Volcano adventure

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Day 7 continued

Didn't do much after downloading photos for you all, but had a giggle thinking about all the things we've done for example...
At the campsite in Bay of Plenty the showers were unisex and outside and we had to press a button on the outside go in quickly get undressed and have 5mins of hot water from when we pressed the button. Once button was pressed it could not be repressed. Denise went first and could be heard screaming as cold water kicked in and she hadn't even finished her hair! Helen pressed the button of the next shower along ready for Denise to run between the two. This happened twice so all that could be seen that morning was Denise running between showers with just a towel on!!!! The showers also give a pulse of freezing cold water 1min before the end which is such a shock to the system, the notice on the wall says "ENJOY!!", thanks top10 holiday campsites!

We also realised that the sunrise we saw on the beach would have been the first daylight seen for that day around the world awsome!

BUT the thing that got us giggling the most was watching our bungy videos on the camera - they are just so funny with the screams and bouncing in and out of view!

Day 8

Left Taupo to head off for volcanic mountain area. Stopped off on-route to look round Taupo fire station they were very welcoming and informative and keen to show us around - we enjoyed the view!!

On our journey we had to take the desert road which was very dramatic as we were surrounded by snowy mountains - we were sooooo excited and took far too many photos! We headed into a small town and on route was followed by a policecar for an hour and we were joking that we had a police escort but when we got to the town we wanted we stopped and so did the policeman and informed helen (she drove) that she was driving too fast into town and put her details in his book! (we dont know which town as he was with us for a whole hour!!) luckily whislt he was taking the details a man came out of the shop and was really rude to the policeman so Helen got let off and told to drive slowly coming into town!

The town we were at was Ohakune and on approaching the town we were greeted by an enormous carrot! we found out that the town is famous for its carrots as they are grown in the volcanic soil of Mt Ruaphu. We met a lovely lady in the gift shop who told us that during the cyclone people got stuck skiing up the mountain as there was a huge white-out, and told us that more storms were predicted. We decided to drive up the mountain to see the ski resort in the camper, it was a very challenging drive with snow and tight 's' bends, we made it almost to the top when the clouds started to close in and we lost visability so we turned round and came back down, deciding to get the shuttle bus in the morning if we went skiing as it was so scary!

That night we played cards and then decided to go out for a meal and a few drinks in a lovely bar with an open log fire.

Day 9

The next morning we decided to go skiing and snowboarding on the mounting which is actually a live volcano - it just had to be done! after hiring our gear we got the shuttle bus, the driver said we would be scared on the way up and at the 's' bend so we told him we'd been up in the camper and he was so impressed and amazed that we'd made it that far! He had loads of respect for us after that and spoke to us the whole way.

We skied and snowboarded and it was great (legs hurt!), when we returned our gear Helen picked up a leaflet about volcano hazards, when we read it we discovered that on the mountain where we were skiing they have warning sirens for the eruptions that happen, pictures to show where the lava will flow and the summit danger zone (which happens to be where we were skiing!) we are quite pleased we didn't read it before we went although we wouldn't have known what to do if the sirens had gone off!

We had fish and chips for lunch and set off for wellington, the storm warnings are following us down the country, so when we got to wellington we decided to get the ferry across to the south island that night otherwise it might have been cancelled because of the weather. It is a three-hour crossing and we watched Narnia Prince Caspian whilst on board it was great and even more exciting because it was filmed here!

The weather had started to get bad as we drove off the boat Denise (navigator) found us a campsite in the dark we parked up almost getting stuck in the mud and it rained all night.

Day 10

North island really hit by storms again, we set off for christ church with bad weather, driving was hard. On the way we saw lots of seals on the rocks and in the sea they were so cute!
The weather continued to get worse with landslides on the roads and floods and it didn't stop raining, we heard on the radio buildings and schools were being evacuated.
But we have made it to christchurch and plan to look around tomorrow.

Lizzie and Robert we love you loads. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Auntie Vi]

well u craved adventure
well it sounds like u r havin one, great 2 c ur photos and read ur tales, off to mehico in the morning cu soon Aunti Vi

[Dad]

from the Mud Larks
Hello mummy and Denise you are not the only mud larks as we had sun every day and towards the end of the week we also had very heavy showers. We are now proper campers as we had heavy rain most of one night. We share the tent without grandpa, we sent grandpa back to the van. I made lots of new friends my favroit friend was Annabell. I went to a club clalled rock solid my team leaders where called Emma, Si and Ben and it was fun we sung and danced and did lots of things love lots and lots Lizziexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxoo