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Published: August 10th 2008
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Wellington
View from Mt Victoria New Zealand is just an absolutely amazing place and the North island is as equally as good as the south. The scenery is not as dramatic in the north but still beautiful and there is just as much to see and do. You instantly see the increase in the amount of people and sheep and it was noticeably warmer..
We started off the north Island in the capital Wellington after crossing the cook strait by ferry from Picton. We were kindly taken in and shown around by Dan's mums cousin Alan and Rachel who lived there, although we are not to sure they would have offered if they had seen our van Maus before hand!!!! It was lovely staying with them and Rachel cooked us some traditional roast beef and yorkshire pudding and it was great sleeping in a comfy bed rather than our cold camper.
Wellington is a beautiful city and didn't have the feel of a capital, it was all very relaxed, quiet and very picturesque with a great little walk along the harbour and a fantastic museum called Te Papa, you could of spent days looking around it, it was huge. Not wanting to put the
neighbourhood down any more with a brightly painted camper parked outside Alans house we decided to head to the east coast where we spent a few days around Gisbourne, Napier and Hastings.
After a long drive to the Bay of Plenty, which is really beautiful, we met up with Jens work mate Hugh and his family Vicky, Harm and Samantha who moved there a few years ago. Again after obviously seeing the state of Dan he felt sorry for us as and we were invited back to stay, they fed us up with steak, chips and copious amounts of alcohol whilst watching the rugby!!! The following day we all headed to Mount Maunganui a town near Tauranga where there was a nice walk and a steep hike to the top, where there were spectacular views over the two towns. We were looked after so well by both families it was a struggle getting back to "normal" life in Maus.
We headed back to the eastern side of the Bay of Plenty to Whakathani, the hub for White Island, New Zealands only live marine volcanic island about 40 miles out to sea. Armed with hard hat and gas mask
Life Savers 1 at Wellington Tram
Alan and Racheal, Roast beef an yorkshire pudding yum yum we ventured onto the island of acid lakes, sulphurous steam, bubbling mud pools and the most eggy smells that even Dan would find hard to beat, it was awesome although a little intimidating. The guides did put our minds to rest "a little" after telling us it hadn't erupted since 2000, although tours had stopped a few weeks earlier due to a "small" tremor near the island.
Not leaving the eggy smells there we headed to Rotorua which has the most geothermal activity anywhere in New Zealand, even the street grates steamed. This place was fascinating with steaming lakes, bubbling mud pools, geysers and landscapes that could have been easily mistaken for being on another planet. There were volcanoes everywhere, 'live and dormant', there was even a hot water river called Kerosene Creek, which we walked down and found two naked people swimming, obviously they turned out to be English. Every house in the town seemed to have there own hot spa heated from beneath. There are endless activities to do here, we could have easily spent a week.
We left the hot climates for the mountains in the south and our first chance to ski. We picked
Napier Town
Very Colourful the wettest day possible in Whakapapa but we managed to make it for half a day before we had to give in before Pneumonia set in. It was good chance to experience a little of New Zealands winter sports. Unfortunately we didn't get to do a walk over the Tongariro crossing they say one of the best short walks (at least 8 hours) as we would of needed crampons and ice picks due to the amount of ice and snow. We couldn't hire a guide and with our navigational skills we would have probably ended up in Fiji!!!!!!
Nearing the end of time here we started our way to Auckland. On the way we passed Waitomo Caves, were we walked around several caves and caverns, but the highlight of this area had to be the rabbit shearing!!! A special breed of long haired rabbit are sheared for there fur, which is then made into hats, scarves etc, it was hilarious to see the before (happy rabbits) and after (cold unhappy rabbits))!!! but as i told one of the rabbits, to look on the bright side they could of been born a Possum!
And Finally we went to Auckland,
where we had our flight to Chile, South America. We stayed in a place called Takapuna on the beach front and did the usual touristy things of the Sky Tower and the sight seeing around the town, which we thought was extremely quiet for a major city on a Saturday. Being a Saturday and our last night we decided to treat ourselves and have a meal and a few beers (Mr wallet was not happy). The Sunday was spent blowing the cobwebs off the rucksacks, clearing out Maus (our home for an unbelievable 6 weeks) and handing her back to Escape, it was really emotional...............Not!!!!
We are now in South America, we have already witnessed beautiful scenery, dead bodies, dramatic landscapes and been locked in a shop while a riot was happening outside................what an interesting place........until next time.
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Mattu
non-member comment
Look at the size of that!
How can Jen's tongue be bigger than that of the statues? Either an empty head or a Tardis me thinks. Hope you are well ..... I'm sure you are!!