6 days in Taupo

We came to Taupo originally for Rich to do a skydive as we'd heard that this is a great place to do it and there was a bit of a price war going on and so could get it really cheap. I'd had no intention of chucking myself out of a plane, but during a walk called craters of the moon (which was very nice) I suddenly thought, fook it, I'm gonna do a skydive. I told Rich and he was amazed as well as pleased. So, the next day we went down to the airport to check it out and book for the following day. The lady there however said why don't you do it now, it's a beautiful day for it so might as well! I nearly poo'd my pants there and then. But we signed up for it and 10 mins later we were being kitted up!! Man I was scared, Rich didn't seem to be though. So, we got in the plane; there were 5 people jumping in all and as luck would have it I was to be first out! On the way up, I was very tightly strapped to my new best mate who was trying his best to make me even more scared!! When we reached 12,000 feet the door opened and as we were making our way to the edge, that's when my screaming started!! Oh my god!!! I can't believe I did it, but I did, I chucked myself out of a plane and despite the fact that I started screaming before we jumped and didn't stop until the parachute deployed, I loved it! Was the most awesome experience ever!!!! I expected to see the ground come rushing towards us but it didn't, and when I looked over at others jumping it looked like they were hurtling toward the ground, wierd. When the parachute went it didn't feel like we were falling at all. It was cool!! We landed easily and I saw Rich land behind me with a big grin on his face......he loved it too and wanted to have another go!!! We got some pictures and DVD's of it. One DVD is winging it's way to Chris and one to Ruth so if anybody's interested then ask either of them to pass it on!! It is a funny DVD as I look mortified all the way down!!!!

Spent a few more days in Taupo, did a bit of walking, went fishing on the lake; caught 6 trout in all but none were big enough for us to keep :-( Spent a lot of the time in our 'local' pub!!! Didn't really do much else, we just kept ending up in the pub each afternoon so couldn't really do much else!! Hey ho, we like the pub ;-)

White Island

White island is basically a volcano out to sea. It's one of 2 active volcanoes in NZ and the largest off shore volcano in the world! We took a boat trip there from a place called Whakatane, we spent a couple of days there as the wind was too bad for us to do the boat trip on the first day, so we had a bit of an all-dayer instead!!

So, it was a 1 1/2 hour journey to White Island and on the way we saw a couple of pods of dolphins, which was cool! When we got to the island we had to don hard hats and gas masks, as the gasses coming out at places was awful! There was a 2 hour tour around the island which is smoking and bubbling all over the place. It's constantly monitored and could potentially erupt at any time! The island was very dramatic and it was a good day out.

Smelly City

After we'd done the diving in the Northland it was time to head further south.....Rotorua...sulphur city as it's known (smelly city as it is!!) It's built in volcano land and there are geysers everywhere and hot pools and bubbling pools of mud. It's all very odd. Everywhere you look there are clouds of steam appearing all over, even out of drains!!! There's also a strong smell of eggs in air, it's not a pleasant aroma!

In Rotorua we started off by doing some Zorbing.....rolling downhill in an inflated sphere!!!! We went in one together and had a couple of buckets of water chucked in for that washing machine effect......it was loads of fun!!!

We also took in some geysers, a maori concert, sat in some hot pools, visited a Mauri village, walked around the city and went to the museum where we saw a very funny film. Don't think it was supposed to be funny, it was the story of the volcano erupting in 1886. It was like a carry on / disaster movie / documentary and I 'm sure Bob Mortimer was in it. Rich reckons they guy who played Jango Fett was in it too....but I dunno....not that familiar with every Star Wars character! Saw some Kiwi's, not in the wild though, that'd be very unlikely as they're so endangered.

At the campsite we were staying at they had a thermal cooking pot, where you chuck your food in and leave it all day....so we did!!! We treated ourselves to some meat....did I mention how expensive food is??? Even though we're not eating out, the supermarkets are dear and so we've not had any meat yet!! We chucked in some chicken and loads of veggies....it was a feast and would probably be eating it for days. That afternoon, while it was cooking away, I was making some curtains for the van as the ones in it were awful and Rich was cleaning out the van and laying a new carpet! That done he went off to the kitchen to get us a beer and he comes back saying he'd just bumped into Claire Parkins and her husband Darren!!!! Bloody hell......it really is a small world. For those of you that don't know, Claire used to work for RMC, she was on the SAP project that Rich and I both worked on in Rugby!!! They were there on their honeymoon and were darting round New Zealand! We invited them to join our feast which they did and we had a very enjoyable 'dinner party'!!! It still makes me chuckle everytime I think about it, if Rich hadn't gone to get those beers we probably wouldn't have known they were there!

