Adventure capital of the WORLD!!!

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We have made it 1/2 way through New Zealand - Wellington and only two weeks gone another 4 to go and explore the south island. we shall be taking the south island a bit slower, but probaly in short bursts as its always nice to get to know the people on the bus who are normaly going through alot quicker than us.

In Rotarua we went to the spa pools - 42 degree geothermicaly heated pools that stink, they are also supposed to have amoebic meningitis in them (i now find out after dunking my head under) spent so long in them that my feet were wrinkled for hours after!!

then we mover on to Taupo, a town around the biggest lake in new zealand - it was formed from one of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever. to put it in perspective it makes Mt. St Helens look like a banger. around it there are a few famous mountains which we had to get up a 5 am to climb over, one is Mt. Tongariro which gives its name to the second ever national park in the world and is a "dual world heritage site" whatever that means. another is Mt. Ruapehu which released a huge Lahar a few weeks ago killing a whole load of people on a train and the last is Mt Ngauruhoe, a.k.a. Mt. Doom for all you Lord of the Rings fans out there. we did one of the "top ten 1 day hikes in the world" across the national park called the Tongariro Crossing, it took us 7 hours straight but being able to say you have climbed Mt doom is worth it.
While we were in Taupo jack did a 15000 ft skydive which he is pretty stoked about.

On our way to Wellington we stopped by a place called River Valley for a night - which is a completely secluded hostel on its own and has lots of adventure activities run out of it. it was so lovely i couldnt believe it. its on the Rangitikei River. in the morning we did grade 5 white water rafting. it lasted for 3 hours and was probably the best fun i have had so far. we had 4 rafts of 4/5 people going down the river all with people from our bus. so in the calmer parts of the river we were jumping off the rocks and boarding the other rafts and pulling people into the water. it was one long laugh. such such good fun... no photos for obvious camera/water incompatiblitys but they did take some photos and a video or two, which they are going to post to a friend i made out here who is going to make me a copy and send it over. so there should be some photos when i get home. at river valley we stayed in a ridiculously huge dorm - there were 32 beds on 2 levels! but it was fun as they werent all filled.

Wellington so far is a blast, we found our first club where we liked the music. im pretty sure a return visit is in order tonight...

All my photos are on my camera still, will try to post some when i get a chance.

Laters

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Photos

Climbing Mount Doom
Look Familiar?

I FOUND PROPER PG TIPS!!!!
you cant beat english pyramid bags! cost me $10 though!

Comments

[ray]

how come no skydiving from you greeny....?

[greeny]

Because..
because i have already done one in switzerland which i dont think could realy be beaten.... and its very expensive, we could only afford one of us doing it.