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Here is the very delayed New Zealand blog, we wrote this whilst in New Zealand but very quickly so apologies for the quality. We'll put a Fiji blog up in the next few days!
We left Kaikoura and got the bus up to Picton, our last stop on the south island. We arrived at our hostel and set off on a walk up along the water front which had great views over the Marlborough sounds. We arrived back tired but our hostel was lovely, they had two dogs and free apple crumble and ice cream in the evening which was very appreciated after the long walk. The next day we had booked to do a wine tour of the Marlborough region mainly around a town called Blenheim a few km down the road. The tour was great as they didn’t stick to any strict plans and let us decide where we wanted to go. There was a good mix of people on the tour (especially a couple from Windsor) which made it even more fun. We drank lots of amazing wine and had a posh meal at a winery - it was a great day.
He following day we
set off for the ferry and left the south island. The ferry ride started beautifully, it was another lovely day and the scenery was spectacular as we winded our way through the Marlborough sounds. When we hit the open sea it was very different. The waves we huge and rocked the boat like I have never experienced before. I have never been sea sick before but this made me feel incredibly ill. Claire left me and headed to the bathroom, his was the last a saw of her for several hours. I felt increasingly ill and had to be helped downstairs by someone who worked on the ferry as they were worried I was going to be sick everywhere. We were both very happy to be on solid land and arriving in Wellington. I didn’t feel too well for the rest of the afternoon but we managed to see a bit of the city and took the cable car up to a hill with nice gardens and good views over the city and bay. Wellington seemed nice but cities aren’t very interesting or different.
The next morning we got an early bus up to Taupo, half way up the
north island. It was obvious that the north island was very different, the south islands had more mountain and lakes whereas the north had rolling green hills covered in sheep. Driving through the Tongariro national park (Mordor for all you Lord of the Rings Geeks) was amazing though especially the three snow capped active volcanoes. We arrived to beautiful weather once again (our luck with the weather has definitely changed since the first week) and when we told the owner of our hostel that we were thinking of doing a skydive in the next few days he recommended we do it straight away as the weather was so good. We took his advice and within an hour of ariving we were being picked up by the skydive company. Claire was nervous but it was better doing it spontaneously rather than booking it for the next day a worrying about it. There was a lot of faffing about when we got there trying to sell us extras at a huge cost but soon we were in our harness and jump suits ready to go. We all got paired of with a profesional diver and headed to the plane. The plane ride
itself was pretty scary, the plane was tiny and rattled and shaked as we rose to 12,000 feet. Claire was first out and looked very scared when the door opened. It was very strange seeing her fall out of a plane only attached to a skydiver we didn’t know. I was next up and moved to the edge of the door, it is a very strange feeling half hanging out of the edge of a plane at that height. Before I knew it we were falling, you are so high up the ground doesn’t come rushing towards you as you would expect but the wind and pressure was incredible. It was quite painful for your ears as you were dropping so fast, I could hardly here anything when we landed. Before you knew it the parachute went up and you could take time to appreciate the views, mountains, lakes and snow capped volcanoes were impressive you could see for miles. It went so quickly and before we knew it were landing. It was and incredible experience and hard to explain but I will definitely be doing it again given the opportunity (and money). The remaining day in Taupo did a
three hour walk along a river to a waterfall.
Our next stop was a short journey up to Rotorua. The first reaction to Rotorua was the smell, Rotorua is famous for its geo thermal activity and therefore sticks of sulphur (rotten eggs). The whole town stincks of it! We set off to the nearby park which had pools of boiling mud and smoking pools of thermal water. It is a very strange place with smoke coming out of the ground everywhere. We also walked along the lake which was lovely (apart from the smell). Our hostel was really nice and more sociable than other places. We ended up talking to lots of people and ended up going out for a few drinks late in the evening to a pretty rubbish pub but it was nice to be out and enjoying our selves. The next day we walking a few km out of town to a geothermal park. There were several guisers (the biggest in the southern hemisphere) and lots of mud pools.We went on an interesting tour which told us a lot about the Mouri people who have lived in this area for hundreds of years. We liked Rotorua
and even though the town isn’t the prettiest the surrounding area is amazing especially when you get a bit used to the smell.
From Rotorua we headed west to Waitomo to see the famous glow worm caves. Waitomo is a very small place with very few options for accomodation. This meant we ended up staying in a huge and pretty rubbish hostel which even made you rent your plates and cutlery. We couldn’t check in till later in the day so we set off to the caves. This is one of the biggest tourist attractions in New Zealand and we ended up on a huge tour with lots of people on a Malaysian company trip. The caves were still amazing with huge stalactites and stalagmites. The end of the tour was in a boat in pitch darkness with hundreds of glow worms making small dots of light covering the cave ceiling above us. It was pretty amazing to see so many. Once we had finished the tour we still couldn’t check in so headed out for a walk. As we set off it started rain a little but we carried on anyway. As we got further though the path
got very mud and that as well as some very big bulls in a field which were scaring Claire meant that we headed back. We eventually checked in and could relax before our final trip the next day to Auckland.
We have only just arrived in Auckland. It’s New Zealands largest city, the majority of the population lives here It’s quite a nice city but most city are very similar and not very exciting. We treated ourselves to a cheap steak (½ kilo for $15!) as it was our last night.
New Zealand has been great, we have seen some amazing places and enjoyed it all - well, apart from the ferry crossing. It would be easy to stay here longer and explore it some more but we have seen a lot of it (over 14 different places) in our three weeks and would recommend it to anyone.
Tomorrow we fly to Fiji where we spend two more weeks before coming back home. Internet might be harder to get over there so this will probably be the last blog for a while. Lots lovexxx
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