Arriving in New Zealand

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After a pretty uneventful flight we landed safely in Auckland. We now have two months here and have booked passage round both the North and South Islands with a bus company called ‘Stray’. Basically it is a big Orange bus that stops at various points around the country and you just hop on and off as you please... Our first stop should be Auckland as we are staying with our friends Jenny & Paul, however this particular weekend they are staying in their holiday home in the surfing town of ‘Raglan’ and have kindly asked us to join them there...
Based on our first few days here, New Zealand should be very interesting... so far we have managed to find ourselves in a coastal town that had been placed on Tsunami Alert... Hiked over an active volcano which is due to erupt at any time now... and on a side note visited the film set where they filmed ‘The Shire’ from the Lord of the rings!! I am hoping based on the first week alone we will have some good tales to tell...
Probably the easiest way to write this will be to break it down into each of the places we visit, so Raglan in the North Island is where we begin...

Raglan:
Raglan is stated in the lonely planet as being the surf capital of New Zealand and as a town it very much lives up to that. It is maybe two hours south of Auckland and has a small high street but a quite spectacular coastline which on most days boasts pro competition standard waves. On the particular day we visited though it was as flat as a pancake! Not to worry... Our journey from the airport was an interesting one as Jenny had arranged for two of her other friends to pick us up. Patterson & Gale would also be staying with us for the weekend so it was slightly bizarre to find ourselves sitting in a car with two strangers within minutes of landing. However this is one of the things I like most about travelling, you get to meet all these new people and before the day is out, your all like old friends having a beer...
Our accommodation for the weekend was two comfy sofa’s... but the company was great, the views spectacular and to say we spent the next two days being spoilt would be an understatement! Our hosts treated us to fine wines, wonderful food and by the last night I was to find myself preparing Crayfish for dinner! (I could seriously get used to this!!)
We would also meet a five times world champion in Paragliding and Hand gliding... learn to body surf... watch the strangest ‘Raft Race’ in history and get our first real taste of this amazing country and the spectacular scenery that surrounds it...
As we mentioned earlier possibility the most interesting point in our stay here was on the final day where we were taken to a nearby beach. I should point out that due to the massive earth quake in Japan; New Zealand was placed on high Tsunami alert. The sign at the beach clearly reflected this by stating ‘Today’s Conditions.... Tsunami, STAY OFF THE BEACH’, however the New Zealanders seem to have no fear as no-one paid attention to it and the beach was packed! Even the lifeguards were just chilling out... so with that attitude in mind we waded into the sea!
Luckily the Tsunami never reached us, it hit the very northern harbours and destroyed boats there but nothing more than that so compared to some we were very fortunate... After such a fantastic weekend it is with very heavy hearts that we bid fair well to Jenny, Paul, Patterson & Gale and jumped onto our first orange bus and headed onwards to our next destination.

Our actual next nights’ accommodation is in a town called Makutu on the East side of the north island where we will be staying with a Maori tribe on the actual Mari but before that we stop off for a spot of caving in the town of Waitomo.

Waitomo:
Waitomo is home to some of the most spectacular Caving adventures in New Zealand and is visited by thousands of tourists each year... its actual population though is 41. One of the 41 was ’Norm’ who was to be our guide for the day as we journeyed underground... New Zealand sits on a fault line called ‘The Ring of Fire’ and Waitomo is an amazing place where you can physically see the fault line as it zigzags across the country... The plan was to visit two caves, the first of which was fairly uninteresting until we reached a small cavern deep underground which was pierced by a single ray of light that beamed in from way above. It was a scene that wouldn’t have been out of place in an Indiana Jones film and was breathtaking. It was so good in fact that even Norm was taking pictures!! The second cave was even better... as we journeyed even deeper underground we found ourselves next to an underground river. In this river was a boat (quite how they had got a boat down there I don’t know??!) but into it we jumped and off we went. Deep underground Norm extinguished every light so we just sat there in total darkness and at first we saw nothing, however ever so slowly millions upon millions of tiny green lights started to appear. These lights were in fact ‘Glow worms’ and the longer we paddled down the river the more we saw until there were so many on the ceiling it became this amazing path of light that showed you the way out... You also have the opportunity in Waitomo to do something called ‘Black Water’ caving which is kind of an extreme caving adventure where you will abseil down into small caves, ride the river rapids underground and generally scare yourself senseless. Sadly for us it was just so expensive but it would have been cool to do!

Makutu:
As I mentioned earlier we are staying tonight on the Mari and our host for the evening was ‘Uncle Boy’ who is the head of his tribe. Now when he stepped onto the bus he wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I had pictured a great Maori warrior in full dress but the dress code has obviously changed over the years as Uncle Boy was wearing a tatty tracksuit and baseball cap. This however was not a man to mess with as we soon learnt... The people on our bus were deemed an invading tribe, so we would have to go through the relevant Maori rituals before we would be accepted and welcomed onto their lands. Before we entered Uncle Boy explained that every tribe needs a chief. The chief is the leader and we were to follow... tradition dictates that the oldest male was chief so we found ourselves with a rather reluctant Swiss chap leading the way... Uncle Boy explained that as we entered their home we would be challenged by a young Maori warrior, he would perform a traditional challenge and once completed, he would lay a leaf on the floor in front of our chief as a challenge. The chief then has three options... 1. Ignore the offering. If this was done, we would be attacked... 2. He can step over the offering. This is treated as an insult and again we would be attacked... or finally 3. He can pick the offering up. We would then be accepted as family and invited in. Our bus driver quickly explained that her previous group had misunderstood the instructions and their chief had ignored the offering, they were promptly chased off their lands (no joke!)... Now this was serious stuff and as we approached we were indeed challenged by just this crazy warrior who started dancing and screaming with a spear. Upon seeing this and looking at our Chief and leader, several of us starting getting ready to run as our leader didn’t look the sharpest guy ever!! However 
he picked up the offering and we were welcomed in for a great night. For the guys, we were taught the Hakka and had to perform it in front of everyone, shirts off, mad eyes... the works. The girls were taught the traditional Poi dance and again performed it in front of the group. We have films of both so when we can we will put them up as they are brilliant!

