Blogs from Taupo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 60

Hello everyone, sorry about the delay, but yes, your eyes do not deceive you, that is in fact a Giant Carrot! Not quite the golden one we've been after, but let me explain how we got here. Last week we caught the ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North, and have been making our way up the North Island since. Picton was a beautiful port town set into the tip of the Queen Charlotte Sound, one of many breath-taking bodies of water that make up the Marlborough Sounds. The ferry crossing was amazing, as we sailed through huge islands of green, arriving in Wellington just before midday. Mt Victoria is actually just a hill, but set right in the middle of New Zealand's capital it provides a fantastic 360 view of ... read more

The very next day the sun was high in the sky and there was not a cloud to be seen. Oh well. We headed up the lake towards Taupo. We had every intention of doing a sky dive in Taupo but we had not intended on it happening quite so soon. We checked into the hostel at 11.30am and booked a sky dive for the next day. After going away and thinking about it for a while we decided that it was too good a day to miss so we went back and managed to get picked up 15 minutes later. We arrived at the hanger and had to wait for about 1/2 hour as other groups of people came and went. Strangely enough I was not feeling nervous. They put our harnesses on and gave ... read more

Hello to all! Sounds like it's lovely, hot and sunny back in ye olde england, so thought we'd send you some more piccies...just to make you alla bit more jealous. haha. actually, it's not all that hot in new zealand, but it is still beeeautiful! quick update on what we've been up to, basically hopped on our 'kiwi experience' bus a day after we arrived here, after checking out Auckland for a day...not really a great city. anyhoo, first stop was mercury bay, lovely secluded beach we visited called cathedral cove. water was freeezing but hey, we swam anyway...we're english don't you know. (that's where the pic was taken of chris jumping off the rock). done lots of lovely gorge walks through palm filled jungles to wicked waterfalls, all very cool. scenery is bizarre, a lot ... read more

Although we stayed in Lake Taupo decided to go back South an hour and climb Mount Ruapehu, which is NZ's largest active volcano! Another early start (!) and we headed up the moutain via 2 sets of ski lifts to get half way up. From there, we climbed to 1,500 feet above sea level to the very top of the volcano, looking down on a blanket of cloud we climbed through a quarter of the way up. The altitude made our ears pop and also made us short of breath, but it was fabulous looking down the mountain and across the area. On the way down, we took a different route, and walk/skidded/sledged down one of the glaciers. It was pretty impossible to walk on the icey snow even with walking boots on so we got ... read more

If I really want to be so crazy, here's the place to do it: Taupo Skydiving. Jump out of a plane, from 12,000 feet, roughly 3650 meter. Freefall for about 40 seconds, then hopefully the parachute of your tandem partner opens for a nice ten minute scenic flight and a smooth grass landing! So far the theory. I called the evening before to make a reservation, the next morning at around eight we drove to Taupo's small airport. Where else would you find a sky diving school. In Taupo there is three of them, thus, the low prices. For less than eighty euro you are on the next plane! So I signed away my life (literally, you have to sign that you do not blame the sky diving school if you die!). Then I got some ... read more