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The fun part of the snowstorm
At NZ's war museum and training grounds during the earlier, more fun part of the snowstorm It's been a crazy couple of weeks, with probably too much to fit in to one blog, so sorry if i race through a bit... Firstly after my night in Wellington I headed north-west to Wanganui where my friend Karthick lives and then we drove east to Taupo and got caught in the craziest snowstorm along the way. Two feet deep snow in places, sky as dark as night and visibility of perhaps about 30 - 40 metres. It wasn't long before we got caught in a big traffic jam, in a line of cars, behind two trucks stuck on the other side of the hill. Quite a bad situation to be in in New Zealand where there's often no phone coverage, and no payphones etc. outside of towns and also the added worry of being on winding roads in the middle of nowhere - often near steep drops. So we had to basically sit there and wait to be rescued; eventually a police car showed up and made us and a few other cars follow in his tracks. Pretty dangerous driving though, both the car infront's and the police car's back wheels skidded on to the other side of the
Slightly goofy picture at 'Champagne Pool'
Me looking less than cool at 'Champagne Pool' where the orange shelf you see in the pool behind is where the ground has been burned that colour by 200 degrees celcius water! road at one point - the more they revved the more their wheels span out.
Anyway Karthick did no skidding, impressive aswell as i was being a very annoying backseat driver most of the time, reciting my theory test to him while he tried to concentrate. I'm always fun in a crisis. He even coped with the excited policeman shouting 'you're on ice right now mate! This is not gravel! Do not accelerate too hard!!'. The whole event was even in the national paper the next day - didn't say much, but always nice to get a mention. I also realise these entire paragraphs will probably make my mum worry... so sorry! Though it was far too exciting for me to leave out!
Anyway once in Taupo we met up with New York's finest - our friend Jonah and spent the night playing pool in an Irish bar and chilling out in our backpackers hostel. The next day we headed up to Rotorua and checked out the thermal wonderland, basically a name given to one of the most dramatic looking parts of Rotorua where volcanic activity is everywhere - a series of multi coloured pools of water of
Wanganui tower
Me and Jonah blingin' it up at the tower overlooking Karthick's hometown Wanganui about 200 degrees celcius and bubbling mud pools. We also checked out the 'Lady Knox Geyser' a geyser that erupts every morning on cue at 10:15 am, was way more exciting than it should have been, everyone screaming in joy as the water shot up to about 20 metres. There's a video of it too Karthick has, which i'll put up if i can when he gets back. After that was probably my favourite, but least exciting part of the trip, basic chilling out in a volcanic jacuzzi. The volcanic water is filtered into several tubs besides a volcanic river, and while the water is near scalding in places, once you're in you nearly fall asleep it's so good.
Seeing as Jonah was leaving in a few days, we wanted to do something a bit extreme before we left, especially as sky-diving has been our favourite thing here so far. So the closest we could find was Rotorua's 'Giant Sky Swing' - a metal cage up to three people can sit in and freefall 50 metres before swinging out up above the buildings of the city. I have a dvd of it which i'll get up when I work
The pom and the american in Rotorua
Me and Jonah at some of the volcanic pools out how, but it was quick, but great fun and high enough to make us swear loudly enough to probably taint the minds of any children watching nearby.
Anyway after spending another night in Rotorua and playing a big game of poker in our hostel room, we headed back to Karthick's hometown Wanganui. It's a cool town but not really a tourist destination with a list of things to be done, so we mainly just chilled out there, got even more addicted to playing poker and had a movie marathon on Jonah's last day. I also lost a bet and had to (was literally forced to) run down the street taking my top off screaming 'Killer bees! Killer bees!!', not something I enjoyed/was proud of, though even worse I found out later that 'killer bees' is the name of Auckland's most feared gang... Still luckily no gang members were in the area/took offence...
After all of that I was back to Wellington by myself and me and Karthick said goodbye to Jonah - he's definitely going to be missed, though I do have an excuse to go to America now which is good! Anyway I spent two nights in Wellington by myself, wondering why it was so windy and later read in the paper there had been up to 148kph gusts of wind and an 8 metre swell at sea - New Zealand's weather has been crazy lately, though luckily it's now much calmer down here in the south island. I also checked out some live music, bars, the harbour when it was less windy and the Te Papa museum. The museum was great especially, everything's pretty interactive - mild earthquake simulators, virtual bungy jumps, cinemas showing Maori's story of the creation of man and other Maori traditions - all pretty cool.
So now I'm back in Toroa house in Dunedin; there's a whole bunch of new people which is cool and so hopefully they'll be up for travelling and doing giant sky swings and stuff too. I'll try and write again soon, hope everyone's good and if you ever get a chance, it would be great to know what you're up to! Anyone go to Glastonbury? How did exams for uni people go? The only British news I really get here is sport, so I've no idea whats going on there and what people are up to! Although I am very happy that Andy Murray made it through to the quarter finals of Wimbledon! Anyway will speak soon, Tom
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noelle
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Snow - yikes!
Enjoyed reading this and glad you had a great time. Bit traumatised by the snow - not so much on your behalf but, will we face this in August, do you think? Bet our road trip won't be half so exciting as yours! xxx