JBs World Tour Web Report Extravaganza
Part 2 - New Zealand North Island
[intro][Singapore][NZ-North][NZ-South][USA]New Zealand North Island
Singapore airlines flight to Auckland was OK, airline was superb, great stewardesses, TV in back of seat, nice food, but hard to sleep, and seemed a lot longer than the 9 hours I think flying time. Huge queue for immigration, but got through fine, and Rachel picked us up from the airport in her rice-racer car on her lunch break, and drove us to Fletch/Liz's pad, and she went back to work, we had showers, wandered to some shops and got some stuff for lunch etc, had sarnies, and all zonked out until Fletch got home.Nice evening chatting, Rachel came over and Liz made us all chicken and pasta for dinner, with New Zealand Pavlova for pud which was superb, instead of the usual European Pavlova, Kiwis have a huge thick meringue about the size of a cake, which is soft in the middle, with cream and fruit on top - it was superb. Really nice to catch up with Racehl and Fletch, and to meet Liz who is a great laugh. Jet lag caught up with us fairly early (a recurring theme of the whole trip, as we seem to have become complete lightweights as soon as we entered the southern hemisphere), so a quick check on which way the toilet flushed (couldn't remember which way it flushes at home, so a fair waste of time), and we collapsed in bed.
Wednesday, Rachel picked us up and we drove to the Waitakere Range which is a national park about an hour west of Auckland, which is absolutely beautiful, we stopped at the visitors centre and had a quick walk round the path near it and saw a secada (sp?) which is a big grasshopper which makes a lot of noise, and we heard them all through auckland and the north island, they make a huge racket ! Also saw a tree fern, which is a symbol of fresh starts and growth to the Maori people, and kind of a symbol of New Zealand also ! They also have big picture frames for taking comedy pictures behind, so we had to do that as well !
Rachel then drove us over to Piha beach which has an amazing island in the middle called lions rock, as the front looks like a lions head complete with mane, had a walk along the volcanic sand beach which is amazing to walk on and super-fine, then walked up lions rock to about 2/3 up (top was closed due to rockslides), and looked down on the surfers, then had toasted sarnies and chips for lunch on the beach.
We then drove over to Karekare beach, had a good wander and took loads of pics (fantastic scenery, they filmed the film 'The Piano' on this beach apparently), and walked over to a superb waterfall where people were swimming underneath, and was gutted I didn't have my swimmers with me, as I would have loved to have done that (although it looked pretty cold!), then drove back via quick supermarket shop at Pak 'n Save, and back to Rachels pad, which is a really nice house, with a fantastic deck out front.
Rachel and Nic cooked tea, and Fletch came over for the evening (Liz was busy), and we had a nice meal, and chat and planned out next couple of days in Auckland, also planned that we would get the magic bus on Saturday, which stopped at Rotorua where we planned to stay for two nights, and Rachel would drive down there to stay the weekend with us. By then it was past our 9pm curfew, so we all started yawning and got a taxi back to Fletches and collapsed.
Thursday, Rachel picked us up and we rushed into Auckland to catch the 9.30 ferry to Mount Rangitoto, a volcanic island, only to arrive with seconds to spare to discover the timetable had changed and the 9.30 ferry had left at 9, so me and Ken wandered over to the skytower to sort out our bookings for the skyjump, and Nicola and Rachel hit the shops, we caught the 11am ferry out to Mount Rangitoto, a volcanic island formed about 900 years ago (and took 400 years to cool down!!), but is no longer active, and walked up to the summit which was about a 90 minute walk, the view from the top was superb though, and walk back down was a lot easier!! The volcanic lava looked completely different to how I expected, instead of smooth flows of cooled lava, it is churned up as it cools by laval flows underneath the surface, so looks like someone has driven across it in a massive rotavator !! Really interesting.
Rachel drove us back through the park (forgotten its name), and drove to the carpark near the top of one tree hill, which is currently without its tree as it was chopped down by an militant Aboriginee (sp?), and they are waiting for a suitable time to replace it (when the spirits are aligned or something). Fantastic view of the city though! We stopped for high tea in the park, complete with tiny cucumber sandwichs, and novelty cakes to fight over!
In the evening we went out for a meal in the America's cup village with Michael, Liz and Rachel which was very nice. There was a boat show in the marina, so it was packed with boats, apparently it is normally practically empty since the America's cup is all finished now! Had a few drinks, and as you can see Ken was getting on fabulously with Rachel, they were even discussing marriage and children - the picture was taken shortly before Ken told Rachel he was half welsh (as you can see from all his empties, he had had a fair bit to drink, and probably didn't realise what he was saying), and as you can imagine, she (sensibly) didn't want to know him after that - me and Nic were gutted after all the ground work we had put in, that Ken should throw it away like that ! Doh !
