Well since Able tasman national Park we've done SO much! We left the south island on the 14th March to head over the Wellington where we were going to stay with Dani's dad's friend Dot in Lower Hutt for 4 days. The crossing on the ferry was quite choppy (just like a nice cross channel ferry really!) and ferry like, dani's was v excited about driving the car onto the ferry! We got to Lower Hutt easily and Dot's house was lovely, she cooked us a big chicken dinner with insteresting NZ potato things called kumaras! mmm! had a nice night in sleeping in REAL beds!
The next day, we got into Wellington quite late after a lie in and had a look around, saw Dragon boat racing around the wharf, we just wandered around in the end, finding all the good shopping areas and the Te Papa NZ museum which was really good as it was all local history and geogrpahy! We went on the Cable car and to the Botanic Gardens as well on Monday to complete the tour of wellington!
We were treated the next day to a trip to Martinborough where one of Dot's friends was doing a winery walk to go and look around the wineries too, so dot drove us round and we had tasters in about 5 wineries and of course we didn't leave empty handed either after all that! :-) we'll see if the wine returns home un-drunken! We tried a few traditional kiwi things too this day like corn fritters and tip top ice cream! We saw England Play NZ at cricket for 2 hours on monday morning too which was cool (coz we won!) and did some more shopping before the obligatory pint of Guinness on st.paddy's day!
We went on to the Volcanoes after welly which were AMAZING and one thing that I've always wanted to see :-) We saw Mt Ruapehu, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro! we mananged to get up quite high by going up to the ski area which were about 1700 metres high, and the highest volcano was 2700 ish i think, very very cool though! up mt ruapehu was also where they shot lots of lord of the rings scenes and (if anyone cares) Mt Ngauruhoe was the volcano they used as Mt doom in lotr.
We drove past the world's largest lake, Lake Taupo on the way to Rotorua, the maori area. At Lake Taupo all we did was eat cake and get told to look after our stuff because there were theives around, which was nice to know as we'd been told and read in every guide book and heard on the radio that Rotorua has a big theft problem!
On the Thursday when we got to Rotorua we met a guy called Simon who decided he wanted to come with us whatever we did, we decided to go on the luge which was like sitting on a tea tray and chucking ureself down a hill on a track! good fun! On good friday we went to the beach to top up our tans and went to the polynesian spa in Rotorua which are lots of hot pool at different temperatures, 39, 41 and 42 degrees and then 3 priest pools which were slightly acidic and were pumped up from the thermal hot pockets of water under the ground. They were meant to b good for your skin and make all your aches and pains go away! we did feel very relaxed after! On Saturday we got up early and went to see Lady Knox Geyser and to a thermal 'wonderland', got to see so many cool things were were formed by the the earth crust being so thin in this area, and it being on the edge of a volcanic area. Lots of it was yellow in colour due to the sulphur but it was all beautiful! In the evening we went to a maori concert and hangi, got to see them doing scary popping eye things and sticky out tongues and they did poi dances and did the Haka! Afterwards we got to go to a Hangi meal (which is apparently cooked on hot rocks under the ground), we had chicken, lamb, kumara, potatoes etc.. mmm and loads of pudding! overall was a brilliant night, loads of people there and good fun!
We left Rotorua on Sunday morning (without having all our stuff stolen!) and drove to Hot Water beach. You could hire a spade and dig yourself a hole in the sand, and hot water from thermal hot water springs filled them up.. but we thought we'd check it out first, and thank god we did, it was SO busy! people were manically digging holes, trying to stop the sea filling them up and trying not to burn their feet! so we just watched them.. was so funny! couldn't help thinking it was slightly dangerous as in some places the sand was actually boiling and so over 100 degrees!? came away amused and with slightly sore and warm feet! Stayed in Waihi beach that night which was FULL children as it was easter weekend, reminded me of camping en france! got to use the spa for free in the evening though which was lovely!
From Waihi we planned a huuuge drive right up through Auckland through to the bay of islands (look at a map) up to Paihia and Keri Keri where we are now. On the way we popped into some world famous toilets designed by a famous architect lol!
In Paihia we did a cruise of a bay of islands - was fabulous (although dani felt incredibly sea-sick and went a wonderful grey/green colour!) i however went right to the front of the boat with one of the crew men called matt who forced me to stand there as we went through the whole in the rock and into the Pacific Ocean crashing about in the waves, sometimes going 10ft in the air and coming down again - was awesome! Also saw Common Dolphins which were amazing to see - they were so fast but still managed to get a few photos, and of all things- flying fish!!!!
We then drove to Kaihu, where in the evening we did a night walk in Trounson Kauri Forest.. in the pouring rain! sure the walk would have been fabulous if it was dry, and we might have seen kiwi's in the wild. We did see however, eels, wetas (odd cockroach looking thinks, some can jump 2 metres!) Giant Kauri Snails, crayfish and possums. Shame we didn't see a kiwi and it was raining, but was good anyway and the Kauri trees are juts HUGE!
The next day before driving to Auckland we stopped off at the Waipoa Kauri Forest to see the oldest and biggest tree, Tane Mahuta. The tree trunks are massive, so so wide, they look so bizarre in amongst all the thin trees, but they look amazing, some of the trees were 1200 years old- so yes, enough about trees!
We got the Manukau campsite just outside Auckland by about 3, and just bummed about in camp as we'd had a busy few days and wasn't going to get any less busy! The next day we spent in Auckland seeing the sights and going up Auckland sky tower to see the views which is DID NOT like! It had glass floors - and I just couldn't stand on them without holding on or my legs going all wobbly - very odd! but other than that we went to the harbour, Aotea square, K street, Victoria Park Market and few other bits and bobs. In the evening we drove to one of Auckland 50 dormant/extinct Volcanic cones, Mt Eden. Was so cool! You could walk all the way around the crater and see 50m into it, there were spectacular views of Auckland as well at night.
Our flight to LA wasn't until 6:40pm so we went to the zoo in the morning to see some Kiwi's (which are very odd- no wings, fat feet, just odd!) which was cool - seeing as we didn't see one on the walk and NZ's most famous native bird. Dropped van off in the afternoon to go the airport to fly to the good old US of A! Left NZ at 6:40 on the 28th March, arrived in LA at 10:30am 28th March.. having crosses the International Date line, so we gained our day back, woop!
Just had a good day walking along Venice Beach, seen all the cyclists and rollerbladers along the beach front, Muscle Beach where all the HUUUGE men work out and loads of market stalls selling the same thing! Was nice and sunny but a little chillier than we were expecting - but still full off odd people as we were expecting such a man letting himself out for adoption, a man claiming to the biggest wino and help send him to the liquor store and people generally preaching about one thing or another! has been good - but we're shattered now! I reckon Hollywood's on the cards for tomorrow which will be cool!
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