Heading North

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The bus on which I had been from almost the start of Kiwi Experience effectively disbanded when I left Queenstown. It was strange getting on a new bus only knowing a couple of people again, but also very exciting since I knew I had the whole of the North Island still to explore. I had to repeat part of the trip up the east coast to get to the North Island but this gave me the opportunity to visit Kaikoura for a second time and go whale watching.
The spotting and watching was all done from the deck of a vast catamaran, the boat was motored out to the ocean trench, and then all on board were set the task of spotting spouts. Whales stay underwater for a predictable amount of time and usually surface within a certain area for about ten minutes to breath, this means they spray large spouts of water into the air, which tend to be the only thing visible from a distance. On the trip we managed to spot four sperm whales, when each was spotted the boat would cruise alongside and we would watch the whale close up until he dived. The biggest we saw was a whale called Noodle, which was 18m long and about the size of a double-decker bus. The best part was when the whales dived and showed us their humungous tails. I’ve wanted to see a whale close up for years and feel incredibly lucky to have seen four.
A day on a bus and a ferry took me to Wellington, which being New Zealand’s Capital has a mass of museums and not a lot else. Luckily at the national museum there was a Lord of the Rings exhibition showing a massive collection of costumes, weapons, props and models that had been used in the trilogy. Seeing all the props made so familiar by the three films was fascinating; the two guys who I went with and I must have spent four hours plus walking around. The real highlight was Minas Tirith, a twenty foot high model made in incredible detail that was used loads in the third film - I’m such a geek…
Next stop on the north island was Tapuo, which is famous for its cheap skydiving and not a lot else; unfortunately heavy cloud and torrential rain made any further skydives an unlikely prospect. I felt very sorry for all those who had waited for months to jump there, but still couldn’t help feeling a little bit smug. After two nights in Tapuo hoping for clear weather I moved on to Rotorua. This small township is built on thermal springs so has steam vents bubbling everywhere and stinks of rotten eggs, on the plus side its the activity capital for the north island. On the first afternoon we all went Zorbing, for those who haven’t heard of it, Zorbing is when you climb inside a 3m high double skinned plastic ball filled with water and push yourself down a steep zigzagging hill. It was tremendous fun but being the size I am, I had rather more momentum than the average Joe, consequently I hit all the barrier fences on the way down then hopped over the central barrier and stopped a good 50 m further down the hill than I was meant to, loved it.
Yesterday I went on a day trip from Rotorua to a place called Waitomo where I went caving. I did the trip with Waitomo Adventures on the five hour Max Energy option. The whole area is riddled with limestone caves that give adrenaline junkies their fix. We drove out to a local farm where most of the caving takes place and once we were kitted up in full wetsuits, helmets and wellingtons we got straight into it. To enter the caves we had to swing out into an open shaft and abseil down a near vertical waterfall for about 30m. This is when the fun began; we were effectively following an underwater river deep underground in pitch black just after a major rainfall so the noise from the water was deafening. After moving along a small tunnel our group came to the second set of abseils. The first few drops were down large waterfalls that fed into vast underground caverns but the last was quite different. I was instructed to put my feet together and my hands on my head then swing out over a small hole in the rock that was basically a plug hole for the river, the guide then dropped me through this hole with my light switched off for a 15m rapid decent into a big pond. It doesn’t sound much but when you’re squeezed into a tight space, with water pounding on your head, in the pitch black, it certainly gets the heart pumping. At the base of the caves we were about 80m below the ground and spent the next half hour crawling through tunnels and caves covered in the most spectacular stalactites, stalagmites and curtain formations I’ve ever seen. The caves also had hundreds of glow worms that, when our lights were switched off, made me feel like I was looking up a clear night sky. Some of tunnels narrowed to the point that I had to stick my arms through then push myself along with my legs, they even dipped underwater at times which was fun. I caused much amusement trying to bend my ungainly frame around some of the tighter corners. After a few rock climbs we emerged back onto the surface quite in awe of the place we had just been, caving definitely rates very highly on my trip so far.
The North Island has none of the mountains that made the South so striking, but the rolling green hills and lush farmland are very picturesque. This country really is a land of contrasts. I fly off to South America in a few days, but despite spending a month here I feel like I could spend a lot more time exploring this country.

I will try and attempt to put some pictures online of my skydive, enjoy

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