Friday, morning we went in to Fletch's school, to meet his class for a sort of show and tell, they did mock interviews of me and Ken (pretty stressful, Ken said afterwards he was more scared of Fletches class than of jumping off the skytower!!), and we played some games, including quick draw where two people stand opposite each other like cowboys at a shootout, and have to answer a question first to 'shoot' their opponent (ie whats 8 times 3), I won a few games, but was beaten by Rachel as I didn't do the 12 times table at school !! The kids then showed off their computer skills, and videos they had made, so that was really nice ! They also sung a welcome song, a bit like a huka, with dancing and stamping, which was fantastic ! We stopped at Mission bay for lunch on the way to the skytower, and got a nice picture on the beach with Mount Rangitoto behind !
Then we spent rest of the day at the skytower, which is superb. Nicola and Rachel headed off to the shops, and me and Ken booked in for vertigo, we were a bit early, so got some passes and took the lift up to the viewing level, which has a superb view of the city and harbour, and glass floor panels, going up in the lift which has a glass window is a bit hairy as you really get a feeling for how high you are going, so I was a bit nervous about climbing even higher - still, we got a good price on the combo package of vertigo and skyjump, and I love a bargain, so we headed back down to the vertigo check in area where we got suited up in orange overalls, harness and helmet, then took the lift up to the top of the public tower, up some stairs, and climb through a fireproof hatch which is locked behind you (we were reassured that we had 90 minutes of protection if the tower caught fire, not sure what we do then though, and they didn't say!) and climbed up 48 Metres of ladders inside the spike at the top of the tower to a crows nest which is 338Metres above the ground, where we had a fantastic view of the harbout and Auckland.
We met up with Nicola and Rachel at the bottom of the tower, Then me and Ken did the skyjump, where you suit up in ridiculous chicken suits (see the picture!) which seem to serve no purpose other than humiliating us, and promoting the skyjump, and harnesses, then take a nervous lift ride up to the top of the tower, and walk through a door and you find yourself outside, above the resturant level standing next to the ring around the tower. We then stood there while a couple of jokers hook you up to a wire connected to a fan arrestor, which is a freewheeling winch with a big fan on one end, so you fall quite fast and suddenly slow down just before you touch the ground, so it is similar to a bungee jump without the bounce, which was superb !!
I was extremely nervous standing on the edge (as you can tell from my face), but once you manage to throw yourself off it was plain sailing ! They stop you after about 20ft so you can look back up and have a photo taken, and then drop you again where you plummet straight down a guide wire until you land on a bulls eye platform at the bottom, where Nicola and Rachel were waiting for us ! Jump was really good, and me and Ken both enjoyed it.
Staying in the skytower, there was a replica of Petter Solbergs rally car in the foyer, to promote Rally New Zealand which was a couple of weeks later, so got a snap next to it. Then we all got changed into our smart togs in the loos (classy), and went back up in the lift (me and Ken on our 4th run up of the day) We stopped at the observation level on the way up, and took a great picture of nicola and Rachel on the glass floor panel - you can see the cars driving along the street 190 odd Metres below their feet! Then we had a meal in the revolving restuarant, which was over priced poncy food of average quality, but view was amazing, and more than made up for it. The restuarant level revolves once an hour, so we got a full lap of Auckland at night, which was amazing. It was a really nice evening, and a lovely end to the day of high jinx in the Skytower.
Saturday, we got up very early for our taxi into Auckland again, to catch the magic bus at 7.10am, then drove round all the hostels in Auckland picking up people so didn't get started till nearly 9am anyway, so we could have had another hour in bed if we'd known, and gone to the last hostel on the pickup route instead ! Bus drove up to Mount Eden park for a last view of Auckland, before driving down to Hamilton for a lunch stop, then to Wautomo caves, where me and Ken did black water rafting, which is a cruise through fantastic underwater river looking at glow worms in a wet suit, with your bum wedged in a car inner tube, while Nicola did a boat trip to see the glow worms and caves - it was superb !
Then bus drove on down to Rotorua, stopping in a small town which having lost passing trade since the bypass was built, have tried to compensate by building massive sheep dog and sheep buildings out of corrogated iron, so got a picture next to them ! Got to the hostel in Rotorua where we met up with Rachel, and saw Mark (Nic's brother) and Janine before they headed back to Auckland to sell their car, on their way back from the South Island.
