On the road

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Hi all! A big SORRY to everyone for being so slack on the blogging lately - I have a valid excuse. I've had limited data and barely any wifi zones so I wasn't able to log onto here for the last little while. Good news- remember how I told you about my french roommate who asked me to travel with him and his friends and I was debating it? Well, I ended up taking that offer and for the last 5 days, I've been on the road with 4 of them and it's been absolutely amazing. They're so wonderful and fun and the places we've been to see nothing like I've seen before. We were in Ragland (surf and beach city) and we spent the night camping. This was the first time I've pitched a tent and camped in the woods and I gotta say, it was much better than I thought it would be. We spent the day after that in a place called waitomo where we went ABSEILING (into a dark, narrow cave) rock climbing up a waterfall, and exploring a subterranean cave 90 metres underground. I've always been a little bit claustrophobic so I was especially proud and surprised with myself after the abseiling. We saw lots of glow worms and some eels in the cave- it was fantastic. The next few days were spent at the Tongario national park (volcanoes, craters, mountains g'alore!) - this was the site for LOTR's "mount doom". Today we explored a town called taupo where we took a boat ride on the longest lake in New Zealand (lake taupo) and checked out some ancient Maori carvings. We then went to the famous hot springs and thermal pools and came out of there looking like shrivelled up prunes. In a few hours we will be exploring the rest of the town of taupo... maybe hitting up this popular honey factory for some free tasting.... Well, we are budget backpackers after all! As for my road trip buddies, three of them are from France and one is actually a nz local (a kiwi) and we've become kinda like family in a few short days. One of them goes to queenstown when we get back to auckland (our starting point), the other two take off on another adventure to the South Island and the kiwi goes back home to a suburb in the Northland. When this road trip is done, I'll be... *drum roll* working with greenpeace nz!!! That's right- Im going to be working with one of the most well known ngos (but the NZ version) for the next little while. Greenpeace in NZ is very active and Im so excited to do what I can to contribute to that while I'm here. THANK YOU again to all those who helped me make it here- Im so grateful and the journey so far has been wonderful.

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Comments

[Ash]

Congrats!
Hi there! I love reading your blog... and I'm so glad you are having a good time. Congrats on landing the Green peace gig. Thats awesome! Love ya.. miss ya ashimaam