Chilly days!

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I'm not sure what I've managed to do with the formatting but there seems to be something funny going on, sorry for this!

Hello again everyone!



I have had a lot of early mornings this week. Getting around the North Island of New Zealand in 8 days has been a bit of an adventure and I feel like I've been busy!



So let's have a go at telling you what I've been up to. When I eventually checked into my hostel after flying in from Samoa last week I had a nice nap and then bumped into one of the guys who had been on my bus on the South Island. We went out for a drink in an Irish pub near the hostel in preparation for the All Blacks v Ireland Rugby match that night. It was absolutely packed with people in green, white and orange. I then took the train out to Eden Park Stadium to watch the match. There was such a fantastic atmosphere and although it wasn't the most exciting Rugby match I've ever seen, I had an amazing time. I even got myself an All Blacks jersey (much to the disgust of the Irish people I'd gone there with).



The next morning I was up bright and early for a bus trip up to the beautiful Bay of Islands, which is north of Auckland. It took us most of the day to get up there as we stopped at a couple of places on the way. Our stops were to see one of the hugest trees I have ever seen (it was 800 years old) and to do a walk to see a beautiful waterfall. We stayed in a place called Paihia and spent the afternoon trying (but failing) to catch fish. Only one girl out of our group of seven actually managed to catch one but it was quite relaxing just to sit in the sun by the sea.



The main point of my trip up there was to go out on a boat trip and view the 144 islands in the bay. We went out on a 4 hour cruise the next day and it was beautifully sunny. Unfortunately it was also bitterly cold so I spent most of the trip in the boat. We did manage to see some dolphins, which was really lovely but they were feeding so we weren't allowed to get in and swim with them. We also stopped off at the largest island in the Bay to walk up a hill and get a better view of the islands. After the cruise, we had some lunch and drove back down to Auckland.



I was up at 6 the next morning to join the bus tour around the North Island. Our first stop that evening was Raglan, a beautiful surf beach. It was a little bit too cold for me to fancy surfing (yes family- even colder than Trebarwith!!)... it is the middle of winter here! I did go for a nice walk along the beach and watch the sunset though. In the evening we had a great group meal to get to know people on the bus a bit better. We had sausage and mash, gravy, peas, carrots and broccoli followed by apple crumble and custard. Perfect winter food. And I picked up the nickname Fatty for finishing off the crumble from the tray it was baked in. Woooops.



Waitomo was our next destination, and we were there by 9 o clock the next morning. There are a load of caves there and I decided to go caving for four hours. This wasn't like any other caving I'd done before though as it involved a 20m abseil to get down into the caves. We also abseiled down two waterfalls (yes I got soaking wet and very cold) as well as being lowered down a hole in the complete dark, rock climbing, crawling through tiny gaps in the rocks and climbing up ladders. It was an amazing and very tiring experience and the caves were absolutely beautiful. At one point we were 80m under the surface. After the morning of activity, we went to a place called Maketu where we had a cultural evening. We were cooked a traditional Maori dinner and were then greeted by the tribe. We had to elect a chief to face up to the tribe's challenge and accept a token of their friendship before we could sit down and watch them perform the haka and some hymns in the Maori language. We then got involved- the boys in the group learnt and performed the haka and the girls learnt and performed a 'poi'. It's a sort of song and dance while twirling balls on the end of a string. The photos might explain a little better than I can! It was great fun though and really good to get involved in the culture.



When we left Maketu we went to Rotorua, where we did a bit of shopping in the Outdoors shops and saw some of the geothermal activity in a park in the city. The steam coming out of the ground was pretty impressive but it smelt terrible! We drove from Rotorua to Taupo, stopping to see one of the most amazing waterfalls I've seen - the sheer volume of water moving through the gap in the rocks was fantastic and the colours were just beautiful. Once in Taupo I did some supermarket shopping and got an early night because I had to get up at 5 am!



At 6 the next day we headed into the Tongariro National Park. We were doing a 20km, 8 hour hike and it was snowing. We hired crampons and ice axes from the company who were guiding us over the crossing and got going by about 8:30 am. The hike was fairly good going and it stopped snowing quite quickly, we had a beautiful sunny day for it in the end. The photos will show you how amazing the scenery was and I had a huge sense of achievement when I got to the end. My only problem was that the boots they had given me were actually a half size smaller than I had asked for and my feet were absolutely killing me. I ended up doing the last 3km of the hike in socks and flip flops. The first and last time I will be doing that! Still, they had a nice cold beer waiting for me at the end so it was definitely worth it. When we got back to the lodge we were staying at that evening, we discovered they had a lovely hot jacuzzi so I spent a while in there before collapsing in bed.



I actually managed a lie in the next day - well until 8 when I got up and watched the end of the England v Sweden match. Of course, the last goal was scored while I was cooking my porridge but never mind. I basically did nothing for the rest of the day. We were staying at a place called Blue Duck Lodge. The place is essentially a conservation project where they look after the habitat for the endangered blue ducks and kiwis. It was a beautiful setting for the farm and we had a lounge with a lovely warm fire in, so I spent most of the afternoon in there playing board games! They also had axe throwing, which is exactly what it sounds like, throwing an axe at a target. I was pretty terrible at it so, being the stubborn girl that I am, spent a good hour practicing until I got the axe to stick in the target. I learnt a new skill there! In the evening, we went down to their kitchen and had a goat curry and carrot cake for dinner. It was delicious.



We left Blue Duck Lodge this morning and arrived in Wellington mid-afternoon. On the way we had a gum boot throwing competition and stopped at a farm/cafe for a pie for lunch. I'm spending a couple of days here and then flying to Beijing, via Auckland on Wednesday. Pretty excited about China and some warmth.



I'm hoping I'll be able to update in China but I'm not sure what the internet access is going to be like so we shall see!



Bye for now xxxx

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Comments

[anonymous]

Love it, love it, love it! I am sooo proud of you doing all these exciting things. Hold those memories forever. Love mummy xxx