Ken, Nicola, Rachel and I then went for a meal in town, and got back to have a dip in the Hostels hot pool, which is heated by thermal activity under the ground, on the way to the pub earlier, we walked through the park and saw the bubbling steaming mud pools which are amazing as well ! There were some dead trees round one of them, where a pool had exploded a couple of months ago - apparently they do this quite regularly, but luckily no-one was standing next to it, so didn't get splashed with burning mud!!
Sunday in Rotorua, lazy start, then Rachel drove us out to off road NZ, for off road buggy racing, against the clock, circuit was tarmac with dirt on the edges, and as it was raining, there was no front end grip at all on the buggy, so getting a good time was hard, but it was great fun, me and Ken both ran, and we got absolutely covered in mud, and have some great pics to show for it ! Next was Xtreme freefall, which is basically a 1000bhp hairdryer you skydive on top off, me and Ken both went, and so did Rachel and it was AMAZING !!! The whole building shook as they revved up the huge V12 turbo diesel engine, so that was really something !
Next we went to the skyline, took a gondola up to the top of the hill, then Luge down, which are like little sit on skateboards with steering and brakes, me Ken and Rachel all went down the scenic route first (we had to), which was still quite fast in places, then did intermediate which was great, and then advanced, which was faster again, Ken tried to overtake me by not braking into a tight bend (slow down signs everywhere) and came off bigtime, and rolled his ankle over !
Afternoon we went to hells gate which is a mud bath place, so had a mud bath followed by cold shower (under duress) to clean mud off, then hot pools which was really nice (except cold shower which was shocking!). By which time Kens ankle was blowing up nicely, so we dropped him at the hospital to get it checked over, and Rachel dropped us back at the hostel as we were booked on an authentic mauri meal and village visit. Ken texted to say his ankle was not broken, but he would stay at the hostel, so enjoyed the meal and entertainment.
Monday 24th, caught bus which stopped at mud pools, and a geiser (Lady Nox geiser) which was amazing, it naturally blows every 26 hours or so, so for the tourists they chuck soap down it at 10am every morning, which breaks surface tension and sets it off on cue !! Then, we headed off to Wai Tapi (??) geothermal park, with champagne pools and loads of amazing formations. And more steaming sulphur smells, which we were quite used to by now ! Only problem is that the smell gets into your swimming gear and towels, and no amount of washing seems to get it out, they still stink now and have been through about 5 washes since :-)
Then to Rock'n'Ropes a rope park where me and Ken jumped off a 13 Metre telegraph pole attached to steel cable between two more polls called the swing, which was amazing. Nicola lay down underneath the swing to take these pictures, which was brave, and had to roll out between swings to avoid getting clobbered as I swung to a stop !
Then me and Ken had a go on the Trapeze which is where you climb up a 14 Metre telegraph pole, try to stand on the top of it, then jump off to catch a trapeze ! I got up OK, jumped reasonably and caught the trapeze before slipping off. Ken thought about what he was doing (for ages) nearly at the top of the poll, before he stood up, and jumped off.
Then back on the bus to drive to Huka falls, which is a small waterfall (about 8 Metres), but has 16 tonnes of water a second flowing over it, which just looks and sounds incredible ! We walked into Taupo, along the side of the river, stopping for me and Ken to swim in the river, which was amazing, and loads of amazing views on the walk.
end of the day, stopped at dodgy hostel in what seems to be a pretty rough town (Turangi), had a nice barbecue though, and got laundry done, and boring stuff like that.
Tuesday 25h was a boring day spent mostly on the bus driving to Wellington, highlight was lunch stop in a town called Bulls where everything had comedy signs (police station=const-a-bull etc, my ribs have only just stopped aching), and afternoon stop for fresh fruit ice cream, made from frozen fruit in a corkscrew mister whippy machine right in front of us, which was nice.
We also stopped in front of some mountain, which was 'mount doom' in Lord of the Rings apparently, so took a picture of it !!
Afternoon in Wellytown, so visited the museum (Te papa), found the hostel, and had a wander round town to get memory card written to CD as I was filling up fast, also saw the Embassy cinema, which is the home of Lord of the Rings, where the premieres are held (the film company is in Wellington), and has a massive statue of gollom and a big revolving gold ring outside !!!
Quick shower stop at the hostel, then we went up the cable car to the top of the hill, quick photo moment in the dark, then back down again. Also wandered along seafront and had fish and chips (recommended in lonely planet and was nice), from some mad greek guy who wouldn't let us have vinegar (then relented), and told us we wouldn't get fish and chips like his anywhere in the world as he had a secret recipe, which concerned me greatly !!
Wednesday 27th, took free bus to ferry terminal, and caught ferry over to South Island - I'll start on that report next !!
[intro][Singapore][NZ-North][NZ-South][USA]
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