After about 5 days it was time to leave Rotorua

Diving in the Northland

So, Debby gone, it was just the two of us again. It's nice to meet up and do a bit of travelling with others but we do like it being just us two!!!

We did a bit of shopping and bought ourselves mask, snorkel and fins along with a dive bag. Rich also bought a dive computer....a bit of an extravagant purchase at this stage of our travels but it's something that is necessary for diving, as it could save your life!!!

So, off to do some diving. First stop, Matouri Bay to dive the Rainbow Warrior. This is a GreenPeace ship bombed at Auckland Harbour in 1985 by the French. They were about to protest to the french doing nuclear testing! After the bombing, the wreck was moved out to the bay of islands to be a dive sight, so some good came of it. We dived this with a guy called Gary, he was a one man band and it was just the 3 of us diving. However, it had to be done in record time as we were supposed to be going out at 6pm (after he'd finished work) but he didn't turn up till about 6.45, his van had broken down and had to be towed in!!!! Then the tractor that pulled the boat to the shore was knackered so he had to take out the starter motor, fix it and replace it!! Finally about 7.30pm we're entering the water!!!! Now, the water is a lot colder here than Fiji, and even though I had about 10 wetsuits on, it took my breath away when I first went in...but was OK when we started descending! The Rainbow Warrior was awesome....it was all very murky and dark on the way down but then all of a sudden, we were looking at the underside of it and visability was much better, we darted all around it and saw loads of pretty coral growing on it and lots of fish and some massive lobster and then back to shore!

Next day when we got up, we found that someone had nicked Rich's swimmers!!!! They'd been hanging on the washing line along with my bikini and towels and stuff....that was all there! Rich was not happy!

Next we went to Tutukaka (got some funny sounding places here, most of which we can't pronounce!!) to do a dive at Poor Knights islands. This was a far more professional get up than we'd just experienced and it was a full day out. 2 dives at different locations. Both were good and we saw a massive stringray on the first. The 2nd we had to cut a little short though as I was just too cold and Rich was sucking through his air!! But, I've now got 8 dives to my name and Rich has 16.....Rob will be pleased!!! After that day we ended up getting drunk with a couple of American guys we'd met on the dive...as you do!!! It is good when you have a random night of drinking with people you don't know....it's cool!!

The Northland

After Auckland we headed up north as there were a few things we wanted to see plus some diving we wanted to do. Debby has a friend with a place up there and it would be pretty cheap for us to camp there. So that's where we headed for....Debby was heading up there with some friends the next day.

When we arrived at The Valley 'Healing Arts' Retreat, we were a little unsure of what to expect. Debby had told us a little bit about the place, that it was on 30 acres of land and it had hot tubs and an outdoor sauna and stuff, but we didn't realise it was hippyville!!! There was supposed to be a big party happening all weekend, so we were told by Debbys friends hubby. And they were getting fires ready and making sure the hot tub and sauna and stuff were all sorted. We were looking forward to a bit of partying until we realised that this was a place of 'healing' and no drinking or smoking was permitted on site.....booo....what sort of party was that going to be?!! But, as luck would have it, when Debby arrived we went up the road to this german guys house Who Debby also knew, and he was all for drinking and smoking and partying.....so we did!!! But then Emma and Dave (runners of hippyville) came to get us for the proper party...which was OK while we were still drunk......Anyway, we stayed there for a few nights, more than we'd planned really but nevermind. After that, Debby joined us as a house guest for a couple of days and we headed up to the Northern tip.

At Cape Reinga, we saw where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.....apparantly on a stormy day the 2 seas crash together in a dramatic stylie, but it was a calm day when we saw it :-(

We also did some sand dune surfing, which is kind of like sledging, but on the sand. That was good fun...the sand dunes were massive and it was hard work getting halfway up nevermind to the top....but coming down was fun!!

On Debby's last night we decided to go out for some food and beers and Debby very kindly bought our dinner for us, which was nice!!!

Auckland...again

We headed back to Auckland again as a girl we'd met in Fiji (Debby), was performing at a restaurant that had a cabaret night going on. She's an aspiring comedienne and this would be her 4th performance. We stayed at the same backpackers place as Debby, albeit in the carpark in our van! We had an entertaining evening, Debby was first on and while her nerves showed she didn't do as badly as she thought she did! Afterwards was more drinking and chatting with other people we'd met through Debby as well as Melvin and Roz who we'd met on our first night in Auckland and had arranged to meet again. It was a really good night, the latter part of the evening is little more than a blur as Rich and I got extremely drunk on red wine and (apparantly) kept falling over all the way 'home'!!! The next day was not good :-( We spent all day drinking tea and chatting with Mark and Krista, a Canadian couple we'd met at the hostel.

New Zealand - Here We Are!

So, we left Fiji and took quite a short flight (less than 3 hours) to New Zealand, normally I would have been scared, but I seem to have cracked this flying lark!! When we arrived at the airport, we had to have our tent and walking boots de-smegged, they're very strict on what comes into the country, saved us a job though!! We arrived in Auckland late evening, it was cold and raining :-( But nevermind.

Our first couple of days were spent in Auckland, mainly washing and doing internet type stuff. The first hostel we stayed in was a YHA and we had a double room, it was $64 (about 40 quid) quite expensive. So, after looking at all the options and doing some sums, we decided the best way to go would be to buy ourselves a campervan, we could get about at our own pace then and we could either sleep by the roadside or at camp / caravan sights, which would undoubtedly be cheaper than hostels....and more fun!!

After some research and looking around and talking to people in the know, we found a campervan van that ticked all the right boxes at the right price, and bought it. The place selling it was like a go-between for travellers buying and selling vehicles, they give advise on the legal matters and can also sort those out for you and have a mechanic on hand to advise on state of vehicle for your use....they also have a branch in Christchurch where we'll be leaving from so we should be able to sell it there, and probably for more as the season hasn't quite started yet but when we leave will be in the height of season and people will be wanting vans! Now, I say campervan, it probably started life as a minibus, but the seats had been ripped out and a timber base put in with a matress on top! It was enough for us though. We soon got settled into it...and headed to the Coromandel Peninsula.

Arriving in a place called Thames, the biggest town on the peninsula we go shopping in a shop called Warehouse - 'where everyone gets a bargain' It's kind of like a poundstretcher shop, sells lots of stuff cheaply....so, now we didn't have to lug all our stuff around and had some storage space we made full use of Warehouse and bought deckchairs and pillows and all manner of other camping like stuff. When we returned to the van however, we discovered the battery was flat...Rich had left the lights on....donut!! So, after about half an hour of us trying to bump start it some locals came to our aid and helped....panic over!! We headed for the national forest and as we found the campsite and parked up, found ourselves driving in thick mud, well not actually driving but wheel spinning! Yes, we were stuck!! It'd been raining all day and the grass was really boggy. So, day one of having a van and already had 2 disasters!!

Next day after about an hour of me pushing and Rich revving we finally got it out of the mud! Later on that day we were wandering aimlessly round town trying to kill a couple of hours (Rich had had a bad tummy since eating some dodgy chicken on the ferry back from Taveuni last week), we were waiting for the doctors surgery to open when this guy comes running across the road and hugs us both!! It was Randy! (Canadian guy we met on bus in Fiji - his girlfriend Amanda was the girl who worked in same office as Rich) Bloody coincidence again!!! We knew they were in New Zealand as we were planning on catching up with them at some point, but had no idea where!! Tis such a small world! Rich saw the doctor (and charged us $58 for it!) and sent him to the hospital for tests as she suspected Appendicitis....but fortunately that was not the case....they didn't know what it was but did test him thoroughly (including fingers up his bottom!!!). They didn't charge us though, which was good. They probably felt sorry for us as we'd not showered in about 3 days and I was head to toe in mud splashes from pushing the van out of the mud that morning.....we looked and smelled poor!!!

So, anyway, we spent a few days in the Coromandel Peninsula, did some hiking and spent an afternoon chilling on Hot Water Beach. This is where there is a volcano just off the shore which goes under the sea and the beach, if you dig a hole in the sand by the shore, it'll fill up with hot water heated by the volcano...so we did and it was really nice, like lying in a bath on the beach!