NZ - North Island

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Hello,

We said goodbye to Jane and Doran and flew into Wellington on my birthday. It was only a 40 minute flight and was over before it even began! That evening we went out on the town to celebrate me getting old. I was very pleased to be asked for ID in the first bar (the other girls didn't!) so that cheered me up! I got a free cocktail too so it was all good! We met up with Rachael who worked in HR at DLA until she came home to NZ last Christmas. She joined us with her cousin Brendan and a few of her friends. We went on a bar crawl and ended up totally smashed and from the look of some of the pictures hunted down a poor policeman which I don't even remember!!!! The last thing I remember was Deaks having her toenail kicked off by an Indian man doing an Irish jig!!! After 20 minutes in the toilet trying to sort it out we finally rejoined the dance floor and went to one last bar before calling it a night.

We had very sensibly decided to not book anything for early the next day and had settled on doing an afternoon Lord of The Rings tour. We tried to book on it at our hostel and were informed that they weren't running the afternoon session that day only the full day one which was really expensive so we went somewhere else and pretended we knew nothing of this and managed to book on the afternoon session that apparently didn't exist!!! Some people will do anything to make you part with more money - lucky we're not pushovers!!

So we headed off at 1pm feeling pretty rough and it turned out it was only us 3 on the tour. Our tour guide was called Jason and was really nice and didn't laugh at me when I confessed that I hadn't even read the books or watched the films but the other girls wanted to go so I thought why not!! We went to loads of places where some of the scenes were filmed and he explained how they put it all together and what tricks they used. It was very interesting and I decided I would try and set aside 10 hours to watch the films when I got home! It turns out that the director, Peter Jackson, comes from Wellington and Jason pointed out a peninsula as we were driving around the mountains that he owns most of - very rich man! Wellington is very hilly so to combat this problem all the rich residents have their own cable cars going from their house down to the main road - how cool is that!! Or lazy, I don't know!

That evening I finally got to see Sex and The City - woo hoo!!!! Deaks refused to watch "that rubbish" so went off like a loner to watch Indiana Jones on her own! She missed out!!!! It was soooooooo good but I think Suzanne regretted coming with me as I ended up crying most of the way through the film - what an emotional wreck!

We left Wellington the next day after an eventful night in our dorm. The girl in the bed next to me decided to stay up all night texting and her text alert was a cuckoo clock but she didn't think to put her phone on silent! I was dead to the world so didn't hear a thing until I woke up in a fright to hear Deaks on the bunk above me demanding to know who was making all the noise as it had kept her awake for 2 hours. She is a scary girl when she needs sleep!!!

We boarded our first North Island Magic Bus and were dismayed to have a very boring bus driver who didn't talk to us! We had a very long boring journey to Napier. It was raining when we arrived which was rubbish so we dumped our stuff and headed out to find the supermarket so that we wouldn't have to go out again. We spent the rest of that day sitting around the fire chatting.

The next day we headed to Taupo. Still raining (grrrr). There wasn't really anything to do there in rubbish weather so we had no choice but to sit in the hostel all day watching back to back DVDs. Someone put the first Lord of The Rings film on and I thought it was a pretty good time to watch it having been on the tour a few days before. OMG - it was so long I couldn't stay awake!!! Watched another film after that and then someone put the second LOTR film on and I couldn't take it anymore and ended reading nearly a whole book instead! Deaks and Suz were drooling over Orlando Bloom so they were more than happy to watch it but he doesn't do it for me!

The next day we left Taupo and headed to Rotorua. By now, thankfully, the weather had improved. We'd seen in our Lonely Planet that Rotorua smells of egg but didn't realise just now bad until we got near. It's like nothing I've ever smelt and so strong - disgusting! The smell is apparently caused from the sulphur due to the thermal activity in the area or something like that - I was too busy choking when it was being explained!

Our new Magic driver Ricky, who was much better than the last one, took us straight to go zorbing! What fun! I'd been looking forward to it for ages. You get in this huge plastic ball and go tumbling down the hill in it. In the winter they fill it with really hot water so it's like being in a bath! Deaks and I decided to go 3 times but Suz only did it once. I wasn't prepared for getting really wet as you can do it dry too but they were only running the wet ones that day. Deaks and I took of our underwear so as to keep it dry but I didn't anticipate looking like something out of a wet t-shirt competition! Suzanne went first and then I went down the zig zag course. It was so much fun! It feels like you're in there for ages and I was in this ball hurtling around and upside down like a ragdoll with an unsupported chest - losing the bra was a bad move!!! When I got to the bottom the camera man zipped open the door and was blinding me with his camera before I had a chance to sort myself out - not very attractive!!! For the second go Deaks and I went in together. We had to go down the straight course this time. I jumped in the zorb first - the door is so small you have to take a running jump and you still get stuck! I got in and then Deaks got stuck so I'm in this thing pulling her in with her arms and the guy outside is pushing her legs through. We got there in the end! We went hurtling down this hill with the water splashing all around us. It was going so fast we were in there holding hands, screaming until we got to the bottom. Very funny. We had another go each on the zig zag course which was better. Definitely recommend it if you ever come to NZ!

