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Published: October 27th 2006
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Karori
OK since I last wrote I have gotten over my cold. It wasn't too bad in the end but I did spend a day wishing I had a new set of lungs. Especially when we arrived at Karori and were led up a very steep hill to where we were working. Now I love Karori it is a beautiful reserve full of the most amazing birds and you can sit and listen to them while you work. However we kind of got the feeling they were ashamed of us because we were working way out of the public view on a hill beneath the forest canopy. We were weeding again. Honestly we are professionals at it now. Of course there were a few weed fights and Pernille was buried in the weed bag, so nothing new there. This was our last work day of the week as we had kindly been gifted an extra day off for the long weekend. It was labour day on Monday so we were not working then, hooray 4 day weekend.
Taupo
We had planned to head up to Taupo about a 6 hour drive from Wellington for the weekend. We were
Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe in the background
This was the view from the road on the Friday when we had sun. planning on walking the Tongarrio crossing on the Sunday but unfortunately the weather conspired against us. More of that later. We set off early on the Friday morning. Although not as early as planned because Toby overslept! Rubbish! We also had a surprise from the drain that morning and were pleased to be leaving. Lets just say that it was not too pleasant and whatever was flushed was now running down the driveway. Lovely!
The drive up to Taupo was beautiful. I was the official tourguide having planned everything. Toby was the driver so we were in the front and the others filled up the van. We had a few stops on the way up. The best of these was on the lake shore. It was stunning. The water was not too cold and we all went for a paddle. Damien tried unsuccessfully to push us all in. The sun was shining for the last time for the whole weekend. The lake was formed when a massive volcano erupted many thousand years ago and it is huge. The water was so clear that I was desperate to go for a swim but had to make do with a paddle. We
also stopped on the way up to look at and photograph the remaining volcanoes in the national park. They are very impressive and were still covered in snow. The ground around them was quite warm and infact some of the roads were melting. Toby, Mr Safety Conscious called the road repair people and they were soon out with signs and new grit. Bless him!
We were staying in a camp site in Taupo (pronounced Toe Paw) and had to put up 4 tents when we arrived. This was funny as noone knew how they were meant to be put up and all the pegs were bent into silly shapes. Finally we got them up, without Toby's help, he was asleep in the van. This seemed a good time to share our surprise with him. We had designed and made T-Shirts for our trip. We had GVN on Tour and Taupo Oct 06 on the front. Then at the bottom our group motto. 'You Can Do It!' Then on the back we had written one each of Toby's phrases. I had 'Sweeet' written across the back of mine. For some reason Damien decided it would be really funny to present these
Lake Taupo
The lake just before sunset. to him whilst doing New York, New York. Believe me the video is hilarious! He was very touched and we all wore our shirts out to the pub that night. People thought we were in uniform. After many pool games we headed back to the tents and froze to death. It is lovely and warm here during the day but when the sun goes down it is perishing. I have no idea how many layers I wore that night but I had trouble squeezing into my sleeping bag.
Rafting
The next day we were to go rafting. The rain started before we left the campsite and didn't let up. It didn't really matter as we were getting soaked from the river anyway. I impressed John our guide by falling out at the very first rapid. He said he had never lost anyone there before. Impressive I know. I was sat on the back because I had rafted before and just flipped backwards over the raft. I was under the raft for what felt like ages and then John fell in to grab me. He was yelling at me to let go of the raft but I was holding
on no matter what. It was all very exciting. Eventually he wrenched me back into the raft and I landed very unladylike on the floor of the boat on my belly bum up in the air. Beautiful! The rest of the raft was much more uneventful but fantastic. We even moored up halfway along to have hot chocolate on the river. At the end we were driven back to the center where they had a hot pool in the garden and we gratefully sunk into the thermally heated pool. It was bliss.
Day in Taupo
Unfortunately when we got back to the campsite we heard that the crossing was closed due to the poor weather. This was a same because one of the main reasons for going up to Taupo was to walk. However it did mean that we didn't have to get up really early the next morning and we could see some more of the tourist attractions in Taupo.
Sunday was spent going to see the Huka Falls, very cool. The Craters of the Moon, where the earth steamed at us, eating a lovely sunday lunch on the lakeside and going for a swim in some
thermal hot pools. The water was actually too hot and we kept wussing out by sitting on the edge of the pool. After leaving Taupo we were going to head up to the National Park to camp our last night there. However when we were only halfway there the heavens opened again and in the pitch black we all decided there was noway we were putting up tents in the rain and dark. I was therefore dispatched to the camping office to ask about upgrading to a cabin. I know pathetic but we were cold and wet. We managed to get three cabins for the night. They were shall we say cosy! Small wooden boxes with a bunk bed in each. The bottom bunk was a double so Yvonne, Hannah and I shared one cabin. Toby, Damien and Adrian in another and Pernille, Jen and Fatiah in the last. It was all good until Toby took his shoes off and gassed us all.
The next day we headed home after the most fantastic breakfast at a small cafe in Turangi. The eggs were to die for. The traffic on the way home was poo and we arrived back in The
Hutt late Monday night. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I certainly got to know my housemates well.
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