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Published: August 8th 2007
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Rotorua Geyser
10.15am every day A miraculous thing happened to us almost as soon as we arrived here on North Island - we actually managed to pick up some radio stations. Many long, arduous car journeys had passed on South Island with the odd crackle, and if we were lucky, and I mean really lucky, some background fuzz. Not so here on North, it's like a land of noise in comparison. Still rubbish radio, but anything is better than nothing when you're heading for 300km away with nothing to entertain you but the outside crosswinds, a bottle of water and the occasional overtaking idiot.
I must say that to anyone reading this, if you have not been to New Zealand and sometime get the chance to do so, we can both highly recommend you take that chance. One of the first things we heard on the intermittent radio was a question about N.Z Government having twelve billion New Zealand Dollars to spend from 'new funding' and could listeners call in with they're ideas on how it should be used to improve the country, and the economy. Clare and I immediately agreed that several of those dollars should be spent on signposts for the South Island.
Champagne Pool
Waiotapu Wonderland It's hard to find anywhere without a map, and the distances quoted are usually at least 20km wrong. We also agreed that they should spend another vast amount on a tourism awareness campaign to let people know just how amazing their country really is - it is better than either of us can probably explain in written words - massively diverse yet altogether massively appealing.
Our first stop here was Wellington where we arrived on the Interislander ferry from Picton. We took two buses and arrived at the YHA which had last year been voted the best Hostel in Oceana, quite an accolade. It was alright I suppose. Probably the biggest Hostel too, which may have something to do with it winning, but maybe that is just me being sceptical. I have revised my opinion of the Hotel vs Hostel argument since being away and will probably not stay in a Hotel for a very long time to come. You only get a tiny little room with no cooking facility and get the priviledge of paying an arm and a leg for it. With a Hostel however, most are very reasonable accomodation and you get the use of all
the kitchen facilities, occasionally you may have to share a bathroom, but they are 99% of the time so well kept, you dont even think about it. More importantly, there are no restraints and no confinement to your room. Oh, and they cost about three times less too.
So we had just an afternoon in Wellington and went up in the famous cable car that I had never heard of, then to the Te Papa museum which was free and very interesting, detailing the first settlers in New Zealand, the location geologically and what effects this has be it for earthquakes, volcanoes or just climate in general. Next we picked up another car, which this time is nice but drinks 'gas' - a Mazda Familia Estate type thing and headed for Taupo, four and a bit hours North and home to the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere, Lake Taupo. Also the cheapest place to skydive in the whole world. Not cheap enough though! We spent a couple of nights there and made our way to Rotorua, via Waitomo (a three hour detour) to visit the Gloworm Caves. This was infact well worth it, and a very interesting and
well presented tour which learned us some very unsavoury facts about the life and times of your average gloworm, which I shall not delve into too deeply. It was explained to our fascinated group that the glow is not actually omitted from the worm (which isnt a worm but a maggot) but what used to be contained within the worm/maggot... you work it out! There was also an explaination of something even more disgusting but I won't take you there. The sheer amount of these gloworms amazed me, we returned to the entrance on a boat in the dark and these minute creatures lit up virtually the whole top of the pitch dark cave - quite a sight.
Rotorua is a geothermal hotspot (see what I did there?) and also stinks due to the massive level of Sulphur and other chemicals leaking out from within the Earth's thin crust in this part of the world. One of the best examples of this in the area is Wai'O'Tapu Geothermal Wonderland just down the road a bit. It was literally amazing and some of the things almost make you want to ask if they are actually real. The Devil's Lake for
'World Famous' Sheep Show
Shaun - bottom row, second from right... example, a flourescent green/yellow lake, given it's colour by sulphuric acid. Then there's the champagne pool, the jewel in the crown that some of you may have seen pictured before. What these pictures don't elude to, is the sheer amount of steam that rises from it. We spent some time waiting for the wind to be blowing the right way to be able to get any decent photo's at all! I think we got them in the end though, and it was worth the wait. Another demonstration of the amazement within the park is that they can make a geyser erupt at will by introducing 300g of soap powder to it. Five minutes later (10.15am everyday folks - get there early if you're reading this and thinking of going) there you have it. An erupting geyser. Brilliant to watch considering they could naturally go anytime between every two to thirty six hours. This was a decent one and reached about fifteen meters or so, not bad for some mild green fairy liquid or whatever they have over here. This was water you definately would not be doing dishes in, at between 90 and 210 degrees celcius!
Our last day
Sheep!!!
Posing with my woolly friends, and the sheepdogs! in Rotorua took us to the Agrodome where we watched the 'World Famous' Sheep Show. Anyone wishing to give me stick, please direct it to the usual address... The sheep show was quite good really, there's fifty million of them in New Zealand and practically every field and mountain has some of the intrepid little guys in/on it. You can't help but find them interesting after a while. Honest! The show showed us all the different types of sheep, and we even got to get up close and personal with them if we wanted. We introduced ourselves to a few, and I instantly made friends with a dumb and vacant looking (I expect some of you will be thinking we had something in common - you're so funny!) Southdown variety who was looking a little sleepy, and named him Shawn. Original eh?!
Auckland was next up, and we arrived here yesterday, 17th May. We finally found the hostel after a while, I think someone had the map upside down but isn't admitting to it...! Anyway, we have been shopping and today we went to the Harbour and ran our eyes over the yachts there. Some of them were massive!
It made you want to just get right on and start walking around with the anchor trying to look like you know what you are doing. We didn't though, obviously. I decided I would wait until Roman Abramovic decides to sell me his Pelorus yacht, I've contacted his people and they assure me we should get to thrash out a deal sooner or later. Then we visited the Skytower which is some 380 metres high which equates to, in feet, a lot. People can actually jump from the top of the observation deck... New Zealand's highest jump. There's no bungy cord for this one, just a harness that after you jump, hangs you so the folk inside can watch you dangling, trying to be graceful, then you fall all the way to the bottom and land on a target, slowing up just enough to be safe before you hit the deck. Not my idea of a good time! Now we're off to work out how you pack a rucksack that isnt big enough for what we need to put in it. The cars we have had were barely big enough for my growing souvenir collection. Any ideas?
We're heading
off to Chile tomorrow, which means we will have more than definately geographically begun our trip back around the world, our furthest point away from the UK having been Dunedin way down South here in New Zealand. Time has kind of rushed by and we realise now there is a mere three weeks until we're back on UK soil. Last thing I knew, we were packing our rucksacks and shoe-shopping in Kensington! The scariest thing for us is that the Inca Trail begins in six days! We were supposed to be fit by now!
Hope you're all well, Max (and Clare)
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