is about half the price of Queenstown for bungeeing.
But that was only this morning so I should really take you back to when we left you last. We spent our final half day in Nelson enjoying a little light travelling. We scrambled to the top of a hill to see the geographic centre of NZ. Quite how it ended up exactly at the summit of a picturesque hill we're not too certain. We then had a little ramble round some Japanese gardens on the outskirts of town on our way out.
We were headed to Picton to get our ferry the following morning. The drive was another good one so we stopped loads along the way as we made our way past Mahau Sound and then round to Queen Elizabeth Sound. These are all real sounds as opposed to Fjords but we're still not certain of the actual differences.
Picton is a funny little place. It's nice enough but there isn't a great deal to it apart from a big old ferry terminal. This is why we are so puzzled as to why Welsh Emma managed to spend an entire year of her life here. We think it had something to do with diving but we had better not go too much further in case we upset her. Sara, Kari, Les and Sam probably know the reasons.
After a nice early night we got up nice and early and headed round to the ferry and drove Cookie on. Never driven on to a ferry before but it's not overly exciting. The ferry ride for the first hour was great as you're negotiating your way out to the sea through the beautiful water channels. Once out on the sea it was a little rough so I settled down to watch the All Blacks beat the Springboks. They seem to win everything (except the World Cup I've heard). Mrs Deane slept.
We only had a half day in Wellywood (Wellington) before heading north. We started, obviously, with lunch. We were starving. We found a little Chinese food court
place with cheap meals which reminded us of our earlier travels. Very tasty (so far, no stomach bugs either).
We then went over to the Te Papa museum. If they made museums like this in England we wouldn't have such an uneducated yoof culture. Great place for big kids like me. There was loads of stuff to do like earthquake rooms, puzzles, interactive stuff. Even Mrs Deane enjoyed herself and she wasn't just humouring me.
After the museum we needed to go lowbrow and get rid of all that culture we had imbibed, so went to the Mac's Brewery pub just opposite to imbibe. I added the Mac's Black to my beer tally before we headed off to Mt Victoria. We were just in time for a beautiful sunset over Wellywood before we jumped in the van and headed North.
After waking up from kipping in a layby we continued clocking up the mileage north. We stopped off at the Rangitikei Gorge where they did some LOTR filming. A beautiful drive to get there over a very hilly route before getting to the Gorge. 80m vertical drop straight down to the river. The Kiwis had put a
bungy site in there of course.
The plan for the rest of the day was to hang round the Tongariro National Park. This is where they filmed Mt Doom and Mordor. There are three volcanoes, stunning scenery, beautiful walks, skiing, etc, etc. Our plans were dashed as the heavens opened. It appeared that Mordor was to be shut for the day. We could see nothing of Mt Doom or the other volcanoes due to the amount of cloud hanging around. We changed plans, bought ourselves a few postcards of what we missed and headed off to Taupo instead.
Good decision - just as we came over the hills and down into the valley, the clouds started to part and the weather cleared up. Taupo is set by a lake. A big lake. I think it's the size of Singapore so pretty big. Very nice town with loads to do. We filled our afternoon with geothermal activity, waterfalls and a dip in a thermal pool.
We started at the Craters of the Moon. A big, sizzling field of volcanic activity. Craters everywhere (hence the name) with steam hissing about and a couple of mud pools. We were using
this as a warm-up for Rotorua (home of all sorts of geothermal stuff). We then headed to the Huka Falls and then to our campsite for the night. Which luckily for us had a free thermal pool. Just like a nice warm bath. We wiled away an hour or so chatting to a couple from Nottingham. I know it sounds like a dodgy 70's adult movie but it was all entirely innocent. We then finished our evening by drinking Wobbly Boot in the van.
This morning we were up sprightly and brightly and round to Taupo Bungy (conveniently located at the end of our road). Sorry, James but we thought we had to do it. The jump was 47m and situated over a very nice canyon. It was fairly quiet and so the whole thing was over very quickly. We got weighed, sent out to the platform, had some ropes and bungy cords tied to us, shuffled to the edge of the platform, looked down (probably shouldn't have done), held on to each other and then 1,2,3 Bungeeee....
The river came rushing very quickly up at us but luckily the rope held and we bounced around above it
for a bit before landing gracefully in the dingy at the bottom. Just needed to head back up the hill to pick our photos up and we were off to relax.
We found the perfect spot. We decided to head for a swim. Perhaps not wise, considering the temperatures but we found a natural thermal stream, grabbed our swimmers and dived in. Actually, we stepped in slowly as there was only a foot and a half of water. The temperature was about 38C and was lovely. We waved at the passers by on the bridge all wrapped up in coats and scarfs. Again, I was very fortunate to have a snifter of port to hand and happily sat there with steam all around me relaxing.
For the afternoon we were headed towards Rotorua. We stopped at the Ari-something dam for the opening of the gates. They open them every couple of hours and it causes a great flash flood down the river bed which is almost completely dry.
And the next item on the agenda was Wai-O-Tapu. Another geothermal hotbed (pardon the pun) but a bit ramped up from the Craters of the Moon. Naturally you have
to pay a little more money but you get what you pay for. There were bubbling mud pools with exploding mud, yellow caves from all the sulphur, green pools, yellow pools, blue pools, steam, sulphur cascades, colourful platforms. Everything had a sinister name like Devil's Bath, Inferno Crater, etc and the place was amazing. You just don't get this kind of thing in Greater Manchester. We spent well over an hour wandering around, resisting the pressure to dive into the 74C pools. Might have been a little painful.
Hope everyone is doing well back home. We've heard there has been record rain back home and loads of flooding. Still warmer than here I suppose.
Bye for now,
D & Mrs D
P.S. Merry Christmas everyone. As we are upside down we toasted Christmas yesterday. It's also now been over six months since we did a day of hard work. And to be honest, we're shattered. We need a holiday.
P.P.S. There are photos of us in mid bungy and I am currently working through technical difficulties to get them all to you.
Beer 139: Mac's Black, New Zealand, Draught, 4.8%, 8.0, I'd been waiting
to try it for a while and it was worth the wait. The pride of the North of the South Island didn't let me down
Advertisement
Tot: 0.044s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0238s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sara
non-member comment
Mhm, 'still waiting to include the bungee pics, technical difficulties etc etc '...stop bluffing Dave, until i see photographic proof, i wont believe you actually did it! xx