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Published: April 4th 2007
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After 4 days of great surf in Taranaki, we decided to hit the road to see some of inland New Zealand before a new swell arrived. I hadn't left the coast since my slightly sketchy experience in the mountains of Peru. One of the first things on our to do list on this road trip inland was a skydive, so i was hoping i wouldn't be having any near death experiences on this trip away from the beach.
Our first destination was Lake Taupo. Right in the middle of the north island, it is apparently the best and cheapest place in the word to do a skydive. The drive there from Taranaki was a tourist attraction in itself. We brought a guide to the route from tourist information and it showed us all the best spots to stop along the way to enjoy the best views. We also took a minor detour to visit the tallest waterfall on the north island. (75m).
After enjoying some amazing views on the way to Lake Taupo, we arrived at night. We checked in to a YHA hostal and because of surfing early in the morning and driving all day i went
straight to bed. When i woke up the next morning, Pete had booked us both in for a skydive that day at 1pm. However, the weather was raining, cloudy and miserable. We waited around all day. The skydive kept being put back and put back until eventually we realized it wasn't going to happen. We had wasted a whole day sitting around, so decided to leave for a town about 1 hr away called Rotorua. We booked ourselves in to a Maori experience evening for that night and got back in the car.
The first thing we noticed about Rotorua when we arrived was the smell. The place absolutely stinks of rotting eggs because of all the geothermal springs in the area. Due to the fact that i had spent so much time locked in a car with Pete's arse smelling rather similar over the last week, i soon got used to the smell. At the hostal in Rotorua we met an Austrian girl called Julia who had been at our hostal in Lake Taupo the previous night (or so i am told, i was in bed the whole time). Julia was also going to the Maori evening so
we headed over together. When we arrived we were briefed on all the Maori etiquette that we would need to know and told to nominate a male leader for our tribe (or bus full of tourists). There would be an introduction ceremony on arrival at the Maori village that the leader would have to play a part in, so Pete didn't hesitate to nominate himself for the job. At the evening we saw how the tribe used traps to catch animals, we watched traditional Maori singing and dancing before enjoying a meal cooked underground using hot rocks. It was a great evening and really informative about the maori culture.
On the drive home from the evening, the last duty of our tribe leader (Pete) was to sing the first song on the coach. The idea was it had to be something traditional to our country and all the other nationalities on board the bus would do the same. After much deliberation, all Pete could think of to represent England was the Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. After only a couple of lines he had forgotten the words and got uncharacteristically shy, so handed the microphone over to me to carry
on. Not one to draw attention to myself when there is a crowd of people around, usually i wouldn't have uttered a word. HOwever, with national pride at stake and with Pete's poor initial efforts, i took the microphone and sang my heart out for my country.
The next morning it was still absolutely chucking it down with rain, so we all visited a near by hot water spa. It turned out to be the perfect activity, as sitting in the hot water pools with cold rain falling down was extremely relaxing. After a couple of hours soaking, we got back in the car to drive up to the Coromandel Peninsula and back to the beach. There should be waves over the weekend with some more great scenery to enjoy if the rain would ever stop. Julia also came along with us so she didn't have to take the magic bus filled with English teenagers just out of school and we could all split the petrol. Things didn't get off to the best of starts on the journey as a courier van backed into the car while we were filling the tyres up with air at a garage. He
damaged the bumper and the insurance policy we have on the rental means we are going to get charged for the repair. It is going to take some smooth talking when we return the vehicle to get out of this one and avoid the charge???
When we arrived in Whangamatta on the Coromandel peninsula we spent the first day held up in the hostal as the rain still hadn't stopped and the waves were awful. However, on the weekend we got some awesome waves up at a place called Hot Water Beach. Scotty and his mate Alan were there and said that the surf they had had in the morning had been just like being at Hossegor in France. When we paddled out the surf was definitely solid and really good fun. However, after only an hour i put a huge crack in the rail of my surfboard and had to get out. I was gutted as the waves were really good. As i couldn't surf anymore it did give us the chance to go and see some beautiful spots in the area. We spent the afternoon walking to a beach in the middle of a nature reserve called
Cathedral Cove. It took about 45minutes to walk there and when we arrived it was probably the most amazing beach i have ever seen.
For our last few days in Whangamatta i surfed my guts out. 3 sessions a day on a fun 2-3 ft beach break. To finish off my time there, on my last surf i was joined by a school of 5 dolphins. I was surfing alone on my last night as the sun was setting and the dolphins swam through the lineup, jumping and playing for about half an hour. They were swimming under my board and catching waves that i was surfing. I sat on my board surrounded by beautiful green mountains, golden sand, the setting sun, surfing the evening glass with dolphins by my side. It was a special moment that i will remember forever.
The next day Pete, Julia and myself got back in the car to drive back to Raglan. The swell charts were predicting that over the next few days we should get to surf the classic Raglan that we had driven away from to surf in Taranaki. We had no choice but to return and hope that as
the swell was due to arrive mid week, we would be able to enjoy the waves with a few less people out.
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Judith
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The naked picture
Did you realise you can blow the picture up?