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Published: December 6th 2006
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Saturday 25th November Paul - Nice drive to Waitomo this morning where we would hopefully be using a 2 for 1 voucher to go caving in the limestone caves around there.
We arrived early so after looking around the village (very dull - they've not excatly made much of the huge tourism industry passing through here) we went to book our tour. Expecting a bargain anyway, we were shocked when the woman at the counter asked us if we wanted a free upgrade AND we could still use our 2 for 1 voucher. That meant we'd be paying $45 for a $165 tour! A whole $240 saved!
We were expecting some kind of catch but when there wasn't one we had a quick look around the Museum of Caves to learn about the lifecycle of the glormworms and suitably excited we climbed into the van with our guides and headed to 'Hagis Honking Holes'.
It's hard to describe what caving is like but I'll give it a go. Basically you descend into narrow passageways, crawling along on your belly to get through and absailing down huge holes that are pitch black. Sometimes even waterfalls. It's fantastic fun.
Oh and because we're in Waitomo we saw loads of glow worms and they are fabulous.
We absailed down two waterfalls and made our way through lots of water filled passages to a depth of 70 metres! After rock climbing our way back out we had a refreshing shower before heading on to our hostel for the night in a small town just outside of Waitomo.
The caving was a fantastic experience and I'd really like to do one of the longer tours even though we had a couple of hours underground. A quick mention of the hilarious hostel we stayed in. It was clean and fine but there were a couple of total freaks staying there. Roughly 40ish in age they spent all night listening to Iron Maiden on a boom box outside (I'm surprised no one complained) before staggering around the kitchen not speaking to anyone and attempting to drink milk from the fridge. In the morning they then repeated this exercise starting at about 7ish! Iron Maiden was on even louder. Very strange.
We did meet a lovely couple from Canada and the USA who were avid rock climbers and had a good couple
of hours chat with them.
Sunday 26th November Laura - We didn't have a terribly exciting day today, most of it was spent driving to Auckland. We did stop en route in a place called Hamilton to look around their impressive Botanic Gardens, but apart from that it was a pretty uneventful day.
Once in Auckland we checked into a rather strange hostel that seems to be full of weirdos. Paul insisted that we must stay somewhere with sky TV so that he could get up at 5am to watch the football! Insane.
Much of the afternoon was spent cleaning the car as we are returning it tomorrow and want to make a good impression in the hope that they ignore all the chips!
Monday 27th November Paul - I somehow slept through my alarm and missed the whole of the first half of Manchester United - Chelsea. A friendly Irish guy filled me in with the action (or little of it, apparently) and I watched the 2nd happily.
Laura - Poor Paul. Anyway, after returning our car today we went into town and pottered around for a few
hours, taking in the art gallery and a few other sights. Paul was tempted to do a base jump off the sky tower (which looks terrifying), but settled instead for watching other people jump off.
In the afternoon we caught a ferry across the harbour to Devonport, which is a pretty little town on the "North Shore". We took a stroll along the beach and had a nose in some of the tacky shops before going back across to the city. The harbour reminded us a bit of Sydney with it's harbour bridge. No Opera House though. Auckland probably isn't quite as nice as Sydney either. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad city, but it is a bit dull. We're a bit bored of cities anyway.
We contemplated going to the cinema but it was rather expensive so we didn't bother. We cooked some dinner back at the hostel and spent the rest of the evening walking around the local village and reading our books. We were woken up at 1am by the sound of someone in the shower in the bathroom above us. They were in there even longer than I would be (this may
be hard to believe but it is true) and worst of all, there was water dripping into our bedroom! We later found out that the person in the shower was one of the staff and were not impressed. This place is quite odd.
Tuesday 28th November Laura - Ezy car rentals have managed to find something to fine us over. Grr...
We got up quite late today and as I stumbled out of the bedroom on the way to the shower I bumped into Andy and Anna in the corridor. They are a couple we met in China and saw on various other occasions in Asia. We had arranged to meet them later in the day but they decided to come and surprise us by turning up at our hostel. What a sight I must have been!
We spent the rest of the day with Anna and Andy, pottering around town and catching up on our travel tales. Me and Paul also had the hassle of changing our plane tickets as we are no longer flying to Fiji because of the political situation there. We fly directly to LA on December 1st now.
We spent the evening making food and drinking wine back at Anna and Andy's hostel, and getting told off by a stuck up hostel guest for making too much noise at 10.30pm! It was really nice to see Anna and Andy again and swap travel tales. We're disappointed about not going to Fiji but at least we'll have good company for our last few days in New Zealand!
Wednesday 29th Novemeber Paul - Laura complained that someone had been in the shower again at 1am! Rolled out of bed and met our taxi driver for the day (Andy) who whisked us away to the Auckland museum. Laura and I have been really looking forward to seeing them both again and we'll probably be sad (and a little jealous) to see them flying to South America in a couple of days.
Anyway the museum was actually really good with my highlight being the well thought out display on volcanos complete with a volcano simulator. We made our way to Mission Bay and had some ice cream on the sea front before taking in the views from the lookout over Auckland. Andy was trying to pursuade
us to come visit some friends of his parents but after discovering that he hasn't met them for about 10 years we decided to leave the awkwardness in their capable hands.
Not that Laura and I had anything exciting to do. We cooked our frozen pizza and read our books!
Thursday 30th November Paul - Our first splurge in a long while! After accomplishing nothing in the morning due to the rain we met Anna and Andy at the bus stop and made our way to the city centre. We would be dining tonight at the Orbit Revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower but first we were going to Minus 5, a bar made totally out of ice!
Laura kitted up in a sexy coat and snow boots combo whilst I only had to wear the coat. Two pairs of gloves on and we were allowed in. The rules, "You can touch, lick and hug anything... just don't break it!" The whole thing was literally made out of ice, even the glasses. Needless to say it was a bit nippy and we were only allowed in for 30 minutes in case we froze to death (Anna left after 25 minutes due to numb fingers).
A few drinks and many stories later we made our way to the Sky Tower for our reservation. The food was great but the views were even better. We even got a free glass of wine with our coupons!
Had a fantastic night topped off with a quick drink back in Mt Eden village. We'll be sad to leave to North America whilst those two fly to South America. We've had a lovely few days here with them.
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Big Bro
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Back to the Future
Wow some guys wearing Iron Maiden t shirts and listening to music on a boom box. Is that car you borrowed a De Loren or is NZ stuck in the 1980's? I can just oh Viennia by Ultra Vox being played just now - wonderful! Oh and I like the matching jackets were they buy one get one free - another bloggers bargain?