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Published: June 13th 2006
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Arrived in New Zealand expecting torrential downpours but have been really lucky and the weather has been beautiful - clear skies, but very crisp and cold - it is mid-Winter I suppose. My friend Karen and hubby Steff and daughter Rhionna live way out in North Auckland - very very rural in a fabulous house they built themselves. On my first full day with them Karen took me horse-riding - though I didn't manage to get up any speed to speak of (I'm actually a bit scared of horses so this suited me just fine). We've also been to loads of stunning beaches around the North Shore - miles of beautiful white sand and amazing waves - saw some surfers but they were a bit far off-shore to check out whether they were totty or not!
All of Karen's friends are really welcoming and we've been round to dinner with a few of them which is lovely - and I may need the extra layer of fat to keep me warm in the South Island! One of her friends (James) took me out onto his land to shoot some possums which was fun (I didn't actually shoot them, but James
did). Anyway having managed to get a close look at one (it was dead at my feet) I could see that they are very cute, furry little things but apparently a real pest.
Have been to the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland - the highest tower in the Southerm Hemisphere apparently. Someone did a bungee jump thing while I was there - similar to a bungee but attached to two wires, so not free-falling as much. They stopped her just outside the viewing window from the observatory floor where I was at the time - she looked terrified, so I decided to give that a miss!
Have joined a travellers bus which circuits NZ - you can hop on and off. I've met a really nice bunch of guys and so far its been really full on. The driver is called Dazzer and he's a dead ringer for Jim Davidson!! We spent a day travelling across the Coromandel Range to Hahei which was really beautiful. A group of us went sea kayaking which was a great workout for the bingo wings if a bit knackering. The following day we headed to Raglan which is apparently NZ's
Orewa Beach
with Karen, Steff and Rhionna best surfing beach - unfortunately no-one else was up for the surf school so they didn't run it - I was disappointed as I thought it would be good fun - still I'll have to do it somewhere else. Apparently Jack Johnson has a holiday home in Raglan but I couldn't hear any guitars being strummed anywhere. We saw some cool waterfalls and then headed to Waitomo where I went on this underground/caving/black water rafting on inner tubes trip which was brilliant fun - once you got used to being in freezing water! We were able to float down the underground river (more of a stream to be honest...) and we switched off our lamps and saw millions of glow-worms on the roof of the cave - it was stunning and slightly surreal. We had to do a fair bit of crawling through small gaps which I thought would freak me out a bit, but it was OK actually - I felt a bit like a hobbit! While we were adventuring underground the others from the bus went to see a rabbit shearing demonstration - apparently they strap up the live rabbits from some contraption like handcuffs (paw-cuffs??) and shear
them like sheep - sounds like rabbit S & M to me....
Next stop was Rotorua which is the centre of Maori culture in NZ - that's the nice thing to say about it, the worse thing is that it stinks of rotten eggs! There are loads of thermal springs and mud geysers which accounts for the smell of sulphur and the odd random spurts of steam that seem to just pop up out of random places (peoples gardens, the golf course etc). I did the tourist thing and went to a Maori dinner which was good - there was some traditional Maori dancing (including the Haka) and some of the guys showed their heavily tattooed bottoms which was nice (on some of them it was nice, others really had no business dropping their trousers in public). Before leaving Rotorua Dazzer took us out to the bush and a thermal lake where we had a swim - it was like being in an open air warm bath on a cold day - lovely. Not sure whether there were any particular rejuvenating qualities about the water, but it smelt and it made all my silver jewellery turn temporarily gold-coloured.
We headed to Taupo next where Gemma (one of the girls from the bus) and I were booked in for a sky-dive, but unfortunately it was cancelled as there was low cloud cover and they are expecting some bad weather - funnily enough, for how much I was looking forward to it, I felt a great sense of relief! I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to do it further down the line.
Next stop was a little place for Whakapapa ('Wh' is pronounced as an 'F' so there was much childish giggling about this) where we stayed in a ski lodge. The ski season starts in a couple of weeks. I was hoping to do the Tongariro Crossing here - which is rated as one of the world's greatest one day walks, but the weather was against me again as there were winds of up to 160 kph so the crossing was closed - apparently someone died doing it about a month ago, so I took the advice. The ski lodge was not very busy and the long corridors made it feel like The Overlook hotel from the Shining so I kept an ear out for any strange bumps
Natural Jacuzzi
Who's making the bubbles? in the night, but sadly there were none.
We've now arrived in Wellington and I can tell you it's not known as Windy Wellington for nothing - I was nearly taken off my feet when I got off the bus. On the way here we passed through the carrot capital of New Zealand, there was no evidence of this other than the 30ft carrot erected in the middle of the main town roundabout.
Only have a day here in Wellington so have made a quick visit to the museum, which was really good - loads of interactive volcano stuff to play with, and to the Lord of the Rings exhibition which has loads of the costumes on display and interesting facts - for example they got through over 2000 hobbit feet during filming and they used yak hair to create the hairy hobbit toes. The resemblance between the hobbit feet and mine was quite alarming!!
A few strange things I've noted about New Zealand so far:
Chickens - there are loads of 'wild' chickens living in lay-bys at the roadside - my friend Karen's theory is that these have been bought by people who then don't
want them so they just offload them at the side of the road where they happily live in little clucks
Metal Roads - these are not in fact metal, but gravel and no-one I've asked can explain why they refer to them as metal
Pukeko's - these are the Kiwi equivalent of pheasants I guess. They're quite pretty and seem to wander along aimlessly. Des the drive says that they're very inquisitive but also stupid and if one of their gang gets hit by a car (and judging by the amount of Pukeko roadkill this happens quite frequently) the others wander over to see what's happend and bham!! that's another 3 or 4 Pukeko's gone to Pukeko heaven...
So, tomorrow we're heading to the South Island where they've had loads of snow, so I may be able to get some ski-ing in. Highlights to look out for soon on Baker's travels....
will I ever get to throw myself out of a plane at 12000 feet?
white water rafting/kayaking
a couple of nights in Barrytown, know as 'Baz' Vegas?????
Special birthday message to my sister Lorraine - SHE'S 40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone for your messages and e-mails, keep them coming,
lots of love
Carole x
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