Our World Wide Adventures: June 2005

North Island - New Zealand

After 4 weeks in the south island our adventure of New Zealand continues. Unfortunately we only had 2 weeks for the north island which wasn't near long enough and so many of our stops were for only one night trying to fit activities in. We caught the ferry between the islands from Picton to Wellington. Arriving after midnight we faced our 1st experience of parking problems, and like it or not, had to pay for a 24 hr service for the couple of days we were there. Apart from walking around the city we went to Te Papa Museum which was huge and really interesting, and we drove up to Mt Victoria which overlooked the city and gave some perspective on how spread out it is. Whanganui (on the west coast) was our next stop. Many people have asked why on earth did we go there? Ian has always liked the sound of the name - and that's the only reason! It was only an overnight stop, and we didn' really have a look around. The bizarre thing was bumping into Theresa (from the UK) in our hostel whom we had met 4 months earlier in a small town called Denham on the west coast of Australia (near Monkey Mia, famous for its dolphins). What we wanted to do next was walk the Tongariro Crossing, in the National Park (north east). Unfortunately the conditions were bad, it had snowed. We had driven up to the ski field, and it was freezing. We would have had to walk to this height and higher on the walk. It's supposed to be the best one day trek (8-9hrs, 17 kms), in New Zealand. It sounds amazing! To walk across volcanic terrain; one being still active with a steaming vent. So this was a little disappointing. This part of our journey was a little all over the shop, due to an activity in Taupo not being available on the day we wanted (can you guess what it may be?), and also our timing clashed with the Lions Rugby Tour (English/Scots/Irish team), to go onto Rotorua, as we would not have found accommodation. So we changed our direction and ended up having to come back on ourselves. Waitomo Caves (continuing up the west side) is a small but interesting place to explore. Due to the cold weather we didn't want to do any caving that meant getting wet, although in hindsight, this would have been the most fun, abseiling and floating down a river in the cave system. Tip. What we did do was a 100m abseil down into the caves which was initially a little scary, but then we unfortunately only had one hour once we were down there. We felt we had paid far too much for this experience, and our guide commented that we could have done something more challenging. Oh well. On the Coromandel Peninsula on the east coast we spent a night in Thames, on our way to Whitianga. I hadn't been feeling all that crash hot (well) so we upgraded ourselves to a motel room, with a kitchen and TV, knowing that we would be spending a lazy afternoon and evening in, and watching the Lions match on TV. Luckily the weather was pretty crappy so you didn't feel like you were missing out on exploring. We cooked up a roast in one of those old fashioned electric fry pans. Beautiful. We did a Bone Carving class the following day which was really good. NZ is well known for its Bone and Jade jewellery. Mine is still in the plastic bag as it looks like I bought it in a shop! We stopped off at Hot Water Beach on our way down to Rotorua. On low tide you can dig a hole in the sand (in a certain area of the beach) and have a hot bath. We didn't partake due to the tide having turned. Rotorua was great fun, if you can get past the constant, very strong, rotten egg smell, of the sulpher. The whole area has thermal activity which is fascinating. We went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland with an English/Scot couple (who have been working/volunteering - mostly the latter, around the world for the last 10 yrs - which is giving Ian ideas!! As he is extending ours!) A block of soap was dropped into the Lady Knox Geyser and within 2 minutes liquid was shooting high into the sky. There were also volcanic craters, mud pools and steam vents. We went to a Maori Concert and were entertained with songs, fighting tools and the famous Huka dance. We feasted on a traditional Hangi, where all the meat and vegi's were cooked in the ground for hours. Highly recommended evening! We drove down to Taupo to do a 15,000 ft Tandem Sky Dive. Got the works, photos, DVD and T-Shirt. Shouldn't have spent the money considering I've done it all before (10,000 ft in 2000 in Africa), and that you spend all your time playing up to the camera and not looking at the scenery during your freefall. There was over 60 seconds in the freefall and this is the highest jump you can do. Once the shoot opened the guy did some sharp turns that made me feel really sick! So I had to work through a bit of negativity after we had landed. The 180 degree lens on the camera created some wicked photos, making them look like you are above the edge of the curved world. Craters of the Moon was another thermal sight with loads of steam vents everywhere (free to!). The Polynesian Spa is a must. A variety of pools ranging from 37 to 42 degrees. Imagine this - nighttime, a pool over looking the city sights across the lake and steam rising, making it all very mystical. Monks apparently swear by its healing properties. Paihia in the Bay of Islands is up past Auckland towards the tip of the island on the east coast. This is where the Waitangi Treaty was signed on 6 Feb 1840 between the British government and the Maori Chiefs. The Treaty Grounds are on a National Trust estate where we saw the carvings on a typical Maori meeting house, a 35m canoe and the Treaty House, which was the original British Residency, and the venue of significant political events during the 1830's and 1840's. We took the ferry over to Russell for a look around, before being picked up for a three and a half hour cruise around the Bay of Islands. We got to swim with dolphins (which we weren't expecting) which was really cool! The water was freezing, which took a little while for my heart rate to go down and allow me to breathe through my snorkel properly. Auckland was our final destination. We stayed with Jacque and Jason whom we'd met in Russia and traveled with in China. We went up the Skytower to see the views of the city, had lunch by the Habour, and were taken to a lively pub to watch the Lions Rugby verus the Maori side. Intense match. We drove to the west coast to have a butchers (look) and were treated to a roast. We then went to stay with Hannah and Mike whom we'd met through Cyndi (whom I lived with in London). Whilst they worked, Mike's parents took us to see One Tree Hill for a different perspective on the spread of the city and outlying cities. Dinner on the habour (funnily enough at the same place we had been taken to - obviously very popular!) and a look at the city lights from the northern side of the water, which was really nice. The hospitality of them all was fantastic!! We have absolutely loved New Zealand and were disappointed that we hadn't allocated more time (considering that we had just spent four and a half months in Australia). And for anyone that tells you to spend more time in the south island (as we had been told), well thats bollocks, cause there loads to do on the north island, and we've missed out on seeing heaps. Oh well. Just means that we will have to come back!!!