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Published: August 13th 2006
Ey Up,
During our last week in New Zealand we've been upto all sorts of activities, making our way from Taupo to Auckland via the Waitomo Caves, Hamilton and Hobbiton. The weather has been pretty shocking, many places have been flooded, in Taupo it rained constantly while we were there.
Me and Jonny had planned to do a Sky Dive in Taupo but unfortunately it was too cloudy so it was cancelled two days running. Our hostel, Rainbow Beach Lodge, wasn't a bad place to hang out though whilst the weather was so bad. They had a Movie Room with sofas and a large screen so we could watch DVDs all day. As well as watching DVDs, playing cards and reading Jonny took the opportunity to perfect his Frank Butcher impression: practice makes perfect and it's now one of his Top 3 impressions: "You my friend are turning into a liability, I will give you a dry slap"
We left Taupo for the Waitomo Caves, on the map we thought we'd spotted a short cut, this however inevitably turned into a detour. The road was unsealed so we had to crawl along at about 20 kmph dodging huge
Rumble
The weather worked against us in Taupo so a lot of our time was spent watching films in the Movie Room or general banter.rocks on the road and remaining debree after recent landslides, it wouldn't have been the best place to break down!
Waitomo is a small village famous for it's Glow Worm Caves, so upon arrival at our hostel we booked to go and do some caving the next morning. However "Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you" (Thats one of mine!) and because of exceptionally high water levels in the famous Caves it was cancelled?!?! But as a famous "philosopher" (Dolly Parton!) once said, "To get the rainbow you've gotta put up with the rain": in the end we managed to go caving with a different company whose caves are higher up and thus less affected by the rain-Back of the Net.
Before our caving in the afternoon we visited the Waitomo Caves Museum, which had some intersting features on the caves, as well as having a couple of mine shafts that you could attempt to get through: was a tight squeeze but we all managed to get through them: "It's a good job Dan isn't here" echoed through the "mines" as we crawled through them!
Before our caving we had to get kitted out
Caving
In the Museum in wetsuits helmets and wellys, we looked absolutely ridiculous. Jonny was all set to use his own Helmet light, which has proved very useful on the trip so far (banter J!), but these were provided for us free of charge. After a short bus ride and walk through a field we arrived at the entrance of the Cave. To start with we were able to just walk through the water, but it soon got pretty deep so we had to get into our rubber rings and float along. Our guide told us to switch off our lights and look up, upon doing this we could see the famous Glow Worms, they looked just like specks of glitter. They aren't actually worms as such but rather flies/spider thingys that at this stage of their development just stick to the roof of the caves and drop down this silk typed web to catch food. When their prey, little insects, enter the cave and are disorientated by the darkness, they look up and confuse the glowing for the night sky and fly up towards it only to be caught by the web and eaten.
When we were all in our rubber rings
Timber!
We just managed to squeeze our car under this tree. we all had to get into a train like formation and hold onto the ring in front with our legs so we wouldn't become seperated. Without our lights on it was pretty much pitch black and it was quite difficult at times to keep balance, when someone in the "train" moved it wa like a domino effect. We heard the gushing of water and were told to switch our lights back on: we had just arrived at a mini Waterfall. It was really quite small but we had to jump down it backwards into the plunge typed pool below: ooh I was wet through.
After more paddling along, we had to squeeze underneath a rock face, gave the Ab Muscles a bit of a work out, before arriving at a slide. The slide was man made, so it was quite good just bombing down it on our rubber rings. We finally reached sunlight again after about an hour and a half in darkness and made our way back to base camp for some hot soup.
After another night of chilling in the hostel we headed for Hamilton. We again took the scenic route (For scenic read off road,
The Party Tree
Where the Hobbits have a Party under in the first film. landslide territory that looks like a shorter distance on the map but actually takes two hours longer!) Hamilton is the largest inland city in New Zealand, not that thats saying much, and some people think it's a bit of a dive: we had time to kill though so we decided to stay the night. Our hostel was ran by an old couple, the woman was from Whitehaven- as JJ would say: Small World!
We headed out at night, had quite a few nice bars but it was pretty quiet: we also got anihilated in a pub quiz again.
Hamilton is only a short distance from Auckland so we decided to visit Hobbiton along the way. Near Hobbiton is a big field full of sheep, not strange for New Zealand you might think, but this field is rather special, because it is actually the Shire of Lord of the Rings fame. Although New Zealand has several Lord of The Rings sites Hobbiton is the only one where there is any remaining set: for legal reasons the Hobbit huts are no longer there in their full glory but you can still make out the holes in the hills! We went
Smeegles.
