Kiwi Adventure Part 2

---

Our ferry journey over to the North Island was extremely pleasant, we boarded the Pride of Cherbourg, which was a ferry I'm pretty sure I have been on before. We sat on the top deck initially and took in the spectacular scenery and stayed there until we had pulled out of Picton. We retreated into one of the lounges when it got cold but I didn't feel sick at all. I have taken to popping a few travel sickness pills every time I go near a boat and also carrying a sickness bag, luckily I didn't need either. Best to be prepared as they tell you in the Brownies.

We headed for the Top10 campsite which was just North of Wellington in Lower Hutt. We had used quite a lot of these - as well as their sister company's sites in Oz - as you tend to know what you are going to get when you arrive plus there are no hidden costs such as the showers etc. We had not been to the supermarket so headed out to get a takeaway for tea. We had passed a couple of options on our way into the park and the first place we came to offered Chinese so we placed our order and asked if there was a pub close by. It was one of those places that when you walk in everyone puts their pint down, the place goes silent and they watch you walk in. I didn't feel uncomfortable at all, just pleased I was with Joff and not on my own. We left after hearing Big Dave sing "More than a woman" really badly, (trying to suppress our hysterics in the fear that we might get beaten up) we saw that someone had clearly been punched outside the pub, as there was fresh blood on the floor. This was the kind of thing that I had expected in South America not in New Zealand. Anyway we picked up our Chinese and headed back to the safety of the campsite. Interesting experience as the first thing to happen on the North Island, I think the thing that struck me the most was the fact that it is so much more populated than the South Island.

The following morning we decided that we would have a look around Wellington before we set off up North. The weather wasn't great so we needed to find an indoor activity. We headed to the Te Papa Museum and to the Awesome Forces Section - needless to say it wasn't me who chose this!!!! It was actually reasonably interesting and it was all about Tsunamis, volcanoes and Glaciers so was very in keeping with our trip so far. Joff was clearly in his element especially when we went into the next section and they have a gigantic squid on display! It would have been nice to have walked around a bit but due to the eather we decided to give it a miss. The town has an interesting mix of new and old buildings which are tastefully merged together.

We left Wellington at lunch time and headed up the coast to Napier, a town which was obliterated in the 1931 earthquake and was build in the fashionable architecture of the time which was Art Deco. As we drove into the town it reminded me somewhat of Miami, first of all being in the Art Deco Style and secondly because of the palm trees. We decided to go to the affordable Westshore campsite which was slightly round the bay from Napier and we arrived just as it was getting dark. There was another British couple in a Jucy van next to us so we had a quick chat to them and agreed to swap numbers in case we fancied meeting up again. We played cards, drank wine and chatted whilst Joff cooked dinner and as usual had an early night. The good thing about meeting Dean and Kate (who were from Reading!!! The world is a very small place), was that they had some Jucy DVDs that we could borrow so we finally had something to watch in the campervan. This campervan was better kitted out than the one we had in Oz but a little older, it sounded like we were going to take off if we went over about 80km per hour but it came complete with a shower and a toilet. We didn’t use the shower as we tended to use campsites which came with facilities but the toilet was handy so that you didn’t need to traipse to the toilet block in the middle of the night. We did enforce rules on this though that the parents enforced on us when we went to France with the caravan… they will know what I mean.

We woke early the next morning and headed into Napier to have a wander round. It was a beautiful morning and we walked along the front and browsed the farmer’s market and had coffee. We then drove up towards Taupo, where we intended to do a Sky Dive.

Rewind to about 6 weeks ago where I randomly said to Joff, so are we going to do a SkyDive whilst in NZ?” He seemed a bit taken aback by this comment and changed the subject, I assumed that he wasn’t interested, we didn’t broach the subject again and given Joff’s history with heights, flying etc. I wasn’t surprised. Fast forward to the trip to Taupo and Joff said “..so can you do a SkyDive at Taupo?” Our friend Laura was in NZ back in January and had emailed us some tips through, she said that the best way to see Taupo was by air. We arrived in Taupo at lunch time and Joff said that we should go and find out about the SkyDive after we had eaten. Whilst we were making our sandwiches we had a call from Liz in Auckland to say that her flat mate was moving out and we would be able to have the room as long as we were happy to stay on the airbed. We were happy with this to gratefully took her up on the offer. Back to lunch and as soon as we had finished eating before I knew it, Joff was driving straight to the airport whilst suggesting we tried to do the skydive that afternoon.

It was a mixed afternoon weather wise so the planes for the skydive were going up and down. I was looking for any reason not to book in… I suggested that we find out any restrictions that are in place, thinking about Joff’s back! Joff was also worried because Ben had texted him to say that there was a weight limit and he was concerned that he would be too heavy. The nice lady behind the counter when we arrived said that the only restriction was weight but she thought that Joff would just sneak under the limit but he was welcome to weigh himself to be sure. Once he had he was more than pleased to confirm that he had lost more than 2stone since we started on the trip, what is more, he was even more happy that he could do the skydive. The icing on the cake for Joff was when a Mexican guy came in and weighed about 20kg too much, Joff was ecstatic. That was it, we were booked in for 10am the next day.

