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Published: November 12th 2014
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Once again, heaps of things to tell you about! After my time up in the north of the North Island I went on to discover what was happening in Thames, Whakatane, Rotorua, Taupo, Whanganui and last but not least NZ's capital Wellington. But Moana wasn't my only travel companion this time, I was accompanied by a wonderful girl in Whangarei with whom I decided to travel for a bit. For a bit turned out to be two weeks since we got on so well together.
When we got to Thames after quite a long drive we thought about doing a longish walk called the Pinnacle Walk the next day, but as we got up in the morning it was pouring down. So instead we decided to move on, since Thames didn't seem to be an exciting place overall. So after that we visited Whakatane which we thoroughly enjoyed. Spending quite a bit of money on a very touristy thing turned out to be a really good move. We booked a guided tour to the White Island, NZ's only active volcano island! Not only did we see a very educational and impressive tour, we also got to see dolphins and whales
on the two hours boat ride to the island! That was definitely a highlight of the events so far. Still can't get the smell of sulphur out of my nose! Another very memorable moment indeed happened on a hike just outside of Whakatane. Adventurous as we are we left the main track of the hike and went down to the beach and climbed over sharp rocks, slippery driftwood and even got our feet (in her case leg) soaked in the wild water of the Pacific. We found a big rock where we chilled out pretty much the whole day, it was absolutely magical since we were the only ones as far as your eye could see. Ah hang on, not quite the only ones, a cute little animal decided to join us and enjoy the sun for a bit. Meet Robbie, the seal!
After these exciting moments we had to relax a bit before we got on to Rotorua. Rotorua was the place where my new Ashton guitar (named her Ashe..) joined our trio. Other than that neither Rotorua or Taupo were very exciting. I had a great time there but not too many things happened.
After going to
a black sand beach in Whanganui by bike and after a lovely scenic drive we discovered the city of Wellington. Pretty much first thing that happened was getting a park fine, only 10 minutes after my time ran out! Good thing I can't think of anything else to do with my money than paying fines.. Since we had a bit of spare time we decided to go to the WETA workshop where they create objects and animate film sequences for movies and work closely with film directors. Their art works are wonderful! I didn't go on the tour but there was a small museum and a movie they showed for free which was so interesting to see. I'm definitely going to go there again and do the tour!
Heading to Picton on Saturday, see what the South Island has to offer! I have heard a lot of positive things about it, so let's hope all the promises are true!
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