We’ve come to the end of the first week of the next part to our travelling adventures, so it’s time to post some of the stories of the past seven days.
Our mammoth flight to New Zealand began in Heathrow. We flew for 11 hours to L.A., arriving late and having to sprint through customs as quickly as possible (not helped by Gaz chatting with the security guard about his Glock pistol) and onto the next flight to Auckland. All in all we flew for 24 hours, taking in eight films and many rubbish meals (Rach gets special bonus points for flying from Switzerland to Heathrow too). We got to New Zealand totally knackered and after Gaz fell off the baggage cart ;-) we got our hire car and headed for our hostel in Auckland. Phewf!
On our first full day we drove north to the Coromandel Peninsular. The coastline drive on the way was superb, with little coastal villages overlooking crystal clear ocean and sandy bays. The wow factor was upped even more when we cut inland over the hills of the peninsular past fern forests and gorgeous little waterfalls. The
afternoon was spent at Cathedral Cove, a stunning little bay reached by a half hour walk through fern groves and a crazy dash through a huge archway with waves thundering in (only giving you JUST enough time to get through without getting washed away). We did some bodysurfing in the shadow of a huge cliff stack. The weather was amazing and the jet lag seemed to wash away. We later drove to our hostel overlooking Buffalo Bay and did some bodyboarding with the free hire boards as the sun set. Rach wasn’t dealing with the time difference too well and pretty much fell asleep on one wave…EXTREME!!!
Our most amusing escapade so far has been the massively hyped ‘Hot Water Beach’. We had read that on arriving we could dig a hole in the beach and loll about in the thermally heated water that welled up from springs under the sand. Sounded amazing. We got there to find one hundred or so tourists all trying to warm their bums in the same seven square inches of warm water whilst huge waves crashed in threatening to drown the less attentive. We took up the challenge anyway and after a bit of hunting around, we found a little bit of hot water and dug like the clappers in between waves. Gaz managed to amuse all those around as he repeatedly bum dropped into a two inch hot water bath, shouting ‘waaahaaay!’ All in all a silly but fun experience!
We then drove south to the adventure capital of the North Island – Rotorua, which we also found out was the egg-smell capital of the world due to the massive amounts of sulphur gases everywhere from the thermal vents. We decided to embrace this and spent our first afternoon there in the local mudbaths. We sat in our own private mud pool for half an hour, gratuitously flaunting the rules by chucking the stuff around like there was no tomorrow, before showering and sitting in the warm sulphur pools for a while. We came out with baby bottom skin, but smelling decidedly like baby bottoms, the former effect lasting for about ten minutes, but the latter still lingering….
We also managed to get in a spot of luge before the end of the day. We took a gondola up to the top of the local mountain and then raced each other Mario-Cart style down a concrete track on three wheeled carts. Gaz won that one, but revenge was had later on the mini-golf course when Rach came up trumps due to some highly original bounce shots (and a few holes in one).
Our most extreme adventure so far however has been Zorbing. For those of you who don’t know, this involves rolling down a hill inside a huge inflatable ball. We actually did hydro Zorbing, which meant that instead of being harnessed to the inside of the ball, we were left totally free and the ball was filled partially up with water. After diving headfirst into the ball, we were told to stand up and walk the Zorb forward to 
the edge of the 200m long hill, then all hell broke loose as we toppled over the edge. The two of us were all over the place as we rolled and bounced down the hill, with legs and arms and water everywhere. People across Lake Taupo must have heard Rach screaming as we went. We arrived at the bottom and plopped out in what is affectionately known to the Zorbing community as ‘giving birth’. Awesome fun!
Before leaving Rotorua we visited Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, which was a huge reserve filled with sulphur vents, brightly coloured mineral deposits, bubbling mudpools and gaping craters. The most impressive bit however was a huge geyser called ‘Lady Knox’ which was induced to erupt by an old Kiwi who put soap crystals into the vent. Two minutes later the geyser started to froth and then erupted cold water 20 metres into the air (and also over all the tourists)! Very impressive.
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We headed south west to Waitomo Caves the next day. We passed through Cambridge, of all places, before arriving at the town which was totally geared towards taking people into the nearby karst caves. We signed up with a good company called Rap, Raft and Rock and prepared ourselves for an underground adventure. Our group of six was driven up into the hills by a Stetson-clad Kiwi. We stopped en route to the caves to get kitted up in wetsuits, protective slacks, helmets, lamps, wellies and harnesses; all very fetching, especially Gaz’s pink slacks. After a bit of ropes practice we were off. We individually abseiled the 30 metres (eek) vertically down into a huge dark cavern before landing with a splash in an underground river with lots of eels. We then set off through the caves. After only a few metres we could see thousands of blue glow worms on the cave ceilings, which increased in number and brilliance as we made our way further from the entrance. We stopped to watch the rare sight of one of the worms actually eating a mayfly and the guide feeding a huge eel, before jumping onto rubber rings and floating through a kilometre of pitch dark cave system, whilst gazing up at the galaxy of thousands of twinkling gloworms above us, magical! We left the rings and continued on to do some more intensive caving; the 
next hour was spent squeezing ourselves through tiny rock holes and clambering up and down ledges and through streams. We got back to the start pretty tired, but not yet done, as the instructor informed us we’d be climbing back up the 30m we’d descended up a slimy cliff. It looked pretty tough and no one was up for going first. The guide solved this problem by kindly volunteering Rach. However, overcoming some shaky legs, she pulled off some serious Cliffhanger moves and shot up the cliff like a whippet – no problems! We got back and laughed at the comedy photos over some soup. A great experience…
Our mammoth flight to New Zealand began in Heathrow. We flew for 11 hours to L.A., arriving late and having to sprint through customs as quickly as possible (not helped by Gaz chatting with the security guard about his Glock pistol) and onto the next flight to Auckland. All in all we flew for 24 hours, taking in eight films and many rubbish meals (Rach gets special bonus points for flying from Switzerland to Heathrow too). We got to New Zealand totally knackered and after Gaz fell off the baggage cart ;-) we got our hire car and headed for our hostel in Auckland. Phewf!
