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Published: February 27th 2006
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Meeeeeeeee!!!
Down at Cathedral Cove Well, we finally got out of Auckland! A few mishaps after the last entry but we moved on. We moved up North to Paihia (Pie Here!)which was beautiful. We stayed in a hostel which was pretty much right on the beach and the weather was scorching! The first thing we did was book a trip on a Catamaran. We sailed for a whole day around the Bay of Islands right near to the famous 'Hole in The Rock' where we anchored between islands and had a barbecue on the boat. During lunch we did our usual snorkelling and kayaking and tried our hand at a bit of waterskiing-except on our knees!!!! Loads of fun and I (Natalie) managed to stay on!!! Less than could be said for Paul...haha!! From the boat we sailed alongside dolphins and one came up really close showing off jumping by our boat! Met a couple on the boat Zoe and Jon who we then hooked up with for the night on the beach. Really funny night after a couple of drinks together! We had a day of rest the next day-just for a change!-on the beach and bumped into Zoe and Jon again that evening. Down
Stunning!
From the hilltop at Hahei! our 'local' they stupidly-in my presence-suggested that the first person up dancing would win free drinks!! Me and Paul were straight up-no need to ask us twice! That night, along with Zoe, we won every drink voucher going!!!! We then met up with Zoe and Jon the next day for a spot of circus training!! This was a brilliant day! We tried out tightrope walking, trapeze, stilt walking, juggling etc! Paul loved the tight rope and got pretty good at it whereas they had to fight me to get me off those stilts!!! My new calling in life! I was rubbish at the trapeze! I swang twice then there were blood curdling screams as I let go and flew through the air-exiting stage left!!!!! As usual with these places we were put to shame by a bunch of 5year olds!!!! Really fun! That night we were back in our local for karaoke! I came 2nd!!! Can you believe that all you Italia Conti people??!!! All you who mock me-you're looking at a new singing sensation!!! Another day we jumped on a bus and headed for the most Northern point of NZ-Cape Reinga! Another brilliant day with a crazy bus driver-Auto-looked
Heaven!!!
"Oi!!! What you doin behind that counter??!!!" the image of the bus driver from the Simpsons! Part of the trip involved driving up '90 mile beach' a beach made up of quick sand-so no stopping for long there then! Next we got off the bus further up and grabbed a body board. We hiked up an 80metre high sand dune (!) and threw ourselves off the top! Sand Surfing! Great fun! At the highly spiritual Cape Reinga, where the Maorian people believe a spirit resides before leaving this world, we saw the meeting of the Tasman and the Pacific sea. Then before we knew it we were heading back to Dorkland (Auckland!) but not for long as we got straight on the bus and headed down South!
First stop Hahei. This was another beautiful seaside spot and the weather stayed amazing! We stopped for a couple of nights and played in some of the biggest waves ever!!! Swallowed alot of them too! Then we moved onto Raglan. Here we were first introduced to the glow worms!! Not at all what we expected! They're just tiny dots of light in amonst the trees. They had a 'Flying Fox' at the hostel-a rope swing which travels you from A
Friend from home
Fancy meeting a friend from home half way round the world.... guess who?? to B!! This was amazing at night with the glow worms-just like swinging through the stars! The weather took a turn for the worse so we left and arrived yesterday at Rotorua.
En Route we stopped wt the Waitomo caves and entered the TumuTumu Toobing cave! I suddenly feel my backside is tiny!! We squeezed through some of the smallest holes you have ever seen-wouldn't do to be claustrophobic down there! Tough work getting from one end to the other but some of it involved swimming and tubing-getting in a tyre and floating through millions of glow worms. We discovered the part of them that glows is actually their excrement!! Not such a pretty image! Throughout the cave having been volunteered at the wrong moment by Paul (thanks Paul) I had an X drawn on my back and was sent first through the holes as 'the sacrifice' for all the eels and a creature called the Tunnifa! One hole was called the 'Birth Canal' and we had to turn the lights on our helmets off and crawl through a tiny long pitch black tunnel! At the other end-as with all the difficult tiny spaces we discovered there was a simple
Don't Look Down!!
The Big One! 7 metre drop waterfall! route that would have got us to the same place! But of course the guides didn't tell us that!!
Today we certainly woke up in style!!! After an early start we were facing a 'grade 5' 7metre drop waterfall!!! White Water Rafting! The most dangerous river rapids allowed in the world for non professionals!! And we survived!!!! At the big drop we did capsize but it was far more exciting than staying afloat!! See the photos!
From here we head to Taupo and further South from there. Hope you're all well! Thanks for the message Shane xxx
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Siobhan
non-member comment
yee nutters
Hey guys, just read your blog and i must say that i let a few loud laughs out and got some strange looks from the lad sitting beside me. Sounds as if your luck has picked up for you both and i am belighted for you. Try to stay out trouble though of goodness sake. love Siobhan