Quest Taupo Serviced Apartment

... still a heck of an experience though!




So there I am in Napier about three days later. Martin, Johannis and me had travelled down to explore the East Coast. I'm having a great dream where I'm working on the Richard and Judy show and it was Judy's birthday. Richard had arranged one great surprise after another for his wife including having Burt Reynolds (Judy's favourite) arrive unexpectedly. Paul McCartney had just sat down for a career retrospective ...

... safely. Soon however they decided to just go for it and I was matched up with my partner, Squirrel (not very reassuring to be strapped to someone named Squirrel, 12000ft up!) and Jay was with Mikey. 16 of us crammed into a miniscule plane with the rides literally on the laps of their partners. The ride up was beautiful but still a little cloudy. Once we reached 12000ft, the first jumper jumped through the clouds. Now normally they won't jump if they can't see the ground ...

... people who want to be dunked don't come close to the water. The bungy cord snapped me back up and even that was scary. I bounced about three of four times before the boat came over and the guy reached out with a pole to pull me down. I collapsed into the boat shaking from head to toe and the first thing I said was I am never doing that again! The boat dropped me at a little pier from where I could walk back up to the Taupo Bungy building. Alan was after me in the queue so ...

... waiting for people to get out of the "True New Zealand Sheep Shearing/Farming show." See yesterday started off very slow...because we were picked up early to be driven about 15 minutes to a place to spend money...to be driven across the street to another place to spend money, which we didn't take part in... We didn't get to Waitomo until "half 2," as the kiwis say, but I guess the bus has to make money soon. However what ...

... their home. One obvious advantage was the heat beneath their nests helped to incubate their eggs. (20) Anne appears through the mist! (actually steam) (21), (22), (23), (24) and (25), Yet another small sample of the photos we took at Wai - O- Tapu, which is correctly described as a Thermal Wonderland). (26) One of the few redeeming features of the Youth Hostel at Taupo was that, provided we got up early enough, before the mists came down on the peaks ...

29th December 2009 - Biggest Lake in NZ So with aching limbs after the previous days walk, we headed off nice and early to Lake Taupo, NZ's biggest lake. It was a great way to see it as we came from the far side of the lake heading for the town of Taupo so we got to drive all around one side of the lake. The views were pretty impressive, although there was some drizzle in the air which was not ideal. We ...

Taupo was perfect for stopping at for a few hours. I had a wonderful brunch on a patio facing the lake, then rented a kayak for a bit, and went along the nice, clear water. I went through the small town for a bit. My jeans were wet from kayaking in one of those fake pontoon-like kayaks, and since it was mostly my seat that was wet, it was: a) very uncomfortable! and b) potentially embarassing! Definitely a good, worth-while stop....

... for us and we all claimed a tyre puncture! The Tongariro Crossing is not being used by any guides until December at the earliest, due to an issue between the DOC and a small maori village that owns 400 metres of the trail. Instead we were walking a route around the tama lakes. I must admit I was disappointed to not be doing the crossing initially, but the walk had such incredible views that meant it equalled / excelled the crossing. We walked all day for 18km mostly ...

... up to the base of the falls. Being jet propelled, the boats have a number of advantages over normal speed boats. Firstly, they can operate in very shallow water and secondly they can turn a full 360 at high speed in their own length (which they do with great frequency!). Every time the driver turns 360 we get a soaking which the waterproof clothing we are given does little to keep out! The boat driver, has one of the best deadpan comic ...

... de afspraak dat ze mij echt niet ging duwen als ik niet zelf sprong, was het tijd om naar het randje te schuifelen... Mwwaaaa, das diep! De stelling was gebouwd op een clif en hing zo'n 12 meter over de rand, boven de rivier. "One, two, three; Bungeee!" riep ze. Nou, dacht het niet he. Zekers te weten dat ik vast zit? En dat het elastiek niet knappen gaat?? Vooruit dan maar...
Terwijl ik naar beneden dook, leek het wel alsof alles eruit kwam wat ik die ochtend niet ...