Hello Everyone
We arrived in Wellington early evening and after finding a campsite, rushed back into town to try and sort Glastonbury tickets out. Sat at a computer for hours, but when they chucked us out, we had to leave it to Jeremy and Lucy, who did us proud (despite April Fools antics) - thanks Jez. Wellington was a lovely city, with a fantastic museum (Te Papa - Our Place). It´s also called "windy Welly" (it´s windy) and "Wellywood" as it´s the birthplace of Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, and since then, the New Zealand film industry has boomed. They´ve developed a walkway from one end of the harbour to the other, which is lined with many chic restaurants, and is beautiful at sunset.
Drove to Whakapapa the next day, which was to be our base for exploring the volcanic landscape of the Tongariro National Park. However, the weather forecast was grim so we pressed on to Lake Taupo. Z really wanted to do a sky dive (T said there was no way he could do it), and Lake Taupo was supposed to be the place to do it. We went to enquire the following morning and got blagged to do it right then. The woman even convinced a pale and shaky T to do it. There´s not much that can beat jumping out of a plane at 15,000 ft, in glorious sunshine, with the glistening Lake Taupo below you and volcanos in the distance. It was amazing. After that, adrenaline still pumping we walked to Huka falls, past really green and pretty countryside, and natural hot streams. Beautiful. We set off back to Whakapapa after that and got an early night in preparation for the "Tongariro Crossing" the next day.
The Tongariro Crossing is a 17 km walk through spectacular volcanic landscapes, up the face of an active volcano to peer down into its numerous craters, past emerald lakes and colourful bush alive with geothermal activity. It was knackering but well worth the effort. They filmed part of Lord of the Rings there (as well as everywhere else in NZ it seems), and one of the volcanos was Mount Doom (or Doon?) of Mordor. Very impressive. We headed to Rotorua the next day for some more geothermal action and to relax in the Hot Springs. It was a really cool place; it stank of sulphur and there were loads of pools of bubbling mud and steam everywhere. It felt like the earth might open up at any time. They have another impressive lake (Lake Rotorua) and lots of Maori history. They are very proud of the fusion of Maori and European cultures, as demonstrated in the Maori Church. Got back to the campsite in the evening and those pesky stalkers had beaten us to it again. And they were in the spot next to us AGAIN. What are the chances of that? Turns out they had to re-route and take a 13 hr detour due to an accident (or they were just desperate to see us again). Went to the cinema with the boys (the 1st time in 5 months) and watched "300" (pants but good effects). Next day we Zorbed, which involves throwing yourself down a hill in a huge plastic ball filled with water. It was a right laugh.
After Rotorua, we checked out some glowworm caves at Waitomo, which were pretty cool and then stopped overnight at Raglan, en route to Bay of Islands in the far North. Raglan is a cool surfy place, but couldn´t stay long as running out of time, and it was packed out as it was Easter weekend.
Bay of Islands is made up of lots of little towns dotted along the bay, which contained numerous islands (no shit). It was a Maori stronghold and the original point of settlement of Europeans. It was a site of much unrest which had a large part in shaping New Zealand´s history. We visited Waitangi, site of the signing of the historic Waitangi Treaty. This was an agreement by Tribal Chiefs and the Crown, stating that England would protect the Maoris and allow them to keep their land, if they allowed foreigners to settle and cease the warring. It is the basis of their relationship today and some parts are still contentious as Maoris contest land right issues. We spent a day exploring the quaint settlements of the Bay of Islands, and then headed for Tutukaka, which is a base for dive excursions around Poor Knights Islands - supposed to be on of the top 10 dive sites in the world. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our dive trip due to bad weather, and had no time to reschedule, so, a bit gutted, we headed to Auckland.
Auckland is, by far, the biggest city in New Zealand, and has one quarter of the population living there, but seeing as there are only 4 million people in the whole of New Zealand, it was not the sprawling, overpopulated metropolis we expected, and was actually very pleasant. It was built on hundreds of volcanos, and therefore has a very interesting topography, which we fully appreciated from the top of the Sky Tower. There were interesting and quirky suburbs and it looks like a pretty cool place to live. They are really into sailing (it´s called City of Sails), and there are millions of swanky yachts in the harbour. They are also well into their rugby and on our last night we went to watch Auckland Blues at North Harbour stadium (along with 30,000 others). It was a really exciting Super 14s game against Natal Sharks, with loads of All Blacks on show. The ref let everything go, which made for flowing rugby (and lots of punch ups). Auckland lost, but nearly stole it in the last minute. The atmosphere was terrific and great fun was had by all. The rugby and a slap up meal in Ponsonby were a fine ending to our New Zealand jaunt.
