NZ North Island!

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Hi everyone.

I'm now in Taupo which is in the middle of the north island of New Zealand, famous for lake Taupo, which is about the same size as Singapore!

I've been doing quite a few things on my tour of the north island, starting with sea kayaking in Hahei - this is the place where the 'famous' Cathedral cove is. Cathedral cove is a place seen in the latest Narnia film out. The kayaking was good, but after we got back we found out that there was a pod of Orca about 100m behind us at one point, when we went through a cave and didn't even notice them! The owner of the kayaks took my bus driver and managed to catch up with the Orca for some amazing pictures - we couldn't believe we were so close but looking the wrong way!

Hahei is also the place where 'hot water beach is'. When the tide is out you can dig your own hot pool in certain sections of the sand here! The problem is the water can get to 61 deg C, so you need to try to balance it with cold water. The only low tide when we were there was 11:30 at night, and the bus driver wasn't allowed to take us down there then - but we managed to convince the kayaking guys to come and get us in their van.
We were all there in the dark, with 1 torch freezing cold, when for whatever reason the tide didn't actually go low enough for us to dig a hole! We were standing about with very hot toes for about and hour though.
Being out in the dark was good for seeing the algae which actually lights up when disturbed - every now again again it looked as though a light was floating out to sea.

After Hahei we went to Raglan and stayed in a very nice place in the middle of the bush. Raglan is famous for it's surf beach, but I decided not to go try it out.

The next day we went to Maketu via the Waitomo caves, where i took the Haggas Honking Holes tour which involved abseiling down (or as in one case through) waterfalls down to 77m underground. Squeezing though tight gaps before some basic rock climbing to get out! The water was ice cold! The caves are famous for the glow worms which are inside and we saw quite a few of them too!

In Maketu we stayed in a Maori Marae and saw a cultural show by a local family, the guys (all 3 of us) learned the Haka, whilst the girls learned a Poi dance.

After Maketu we went into Rotorua, which has many geothermal areas. Here I decided to go sledging , which was described to me as the most stupid thing you can do in New Zealand. It involved going down grade 3 rapids on what was basically a large body board with handles - using a pair of flippers to try and direct yourself! It wasn't quite as dangerous as it sounds, although one of the instructors did get a battering against one of the cliffs at one point. It was definitely one the most tiring things I've ever done - you're constantly kicking against the current to get in to the correct positions to go down the rapids, and you have to get into 'eddys' (areas of calmer water to the sides of the rapids) to try and recover.

That evening we went to Taupo where I am now and have spent the last couple of days catching up on sleep. The idea behind staying in Taupo was to try and do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing - an 18k alpine hike rated as one of the best day hikes in the world. But the track currently has storm damage and avalanche warnings so it's looking unlikely I can do it. If I can't I'll try to some of the other walks in the area and see some attractions across the next few days.

I travel back up to Auckland on Wednesday and fly to Fiji on Thursday! At the moment I'm still trying to work out where to go in Fiji, I think I'll concentrate on diving there. I've seen some shark dives I'm very interested in doing and might try to catch the manta rays after the incident on the Australian west coast!

I'm not sure if I'll put up another blog before Fiji, or if I'll have easy access to the internet whilst there. I'll post a blog if I can!

I'm back in less than a month now!

Hope you're all well - Marc

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