Whitianga to Taupo
Thursday - Whitianga to Rotorua
Our new driver, Little John, had introduced a game on the bus on our first day with him. The game was called the M-I-N-E game, as we are not allowed to say the word "mine". Anyone who does say the word, normally accidentally in conversation, has to do 10 press-ups. Anyone refusing to do the pressups can be called on later to do 50 star jumps at any point, most likely in an embarassing location. After being caught fairly early on with a simple "whose bag is this?" question, I became more alert! Since the game started, barely an hour goes by without someone having to drop to the ground and do pressups! This game became quite an inconvenience to Little John at one of our stops today - a gold mine! After trying for a while to talk about a hole in the ground, he gave up and had to do 50 pressups.
Our next stop was Karangahake Scenic Reserve, where we went for a walk in a gorge. To cross the river, we had to go over a bridge, on the other side of which was a warning saying maximum load 10 people, which we found after all 30 of us crossed it! Still, an interesting walk in some pitch black tunnels! After a brief stop in Matamata, a town which has only got on the map due to it being the setting of Hobbiton, we finished the journey to Rotorua. On arrival there, our first stop was the Zorbing centre. For those of you who haven't been exposed to zorbing, it involves climbing into a huge inflatable ball and being rolled down a hill. Most of the options included having some water in the ball so you slide around rather than get thrown about as you do in the dry! However, I opted for a wet option. Impressively, some people have managed to stay running the zig zag course with water in it! Not for us though.
After being picked up from the zorbing centre, we headed up another Gondola (cable car!) in Rotorua, to get to a luge track at the top. This was lots of fun - if we hadn't been short on time, I'd have probably done quite a few more runs! However, our evening's entertainment was fast approaching - an evening of Maori culture in the form of a concert and Hangi (meal cooked in an earth oven). And avoiding the very heavy rain. Which we seemed to be getting quite a lot of over the past few days! The concert was quite impressive, and was nice to have loads of nice food available! At the end of this, we headed back to the hostel bar to celebrate the birthday of Paige, a girl from the bus.
Friday - Rotorua to Waitomo
Our first port of call this morning was Te Puia, a geothermal and maori cultural centre. Of course, it was bucketting down with rain again. Fortunately the place provided umbrellas! After walking round the various cultural buildings, we went through a Kiwi house, as this was going to be the only chance I'd get to see the national emblem of the country - a nocturnal flightless bird. Unfortunately this has largely been wiped out in the wild due to the introduction of animals from abroad. After seeing the Kiwis, we wandered out to see the hot pools, mud pools and geysers. Unfortunately, the geysers weren't exactly being impressive today.
We arrived in Waitomo (Wai meaning Water, Tomo meaning Cave) early in the afternoon to stay at the Kiwi Paka YHA hostel. After checking in, we headed to Marokopo falls, apparently the third largest in the country. Made for nice pictures anyway! Also went to check out a natural bridge formed by the walls of a cave falling away.
Saturday - Waitomo to Taupo
The reason for coming to Waitomo was in order to go Blackwater Rafting, essentially caving with a big rubber tube to float down underwater rivers. The water was pretty cold, though we had thick wetsuits. We had lights on our helmets, but when we turned all these off, we could see loads of glow worms on the cave roof! We also jumped off a few waterfalls in the caves. Upon exiting the tunnels, we had time for a warm shower before departing to Taupo!
Having had lots of bad weather recently, I was very apprehensive about this trip to Taupo, having already spent a few days there earlier! I really wanted to get a skydive done, and a phonecall made to the skydive centre from the bus informed us that they were currently jumping! However, we could see clouds ahead, so all was not certain yet. However, when we reached the Skydive centre, it was still nice weather! Half of the bus immediately got out to do a jump - me included (wasn't taking any chances with the weather closing in!). I had to wait for the third group, but I did it! Strangely, I didn't feel very nervous. Perhaps it was the fact that I had already been here previously (even got suited up) without jumping. However, as the first couple of people jumped, the speed at which they disappeared from view made me a little nervous. This increased my tandem guide was sitting on the edge of the aircraft, me dangling outside by the harness for a few seconds, before he jumped out also! For 45 seconds, we were freefalling! It was incredibly loud with the air rushing past, and after the first few seconds to get our orientation, I looked at the view! From up there, you could see all of Lake Taupo (big enough to fit Singapore in it!). I could see the airfield approaching very quickly. As the bloke I was strapped to pulled the chute, everything went very quiet and slow. After giving me the cords to steer with for a while, I got my feet back on solid ground! It was definitely the best experience of my trip so far!
Due to everyone being on a high from their skydive, and also because Little John was celebrating his 30th birthday, we all went out for drinks in Taupo when we got back. Originally I was intending doing the Tongariro crossing, a 1 day walk across two local volcanoes (one of which is Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings). However, this leaves at 5:40am. Fortunately, the weather had cancelled this trip - apparently it was going to be very windy. This was quite lucky, as by the time we got back to the hostel it would've been time to leave!
Today I have a free day in Taupo, which I'm using to sort out various things, including my skydive photos.
