New Zealand 2

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Hey guys, It's been a hectic few weeks since I posted my last blog so I thought I'd split it down into manageable bitesize chunks for your pleasure. I won't upload any pics until I get home now cos it's rather slow here but keep a look out for them next week. Here goes...

DAY 71 - TAUPO
I stayed an extra day in Taupo just so I could do the "best one day walk in New Zealand" - The Tongariro Crossing. I had to wake up at 5.30am to get the bus to the National Park and have enough daylight to walk. It was utterly gorgeous there. We went above the snow line so it got a bit chilly but well worth the "devil's staircase" climb. We walked past Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! I was pretty tired by the evening so just went out for a bit before retiring to bed.

DAY 72 - TAUPO - TAURANGA
I left Tauranga and had a relatively quick bus journey up to Tauranga where I was to stay with Jean Page. She used to do milk recording on the farm before she moved to NZ a few years ago to retire. She has a lovely place and was very welcoming along with her dogs, Bracken, Tom and Possum! We went to the "Mount" for me to walk up and her to walk around before relaxing in some volcanic hot pools. We visited her son Phil in the evening as well.

DAY 73 - TAURANGA/ROTURUA
We had a day trip to Rotorua. We visited the Thermal Pools which included a big geyser (up to 15m) although the place did stink of sulphur in a quite a major way! Next up I did some white-water rafting on a Grade 5 (it goes up to 6) river. There was one 7m waterfall where we went momentarily vertical before totally submerging. We had some nice touches such as Maori chants before each set of rapids as well as heading straight upstream into a waterfall and getting drenched. On the way back we popped in to see Jean's friend Jon who has a drum kit! It was awesome to play again if only for a few minutes. Even had some fish and chips and watched Coronation Street... could have been home!

DAY 74 - TAURANGA - AUCKLAND
In the morning we went for a walk in the native bush - some impressive trees. Jean took me to get on rhe bus as I headed up to Auckland. On the way I started work on a romantic gesture for Sally and continued it when I arrived at the hostel. It went perfectly well! Went out for a while and went to the Ice Bar where it is minus 5 degrees and they serve cocktails in ice glasses - pretty cool.

DAY 75 - AUCKLAND
For my last day in NZ I just explored the city in the morning before meeting up with the Swedish girls for lunch and spending the rest of my time with them. We went out from 6.30 til 1.30 and had a great time. I swear I beat Sarah in a dance off! We got the shuttle to the airport in the middle of the night which was rather cool as this is how we met in the first place in Christchurch. I said goodbye to them as I managed to stay up until 6am when I got on the plane and fell asleep before it even took off!

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