Bit of a mental week

writing all this really quick so hopefully it make sense.

15th
Joined a 'hop on hop off' bus tour and went to Coramandal just east of Auckland. Decided to go Kayaking before seeing the sea, turned out to be quite rough but great fun getting the kayak over the waves! Stopped at Cathederal Cove for a Cappuccino and cookies which was a nice surprise. Stayed right on the beach at what was I think a typical NZ holiday camp site, seemed a bit like old holidays to wales in the 80's.

16th
Learned to surf at Raglan, great fun but quite windy and a strong current so probably was not the best day to learn. best thing about Raglan though is that the sea is really shallow so when it got too tiring I just walked out of the sea. Managed to stand up but it is really tricky. Will go surfing again when I get a chance. Also bumped into some people I met at Paiha so that was nice.

17th
Went to the Waitamo caves, went underground to about 80 metres and abseiled down waterfalls and in the afternoon I did my first zorb! The paricular zorb I chose to do involved rolling down a zig zig hill in a large plastic ball with a bucket of water (wash cycle).


post zorb 'wash cycle'

Arrived in Rotorua in the evening to a smell of sulphur, I was told you get used to it after 15 minutes (but I did not).


smelly

18th
Went to a funny Mouri Thermal village theme park thing at Rotorua, seemed kind of odd to me but saw mud pools, geysers and had a thermally heated Hot Dog and sweetcorn?!

Jumped out a plane (sorry mum) at Taopo. It was kind of a impulse decision to go sky diving but it was the clearest day ever with not a cloud in the sky and it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. To me jumping out of a plane used to sound monumentally stupid, but it is really quite amazing. Got photos and dvd (looking a twerp) of the dive.

19th
The Dutch, the Danish and the Bloody English.
Went on a 3 day tramp (nz for bloomin long walk) with 7 others in the Tongariro national park on the 'Great Walk Northern Circuit'. Climbed Tongariro Mountain and had views over Mount Ngauruhoe (mt doon from lord of the rings). Was planning to climb Mount Ngauruhoe on the final day but decided against it as it was really windy (will go back I think). Due to diversions and photo stops walked for 10 hours the first day, 8 the second and just 3 on the final day. Interesting place as due to the volcanic landscape you see lots of different scenery, craters, lakes, steam etc. Apparently most of the water in the area is quite dangerous as is either boiling hot, contains acid or toxic heavy metals, bit nasty really but makes for an interesting place to do a hike. Stayed two nights in little huts that were well equipped with clean water, mattresses and toilets.

Had great fun and met lots of great people during the first couple of weeks in New Zealand.


View from Mount Tongariro of Ngauruhoe


Marloes, Jen, Wouter, Peter and me on top of Tongariro Mountain


Peters birthday at the hut


crater lake on the 3 day northern circuit tramp

22nd
Wellington, not done much yet!