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Published: February 3rd 2011
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Rotorua
The four of us in front of the lake at the Australians house, with zinc on our noses to prevent burnage So we headed into Rotorua after a VERY long night in the Mount, excited for a swim in the lakes to wake up and cool off. We found a lake right in the heart of town and grabbed our towns heading for the shore - however, 50 meters away from the swim we were slapped in the face with a ghastly stench.. Sulphur. Though we did smell quite bad ourselves, we figured it was probably a good idea to wait for a fresher lake. We met up with the Australians at their international chess tournament (yes, they are genuis') and headed to their gorgeous lakeside house. Hot tub, private lake entrance, kayaks, hammock, a sun deck and huge windows overlooking the views. It was stunning. We left the next day to head closer to Auckland in order to shorter our trek, yet as we were backing out of the most narrow/steep driveway known to NZ we hit a cement block. Perfect. A dent in our bumper on the very last day of our rental car, on a long weekend, no shops open, no mechanics on shift. Just when we thought all hope was lost we managed to find a heat gun
Rotorua
the lakehouse and an almost-mechanic. We were in luck. He managed to heat up the bumper and pop the dent out; a can of wite-out later, and it was good as new-ish. That day we drove to Raglan and figured since we'd done such a great tour with our car, that we practically owed it to ourselves to sleep the night in it. 8 stiff legs later we headed back to Auckland, dropped off our beauty of a car and headed to Angie's cousin Patsy's place for our last night together. The next morning we had our final hurray by bungee jumping off the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Angie and I had never done it before, but Elise was a pro - she even jumped off backwards. If you ever get a chance to try bungee jumping, I'd strongly recommend you do. New Zealand was fantastic, and I think I speak for the four of us when I say there were no regrets (except maybe backing into a cement block). It was sad to say goodbye to Ang after the great times we'd all spent together in such closer quarters, but she's off to have an adventure of a life time in the
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Angie and our undented car returned safely south island and we were set to go to OZ. 4 hours and one surprisingly delicious airplane meal later we landed in Melbourne. It was late and our shuttle driver took a few detours but we eventually ended up at the right hostel and met our friend Alex. So far we've spent 2 full days in the city, one at the St Kilda beach, today roaming the markets, ally ways and Yarra River. Tomorrow we pick up our rental car for our second international road trip: 7 days of beautiful coastlines, surf beaches, koala bears, penguins and potentially kangaroos awaits us. Watch out Australia, here comes Canada.. and Norway.
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