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Rotorua It's a pitty that these bloggs dont have a scratch & sniff button, cos this place really stank of rottern egg's..........Oooh what a pong. Why is this I hear you all say, well Rotorua is built on a natural geothermal area of New Zealand which produces sulphur direct from the centre of the earth. It's pritty dam amazing actually when you see what I'm talking about, as for a town, not much happening, but as scenery it takes some beating. We spent two nights here and on the last night we went to a Maouri village & was shown how they used to live, watched them do the "haka", which was really cool. After that we had a traditional meal called a "hangi" which is all cooked underground, watched them do somemore dancing & singing, then went back to the hostel to get ready to travel to the next place on the trip.
Oh forgot, on the way to Rotorua we did the first of what we hope to be many adventure activities, "Cave Tubing". This was really good, basically had to squeeze into wet suits & hard hat, then we walked through cow fields (which to
anyone who didnt know what we were doing must have looked bizare), then to the entrance of an underground cave system. So there we are, about 8 of us all looking really dapper with our backsides wedged nicely into a rubber ring each, and then taken through a under ground cave & river system.
The only thing thow was we had to do it in total darknes & we were told that there where spiders down in the cave's which really freaked Brian out. The only light was the thousands of glow worms up above us, it was an fantastic sight. Before making our way back to the surface, we had to jump off a ledge backwards into water (obviously) then ride down a water slide, which was a laff. All in all it was a really funny thing to do, we were grinning from ear to ear afterwards.
Taupo This is were the real fun began, we stopped off at a place called "Rock & Ropes", it's a small adventure park designed to scare you whitless (especially if your scared of heights which we both are). As you will see from the pictures, this time with safety
harnesses attached & another hard hat, we were taken to our first test. Brian had to go first, so he climbs up a 40ft wooden pole & once at the top with nothing to hold onto for balance, he had to jump and catch a trapeze. He did this really well, except what he wasnt told was the only way to get down was to let go & drop...............so expecting to let go & be lowered slowly & safely down, he let's go and litteraly drops 30ft to the ground, it was so funny watching his arm's & legs kicking out on the way down, but he made it in one piece.
Next up was Lynds, but what she was doing was a little different. She had to climb up a 50ft pole to a metal platform where she was attached to a cable and was told to jump off and ride the swing. Well with a little help from the guide she jumped, and let out the most chilling scream I have ever heared, she was terrified, which could be seen from her tears once she had been unhooked on the ground.
next up was Brian's turn, up he
goes, get's attached, then spends the next 5 minutes refusing to jump. Anyway he did, and we both loved it, we were litterally smiling from ear to ear for hours later.
Taupo is a cool little town, on the way in we were taken to a bungy jump, (dont worry it was only to watch other people do it as we were not quite at that stage yet) then on to lake Taupo, which to give you an idea on how big it is, it's the size of singapore, so really big.
That night we went out with some of the people on the bus & the driver to an Irish bar and had fish & chips and three pints for 8 quid, all was going well untill the driver came over with shots of jegermyster (sorry for the spelling on that one) and as you'd expect from us it ended rather messy, but again a good laff.
Wellington This is N.Z's capital city and has a really nice vibe to it, defo a place we could see our selves living in, unfortunatly it's the wrong bloody country, never mind. We arrive at about 3pm & are
told by the driver that it was tradition to drink with him again as it was his day off. Well as you know any excuse for a drink will do & we met up with him at 7pm and headed to the pub, a swanky little bar called Blend which was offering free champagne for the ladies through out the night. So another messy night was had, and we headed off home.
With hangovers in tow, the next day we headed of to the national museum (which was free to enter) and had a look around an earthquake exibition. It had a house in it which you could go into and feel an earthquake taking place as the whole structure rocked from side to side, it was quite impressive.
This is now the end of the north island of N.Z as tomorrow we take a ferry over to a town called Picton in the south to begin the second leg of our New Zealand adventure!!!!!!
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Tony Dad
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Wow
Brill guys I am alittle worried regarding your comment re budgy jumping all sounds and looks fab Keep us posted Love Dadxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx