Blogs from Taupo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

New Zealand is full of things to do if you want to be mad. Things a bit like bungee jumping and Jet Boat riding. Mum would not let me do a bungee jump ( I was too small and too young). When we got to Taupo she said that one of the best things that we could do would be to go on a jet boat. A jet boat is a speed boat that is able to go in shallow water because the engine does not dangle down off the back of the boat but is mostly inside and sucks the water into the boat and pushes it out really hard. This makes the boat glide along the top of the water and it can do circle turns and go very very fast. We decided to ... read more

6th February 2011 This morning was meant to be another early wake, but somehow we had remained in the land of slumber until the shockingly late hour of 7:15am, practically a lie-in for us early risers! On pulling back the curtains we realised why this had occurred. We were blanketed in mist, dampening any sound, had there been any to wake us in this remote spot, and in the process removing any chance of being woken by the sun. Neither of us was keen to shake of the arms of slumber once we had woken, and we dozed for a short while before finally stirring enough to make a cuppa (much easier when camping these days as neither of us need milk after our time in Asia, and so we don‘t need to worry about ... read more

So very long since we had access to the net it's a little difficult to remember what we need to tell you about. Let me think, ah yes the famous Shirley tours trip to Waitomo. Shirley let me down here by traveling us for bloody miles in one direction only to have to return the same route later in the day to travel back to Taupo. We set off from Rotarua and took a two hour journey across the most beautiful countryside to the waitomo caves. These are set into a rather sheer cliff face made up of limestone. We visited two seperate cave complexes. The first had the most wonderful stalagmites and stalagtite formations and the caves extended some 600m meters below ground, all of which was a controlled walkway so no real difficulties. Now ... read more

Today I did a lot of walking, and didn't really get anywhere. In the morning, I tried to walk to Huka Falls, described on websites as a walk of an hour each way from the town center. I was up near Spa Road, several blocks from the town center, so I thought it might be a little shorter than that. When I'd walked for an hour and fifteen minutes, I'd made it as far as the start of the Huka Falls Walkway. At that point, I stopped to ask someone how far it was to the Falls themselves, and I was told it was another hour and a half's walk, so I gave up. Fortunately, Teresa, another friend from the GirlsOwn mailing list, is coming to spend the day with me tomorrow, and she'll have ... read more

Thursday 25th November 2010 (Waitomo – Taupo) Walking around more caves in the morning helped to wake us up and after a long day on the bus we arrived at the Huka Falls which had an immense force as the water ploughed over the edge and created a really beautiful sight. Joanne was picked up for her Skydive, and managed to get Richard a space to watch. They showed the group a video and we all decided to jump from 15,000ft (even Sharon who was petrified). As Joanne had sky-dived before she decided against the pricy photo/video package and enjoyed the jump even more for just taking in the experience and the views instead of staring at a photographer for the whole of the free-fall. Back on the ground her trusty photographer (Richard) and videographer (Joe) ... read more