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Published: March 16th 2009
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We arrived into Auckland and Steve decided he wanted some excitement. His big idea was to jump off the Auckland tower but it looked a bit high for me so we just walked around the edge at 192m up instead. It was a bit scary especially when they get you to lean over the edge for them to take your picture but the views over Auckland are lovely. We wanted to get out of the city as fast as possible so we hired another campervan. This one is a bit more down market than the Aussie van and has graffiti spray painted all over it to hide the dents but it works!
We first of all headed up to the north of the north island to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga. The weather was pretty foal with loads of flash flooding, I even had to drive through a foot of water on the road, a lorry driver helped me by going in front to push the water out of the way and he said if i went really slow all would be fine as long as i didn't flood the engine! I'm glad it was ok otherwise we
would have been washed down a river! It was a bit difficult to do much at Bay of Islands due to the weather but we did manage to spend a couple of days at Waitangi where the British and Maoris signed there treaty which was a nice place. We also took a Maori language lesson there and Steve got made a tribal chief and danced the haka. I got to dance a girl dance with a ball on a rope and we had a lot of fun!
At Cape Reinga (the furtherst point north) we saw the famous light house and walked a nice coastal walk for the day, the weather had much improved and we actually got sun burned, there is no ozone layer here at all so you go red even with sun block. The view form the walk was lovely and it was even warm enough to take a dip in a rock pool we found. We also visited the sand dunes there which are really steep and go on for miles. We had fun running up and down the hills, trying to avoid the sand boarders.
We began the journey southwards and our next
stop was Waitomo to see the glowworms. Steve wanted to see them in the water on a rubber ring but since it was nasty weather again and about 15 degrees I made us go on foot, the water was freezing! The caves and the glow worms were fun and we also did a walk at night to see some glow worms in the forest, despite the rain!
Our next stop was Taupo where Steve got his adrenaline fix when we did a tandom bungy jump. He liked it more then me. When they came to get us down you have to grab onto a stick as your hanging upside down but i was so shocked I couldnt let go of his hand. when we eventually got onto the boat I couldn't stand up to get off because I was shaking to hard. He thinks we're doing another higher one but i think we're not!! We got a further adrenaline fix at the desserted camp ground that night. We were the only ones there and at about midnight a car pulled right up to us (we really where 20km down a dirt track in the middle of nowhere) but after
about 10 minutes it left. That was really scary and we won't stay somewhere so isolated again. Taupo is a really nice town with a lovely lake and we spent the day watching the iron-man drinking coffe and going to the cinema.
We headed further south to walk the Tongariro Northern Circuit, one of the Great Walks of New Zealand but the weather was so bad we put it off for a few days and visited Rotarua instead. Here i got my spa fix by soaking in a thermal pool, mmmmmm. We also visited Waiotapu which is an area of geothermal geyers and pools etc. Its really unique but it bloody stinks!!! After a couple of hours there I couldn't stand the smell any longer!
The weather seemed to be improving slightly so we headed back and walked the circuit. The most exposed part is the Tongariro crossing so we walked the circuit in reverse to cover this bit last as the first day was still very wet. So much so that Steve nearly caught hypothermia, he was freezing!! After survivng the first day the weather was then really sunny and we really enjoyed ourselves. You sleep in
huts along the way but carry your own food. The scenery is lovely, especially when the sun is out and the clouds have cleared!
We are now in Wellington and will take the ferry to the South Island tommorrow.
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