First week in New Zealand was great. Arrived not really knowing what to do or where to go. Checked into the Fat Camel hostel in Auckland and hit the town with some guys I'd met on the way over from Fiji. Did the tourist thing and went to the minus 5 degree bar and up the Sky Tower. Next day I spent figuring out how I was going to travel round. Decided on the Stray Bus which provides a hop-on, hop-off service. Seemed to be the best balance between partying and actually seeing the country, rather than the Kiwi Experience for the former and Magic Bus for the latter. I went for the "Moe" tour which takes you round both islands, and covers some pretty exciting places. First day we headed over to Hahei, where we went down to Cathedral Cove and in the evening (11pm - low tide) treked down to Hot Water Beach to find hot pools. This involved digging about 20 holes in the sand before finding somewhere where the temperature was bearable - not sea or burn-your-skin-off temperature. We were up early the next day to head over to Raglan where we stayed at a chilled out hostel looking over the beach. We decided to do the two-hour walk around the hostel, which was more like a hike, and made me realise how unfit I am. After Raglan we headed to Maketu, for some "Maori culture". This involved all the guys from the Stray Bus doing a haka, which was possibly the most excruciating experience of my life. We watched the Maori guys perform the haka about 1metre from us, which was actually quite scary! The place itself was a little disappointing as it wasn't as cultural as I'd hoped. We headed to Waitomo Caves where we did the Tumu Black water rafting. Wasn't quite black-water rafting, but was definitely worth it. Took about 3 hours, consisting of squeezing through some fairly some tunnels, floating down river with lights off looking up at maggots (a.k.a. glow-worms), and diving into the ice-cold water. Next stop was Rotorua which smells of egg due to the sulphide in the area. A couple of us decided to get off the bus and do a road trip over to East Cape. This is where you be the first to watch the sunrise, which was pretty spectacular. We then headed down to Napier taking the scenic route via the coast - with me driving! On the way back we stopped briefly in Taupo (which we will be going to again on the bus), went to the "Craters of the Moon", which I reckon the advertising standards agency would have a thing to say about, and the Haku waterfalls. Arriving back in Rotorua, we went white-water rafting which involved going down a 7metre waterfall, and I almost died.
New Zealand is different to how I imagined it. It's a considerably quieter than I thought - walking the streets at most times of the day you'd be lucky to bump into anyone. The landscapes are amazing though, and the people really friendly. Tomorrow we rejoin the bus and head back to Taupo, where I might sky-dive... possibly...
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2 comments:
Hopefully the comment 'I nearly died' was meant to be taken as 'that was pretty scary stuff' rather than 'I nearly came to a sticky end'!? ;-)
"Might" skydive? You *have* to skydive. Aside from the fact that it's awesome, I'll never let you forget that you wimped out....
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