On our first full day we drove north to the Coromandel Peninsular. The coastline drive on the way was superb, with little coastal villages overlooking crystal clear ocean and sandy bays. The wow factor was upped even more when we cut inland over the hills of the peninsular past fern forests and gorgeous little waterfalls. The
afternoon was spent at Cathedral Cove, a stunning little bay reached by a half hour walk through fern groves and a crazy dash through a huge archway with waves thundering in (only giving you JUST enough time to get through without getting washed away). We did some bodysurfing in the shadow of a huge cliff stack. The weather was amazing and the jet lag seemed to wash away. We later drove to our hostel overlooking Buffalo Bay and did some bodyboarding with the free hire boards as the sun set. Rach wasn’t dealing with the time difference too well and pretty much fell asleep on one wave…EXTREME!!!
Our most amusing escapade so far has been the massively hyped ‘Hot Water Beach’. We had read that on arriving we could dig a hole in the beach and loll about in the thermally heated water that welled up from springs under the sand. Sounded amazing. We got there to find one hundred or so tourists all trying to warm their bums in the same seven square inches of warm water whilst huge waves crashed in threatening to drown the less attentive. We took up the challenge anyway and after a bit of hunting around, we found a little bit of hot water and dug like the clappers in between waves. Gaz managed to amuse all those around as he repeatedly bum dropped into a two inch hot water bath, shouting ‘waaahaaay!’ All in all a silly but fun experience!
We then drove south to the adventure capital of the North Island – Rotorua, which we also found out was the egg-smell capital of the world due to the massive amounts of sulphur gases everywhere from the thermal vents. We decided to embrace this and spent our first afternoon there in the local mudbaths. We sat in our own private mud pool for half an hour, gratuitously flaunting the rules by chucking the stuff around like there was no tomorrow, before showering and sitting in the warm sulphur pools for a while. We came out with baby bottom skin, but smelling decidedly like baby bottoms, the former effect lasting for about ten minutes, but the latter still lingering….We also managed to get in a spot of luge before the end of the day. We took a gondola up to the top of the local mountain and then raced each other Mario-Cart style down a concrete track on three wheeled carts. Gaz won that one, but revenge was had later on the mini-golf course when Rach came up trumps due to some highly original bounce shots (and a few holes in one).
Our most extreme adventure so far however has been Zorbing. For those of you who don’t know, this involves rolling down a hill inside a huge inflatable ball. We actually did hydro Zorbing, which meant that instead of being harnessed to the inside of the ball, we were left totally free and the ball was filled partially up with water. After diving headfirst into the ball, we were told to stand up and walk the Zorb forward to 
the edge of the 200m long hill, then all hell broke loose as we toppled over the edge. The two of us were all over the place as we rolled and bounced down the hill, with legs and arms and water everywhere. People across Lake Taupo must have heard Rach screaming as we went. We arrived at the bottom and plopped out in what is affectionately known to the Zorbing community as ‘giving birth’. Awesome fun!
Before leaving Rotorua we visited Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, which was a huge reserve filled with sulphur vents, brightly coloured mineral deposits, bubbling mudpools and gaping craters. The most impressive bit however was a huge geyser called ‘Lady Knox’ which was induced to erupt by an old Kiwi who put soap crystals into the vent. Two minutes later the geyser started to froth and then erupted cold water 20 metres into the air (and also over all the tourists)! Very impressive.+of+paul211082pm+033_v1.jpg)
We headed south west to Waitomo Caves the next day. We passed through Cambridge, of all places, before arriving at the town which was totally geared towards taking people into the nearby karst caves. We signed up with a good company called Rap, Raft and Rock and prepared ourselves for an underground adventure. Our group of six was driven up into the hills by a Stetson-clad Kiwi. We stopped en route to the caves to get kitted up in wetsuits, protective slacks, helmets, lamps, wellies and harnesses; all very fetching, especially Gaz’s pink slacks. After a bit of ropes practice we were off. We individually abseiled the 30 metres (eek) vertically down into a huge dark cavern before landing with a splash in an underground river with lots of eels. We then set off through the caves. After only a few metres we could see thousands of blue glow worms on the cave ceilings, which increased in number and brilliance as we made our way further from the entrance. We stopped to watch the rare sight of one of the worms actually eating a mayfly and the guide feeding a huge eel, before jumping onto rubber rings and floating through a kilometre of pitch dark cave system, whilst gazing up at the galaxy of thousands of twinkling gloworms above us, magical! We left the rings and continued on to do some more intensive caving; the 
next hour was spent squeezing ourselves through tiny rock holes and clambering up and down ledges and through streams. We got back to the start pretty tired, but not yet done, as the instructor informed us we’d be climbing back up the 30m we’d descended up a slimy cliff. It looked pretty tough and no one was up for going first. The guide solved this problem by kindly volunteering Rach. However, overcoming some shaky legs, she pulled off some serious Cliffhanger moves and shot up the cliff like a whippet – no problems! We got back and laughed at the comedy photos over some soup. A great experience…
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