Taupo and the Ozzy Osborne Machine of Death!

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Taupo - where people skydive, white water raft, cycle, and all kinds of other things.

This was a good place to stop. Again I was here for three days and had a good time meeting the people that were in my dorm. On the second day I decided it was time I did an activity. Almost everyone I had met were opting for a skydive but I thought at nearly $500 for the DVD and possibility of death was a bit steep at the time so I scoured the activities Taupo had to offer for something land based, muddy and generally value for money.... that's right, I went Quad Biking!

It was great! I was a bit worried what I had let myself in for when I was doing the practice track; I could see how a man like Ozzy could have had such an horrific accident. There was nobody else on the tour either, just me and the guide in the middle of Taupo's countryside. Rolling hills, farm animals and wild Deer was what this ride had in store for me and I loved it! It was raining quite heavily so my glasses had water dripping off of them for the first hour but then the rain disappeared when I entered the forest. Stupid me left my camera at the hostel for this ride so I have no photos of the Quad Biking😞. All I can say is what a good time I had for $160 with three hours of hair raising trails where the bike could have flipped over had I been going a touch too fast. I had to drive through a farmers field with loads of Cows and they were all running away from the bike - it was so weird riding alongside them while they were terrified. Next stop was a field of Sheep, not uncommon in New Zealand, but each and everyone of them were eyeballing me on the way through as if to say there were going to chase me once my back was turned, knock me out and steal the bike when I wasn't looking! The guide I had was doing the whole thing on a trail bike and it really got me thinking about what it would be like to be able to ride a motorbike off-road, after all, I enjoyed doing it with pedal power when I used to do a bit of Mountain Biking. Don't worry Dad, I might just get a license for off-roading purposes only..... maybe!

So, that was that, pretty much. Taupo's lake is pretty and on a good day you can see the mountains in the distance which you should be able to see on the photo album I created. I also went to the cinema in Taupo which was nice. Local cinemas are so good here. I watched Sweeney Todd with about four other people which limits the amount of people who will not shut up during the movie. As many of you know, this infuriates me to the point of mindless violence..... not really but you know how it is - you go to a cinema for escape into another world. You don't want some bastard sitting behind you with a constant commentary do you??? Well that's what happened when I went to see Cloverfield but there were so many seats I could get up and move.

No, I did not do the Tongariro Crossing. Mostly because it kept getting called off and I am not big on walking for 8 hours so when the weather was good I decided to have a laundry day instead - had to be done! But with all the things I haven't done straight away, I can always come back up North if I really want to see anything like that.

I stopped in Napier for one night which really reminded me of somewhere like Folkestone and then headed to Wellington on another long bus ride.......

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