Ricky took us back to our hostel after that and I spent an hour thawing out in the hot tub - the hostels here are great and we even had an 8 bed dorm to ourselves for 2 nights!

For our next day in Rotorua (still haven't come to terms with the rotten egg smell yet by the way) we decided to go white water rafting. Lucky for you guys I'm still alive to tell the story. There's me thinking we'd have a nice relaxing little ride along the river with a few rapids but oh no!!! There were 5 of us doing it and were picked up by the most random, overexcited Kiwi guy called Nigel who doesn't wear any shoes - loads of the Kiwis don't - it's weird! He took us to get our wetsuits and gear on and we headed to the river. It was at this point we had a safety talk where we discovered the rapids were grades 3-5 - eeek! We also found out at this point that there was a 7 metre waterfall that we would drop down and that it has been known for the raft to capsize. By this point I'm quite scared and wondering what I'd let myself in for. We were talked through what to do if this happened - like I was gonna remember in a state of panic!!! We got in the raft. There was a couple at the front, Deaks and Suz in the middle and me and Nigel at the back. We set off on the Kaitiaki river but not before Nigel said a Maori prayer about us being safe in the water (now I was really scared). We went down a couple of little waterfalls which were bad enough and got us soaked. Before we got to the big one we had to stop and be briefed about how to handle it if the raft capsized. Apparently it only happens 1 in 60 times so I was thinking the odds were pretty good. We were supposed to hold on for dear life and when he bangs the raft, let go and find your way to the surface curled up in as smaller ball as you can get in. I could see the drop coming up and I was praying that we wouldn't capsize as we got near it. At this point we had another Maori prayer from Nigel.

This is how it went......we reached the top of this waterfall and all of a sudden Nigel screams "GET DOWN!" so we all hurry into the down position which we'd been briefed about and ducked our heads down for safety. Within 2 seconds we were at the bottom and the raft flipped upside down under the water. I'm still holding on at this point, terrified. I didn't know when I was supposed to let go of the rope but my breath was running out so I let go and scrambled around under the water not knowing how deep I was. At this point the water was so powerful and I didn't know how far I was from the surface and was fast running out of breath when I remembered to curl up into as little ball as possible which is supposed to get you to the surface quicker. I FINALLY reached the surface - no word of a lie, I had about 2 seconds worth of breath left before brain damage. I have never been so scared. When I was under the water it felt like a lifetime and everything felt like it was in slow motion - it was terrifying. I was the last one to resurface which was apparently because I was at the back with Nigel so took most of the weight of the water (2 tonnes every second!). So - when I resurfaced I could hear the safety guy in the kayak who goes in front of us screaming "SWIM TO THE ROCKS, SWIM TO THE ROCKS!". There was such terror in his voice it was like there was a shark chasing after me or something. I'm shaking at this point at my brush with death and absolutely knackered and disorientated and choking but swimming for my life to these bloody rocks. The others were all back at this point. I finally reached the rocks and collapsed back into the raft. Who knows where my oar ended up - apparently kayak man had to chase it down the river!! Like I was going to worry about holding onto my oar when I'm being drowned!!!

When we finally were all back in position on the raft, kayak man told us that was the worst drop he'd seen this year. Typical!!!!! He said it was great to watch though and thanked us and told us that ours would be the story he tells all future rafters so maybe we'll be famous. I told him to put our picture on their brochure! Premature death aside, it was so much fun but sooooooo scary and the staff were all great but absolute nutters! Skydiving was a doddle compared to that! Check out the pictures!

That night we went to Lava Bar - probably the only bar in town!! Wasn't a lot of people there to begin with but it filled up a bit later and became a Maori meat market and then in came the young Kiwi Experience bus crowd - so glad we didn't tour with them. It was quite amusing watching the 18 year old boys trying to pull girls.

The next day we got up early and went on a trip to Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (Wai-o-Tapu meaning Sacred Waters). We stopped at a mud pool on the way which was quite cool and then we went to see the Lady Knox Geyser which was due to erupt 10 minutes after we got there. Was standing quite far back and still managed to get sprayed! After that we went into the park and did a walk around. The area is covered with collapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud, water and steaming fumaroles. The champagne pool and devil's bath were really cool. The evil smell was not!!

