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Published: March 7th 2007
Left Taupo early morning feeling tired from the night before but not too hung over(a little intoxicated perhaps)
Very Grey day and ever so slightly chilli, jeans and sandle weather (jandles?).
Today we were to have quite a long day on the bus. So as we drove to the Tongariro National park we watched 80s cheesy classic Rambo. Handnt seen it before and it made the time go by.
Reached the National park by midday and spent a view minutes in the visitors centre learning a little about the park. The centre piece of the park is 3 large volcanos in the middle (one used for Mt doom in Lord of the rings) which some are still active and go off every so often. I may be wrong but I think it was the site of the largest know eruption back in AD one hundred and something.
Anyway afterwards we walked down to Tawhai falls to eat lunch. The Tawhai falls were also used in Lord of the Rings as golomes lair and if you so wish you can dive off the top into the river below (12metre drop) only our driver and Julian were up for
it. Our driver has been doing it for years and Julian used to be an olympic diver for spain (now he is a judge). So we watched in amazment as Julian would jump of the rocks spin and dive in with a little splash (unlike our driver scotty who prefered the human bomb technique.) each time Julian would come out he would complain about his entry so off he was to try again!
Afterwards we headed for River valley. We stopped off for a few minutes at a really small town for a rest break. The town was home to the major army base in New Zealand (our driver had trained and lived there). Around the corner there was a war musium with a Centurian tank outside. When I was a kid I had a centurian toy tank and Id never seen one in the flesh (or metal) before. So that was rather cool. When we left we could see into the army base and saw all these huts on the hill side. Our driver told us they were mainly the ammo stores. He also told us that he had read somewhere that if World war broke out New
Zealand had enough ammo to last for 12 seconds.
One hour later we entred river valley, which is very picturesque. The Hostel/lodge is located at the bottom and is surrounded by high peaks with shear drops.
Apon arrival and after checking in (dorms consisted of hugh shelves for upto 8 people above and below all sleep along side each other .) Brad Henrick and I headed for the creek to swim and jump off rocks.
The rocks for diving were located on the other side and we need to use a mobile rope platform/bridge. Which was good fun as the notice stated you were only allowed 2 people at any one time, with 3 you can really pick up some speed. Anyway the water was really cold but not freezing and we got bitten ever so slightly by sand flys (good fun though).
Dinner arived and we had a wonderful roast dinner with seconds of course. Since there was nothing located anywhere near the hostel we played cards and began drinking again.
Intresteing thing is that the staff who do all the meanial jobs (room cleaning ect) are called slaves, and even wear T-shirts with
slave writen on it. They obviously havent had an African employee to date (be interesting to see what happens when that day comes).
Played a nail drinking game (introduced to us by the pushy off and on duty staff). You start off with a nail each in a log. positioning a strange pointy hammer (wedge shaped to make it more challenging) you have to hit another persons nail with one shot. With a clean shot the other person takes a drink penalty. Once that persons nail is completely down they have to take a shot at the bar.
This ended up being Brad who with one of the off duty employees had to do a flameing sambuca. Once down he discovered he had to pay for it as well, which he refused causing a little tension at the bar. This didnt last long and general drinking and chit chat resumed.
The Bar closed at 11:00 and I went to sleep soon afterwards.
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Drinking Game
I've seen that drinking game in Austria before, the only difference in rules was that you have to toss the hammer up in the air, catch it and strike in one move, you have to nail your own nail in and the last person to do so has to buy the round for everyone else but then is not allowed a drink himself.