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Published: August 8th 2007
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New Zealand - "North Island - Part II"
We left our magic spot for Coromandel, where we walked in the morning to the amazing Cathedral Cove and where we burned our feet at the hot water beach. The sight of all those people digging at low tide and trying to find a hot water spot was just hilarious. We had a much more cunning plan. Walking around, we were watching people who got tired of sitting in their pool and simply left, and we then moved in cookoo style. After our short visit to the Coromandel we headed further south to Katikati. Our destination - a Kiwi farm. We met the Shooie family on a beach close to Russel and they invited us back to show us poor buggers how those kiwi fruit actually grow. So we went on a very interesting tour, learning all about the Kiwi fruit. Did you know that what most of us know as Kiwi fruit is actually the chinese gooseberry? That's right! New Zealand managed to very successfully market the fruit under a different name and so today everyone associates the Kiwi fruit with New Zealand. Also there isn't just 1 type of
kiwi, oh no, there are several (I forget how many) and they were growing 2 varieties, the normal bogstandard green, and the sweeter gold variety.
Next thing to explore on our list were the thermal pools all around Rotorua lake. We chose to visit Whakarewarewa, which is very close to Rotorua. There you can gaze at geysers, see mudpools and sniff loads of eggy air. This place was a Maori settlement, where people used the advantage of having hot to boiling water for washing and cooking without having to switch on a kettle. You can also walk around a Maori village and see their houses and meeting places with beautiful wood carvings dyed in red and decorated with shells. That night we stayed on a camp site which had 4 hot pools to dip in if you could stand the smell. We could bear the smell but the heat of the water seemed like near boiling temperature so you couldn't stay in for very long before you began to poach 😉
Fascinated by the thermal activity we went to Wai-o-tapu, a much bigger area with loads of colourful pools and a geyser which is always set of with
a piece of soap around 10:15 every day. Not exactly what you would call a naturally occuring event, but it was good to see none the less. How they know to set it off with soap is a long and not overly interesting story, but we wouln't want to spoil it if you go there yourself. Walking through that place you had to hold yourself back not to touch the bautiful and inviting basins. You felt like on a different planet! Just as well we did as touching would have resulted in either a scallding by hot water or severe acid burns for the minerals which reside in some of the sulphur pools. In the afternoon we decided to visit the ohhh sooo highly visited (the most visited of all DOC sites apparently) Hooka Falls. The over all judgement of our traveling group was "Not Impressed". The falls are small and essentially manmade, yes we didn't do the walks and also we are jaded by the spectacular falls we have seen around the world but still overall, Not impressed. Andy had the great idea to really challange our camping facilities and there we were, making sushi at the back of
Hot water beach
Possibly the largest gathering of people in one place we saw in the whole of NZ. Madness I tells ya. our van. Delicious! It has to be said it wasn't quite as beautifull as sushi can be, but for a back of a campervan, it was not a bad effort at all, it tasted good which is all that matters.
Further south and we arrived in Taupo, where a lot of people come to jump out of a plane. Josie did not need an invitation. Now there are a lot of skydive companies in Taupo, so it is the cheapest place in NZ to do it apparently. I know what you are thinking, cheap skydiving, perhaps not something you should be skimping on quality, but it is puerly because of all the competition (or so Josie hoped) With her long term dream so close she booked herself on the highest jump she could find - 15000 feet / 4572 meters!!! At 3:30 a plane filled with mad people finally took off. Everyone on board jumped 12000 feet and so it was a strange feeling to be the last one left. However, Andy, Josie's sky dive instructor from New Zealand (not her curly haired scouse traveling partner) , was very funny and made her feel very comfortable. "1 - 2
- 3 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" is all she can remember from the first few seconds of the free fall. Josie tumbled around, not knowing where up and down is, strapped to someone who thankfully knew how to get into a more sensible position while the world rushed past them. As soon as she gathered her senses together and despite being pretty much in the middle of the North Island she could see both cost lines and also mountains, lakes and forests. The feeling of euphoria overtook her and she could not help but smile, shout and laugh all the way. After the long freefall Andy opened the parachute and passed on the reins to Josie. All in happy land she could now steer the parachute herself while enjoying the breathtaking scenery. Luckily for the instructor of all the excitement she has not eaten any lunch before the jump. Touching the ground again an overwhelming "I have done it!!!" feeling overcame her and she thanked the dream fulfiller for such an unforgettable experience. It was very strange to have just done what you wanted to do for a very long time and it left you with the feeling of "there is no stopping
now!". You can and should follow your dreams as having, longing for and achieving them makes life so much more worth living.
The next stop on our oh so exciting itinerary was the Tongario Crossing. A very early morning on Andrew's birthday was celebrated in style with a full english breakfast (what better present could someone ask for than bacon!). All set up for the one day walk we left around 7:15am. Admittedly, we did not manage to escape the crowds here but the walk was well worth it. The first part has proven very challanging to some, as it was a steap climb over lose rocks. For Andrew it seemed to be a walk in the park as he was well ahead Josie who was busy encouraging mum not to faint. The reward at the top made us forget about all the struggle and we indulged in the sight of beautiful volcanos and emerald lakes. The rest of the walk was pretty much downhill from there which was quite a relief to all. What a place to celebrate your birthday! Filled with the energy of the stunning scenery we reached the end of the walk one hour before
Kiwi
These are the green variety our pick up. In the evening mum treated us to a birthday dinner at the discovery lodge. The simple but very well cooked food, good wine and delicious desserts were filling our tummies and made a very nice end to the exhausting day.
As it was getting towards the end of March we had to progress quickly towards Wellington, where Josie's mum had a flight out back to Auckland and then home. Wellington has made quite an impression on Josie with it's pretty waterfront full of people enjoying the sunshine, good restaurants and a beautiful botanic garden. The city has a real sense of style and a buzz of life about it. We also went to the Te Papa museum, which turned out to be very similar to the Auckland museum but still worth a visit especially as it is one of the few things in NZ that are free. Shame that during the only sunny day our camera run out of battery and we thought we would get another one. We didn't, and so we left Wellington on a ferry to the south island with only memories. It has been great!!!
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Neil
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Wow !
What fantastic pictures and adventures , not to mention getting through a whole blog without a blocked toilet ! .