New Zealand 2

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Hi Everyone,

Our biggest adventure came next when we arrived in Taupo. This is one of the places to do a sky dive. Our names were down and there was no backing out. Everyone who wanted to do it on our bus was doing it so at least we got to do it with friends. When we got to the centre we were shown a video of what it looked like. i dont think it was a good idea as it scared more people. We eventually got suited up and went up in the plane. We flew to 1500 ft and went for it. just like everyone else had said, it was amazing. that gave us a rush for the rest of the day and we celebrated in the evening with everyone.

we had 2 days in Taupo so we decided as it was such a beautiful place and day we hired a scooter. we went to the craters of the moon and got to see steaming mood pools and steaming craters. They also have a hot stream that runs into a cold river which means you can sit in a warm river, like the hot water beach. We had a nice drive around the town and Taupo lake which is one of the biggest lakes in NZ and sat and had an ice cream in the sun.

The following day we made our way to River Valley, where there is a huge amount of sheep. Really we went there for the white water rafting. We set off in the morning and got kitted up. Our boat was made up of 4 people, never having done this before. Luckily we had a really good teacher who didn't enjoy throwing people into the water. We got up to grade 5 rapids, 6 is inparsable, so you get an idea of the size and severity of the rapids. we got down them in one piece and our guide was impressed and we loved it, so much so we could happily take it up as a new hobby. this stay was only short so we headed to wellington where we would get the ferry down to the south island in the morning.

Unfortunetly some people were staying a few more nights in Wellington so our bus group got split up fir the south island. still, the next day we got the ferry which was long and choppy. Eventually we made it to Picton, we had arrived on the south island.

Our first stop was a beautiful bay called Kaiteriteri where we had a nice walk down the beach and watched the sun set. we only stayed the night and left the next afternoon to head to Westport. This again was only a short stay where you could do some more activities like horse riding, quads or jet boating. We did the jet boating which was great fun. Its amazing the speed and moveability of this boat. Unfortunetly he pushed it too far and we blew an engine near the end, so that was the end of that so a bit disappointing. It was a quiet night as we had to set off early the next morning as we had quite a few stop before our overnight stay.

Our first stop was to Tauranga Bay to see some seals. It was a lovely hour walk along the coast where you could see some seals basking in the sun. We then moved onto the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and blowholes. These are quite an interesting site to see and read about how they were formed, and a nice lunch spot. It was then onto our overnight stop where we required some fancy dress for the evening competition, so we made a quick stop in a town to get something that started with the letter 'P'. We decided to go as a police women and a pilot. We tried our hardest to be as un original as possible as we did not want to win any of the prizes. this was because the prices were for a canyon swing, photos and video package for a bungie jump and a bar crawl. we werent too fussy about the bar crawl, but were not happy about 1st and 2nd prize. However, we had heard it was going to be a good night as our accomodation was ran by a man in his 80's who had being going to this place from a young age and now runs it and loves the kiwi bus and has taken pictures of every bus group that has turned up and stuck them up on his wall. it had been warned that he was quite a character and would be serving us steak the size of half a cow so we were happy. We were not dissapointed when we arrived, being greated by Les and served a large meal cooked by himself and our driver. That night, everyone had put in a lot of effort and come up with some very interesting costumes, but was a great night.

feeling a delicate, we moved on the next morning to Pukekura to a Bushman's centre. they gave an interactive tour and video of how people made a living possum trapping and helicopter deer recovery. this too was run by another interesting character and the centre showed it. it was quite amusing watching a video of a man jumping out of a helicopter onto a deer.

From here we made our way to our 2 day stop to Franz Josef. The main reason for this stop is to walk the glacier located nearby. We chose to do the whole day which was worth it, as it was an amzing experience. it was physically tiring and daunting at times but when at the top its an amazing feeling of achievement. the weather was not as clear as it could have been but at least we werent going to get burnt to a crisp. This hike took it out of us so we went to the hot pools in the afternoon, which were almost too hot but super relaxing, not so much on our massive blister we had aquired though.

The adventures started to calm down as we came closer to end of our NZ trip, but the amzing scenery did not nor did the walking to view them. This did not bode well for our blisters, but we soldiered on. Our first scenic stop in the morning was to view Mount Cook in the reflective lakes. We arrived pretty early so the area was covered in a light haze with a light covering of dew on the grass as the sun rose above the mountains. The walk around the lake was an hour but it allowed you to get all angles of the lake. We have some pretty amazing photos, puzzle picture worthy. From here we saw some more amazing lakes and mountains, and then finally to the master piece of views. We arrived in a sunny Wanaka, which again had another huge lake. Everyone was still tired so just relaxed next to the lake, while we hired some bikes and went for an adventure and to get higher to see more of the town and lake. After struggling up some steep inclines, we made it to the top, to be presented with a amazing view of all the lake.

As our tour of NZ came to a close, so did our energy levels. Luckily we only had Queentown left on the list. Again a beautiful town that looks like a ski town, definitely a place to go to ski with friends. We took it easy here and checked out the town even though it is the adventure capital and the place for bungees and canyon swings, but we weren't doing that, and we had done all the activities. unfortunately the next morning it was raining but it cleared in the afternoon so we played crazy golf and frisby golf. It was also our last night with everyone before we headed to oz so we had a nice evening of drinks and said our goodbyes. We needed a earlish night as our journey the next day was going to be long.

The next blog will be about oz, yeh!

Lots of love xxxxxxx

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