Kaikoura - Wellington - Auckland - Hahei - Raglan - Maketu -

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Wow another full few days!!

Firstly though I have uploaded a video of my Bungy in Queenstown so check that out!!

So after I left Kaikoura last week I got the ferry to from Picton to Wellington. The ferry ride leaving the south Island was very beautiful. We arrived fairly late in Wellington and I didn't have time to hop off, but it seemed like a nice city, I would liked to have expored it. But the next day I got on the bus for a gruelling 10hr trip to Auckland. It was very long and not much to report. I walked around Auckland a bit when I arrived, I wasn't too impressed, quite a generic city.

Anyway the very next day, I hopped on the bus with lots of new people and new driver Chris (legend). And off we went to Hahei. This is a sea side town, we took a very beautiful, yet hilly walk to Cathedral cove. The plan was to go swimming but it was a bit rough, so we headed back for a BBQ. Again, by the end of the day we were all best friends - I love it! The highlight of the day was Hot Water Beach. This is where there is geothermal energy right under the beach, so when the tide is out you can dig holes in the sand and make hot pools to sit in. However, when we were the low tide was 12.06am. After a tiny bit of persuasion, Chris drove us down to Hot Water Beach at 11.30pm. We had to walk around a big rock that sticks out in the sea, when I say walk I mean paddle because the tide was still in. when we got to where we were supposed to be, a massive wave came crashing up and soaked us all. We decided to wait around the other side of the big rock! It was quite an adventure though in the pitch black with only a few torches between us all! Anyway to cut a long story short we never got to dig any holes, the swell was too big. The stars were amazing though, I have never seen so many! All in all, a good laugh.

From Hahei we went to Raglan which was pretty much a straight drive, except for one part where it was too narrow for Chris to turn the bus around so a few of us hopped out and had to push the trailor. We arrived at Kairoi Lodge, which is about 9km out of raglan. The accomodation was chalet type, but the whole place was in the trees. Lush trees of all different types surrounded us. Raglan is a surf town, there was a surf competition going on so we went to watch that for a bit, before coming back to play in the park 😊. There was a flying fox (zip wire) at the lodge so we had some fun with that, as well as the low ropes course. Before relaxing in the sauna!

The next day we left Raglan and headed to Waitomo, this is awesome! In Waitomo I went caving, but not exactly like any caving I've done before. So we climbed down a ladder to get into the cave and followed a tiny stream to a more open area and this is where I saw my first glow worm!!! Well i saw the glow anyway - a green fluorescent dot on the ceiling. The next section we walked/crawled through there were loads and loads of stalagmites and stalagtites, some of them were huge!! After this we had to crawl through a small hole into a pool on the otherside, before doing this one of the instructors Dion, told us there was a massive eel, so we had to cover our faces with mud - naturally. Anyway Simone and I were the first to go through, but Dion had gone through a different way and jumped out at us! I screamed and jumped out of my skin!! Once I was over it and we were all on the otherside we had to unzip our wetsuit jackets, link arms and go under the water up to our chins - it was COLD!! But I grateful we did that because I soon warmed up a treat. The next section we had to get in rubber rings, we climbed up onto a rock, held the rubber ring behind us and jumped into the water - it was good fun. We were all in a line with feet up the arms of the person in front and all torches off. As we floated along there were thousands and thousands of glow worms - it was so beautiful. When you looked up all these green lights were above you. The actual worms are pretty gross, they are actually maggots and their glow is acutally how they emit waste (Biochemistry rocks!). After a calming float down, we had to swim a little section before having chocolate and a hot drink. Then back on the rubber rings, this time on our fronts and pulling ourselves alongusing a rope. At the end the other instructor Tod told me to climb up towards the day light, so following instructions (I was at the front) I did so to find loads and loads of spiders! Yuk!! thats when I stopped talking to Tod!! When we exited the cave the proper way, it was pouring down with rain, which made the whole area look enchanting.

The adventures of the day did not stop at the caves, we made our way from Waitomo to Uncle Boy's Place in Maketu, where we had a cultural experience. This was by the Maori people, who are the native people of New Zealand, the legend goes that some Maori brothers were out fishing and they actually fished up the South Island and the canoe they were in became the North Island. Anyway, when other people/tribes approached the Maori the warriors would perform a war dance and a peace offering would be given. So in we went into the Marae (Meeting house) Donal was the nominated chief from the stray bus and we all had to stand behind him while the Maori chief did his war dance, which was actually very scary! We were warned before we went in not to laugh, I dont think i could have even if I wanted to. Dolan had to pick up the peace offering from the floor without breaking eye contact with the chief and once this was done, we were all friends! Phew! We all then took part in the Hongi which is a greeting whereby everyone touches noses and says kiaora (hello). Now we were all friends and had greeted eachother properly, the Maori people sang to us, the women then performed the Poi Poi dance and the Men the Haka (war dance) which we then had to separate and learn to perform to the others - was very good fun and there are no words to describe the stray boys doing the Haka. When the Maori men did it they looked fierce and very scary. It was a great experience, i loved it.

In the morning after leaving Uncle Boy's it was back to the adrenaline stuff with some white water rafting! The rapids were awesome and we went over 3 waterfalls, the first two were relatively small, but the third was a 7m drop! We had to paddle, paddle, paddle until the edge, then had to sit on the bottom of the raft and hold on for dear life. I was sat at the front with Simone. The raft went vertically down and plunged into the water - the whole raft with us in it went completey under the water!! It then tipped on its side, at which point we had to hold on soooooo tight - but we all made it without falling out yesssssss!!! I love rafting!!

The afternoon, once we arrived in Taupo was a bit more sedate, we took a walk to the park and had a relaxing time in the natural hot pools there, i was very very relaxed, that in the middle of this beautiful park in 40c water mmmmmmmm.

Today in Taupo I have been chilling out, went for a little walk to the lake - not around it as it is 100miles! The biggest lake in New Zealand.

I am going to Australia on friday but will hopefully update you before I leave New Zealand, I must admit I will be sad to leave this amazing country . . .

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