NZ to Fiji - The mayhem ends and the beach begins.

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I'm currently sat at Wellington airport ready to fly to Fiji. I'm not sure if I'll be able to blog well there so this could be one of the last (I know, you're all understandably very upset).

Since the last blog the weather got better. The Bay of Islands was great fun and included one of the most dangerous activities I've done - and it was free!! Sandboarding down giant sand dunes was highly entertaining and quite possibly the most stupid thing to allow very competitive and mildy hung over young men to do. My favourite part was the face plant into the sand one lad did on his first run, it made for an excellent black eye (XR=12).

Travelling back down to Wellington I went back through Rotorua and Taupo, this allowed me to do the Tongario Crossing (which I couldn't do on the way up as the weather was not good enough). It was a good work out from 5.40am to 3.30pm and definitely deserves to be listed as one of the best walks in the world. One thing I will say though is that taking the side track for a 3 hour return climb of Mt Doom was silly. The views from the top of the dormant and still steaming volcano (I love geography) were superb but the journey down was THE most dangerous thing I have done in NZ. Forget Nevis. Forget the Canyon Swing. Forget everthing else. The scree surfing down the side of Doom was just crazy. My mate in front of me just about managed to dodge a nasty boulder, about the size of a baby (a Polly sized baby - that's big for those not in the know ), that I dislodged and sent tumbling towards him (XR=15).

The Waitomo Caves (big dark underground caving networks) provided me with a bit of night time Womble fun including awesome zip wires, glow worms and some very cold streams/waterfalls (XR=7). River Valley was the stop off for some white water rafting, grade 5 i'll have you now (i'm still really stiff from it all) (XR=8), and a few games of volley ball with the lads (to the soundtrack of "Playing with the Boys") (XR=3).

Waitomo was also home to one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Rabbit shearing. Two lovely ladies have 300 angoran (sp?) rabbits which need to be sheard every 3 months to keep them cool and comfortable. They were kind enough to shear a rabbit when we were there and the photos are amazing. A little rabbit streched out on a rack, looking quite annoyed and being sheard will be an image I will never forget. The rabbit we saw get sheard must have been doubley annoyed as the lady only sheard half of him as there were going to be more people coming in the afternoon. Just brilliant.

So the Kiwi Experience has finished. The fun of Fiji awaits.

Until next time. I'm off to eat some airline food (XR=10+).

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Photos

A Widdle Waitomo Waabbit.
A football fan hair cut.

The Top of Mt Doom.
I know....the socks are outstanding.

Comments

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thanks rob!