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Published: November 27th 2012
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Right, I've left it quite a while now to catch up on this blog (having too much fun) and although I've taken notes to make it easier, my memory isn't great.
We arrived back onto the North Island after nearly missing the ferry due to Mark being so bad at getting out of bed, and we headed to Nomads backpackers hostel in Wellington to meet Sanni and Sonny. Immediately we had a problem. We tried for ages to find a car parking space for the camper and eventually found one that was rather tight, squished in between an expensive looking shiny new BMW X5 and another van. Mark hit it, not the van, the BMW. He managed to catch the side of the camper on the front bumper of the Beemer, scuffing the lovely black bodywork. So after much deliberation we decided to move. Another space appeared opposite the Beemer. Nice work, think we got away with that. That was just the start of a spell of bad luck involving the camper.
What did we do that night? Just going to have a look at photos on my camera, should bring back some memories. Ok there's no photos there,
don't think we did much. Ahh I know, I put up a stupid advert on the NZ backpacker boards to try to sell the camper. "Kings size bed, fit for a small king" "acoustic guitar, professionally re-strung by a professional guitar re-stringer" "The WOF is on". Stupid shit like that. WOF stands for warranty of fitness by the way, basically an MOT. I did it as a joke but we actually got some interest, although it didn't sell from that ad.
The next day we hit the museum, only without Mark. He got up to move the camper in the morning to avoid a parking fine only to be greeted by a $200 one. One of the documents which needed to be displayed at all times had fallen off the inside of the window and landed upside down. I think he was a bit pissed off and we didn't see him for most of the day.
After the museum, myself, Sanni and Sonny caught the old-skool Wellington cable car up to the botanical gardens for a walk. We stopped off at a park on the way and pissed around like school kids for a while before returning to
the city to try and find Mark and Inga.
The next day we decided to drive to Tongariro to do the Tongariro Crossing. Labeled as one of the worlds greatest walks. After pissing around for a while in the morning we finally set off and by the time we got there it was dark. It was quite a drive if I remember right, made especially interesting by the fact that we nearly got busted by the police with all 5 of us in the camper when there's only 3 seats. We were pottering along a very long boring road in the middle of nowhere, not too far from Tongariro, Sanni behind the wheel and we overtook a police car which had pulled over another car on the side of the road. I was worried at this point because an old tatty campervan covered in graffiti isn't exactly going to go un-noticed by the po-po. Sure enough, less than 5 minutes later, we saw flashing lights behind us. Sanni shouted to me and Sonny in the back to hide, so we jumped onto the bed and tried to cover ourselves under all the luggage in the back, which was obviously
a bit overkill for 3 people. The police started asking questions and looking around the van for anything that seemed to be under the law. Then they asked to see Sanni's licence. It was in her bag in the back of the camper, which was on top of me. Luckily the police man didn't look into the back at that point because when Sanni opened the side door to find her licence she had to re-arrange a few bags to cover our feet up. Then the police man asked if there was anyone in the back! We were waiting to hear him say "alright then, come on out you lot". Sanni said there was no-one there and although he had a look in the back himself, he didn't spot us. The next thing I remember was hearing the engine start again as we drove off. But the police were still behind us, and if we moved in the back they could've easily seen us. So we had to stay perfectly still until the police turned around and disappeared. Scary shit. That was too close for comfort, but not the end of our camper troubles for the day.
We arrived
at our hostel / lodge place in Tongariro which we pre-booked. Mark and Inga had planned to stay in the camper somewhere so they dropped me and the girls off and he immediately decided to reverse into another van. This time he didn't get away with it. The woman who owned/ran the hostel was walking towards her van in the car park at the time. Her van just so happened to be the one Mark reversed into, whilst she was watching him. Somehow the cost of the damage wasn't half what we expected though and he sorted that out straight away.
More bad news. We woke up nice and early only to be told that the crossing tour had been cancelled due to the weather. We knew there was a chance of this happening but that was the only chance the girls would get to do it, due to them having to go back to university in a week or 2. Also that particular day was in fact the best day weather wise for that area for the next week or so. Great. So instead we went on a few smaller walks around Tangariro to try to make the whole ordeal worth while. We saw a waterfall, and then some rapids. Cool, there we go.
Right, on to Taupo. The next day was my birthday and we wanted to go somewhere cool, or hot. Butchers pool, yesss. Let's spend a day in butchers 40 degree pool. After driving for some time, getting the girls excited about the prospect of a lovely hot naturally heated outdoor pool, we had a shock when we got there. It was daylight. Well we knew it would be daylight, but the shock came when we noticed the colour of the water, and all the shit floating in it. When we first came here it was night time, and we jumped into this pool without any thought. We obviously couldn't see how filthy the water was. Not only was it disgustingly dirty, but the level had dropped. It just wasn't worth getting in it. So we drove on in search of some more of Taupo's goodies. The girls lead us to a hot water stream which leads into a river which they knew about. Problem solved. How did we not know about this place. This is fucking awesome, excuse the lingo. The only problem being there was quite a few people around. There were rock pools full of hot water, one flowing into the next all the way down into the river at the bottom. We followed the stream upstream a streamo streamy goodnesss?!?!?! What? We followed the stream upstream to find a spot where there was no-one around, past a waterfall, and kept on going to see where it lead. We noticed that the further up you go, the hotter the water became, and any further than where the waterfall was, it was getting too hot to handle. So we retreated to the pool next to the waterfall and forced it's current occupants out. Bingo. Now we've got a waterfall of what must have been 42-44 degree water and a rock pool to ourselves. Add a few bottles of beer and dare I say it mum, a marijuana cigarette, and I've got a birthday I'm sure I'll always remember.
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Lakefront Taupo Accommodation
This place is awesome! We stay at Chantilly's Motor Lodge, The rooms are a good size and the owners friendly. It's well placed with a supermarket a 2min walk away. The centre of town is just as close and the lake is a 5min walk. I will definitely be back. http://www.chantillys.co.nz/