We had a text from our new friends to say that they were at the Top10 campsite in Taupo so we headed there and chatted to them and some other people that they knew before having dinner and heading to bed for another early night. We rose bright and early to find that the weather wasn’t right for Skydiving so we headed to the internet café to kill some time. I didn’t feel nervous, I think I had blocked it out so that I didn’t need to think about it in the hope that everything would be OK. We called again at 11:30 and were told to return at 12, which we did. We were briefed and before we knew it we were getting dressed into the red suits, the hats, goggles and we being introduced to our tandem partners and photographers. It was at the point when I was heading towards the plane that I was putting my full trust in a guy that I had met seconds before.

The plane journey was amazing with fantastic views of the lake, my instructor kept tapping me on the shoulder to check that I was OK. I had gone strangely quiet… He also kept telling me how high we were going. 6,000ft, 8,000ft, the only thing that I could think about was the fact that my ears were popping so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. It also dawned on me that there was one way out of this plane and it didn’t involve landing in the safety of the aircraft. Also before we had left the ground there was a pretty annoying British guy – he seemed to work there but I wasn’t too sure what his exact job was – he had been ripping into a girl who had gone up in the plane the day before who had burst into tears exclaiming that she couldn’t do it and had to be brought down again. When Joff asked this chap how many times he had jumped he said that he hadn’t yet!!!!!!! Fair enough to take the Michael out of someone if you have been in their position but not if you haven’t!!!!!

Anyway, I don’t know how that girl had time to even think about crying because before I knew it Charlotte (the Dutch girl in our group), Joff and Sophie (British girl) had all jumped. It was only me left as the Mexican guy next to me was going to 15,000ft. Before I knew it I was on the edge, head back, feet under the plane like a banana shape and then we fell. I was conscious that I had my eyes shut, before I remembered Laura’s words, “best viewed from the air” so I opened them as my stomach disappeared like it does when you’re on a roller coaster. You then have the camera man wanting to high-5 you and take photos, this was the last thing on my mind. You can probably see from the photos I look completely and utterly stunned. Once the parachute opened I relaxed a little and took in the breathtaking views, it was amazing. It was at this point that Grant my instructor wanted a chat, asking me what I did for a living, how long was I in NZ for and where I was from in the UK. I couldn’t talk back and he probably thought me extremely rude, still exceptional circumstances I feel. Now looking back I’m so pleased that I did it.

Joff was on a complete high and I was so impressed at how he overcame his flying and heights phobias to make the jump. He was cool as a cucumber beforehand. I on the other hand was having issues speaking or even stringing a sentence together, most unlike me. We headed into the video room - once we were back in our normal gear – with the 2 girls and the Mexican guy to watch our videos, a nice touch I thought. Sadly Joff and I have watched our own DVDs every day since.

Still being a bit retarded we headed into Taupo for lunch at a café before we hit the road for Rotorua. We wanted to see the Geysers at the Te Puia Thermal Wonderland the next day so we arrived there about 4pm and found a nice campsite complete with thermal pools. The sulphur smell is pretty intense in Rotorua but a soak in the pools makes it worth it. We headed out for a wander, went to the supermarket and had a quick drink at the local pub and headed back to get dinner. We noticed a familiar face at this point which was a guy that we had seen whilst we were in the Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island. It was an extremely tall guy who looked like Silas from the Da Vinci Code. In the end we saw him on 3 campsites and he was sleeping in a car. Before dinner however we were able to have a quick dip in the hot pools which were lovely.

The following day we went to the Thermal village which was fantastic, we arrived early to catch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at 10:15 once this had we wandered around the champagne pools, the geysers and the other sites it was nearly lunch time so we headed to the lake in Rotura to have lunch before heading to Tauranga. We got there early afternoon and went for a wander into town and visited the organic food market to buy dinner before heading back to the campsite. We were in the process of cooking dinner when we noticed that Silas was next to us again, I was looking forward to getting shot of the campervan so that he couldn't stalk us any more. Surely if you have seen 2 people on 3 campsites you might at least say "hello" not Silas it would seem.

We dropped the campervan at lunchtime the next day after an easy trip up to Auckland and Liz collected us from Jucy. Funnily enough the guy at Jucy said that the campervan was clean and tidy - considerably cleaner than it was when we picked it up - that was for sure. Liz dropped us at her place which is in the swanky Ponsonbury area of Auckland. We headed out to find an internet cafe, get lunch and ended up on one of our usual hikes around the city. We went to the pub in the evening to take part in the Quiz, Joff shone in this. I was the queen of the top 10 people who have the most followers on Twitter (enough said) We set out to explore the city the day afterwards and ended up spending more days in Auckland that we had initially thought due to the volcano in Chile creating ash cloud which had grounded everything in NZ.

We stayed a couple of nights with Liz but she hadn´t been well and we having spent a couple of nights on the airbed we didn´t think we could do 3 more. We moved to a studio apartment and spent quite a long time over the next couple of days trying to find out what was happening with our flight.

We were glad that we were stuck in Auckland of all places as we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Sky Tower with fantastic views across the city. You pay about 15$ more on top of the ticket to go up the tower and can enjoy an amazing buffet lunch which was well worth it.
Liz was feeling much better by the weekend so we had a fantastic night out with her on the Saturday evening which ended up with us all dancing in an Irish Bar at 3am.

Next stop LA!

---

Photos

Dave
Spot Caroline