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Published: August 31st 2009
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Well I just hung around Raglan the last few days before heading up to Auckland on THursday to change ownership of the car. I stayed with the German girl I sold my car to and she left to Melbourne but her room mates invited me to stay with them until I left so I saved myself a ouple bucks and obliged. I went to a volcnao in the middle of Auckland, there are 50 not 22 like I'd originally thought, and spent the day hiking up and down the lava flows tearing up my shoes on the scoria and basalt pathways.
It was quite exhilarating because I'd never been on a volcano before and I haven't really seen many before. Learning about how the plants formed on the islands, the history behind the volcano and the exploration of the crator at the top and the lava tubes were amazing! THe volcano was about 270m with a huge depresstion where the crator is at the top about 100m across and 60 or 70m deep. There was a fantastic view at the top from an old WWII military reserve. I hike down to the lava tubes which were about 10m long and
pitch black, very Indiana Jones esque when there was a crack in the roof and you could see the jungle swelling overhead. The rocks were extremely dangerous because of irregular footholds and made worse by random rocks jutting out over head in the pitch blackness. The tubs were formed b lava cooling on the outside and creating a 'straw' if you will for the hot lava to flor through leaving a hollow center behind. I brought a torch with me but it was still quite dangerous as I am a rather tall fellow.
I took my time getting home, went out and met some German law students with one of the roomates from Ukraine, then spent the entire next day packing and repacking my bags and experiencing any Kiwiana I'd neglected then had a quick sleep and up at 4am to get to the airport for my flight.
I landed in Sydney 30 min later then the flight was to get in so it had only left me 40 minutes to get to my connection, then they lost my surf board... Over $800 worth of stuff in my surf bag so I stuck around, put in a claim
and to be honest I asn't agry or too sad. I just told them, hell, I'm on vacation, so long as I get it back in the next 2 weeks I'll be happy. I thought it was odd that I was happy despite losing it, I know I will get it back but I think the lady was really appreciative and helped me first as she was a bit flustered and there were some less than happy people around. Hopefully it helped brighten her day being so calm about the whole mixup.
I realized I wasn't going to make my flight because of their error so I just wandered over anyways to the kiosk to see if there was any chance I could make it to the flight as it was 10:10am and it was 10:15am. They said they could put me on a flight at 3:00pm but one guy thought I could still make it, so he called me a bus, they raced me to the terminal, I jumped ahead of the line, got through customs very fast because there was no line, went the wrong way in the terminal but figured out rather quick and got to
my plane about 5-10 minutes before my flight was to leave. I was saved!
I met up with Dave, Rachel and Mike Dockman in Cairns and just had a nice day relaxing with them, playing giant chess with Dave, I missed checkmate on a simple error then the game went on about 1.5 hrs in total rather than a 1/2 hr win on my behlaf ended with a loss. Had a couple beers, shared some stories and experiences then we ferried off Rachel and Mike to the airport for their return home today.
Dave and I have no plans right now aside from a potential trip to Cape Tribulation, we've enrolled in a 4 day Scuba certification class on the Great Barrier Reef, 2 days class with a snorkelling adventure then 4 dives including an overnight stay on the reef! From here we will head south but we have no plans except where we need to end off at a certain date. I love not having plas as it allows for variation or great fun.
Stoked to come back for a few days and I am looking forwards to seeing you all and having chicken wings. Hot
wing. Not the 'Hot' wings here which are sweet chilli. Good old Frank's Red Hot Wings. mmmmmm
I am also getting a haircut so I apologize you won't be able to see my yeti like apperance. I need to so that it actually looks decent for my brothers wedding, this merely just deprives you all the pleasure of seeing my hair so long that it looks like I have a mullet.
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