At first it was sort of hard getting to grips with these Stray buses as you don’t just turn up you have to book yourself on if there is space and work you’re trip around them but we are slowly getting used to them now... it’s not just a mode of transport it’s also a bit like Butlin’s in a bus if I’m honest. The pass we have bought is called the ‘Maxi’ pass and it will take you round both islands in 23 days. What you tend to find is that the same people will stay on one bus for the full duration which works especially if you are on your own as you find yourself in with the same people every day so it makes for a nice group. Each bus has one driver for the full duration too and they are all like ‘Red Coats’ on speed. They have weird names too like ‘Nipples, Salty or Metro’ and each one is weirder than the next. It’s fun though as they all like to have a laugh... The hard bit I suppose is people like us hop on and off as we please as we have much longer so we are never with the same bus or group more than once. We find ourselves most days meeting new groups & people which can be hard work as people always ask the same questions when you meet them... Where have you been? Where are you going? Why did you come? How long are you staying? But it is fun meeting all these strangers... there have even been a few from near us in Marlow! Lynds also met a girl who had worked at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading which normally is nothing amazing to hear (living in Reading and all!) but on the other side of the world, it’s strange to meet someone who knows exactly what you are talking about!

Rotorua:
Now New Zealand is just mad about the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films and you can visit around the country many of the places where they did the filming... it just so happens that Rotorua is very close to where they filmed ‘The Shire’ and there was no way we could pass this up so Lynds and I jumped into a mini bus and headed off to ‘Hobbiton’ for the day!!.. I know... first Ramsey Street and now this but what a brilliant day. To be actually in the places you can see in the films was so cool... the only slight problem we had was that because they are re-using the set for the new film coming out called ‘The Hobbit’ we had to sign confidentiality agreements stating we could not publish any pictures or talk about what we had seen. However there are some very good pictures that we will show you when we get back... Our mini bus driver we learnt was actually an ‘Orc’ extra in the films but not just any Orc. If you have watched the films you’ll know what I’m talking about here but in the second film when they are fighting at ‘Helms Deep’ there is a point where they blow a massive hole in the wall. In the film an Orc with a torch comes running through the crowd and throws himself into a hole at the base of the wall... well our driver was that Orc! He was so funny as he explained when filming he had to run through the crowd, then bounce on a trampoline into the hole... however they had to shoot the scene four times because he kept getting it wrong... 1st time he jumped and missed the trampoline completely... 2nd time he hit the trampoline but bounced too hard and ended up smashing face first into the wall... 3rd time the torch went out as he was running before finally getting it right 4th time... We also heard some great stories about people who have visited the set before us including many people who go dressed in full ‘Hobbit’ costumes!! The best one being a giant 2.2 metre tall German guy dressed as Frodo...

One of the most dominant features in Rotorua other than the giant lake is a massive redwood forest where you can and indeed we did go hiking. The forest accommodates horse riding, mountain biking and walking so there are many routes available to you ranging from 34km to 3km, we settled on a modest 17.5km walk through the massive redwoods, some so tall you struggle to see the top! The route also takes you up the hills so it affords you just breathtaking views across the whole area! It was a long and gruelling hike but you can’t come to New Zealand without taking in the scenery and it was so worth it!!
In addition to the redwoods Rotorua is also huge ‘Thermal’ area caused by the volcanic activity underground. You can’t walk 10 feet without the smell of sulphur getting up your nose. What this results in is hundreds and hot water pools or boiling mud baths popping up all over the region. There are actually Spa’s that have been built on top of some of the larger ones where you can go in and relax in the water!

Taupo:
Our days of luxury are now well and truly over, no more hotel rooms, double rooms or even comfy sofas. We are now staying most nights in dorms. It’s good in some respects as they are all roughly $27 (£14 per night) so it gives you more money to do the good stuff but the down side is that you share with 4 or 6 other people every night, so no personal space... not to worry as the next stop on the Butlin’s bus is Taupo, the Skydiving capital of NZ!.. You can either jump from 15,000 or 12,000 feet and you jump straight over the biggest lake in New Zealand... so big in fact that it is the same size as Singapore!! To jump though is pretty expensive and as we had both previously jumped before and the weather wasn’t great we decided to go to a nice little Irish pub and celebrate instead as today happens to be St.Patricks day! Whilst sat in the pub we discovered that Taupo also happens to sit next to a super volcano which is 900 years overdue to erupt!! The last eruption that took place was the largest one the world has ever seen and indeed is responsible for much of the way NZ looks today. Hopefully it will hold off for another couple of months but with all these natural disasters going on round here at the minute who knows!.. What we did go and see however were the Haka Falls, which have to be seen to be believed really. The hike alone to the falls was well worth it, although maybe 4/5 miles long, you hike alongside the Waitato River where the water is crystal clear and the most stunning blue you could ever imagine. There are also ‘hot spots’ along the walk where you can jump in and swim into a thermal current. The water in most places is freezing but as soon as you hit a hot spot it suddenly changes from cold to hot and it’s such a wonderful feeling floating along... finally you reach the Haka falls and although not high the sheer volume of water that passes through every 3 secs is enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool... I can promise you when see and hear the raw power generated by the massive volumes of water passing over the falls it really makes you feel tiny in comparison...

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