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Published: March 8th 2009
Huka Falls
The long channel before the conventional "fall" bit.Day 32 - Wellington - Taupo
We set off to Taupo today. It was a long drive but we seem pretty immune to long journeys now. Once we arrived and had dumped our bags in our dorm a group of us set off on a walk to the natural hot springs and the Huka Falls. It was a really sunny day so on the way to the falls some of us had a dip in the springs, which turned out to be too hot to be refreshing. The waterfalls were the most amazing blue and were definitely worth the walk.
On the way back it was to the springs for another dip. This time we didn't have them to ourselves though with a number of Mouri families taking up the prime spots. It was not the first time we saw them all chilling out drinking beer in the rivers etc. - I think it is a great idea and next time we will have to get involved. To add to the little stop we saw a crazy kid jump off the top of the bridge into the river, while his parents just laughed. We were on hand for first aid
Rotorua - Wai-o-Tapo
Sarah and an odd green mound of rocks. as they did not seem to care at all!
The hostel we were in offered chili-con-carne for less than 2 pounds so who could say no?! After dinner we had our first chance to look around the town/lake-front and stopped off at a few pubs to have some drinks looking out to the beautiful, HUGE lake. A group of us finished the evening in a night club called Elements (yep the same as Bath Uni student union), which was fun but lacked people compared to Elements at Uni on a Wednesday night!!
Day 33 - Taupo - Rotorua
We got to Rotorua at 10.15 as it is only a short hop from Taupo. We checked in at our Base Backpackers and went into town for an explore and to do some food and souvenir shopping - rock and roll. We went to Wai-o-Tapu after lunch which is the main volcanic geo-thermal park near the town. It was really cool as I had never seen anything like it and there was steam and crazy colours everywhere. There was a nice little walk to do through the park and at times it felt like you were on another planet!
Rotorua - Wai-o-Tapo
Me next to the crazy flourescant yellow pool! After we had our strange tea of Chicken Lasagna and Pita in the hostel we went for an evening at the Polynesian Spa. Apparently it is one of the top 10 best spas in the world so we had high hopes. It was nice but not amazing and half the water seemed a bit to funky for me. Also you weren't supposed to put your head in the water in case you got Meningitis - not a great premise for a relaxing swimming pool. There were also some scantily clad gentlemen doing funny stretches in the pool and half of Japan seemed to be in there (we were warned). However, despite all this we did find a pool to our liking and stayed until we were sufficiently wrinkly.
Day 33 - Rotorua - Auckland
We arrived in Auckland at about 2.30pm after the long trip up from Rotorua. The Kiwi Experience bus drivers are all really rude about Auckland saying it is full of
JAFA's (just another f****** Aucklander) and that we will want to hang ourselves after one day there! I swear they have very twisted views because if they lived in England they would think
Auckland
The Auckland skyline (including Skytower) taken from the harbour. it was really nice. I just think they are not used to seeing more than a few cars on the road and people in the street because we think it is an awesome city and it is nice to see a busy place again!
We were meeting Colin, one of my parents’ old friends who we were staying with for 2 nights, at 5.30pm so had a few hours to waste. We used them well, taking a trip up the Sky Tower (it is taller than The Eiffel Tower) to get our bearings of Auckland. The views were a little restricted because we were above the thin cloud but it was still worth the trip and we watched the crazy people bungee jump off the tower.
Colin took us back to his house, which is just outside of Auckland, and we were spoilt with a trip to the local Thai restaurant for dinner. This was ironic because Rob and I were just saying that we were just about ready for Thai food again and the meal went down really well. We had a really fun evening, with Colin feeding us alcohol quicker than we could drink it! Rob had to
Auckland - Devonport
Me on top of Mount Victoria. get out the trusty dioralyte sachet before he went to bed!
Day 34 - Auckland
I got up this morning not feeling the best although my pre-emptive hangover prevention had at least softened the blow. We headed off into town with Colin and his daughter to Kelly Tarlton's - an aquarium. It is really atmospheric as it is all built into the hillside and we saw lots of Sharks, Sting-rays, Fish and Penguins. We tried to find Colin's niece who works with the sharks but didn’t mange to; thanks to some unhelpful staff. This was a real shame as she had some really cool "behind the scenes" stuff planned for us.
Afterwards we got the ferry across the bay to Devonport where one of Sarah's close friends spent the year there last year (a very lucky lady indeed) and so we had to go. It was so lush and has a little town nestled in between a couple of hills and although it is connected to the mainland by a bridge getting the ferry is really nice. We walked up both the hills and had some lunch by the beach, after which I did some stone skimming and
Auckland- Viaduct
Sarah with a beer in the super-cool Viaduct harbour. hit a seagull (by accident) - it seemed ok though. We spent a bit of time looking in an art gallery and sat in the sun for a while before getting the ferry back into the city.
We then went to The Viaduct which is the really nice area to out in with bars around the harbour - like the waterfront in Bristol but nicer. We had a couple of beers whilst the sun went down and met up with the others once again. There were also loads of stag/hen nights going on which gave us some entertainment. Then we went back to theirs and had a yummy Lasagna for tea and just had a quiet evening.
Day 35 - Auckland
We had to say goodbye to Colin and his family today which was actually really sad because we had such a nice time. We were so lucky because Colin and his family were lovely and to have a normal existence for a few days was so nice.
After being dropped off at the hostel we were staying, we headed to the pier to catch a ferry to Waiheke, one of the many islands off the coast of
Auckland - Waiheke
Sarah on our coastal walk. Auckland. We started with a 3 hour coastal walk around the island. The views (as always) were amazing, with both the sky tower and the volcanoes on some of the other islands in the distance. Once again we managed to find a walk that did not really have a path the whole way round, and at one point we were walking through vineyards to get to find a way to the road.
The island is famous for its quality wines so now that Rob feels he is a wine connoisseur/bull-shitter and is loving the wine tasting, near the end of the walk we stopped at a winery called Mudbrick, which unlike in Renwick (Marlborough region) charged for the tasting so it was not so cool! Once we reached somewhere that had shops we stopped for a break before catching the bus to one final winery (Stonyridge) which was really pretentious and again was nowhere near as good as the wineries in Renwick.
We caught the 6.00pm ferry back to Auckland harbour, had dinner and will be having an early night before our 6.00am wake-up tomorrow to catch the coach up to The Bay of Islands for some beach action 😊.
Mount Doom
Or Mount Ngauruhoe but Doom sounds cooler. As you can see Auckland has so much to offer, it is not just a city. With the beautiful islands, walks and beaches at your fingertips it is perfect. I definitely would not mind becoming a JAFA one day myself!
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Rachel
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Take me home!
I'm now Auckland sick! I wanna go back. I miss looking at that view of Rangitoto. I'm glad you enjoyed Devonport. Have fun in the Bay of Islands...tho can't say you'll get much beach action! Are you going to the Coromandel (Mercury Bay) on your way back down? They are the nicest beaches. Keep having fun....I still haven't seen a skydive! xxx