We left for Mount Maunganui that afternoon. It is the place to be in the summer - a really nice seaside resort where thousands of kiwis go at Christmas and New Year. We arrived early evening and there was free pizza awaiting us (liking this hostel so far!) and then they gave us a triple room for the same price as a dorm - result!! We decided to go and test out Maunganui's Friday night action and went to 3 different bars and ended up home by 10.30pm!!! There were about 5 people in each bar - nothing seemed to be happening anywhere! I know it's winter but it was ridiculous - there's not enough people in this country!

The next day we had an early start. The last part of our route was from Mt Maunganui - Auckland but we did a Magic extension via the Waitomo caves so that we could go black water rafting. We recognised the guy that picked us up and quickly realised that we'd stayed in his hostel in Greymouth in the South Island. He used to be a Magic driver years ago and was called in an emergency to help out as they were short of drivers. He managed to get lost about 3 times which was amusing but we got there in the end! We arrived in Waitomo at lunchtime and headed straight off rafting. I've decided that the only extreme sport that I can't bring myself to do is bungee jumping so I keep signing up for everything else that is scary to put myself through torture! We got kitted up in wetsuits and headed off to the caves in a group of 8. I'm not claustrophobic or scared of the dark but it was damn scary deep inside them caves. We got to a point where we were 300 metres below ground. We had little torches on our helmets but the guides made us go round in the dark most of the time. After ducking and whacking my head loads of times we finally reached the water and hopped onto our rubber rings and set off in a long line, holding onto each others feet, going backwards in the dark. It was so scary! We reached a waterfall and had to drop backwards down it which wasn't pleasant! Deaks was squealing the whole way round as the guides were winding us up that there were loads of eels in the water - nice! It was so cold in there I couldn't feel my hands. The dark journey of terror carried on, all the time the guides saying things to scare us and make us jump. I was at the back of the group which was probably the worst place to be so I just floated along in my ring thinking happy thoughts and staring at all the gloworms! Just before the end we had to go down a long steep water slide which was quite cool. That was the end of the black water rafting and thankfully our last extreme sport for the time being. Need to give my heart a chance to relax!!

Before we left Waitomo we stopped off at The Shearing Shed - home to 350 Angora rabbits that get sheared every 6 weeks. They are huge fat things and really cute! The lady sheared one in front of us. It was so funny, all four of their legs are put in a harness and the rabbit is then stretched out so that they can shear them. It actually looks cruel but they assured us that it's not and that the rabbits are used to it. See what you think from the pictures!

We arrived in Auckland at 6.30pm that evening and checked into our hostel - The Fat Camel! For some reason we were put in an all female dorm again. This keeps happening to us - people must think we're man hating lesbians or something!!! We dumped our bags and went downstairs for the free dinner that was advertised which turned out to be spag bol - a saucer sized portion which was disgusting!!! As we walked into the bar we bumped into our first Magic Bus driver, Richard, who we loved. We shouldn't have seen him again as the drivers stick to either the south or north islands but he'd flown into Auckland that afternoon as they were short of drivers in the north. We went out on the town with Richard that night and an Irish boy Tiarnan and his friend who we've bumped into a few times since we started in NZ. We went to an Irish bar and ended up staying there all night until we got kicked out. It was such a funny random night and our group managed to grow vastly throughout the evening. Early on an Arabian guy with the biggest afro I've ever seen decided to join us after Richard asked him if his hair was real! Within the next hour we also had a French boy with us and some other randoms strays. Good night.

We only had 1 full day in Auckland so should've made the most of it but couldn't move with very evil hangovers until lunchtime and it was raining pretty much all day so that put a dampner on things. We went for a walk around the harbour in the evening which was nice but decided against going out again - the thought of an 11 hour flight with a hangover was too much to bear!

So that's the end of New Zealand. It took a while to get used to it as I was so in love with Australia and didn't want to leave but really liked it in the end. It is a beautiful country and the scenery is amazing but there aren't enough people here for my liking - am used to London crowds! We met some really great people though which was good and we've done some amazing things.

We fly to Santiago tonight and will be arriving before we even leave so 24 June will be the longest day ever!!!! Maybe I'll have a few vinos on the plane to knock me out! Am really looking forward to South America as it's the place where I probably know the least about so looking forward to the unexpected and hoping to bypass DONS disease (Denial Of New Surroundings) which we all seem to have developed every time we move on to a new country. Am adapting quicker each time though!

Bye for now

xxx

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