Our new driver, Little John, had introduced a game on the bus on our first day with him. The game was called the M-I-N-E game, as we are not allowed to say the word "mine". Anyone who does say the word, normally accidentally in conversation, has to do 10 press-ups. Anyone refusing to do the pressups can be called on later to do 50 star jumps at any point, most likely in an embarassing location. After being caught fairly early on with a simple "whose bag is this?" question, I became more alert! Since the game started, barely an hour goes by without someone having to drop to the ground and do pressups! This game became quite an inconvenience to Little John at one of our stops today - a gold mine! After trying for a while to talk about a hole in the ground, he gave up and had to do 50 pressups.
Our next stop was Karangahake Scenic Reserve, where we went for a walk in a gorge. To cross the river, we had to go over a bridge, on the other side of which was a warning saying maximum load 10 people, which we found after all 30 of us crossed it! Still, an interesting walk in some pitch black tunnels! After a brief stop in Matamata, a town which has only got on the map due to it being the setting of Hobbiton, we finished the journey to Rotorua. On arrival there, our first stop was the Zorbing centre. For those of you who haven't been exposed to zorbing, it involves climbing into a huge inflatable ball and being rolled down a hill. Most of the options included having some water in the ball so you slide around rather than get thrown about as you do in the dry! However, I opted for a wet option. Impressively, some people have managed to stay running the zig zag course with water in it! Not for us though.
After being picked up from the zorbing centre, we headed up another Gondola (cable car!) in Rotorua, to get to a luge track at the top. This was lots of fun - if we hadn't been short on time, I'd have probably done quite a few more runs! However, our evening's entertainment was fast approaching - an evening of Maori culture in the form of a concert and Hangi (meal cooked in an earth oven). And avoiding the very heavy rain. Which we seemed to be getting quite a lot of over the past few days! The concert was quite impressive, and was nice to have loads of nice food available! At the end of this, we headed back to the hostel bar to celebrate the birthday of Paige, a girl from the bus.
Friday - Rotorua to Waitomo
Our first port of call this morning was Te Puia, a geothermal and maori cultural centre. Of course, it was bucketting down with rain again. Fortunately the place provided umbrellas! After walking round the various cultural buildings, we went through a Kiwi house, as this was going to be the only chance I'd get to see the national emblem of the country - a nocturnal flightless bird. Unfortunately this has largely been wiped out in the wild due to the introduction of animals from abroad. After seeing the Kiwis, we wandered out to see the hot pools, mud pools and geysers. Unfortunately, the geysers weren't exactly being impressive today.
We arrived in Waitomo (Wai meaning Water, Tomo meaning Cave) early in the afternoon to stay at the Kiwi Paka YHA hostel. After checking in, we headed to Marokopo falls, apparently the third largest in the country. Made for nice pictures anyway! Also went to check out a natural bridge formed by the walls of a cave falling away.
Saturday - Waitomo to Taupo
The reason for coming to Waitomo was in order to go Blackwater Rafting, essentially caving with a big rubber tube to float down underwater rivers. The water was pretty cold, though we had thick wetsuits. We had lights on our helmets, but when we turned all these off, we could see loads of glow worms on the cave roof! We also jumped off a few waterfalls in the caves. Upon exiting the tunnels, we had time for a warm shower before departing to Taupo!
Having had lots of bad weather recently, I was very apprehensive about this trip to Taupo, having already spent a few days there earlier! I really wanted to get a skydive done, and a phonecall made to the skydive centre from the bus informed us that they were currently jumping! However, we could see clouds ahead, so all was not certain yet. However, when we reached the Skydive centre, it was still nice weather! Half of the bus immediately got out to do a jump - me included (wasn't taking any chances with the weather closing in!). I had to wait for the third group, but I did it! Strangely, I didn't feel very nervous. Perhaps it was the fact that I had already been here previously (even got suited up) without jumping. However, as the first couple of people jumped, the speed at which they disappeared from view made me a little nervous. This increased my tandem guide was sitting on the edge of the aircraft, me dangling outside by the harness for a few seconds, before he jumped out also! For 45 seconds, we were freefalling! It was incredibly loud with the air rushing past, and after the first few seconds to get our orientation, I looked at the view! From up there, you could see all of Lake Taupo (big enough to fit Singapore in it!). I could see the airfield approaching very quickly. As the bloke I was strapped to pulled the chute, everything went very quiet and slow. After giving me the cords to steer with for a while, I got my feet back on solid ground! It was definitely the best experience of my trip so far!
Due to everyone being on a high from their skydive, and also because Little John was celebrating his 30th birthday, we all went out for drinks in Taupo when we got back. Originally I was intending doing the Tongariro crossing, a 1 day walk across two local volcanoes (one of which is Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings). However, this leaves at 5:40am. Fortunately, the weather had cancelled this trip - apparently it was going to be very windy. This was quite lucky, as by the time we got back to the hostel it would've been time to leave!
Today I have a free day in Taupo, which I'm using to sort out various things, including my skydive photos.
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