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Published: April 30th 2013
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Nick and I drove North from Wellington towards the Tongariro Crossing to meet our friend Diddler and his girlfriend Ailin. After wasting a few hours drinking beer in our Camper at the campsite they arrived; it's really great to see friends you haven't seen in months and even better when it's so comfortable that it feels like you only saw them yesterday. I turned 26 at midnight, which was rather worrying (especially as I now have to tick the 26-30 age box on forms) but was made merry by 3 friends singing happy birthday and the delivery of some birthday cards off some special people.
The next day we had planned to walk the Tongariro Crossing, one of New Zealand's great walks...unfortunately we were surrounded by fog so the great views were non existant. We ended up doing a U turn and heading to Taupo which was a shame, but also a good decision as we were met with some sunshine and walked from some waterfalls to some natural hot springs. I was amazed at just how hot the water was that was gushing out of these little waterfalls and it was really relaxing to sit and chill out in the hot
pools. Lake Taupo is beautiful and it's a relaxed and pretty town to visit. But, that night we did have a slight mission finding the local DOC campsite, located in a nearby forest area. There was no sign and the forest was full of winding dirt tracks...we drove pretty far up one in the van to discover it was definitely the wrong way and had a bit of a mission getting back down, Nick also managed to poke himself in the eye whilst this was hapenning which only added to the drama! It was like Blair Witch on wheels, but we eventually found it.
We headed to Rotoroua next, which because of all the sulphur in the town, smells like rotton eggs, but the geo thermal activity does mean it's full of natural hot pools. We wandered around an Anzac Day food fair then had to say goodbye to Ailin as she headed back to Auckland for work. Me, Nick and Diddler spent the afternoon Luging which for those who don't know, is basically whizzing down-hill on go kart type contraptions. The boys, of course, lept into a fierce competitive mind set, whilst I remained a calm, collected and controlled distance
behind them.
We only spent a night here, moving onto Mangaokewa, a small town. It's a popular climbing spot and Diddler had his climbing gear with him, so did a spot of climbing. I would say I joined but it was an extremely poor effort....oversized shoes would be my main excuse, but it probably boils down to a negative attitude. In reference to a group of people climbing at the same spot, a classic quote (for those who know him) from David Jewison is 'Your climbing made them feel at ease. My climbing made them feel in awe'.
Hopefully I redeemed myself the next day when we walked up Mt Karioi near Te Toto Gorge in Raglan. It was actually a bit of a challenging walk in places, with some pretty slippy spots. I think we all ended up on our arse at some point and the final 30 minutes involved a series of 'summits' that we thought were the final one. Needless to say we were pleased to reach the top and did manage to get some good views when the fog cleared. The end of this day was also our last evening in the Campervan, which was pretty sad, although
much longer cooped up together with one of us sleeping in a bed that resembles a giant pizza box may have seen our friendly bickering extend to the waving of kitchen knives.
Raglan is a bit of a surfers town and has a cute highstreet with some nice cafes and shops on. We spent our last day in our beloved Camper visiting some nearby waterfalls, which created a load roar and were an impressive sight, before heading to Auckland. David and Ailin live in Mission Bay so they treated us to fish and chips on the beach and an amazing ice cream.
I've had a few days in Auckland, the second of which was mainly spent with Nick, throwing ourselves 13,000ft out of a plane. It's a hard experience to describe and I suprisingly didn't feel that nervous as we flew up in something the size of a toy plane. it's quite a strange feeling when someone flings open the door of a plane and tells you to swing your legs out of the side over the wing. But I felt pretty securely strapped to this man and was happy that he would be in control (as I dont think I would
have quite been able to do it alone)...he counted down...3..2..1...and then we jumped and spun around, free falling for around 45 seconds which felt like no more than 10. As you can see,my mouth is open on most photos - this reflects my continious screams (of joy). We then had 5 minutes of descent with the parachute up which was also really cool, I even got chance to wave to Nick as he came down too!
Auckland is a cool city and feels quite compact, in a good way. The strips of beaches are pretty too, so although the centre feels like a busy thriving city, you don't have to go far to feel like you're in a relaxed beach town. My last couple of nights in Auckland have been spent with Anna, Chris and little Harrison and I have been treated to a few home comforts before I head back into less westernised travel and fly into Santiago. The addition of thermal leggings, a sleeping bag and roll matt to my rucksack means I'm ready for some camping. I'm sure some adventures are in store.
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