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Published: March 3rd 2007
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Trapezzing Chez
Yes, this really is me. So much fun!! Auckland - Bay of Islands, Paihai - Auckland - Haihei (Ha-hey) - Raglan - Waitomo
Well, where do I begin. This has been the travel route so far in the North Island. Sounds like we have been to loads of places in NZ so far! On the night that we arrived in Auckland, NZ experienced the first earthquake in a long time, as I am told, reaching 4 on the Ricter Scale, however, only found this out a few days ago, Adam and I didn't notice it one little bit. How crazy. The guy that told us said that he didn't notice it either!!
We were taken on a free tour of Auckland city by Stray, who we later decided to get our hop on hop off bus ticket with. One of the guys on the bus was lucky enough to get to jump of the Sky Tower (the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere) for free, lucky dip. Looked amazing, but as it was more of a controlled fall, rather than a free fall, we decided against doing it, especially considering the cost, but looked great all the same. The view from the top of Mount Eden was
High Wiring It Up Baby
So high up. The oicture was taken at the beginnig, so you can't see how far I got, shame! amazing, being able to see both the Pacific Ocean and the Tazman Sea, looking in one direction, either side of the city, and around the entire perimeter, also. The center of the volcano is also sectioned off, as it is precious Maori land, but since people do not respect this, the whole mountain will be made a no go area soon, so feel priviliged to get to see it now.
On the way to Paihai, Bay of Islands, we passed through a town called Opononi, made famous, in the 50's, because a lone dolphin braved the shores of the bay, by swimming in to play with the towns folk. We were shown a short video of this, clearly also made in the 50's, using funny inuendoes, all making the town seem a little weird, but sweet. Onwards we travelled.
The Bay of Islands is a collection of uninhibitted islands at the peak of the North Islands, one of which is where Cpt. Cook first landed when he discovered NZ and killed off most of the Maori tribes. Very beautiful place. We took a boat trip round these island, seeing dolphins riding off the wake created by the boat
Flipper!
We got so close to the dolpins, incredible! (thrill seekers), a whale, penguins, jellyfish, and a giant flying fish. We tried to swim with the dolphins, getting into the boom net and swimming out towards them, but they heard the racket of people and just swam away. Such an amazing day though, seeing them all in their natural habitat, didn't realise that the dolphins were that huge.
We took a one day trip up to Cape Reinger, the very tip (where the two seas meet), where we sandboarded down some giant sand dunes, after a strenuous hike up to the top. Very exillerating, especially after a long coach journey. It was more like body boarding down the sand, similar to bum boarding down a snowy mountain, and just as much fun. This was followed by the long drive down the 90 mile beach (actually about 64 miles), on the hard sand, after the tide had started to go out. Some silly Welsh girls had driven on the soft sand, when the tide was high, and had got stuck in the sand (a misfortune frequently occurring, and leading to cars being burried as the tide comes back in), so our driver towed them out, luckily for them. Very
Raglan Beach
Surfs up! Spent many hours in these waters, my new spititual home! Those waves were actually bigger than they look in this picture! amusing though!
The most fun thing about the Bay of Islands was Adventure World, where we got to play on circus toys such as the high wire and trapeze, in complete saftey, but without saftey harnesses. They were constructed over a special inflatable design, enabling safe and easy practice. Didn't think it was possoble to have so much fun and excitment all in one day. Flying through the air on the trapeze, there is nothing quite like it, actually flying!! Also played crazy golf, battled on a jousting beam and slid down a large inflatable slide (a little sketchy at the top)! It was a play ground for big kids!! In my element.
We spent a few more nights back in Auckland, managing to fit in a drum 'n' bass club, before starting the Stray bus tour of the rest of NZ, arriving first in the seaside 'holiday' retreat of Haihei. This is where New Zealanders like to spent their weekends away, as I am told. This beach is so beautiful that it is used by the tourist board to publisize the country. After spending some time playing in the sea's huge waves, we trecked across the mountain
Surfing Chez
Yes, this is really me too! At the end of the wave, right near the beach. top to a few, more secluded bays, with equally incredible beaches and scenery. One day was enough, as beautiful as it was, there was not much else to do, and we were itching to discover more.
The next stop, after a bit of tree hugging (you think I'm joking), was Raglan, the surfer town of the west coast, home of amazing waves. Started off with a surffing lesson, and loved it so much that we stayed for a few more days to perfect it. There was a Rip Curl surfing competion going on at the weekend, so Karioi Lodge, (the top hostel in NZ, much ressembling one of the island retreats in Fiji) and most other accomodation in the small town, was fully booked out weeks in advance, meaning that we actually had to leave. When I said perfect it, I din't actually get that far, but I can stand up and ride the wave out to the beach, although not every time, of course!! We had stormy weather, which created the most savage waves, coming from all directions, which was a little frightening at times. You don't need to worry though, as I was quite close to the beach anyway, and stayed awat from the rip, so safe, but got taken out by the really huge waves many times. So much fun!! Such a buzz, and very addictive. Definately going to be doing more surffing in the very near future. It really works all your muscles, full body workout, so unfortunaltely not able to surf for the whole day, so we had to do a few other things to keep ourselves occuppied, although it turned out that this was equally as hard work on the body. We hiked up Mnt. Karioi, through the jungle, untill reaching a high enough view point to satisfy us, then came back down. We were follwed by this tiny bird for quite a whille, almost as if it was making sure that we got down okay, sweet as. Another time we cycled to the town, not sure if it was a good idea or not, as there were a lot of hills, easier on the way back, luckily. Thankfully, there was a sauna!! Although I didn't manage to see the competition, I did get to see some of the contenders practice at Manu Bay. One surfer dude did a head stand on his surf board and still managed to ride the wave out. Absoloutley incredible. Shame we had to leave, all the people we chilled with here were really cool too (although some had moved on already), but time to move on.
On the transit to Rotorua we stopped off at Waitomo, to go caving to see the glow worms, stalagmites and stalagtites. This involved absailing 70 meters under the ground, through waterfalls, squeezing through tight spaces, and rock climbing back up again. An amazing experience. It was easier than it sounds, well, the wetsuit that I had to wear was so restrictive that I found one part of the rock climbing more difficult than it should have been, as couldn't extend my legs very far at all, got up in the end though! Some one had previously told me that the glow worms mimick the constallations in the sky, in their formations. Although these ones could not, and never have seen the sky, some still managed to get into the plough formation, psycic glow worms!!
Having loads of fun, and meeting lots of fun and interesting people in every place that I have been, but wish you were all here to enjoy it too. I am in Rotorua now, but that will be another story altogether....
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sarah caldwell
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Cheryl, I love readiing your entries, they are really inspiring me to go traveling myself. It all looks so pretty and so much fun. Take care and Im mega jealous :=)