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Published: April 23rd 2008
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well its been a while!!!!!!
been having lots of fun and finally resting up to fill u all in on what ive been doing!!!!!!
I arrived in Auckland on the 23rd of March not really knowing what to expect! met a couple who arrived at the same time as me so explored the city with them!!! Saw the sky tower, harbour and went to one of the massive national parks!! Was very hilly... just the beginning of hills tho!!! That night i went down to the bar and met a couple girls who were doing the Kiwi bus just like me so got chatting to them and we areed to start it on the Tuesday!
The first stop of was at Paihia... this is right near the top of the North Island in a place called the Bay of Islands. It was really pretty (as i will say for most places) and there are apparently 144 little islands around !!
The next morning woke very early for a bit of dolphin spotting!!! As it was wild dolphins they couldnt say if we would see any let alone swim with any... however we saw a pod of them but werent allowed
to swim with them as they had babies and its against the law to swim with the babies!! The boat we were on took us around the islands (obv not all 144!!!) emiko, becka and i sat on the front of the boat.... nearly falling off with each wave!!!!!! lots of fun!
The next stop was Mercury Bay on the way there we stopped of at Mt. Eden where we saw the whole of Auckland on a hill... camera moment of course!! We arived at Hahei which is known for Cathedral Cove, Emiko, Becka and I decided to do the hour and a half round trip walk to see it..... little did we know that it was up and down the biggest mountains of my life!!!!!!! got good photos and headed back to the coach to carry on for Mercury Bay.
Mercury Bay was a pretty town situated no where (as most of our town stops were!!) a group from the bus ventured out at night to see what the locals really were like... hill billys!!!! he he!!!
Most mornings we woke early for the bus and this was no exception so at half 7 we boarded the
bus towards Rotorua.
Stpped off at Whanagamata which is known for its gold mines.. did the Karangahake scenic reserve walk... this was a walk that took you through the gold mines where the trains use to be and along the edge of the mountain with rickety bridges!!! again another good photo stop!
We carried on the bus to Matamata this was just a quick stop as it was where Lord of the Rings was filmed... had another lot of tourist photos and headed for Rotorua!
As we arrived here it smelt like off eggs!! apparently this city smells like it all the time as it is sitting on sulphur... nice!! as we were there on a not so smelly day!!!!!!
we got a traditional maori welcome and had a little taste of the traditional food.
in the evening the bus got picked up and taken to a Hangi and Maori concert... we saw the inital traditional challenges to let people into the village, heard traditional tongue and saw the traditional dances!!!!! was very good. was hard not to laugh tho as it was all very serious... however we had been told stories of people being headbutted if the laughed so
i did manage to stay straight faced!!!
after the concert we had a traditonal meal that was cooked from the hot rocks and steamed under ground... was very nice but did taste a little bit funny!!!
The next morning we went to Te Puia which is a thermal area... saw hot rocks, boiling lava and mud... o and a kiwi bird!!!!! after the tour the boys learnt the hangi and the girls the poi dance!!! the women werent allowed to learn the hangi and i struggled hard with the poi as it was all co ordination swimming balls round on a piece of string!!!
The next day woke early again (7.30 what sort of holiday is this?!!) to go to Waitomo Caves. This was a 5hour trip i paid for and was definately worth my money.... We started off on a bus to the top of the caves.. then after a very quick lesson on how to absail, absailed down into the caves!! was pretty scary and it was a small gap and you couldnt see the bottom. once down the cave we did a zip line to get us deeper in!! by this point we were all
pretty pumped up and hyper!!! we were then given a tube and jumped of a cave into the water underneath... the instructer tried to teach us about the glow worms and the caves but as we were hyper we were more interested in trying to push each other off the tubes!!! after a snack we then had to climb through narrow caves on our belly and to then get back to the top of the mountain we climbed up waterfalls!!! was soooo good, absolutely knackering but would recommend it to any one!!!!
We headed off for Taupo later that day stopping off at Huka Falls for pictures. By that time we had all been on the bus together a long time and got on all really well so that night a big group of us all went out together, must have been about 20-25. had a wicked night but woke with a terrible hangover!!! We had heard Taupo was meant to be a very nice place to go however when i was there it was raining so didnt really get a good vibe from it!!
The next stop was River Valley.. this was the most remote stop ever!!!!!
was in the middle of no where and you couldnt go any where unless you were doing a trip!!!! i decided to relax for this one and take in the scenery!!!! there was lots of rocks that were above the river and after speaking to the owner jolanda, matt, joe and i decided to jump in!!! we had to get a zip line across and it was soooo cold it took ur breathe away but was so much fun!!!!! had to be the most fun i had free in nz!!!!!!
that night the cooked a roast pork meal.... tasted the BEST!!!!!!!!!! had one of my first early nights there falling asleep at 9 ready to get up for Wellington!
We set off for Wellington in the afternoon stopping off at a little village called Bulls... they must of had too much time on there hands as everything in the village was called something-a-bulls! for instance consta-bulls for the police station!!
Arrived in Wellington at 7.30 pm and it was Jolanda and Matts birthday so started getting ready! was really good night life and had lots of fun... obv getting quite drunk.
the next day emiko, becka, jess, jolanda, matt,
andy, joe and i explored round Welly (these were the ppl i stayed with most of the nz trip)
set of at 2 and arrived back at the hostel at 6.30 after seeing the museum, harbour and a cable car up to view the whole city. Wellington by far was my favourite place. was extremely pretty, buzzing and had a good vibe to it!!!!!
well thats the North Island!!! hope u read it all!!!!!
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