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The obligatory Mt Doom photo
I can't remember its real name. Ruapehu? Ah yes! That all pervading smell of hydrogen sulphide (also known as 'rotten eggs') can only mean one thing: I'm in Rotorua. But at least I'm here safe, eh?
So what have I been doing the last week or so?
First I left Wellington for Taupo. Easy enough. Unfortunately it turned out that the only day that I was going to spend in Taupo was a rainy ANZAC day. What was there to do? Tongariro Crossing, one of the finest one day walks in the world (apparently)? Nope. Paying a man with a parachute to pull me out of a plane? Apparently not. These popular activities were not running and the traditional rainy day passtimes (museums etc) were closed due to a public holiday. This meant that I spent the day walking, when the rain cleared up a little. I went past the cliffs and rivers out of town up to Huka falls outside. It was quite pretty- apparently much nicer on a sunny day, and I walked past lots of hot springs and stuff.
Alas, I could only stay in Taupo one full day as I was running out of time and wanted do go eastwards. I'd
booked onto a Kiwi Experience bus (Yes, I know) which does a run out the east coast over four days taking, since all my reading and asking around about the east coast suggested it would be pretty cool.
Days go like this:
1- Exit Taupo with lots of people who had all gone skydiving that morning, so I heard about nothing but skydiving for about half a day.
Enter Napier, art deco town. It seems... Nice. The temperature is perfect and I sit in a park garden for a little, but it it strikes me as a little dull. Hop back on the bus to get out of there.
Spend the night in Gisborne, surf town. Apparently it sees the sunrise two seconds before Suva (Fijian capital) each day, making it the first city to see sunrise and its James Cook statue does not portray James Cook. I mull these facts over a group barbecque at our very nice hostel. It was quite tasty.
2- I was supposed to have a surf lesson today but the instructor decided he didn't want to for whatever reason, so i just take out a boogie board and roll around on
the waves for a little while. Fun, but cold.
On this note I get the hell out of Gisborne and into east cape territory. It's really quite similar to the west coast of south island (not many people, feels like 'real NZ', people who are there like taking their cattle for a stroll along the road every day), except there's no rainforest and most people up here are of Maori rather than European descent.
We stay at a remote farmstay near the tip of the cape. There was a pool table with rips in it (see picture), some kids running around plenty of mud. Most of the others went out horse trekking (I decided to do it the day after) while I carved myself a Maori style thingy out of bone, with a little help. I thought it was very nice so I now wear it round my neck, though I think I'll give it to someone when I get home. Who, I wonder...
I then ate 'Hangi' (apparently it's actually cooked in an oven by a Danish woman down the road) and sat round the fire for a while. The pleasures of travel, eh?
3-
I'd set my alarm to 6:00 so I could see the sunrise over the east cape, but it was raining so there was no chance. But I'd got up so I didn't go back to sleep like I usually ewould. Does the farm lifestyle get to you that quickly? Probably not.
Luckily, the rain stopped long enough for me to get saddled up and sent out up a hill for a couple of hours with the two other people who could be bothered and the farm owner, Reg. It was awesome, we got great views and I now know a little (very little, mind) about horses. Trouble is, I'm still saddle sore days later. Ow.
We then set off to a different place along the north coast of east cape. It was somebody's house. Apparently it's known for its hot tub on the beach. However it wasn't working. In fact, it had started raining again. Yipee. So we spent the evening doing other things like playing geetar and drinking beer and stuff. Ah.
4- I go to Rotorua. It smells and I don't have anywhere to stay, but I walk into a place and they have room
so it's all cool. I cook pork stir fry. Tasty.
5- For those who don't know, Rotorua has Maori stuff, volcanic activity and the oppurtunity to roll down a hill in a wet ball (bizarre). I've looked at/done all of these things. It was cool.
P.S. You may have noticed the huge difference between the date at the top and the day I actually posted this. This is due to a massive backlog of travelling and stuff. You can have it now but know this: I'm really in Auckland.
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Susanna/Mum
non-member comment
Riding?
Sorry the rain seemed to hinder you. Looking at you on the horse obviously those childhood riding lessons were a far distant memory!