OceanSpray Homestay North Island

... acid rain and the stench and pain from the acid plus the fantastic flouresent yellow coloured stone from the sulpher, made this trip absolutely amazing! We were in the middle of it and we could just imagine the heat from below and how forcefull an erruption will be. Luckily we had some really good guides with us and we kept right behind them, but one wrong step and one could have slipped into a pool of boiling mud. We also ...

Our first stop before reaching Maketu are the Waitomo caves. I love caving! I did caving many years ago and so I choose to do the one activity I had never experienced before: black water rafting - well it sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is!!... basically we prod along on a tube on the water and admire the glow worms (reminds me of the chemiluminescence workshop for school kids at work!!! remember guys?), the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave ...

Woensdag 2 Juli Vandaag verlaat ik Rotorua en reis naar Whakatane. Ik heb hier verre familie zitten en die moet ik toch gedag zeggen. Verder is hier ook White island en dat staat ook op mijn lijstje. Hoewel Whakatane alleen maar 1 uurtje reizen van Rotorua is doe ik de rest van de dag niks. Ik lees de krant en vertrek vroeg op de middag richting de bushalte. Na aankomst in Whakatane loop ik een beetje door de winkelstraat en bekijk waar ik nu ben ...

First stop on the road trip was Whakatane which is the town from which you head out to White Island, New Zealands most active volcano, which is off the coast of the bay of plenty. Scenery was amazing the whole way down. Had aidys head annoyed stopping every few minutes for a photo!! Have to do all the driving too because the insurance is a bit messed up here ...

... because there were not enough divers to go. They would be looking at next week or maybe on Wednesday, so we left our mobile number in hope. We have good friends in Yorkshire who's daughter had moved out to the nearby town of 'Ohope', seven years ago and we had arranged to go and see Pamela, her husband Niall and their one year old son Beren. It was a sunny afternoon as we drove over from Whakatane to their fabulous house in view of the sea. We spent all ...

... that I believe all rentals are rally cars. ;-) We passed through many little villages which seemed largely inhabited by Maori's. We also passed many sacred Maouri or tribal meeting places. They are easily recognisable as they all have carved wooden entrances and are painted red. We never got to enter one as they are considered a sacred placed to the Maoris and need to be treated with great ...

... the Bay of Plenty to explore more volcanic goings on. White Island is New Zealand's most active marine volcano and about 80 minutes offshore. The weather was fantastic and we managed to stop for half an hour on the way to watch dolphins and whales circling the boat. Brilliant! Before getting to the island we were given hard hats and gas masks. 'In the event of an eruption move to higher ground and sit it out'. Many of the rocks ...

... the other tour boat had broken down. back we go to the other boat which is still by the bloody island. we then bobbed around in the water for 2 hours whilst our skipper went to the other boat to fix it! luckily the crew had plied me with sea sickness tablets so i was fine, but about 6 other people were throwing up and feeling bad. lovely. anyway, the skipper got the boat going and then we set off again for the shore, arriving two hours later than intended. a rather eventful day!

... the geology department in New Zealand, say whether helicopters can land or not dependent on conditions as the volcano could erupt at any time. We took off from the airstrip in Whakatane for a 20 minute helicopter flight to land on the crater rim. We were on the island for over an hour and a half, when we landed we were kitted out with hard hats and gas masks. The fumes from the vents on the island are incredibly pungent and the gas masks ...

... for some considerable distance. It was very peaceful, as these places so often are - there was also a small colony of black swans with their cygnets. I moved on and no sooner had I rounded a corner then I saw a sign leading down to Lake Rotoehu - of course, I had to follow it despite it being one of those 3m wide winding roads descending at a 15% incline. I think I spent the whole road with my foot on the brake - at least these ones ...