Blogs from Taupo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 68

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo March 28th 2005

Another amazing miracule or the amazing luck we have all the time: we are renting a car from a very "cheap company". There aren't much guarantees for what you get. So when we called Saturday morning to say we are coming for the car they only had a small 2-door Suzuki. We have so many things, food etc, how would we manage? We could choose to wait till noon, maybe they'll have more cars but we decided that since there are no guarantees we better take what they have. By the time we reached the agency 1/2 hour later, a bigger car arrived! We couldn't believe our luck, or in fact, it's amazing how much of it we have here all the time. On Saturday we drove north from Wellington to Wanganui. There were two main ... read more

A plunge of perfection

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo March 24th 2005

Cheesy beforehand pics

Kiwi Diana

Dear all, It's the best part of your favorite song played really loud. It's when the person you've been drooling over in the bar looks your way and smiles. It's the perfect drug. Alcohol can't touch it. Sex doesn't even come close. It's absolute legend. I'm talking about launching out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet, meat bombing your way into the earth below and hoping that little napkin opens to cushion your fall a bit. I've always dreamed about skydiving. It seemed an appropriate rite of passage, something a person had to do before becoming a qualified grownup (Yes, yes, flawed logic, but hey...). So when I booked into my hostel at Lake Taupo, I casually asked Paul, the super friendly and laid-back owner, if he'd ever skydived. He smiled at me, ... read more

Holy Cow! You mean we just jump?

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo March 2nd 2005

No worries, mate!

Reena and Cheena

Am now solo and halfway down the North Island in a little place caled Taupo. It's only Thursday but it feels like I've been on the Kiwi bus for about 3 weeks! Will hopefully catch up with Rach somewhere around Wellington, or the top of the South Island, but at the moment am having a great time meandering around on my own. Spent our last night in Auckland in style - there was a chinese festival celebration going on in the Domain so we went to check that out. Auckland has a very high Asian population so it was heaving - a literal people jam in most of the park. According to Dave and Claire this is pretty much what we can expect in most of Asia when we get there as well. Also tried out ... read more

Huka Falls

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo January 31st 2005

Huka Falls

Family Mudpie

Huka Falls is New Zealands number one tourist attraction but we'd never heard of it, it was on the hostels free to-do notice board though so we were sold. It's a 3 hour bush walk with amazing views from a number of different points along the way with the spectacular Huka Falls at the end, now we've been let down by 'spectacular falls' recenlty in Okere but it was free and another amazing day so I pakced some luch and off we popped. It was a long walk just to get to the start of the trail and we fought off the desire to stop and eat lunch and continued on to the Falls bush walk. Our first point of interest was a natural spa, about 15 minutes into the walk, it was like a wee ... read more

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo January 30th 2005

Wai-O-Tapu

Family Mudpie

For the first time in this trip we didn't feel sad to leave somewhere, Rotorua was a nice place and we did see some amazing things but the smell was too much and the hostel too noisy, we didn't sleep well during our stay, anyway onwards and upwards, our Southwards in our case as we hit the road to Taupo. We leave early as we've planned a stop half way to visit Wai-O-Tapu park, a Thermal Wonderland as it markets itself. Wai-O-Tapu (sacred waters) is New Zealands most colourful and diverse volcanic area, it's full of stunning geothermal activity and colours of every tint in pools, lakes, craters, steam vents and thermal terraces. I was really impressed by this place but Fiona wasn't to bothered by it, she liked it all and that but that pungent ... read more

It rained and it rained some more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo July 18th 2004

Mt Doom

vikki5678

Well sorry for the delay folks, I spent the rainy days in Taupo catching up on the online diary thing then I have been really busy either touring or doing activities. Not much to report from Taupo - it was just a rainy wet town and for a wee while I was worried I might be stranded there! I did go to the cinema and watch Shrek 2 - it was cool and Over the next few days the little group I have been mucking around with from the Kiwi bus have been repeating some of the lines and taking the mick out of people of the bus who are now nicknamed donkey!! (they won't shut up!!) I have also been called donkey at times esp. when I have been drinking the old 'Mountain Dew' a soft ... read more

Brief history of New Zealand

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year...more history

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