We couldnt goto Hobbiton and not do any Cookmeisters could we. on a guided tour of the place where we were told about the great lengths New Line Cinema went to keeping the place a secret: everyone that entered the place at the time of shooting the movie had to sign a confidentiality contract and strictly no photographs were to be taken by people not working on the movie.
The main reason that Hobbiton was chosen for the Shire scenes was because it looked just like Tolkien described the Shire in the books, rolling hills and an "Olde England" style to it. It was quite slippery in the Village and Jonny took a massive tumble, getting absolutely pitted in the process: this gave me and Will the giggles big time so it was quite awkward trying to listen to the guides explanations and keep a straight face. He's had us in hysterics earlier when at a McDonalds Drive through he dropped his change out of the car window accidentaly and proceeded to unleash an expletive or two before telling the girl working there to "excuse the French": Simple minds, simple pleasures?!
After our Hobbiton visit we headed to Auckland arriving there in the late afternoon. Auckland is NZ's biggest
Bag End
Bilbo Baggins House. city by a country mile, it's population is 1.2 million, 4 times the size of Christchurch. It looks just like any other big city with Skyscrapers and all that jazz, the Sky Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.
We've been here for three nights now, and each night we've entered the free Pool comp in the Youth hostel Bar. The first night we played Killer, which Will won beating Jonny in the final. The next night Jonny beat Will in the final after eliminating me in the Semis and last night it was Wills turn to win again, beating me in the final of Killer?!?! Pool sharks! The prizes for winning were free/discounted Bungee Jumps off Auckland Harbour Bridge. Will hadn't done a Bungee yet so we headed to do it yesterday. It wasn't as big as the one we done in Queenstown but the nerves still get a little bit jangly as your standing on the platform ready to jump. To reach the Jumping Pod we had to walk along the Harbour Bridge before climbing some steps into the Pod, upon entering the Pod The Final Countdown was belted out over some speakers and one
Our Mucky Motor.
If we turned up to Frank Butchers Car Lot trying to flog him a motor in this kind of state we could exect a dry slap! side of the Pod was raises to show us the drop below.
I decided to get dipped in the water which was pretty cool, and me and Jonny yet again buggered up our ascent back to the top: failing to pull this chord properly, was pouring down with rain aswell-was freezing?!?! Will came through his jump unscathed and he didn't have the embarassment of being dragged back up to the Pod like a piece of meat!
We headed out last night, for a large city it didn't seem that there were that many bars, maybe the shocking weather has kept people indoors or we're just looking in the wrong places. Had a good night, one of the pubs had those yard long things where you could pour your own pints from at leisure, like they have at Pippins in Carlisle. Had a few drinking games aswell with a couple of peeps form the hostel which is always good crack.
Tommorow me and Wilson head to Fiji, back into the sunshine! Meanwhile Jonny is staying in NZ before heading to South America in a weeks time. So it's that time of the blog again where I have to
Auckland Skyline
The Sky Tower the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, is in the background. say some another goodbye: The Three Musketeers become two again (Again I hasten to add that we don't call ourselves this in public!). Jonjo it's been a pleasure and a privelage, you have had me in hysterics for the majority of this trip (And a fair few times I have been laughing with you! Banter) Seriously it's not gonna be the same without the Sprig factor in the group, you take care of yourself in South America and keep us informed of your adventures and misadventures (Maybe scout the continent for business opportuities, trendy but cheap Coffee Houses perhaps?!) See you for some Pop Tarts banter when you get back in time for Crimbo!
So it's farewell to Jonjo and farwell to New Zealand, enjoyed it!
Mike
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will an sheila stud
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all blogged out
hi smudge its a dull and dreary sunday here so i have spent the whole afternoon reading all your mates bloggs. time consuming but funny. but i must say (and not being biased ) yours is def the best, most informative and funny you get all the facts and figures in but its not boring at all. did you see the charity shield match today? liverpool 2 - chelski 1, nice start to the season for you. and have you seen the new strips? david and mark have already got theirs. went to your mam and dads on friday night, your mam made a lovely meal (to celebrate your dad and wills birthdays) we are off to florida in 5 weeks if you'd been visiting that side of the usa we could av met up. anyway take care see you in october. from all in the bronx.