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Published: November 24th 2007
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Well we arrived in Auckland, on the 23rd June, and the temperature wasnt much different to Brisbane. We took a bus to Queen street, and soon got booked into a hostel for few nights. Over the next few days we were just sussing up the prices of tour companies, buses, and hire cars, to find the best way of getting around NZ for 2 months. I didnt really want to buy another car or van, as after 7 months in Oz, I was ready to let someone else do the driving! We decided to with a tour bus company called Stray, and we saw someone advirtising BUY ONE GET ONE FREE voucher for Stray. We managed to buy it from them for 300 bucks, and we then booked up a 900 buck pass (DES) with Stray, which with the voucher got us 2!
On Monday morning we caught the Stray bus, and met all the other travellers who were going to be our new companions, and our crazy bus driver called James. Firstly we did all the sights around Auckland, Mount Eden which was a old volcanic crater. There are about 10 of these scattered around the city, and they
are now listed as a World Heritage Site. In the afternoon we travelled north to Hahai and booked into our hostel for the night. James then drove us upto Cathedral cove, which is a gorgeous beach, and then we walked back for dinner.
After here we went to Raglan, which is a huge surfing town. We stayed in a bush retreat, and spent the evening played on the zipline, and Steve and our mate Adam were having a few competative games of Ping Pong! The next day we went to Waitoma for the caving. Me, Steve and a USA girl called Kelly decided to go on a tour of a cave which involves floating in rubber rings! It was very cold today, and changing into the wet, wetsuit was terrible, and we could hardly feel our toes! Once down the cave we forgot about the cold, as the sight was amazing. At one point the guide told us to turn off our lights and look up. There were hundreds of glow-worms, and once our eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the light from these glow-worms made it visable for us to see! After warming up with a good shower,
we headed to Rotorua, the smelliest place on earth. All of NZ is very geothermal, as its close to the earths crust, but Rotorua is very close. Natural vents from the ground emit sulphur, which smells like rotten eggs! Its very strange just seeing all these vents everywhere, and even all the drains are pouring out gas.
The next day, we went to a Maori village, called Whakarewarewa. It was very interesting seeing all the old methods which the Maori still use to this day. They use the thermal activity to cook, clean, and wash. The bath has a constant flow of 38c water flowing through it, and we all wanted to just jump in and warm up! We had some lunch which was cooked in the steam vents, then headed to Taupo. On the ways, James took us to his "secret spot", which just a river in the middle of nowhere, and had 38c water. I jumped in and its was amazing to be swimming in a river and it being as warm as a bath! In Taupo some of ours friends did skydiving, and then we all booked into the Urban Retreat in Taupo.
Taupo is
a small town, but its near one of the worlds best one day walks. The Tongariro crossing is a massive 17km trek over mountainous terrian. As it was winter, we had to have guides, as the weather is so unpredictable. We also got all our snow gear hired to us for the trek. We had clothes, boots, and cramopns which help you walk in the snow and ice. The walk was quite challanging, especially up the face of the mountain. Once at the top, the veiws were breath-taking. We could see for miles, and it was as if we were in the middle of the antartica! We could only walk halfway, as the weather had started to turn, so we walked back the same way, after seeing the frozen lakes, which are meant to be stunning in the summer! We soon arrived in National Park village, where we got warmed up, and then went for a meal in town. On Saturday, we travelled down to Wellington, the capitol city of NZ. After booking our ferry tickets to the south island for tomorrow, we went to the Te Papa national museum.
The next morning we caught the ferry down to
the south island. The ferry took about 3 hours, and was very scenic, with gorgeous views of mountains all around. We arrived in Picton, and got onto the new Stray bus, and met our new bus driver called Spike.
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