The Grand Hotel Wanganui

... los. Leider ist das Wetter nicht so toll, es ist ziemlich bewoelkt und sieht nach Regen aus. Aber es sind um die 23 Grad.Eigentlich hatten wir gehofft einen Blick auf den Berg Taranaki werfen zu koennen, aber der versteckt sich hinter einer dicken Wolke. Der Berg ist etwa 3.000 Meter hoch und bestimmt normalerweise das Landschaftsbild der Gegend. Trotz der schlechten Sicht fahren wir an den Fuss des Berges und hoffen, das der Berg sich noch zeigt, aber wir haben ...

... even though when that time came the information pertained largely to the curious mating habits of various native creatures. Men, eh! We had a meander along the waterfront, admiring the houses and pondering on property prices (reasonable but no bargain as it turns out), and bumped into Heleen and Robin who were entertaining Thom in the local playpark, so we had a nice catch-up and swapped notes on weirdy campsites. A Happy Hour blackboard lured us ...

... The views were obviously going to be INCREDIBLE today! <br><br> <br><br>This first climb was quite hard work, but we got to the top about 45 mins ahead of the guide time, after a few quick breaks to catch our breath on the way up. <br><br>During one of these breaks a lone Irish guy ...

We left Chrissy's house and go down highway 1 toward Turangi. From there we follow highway 47 to Whakapapa village to see some informtion on the Tongariro National Park. We want to go up Mt Ruapehu, but the weather didn't alowe it. We presid on highway 47(part of the volcanic loop) and to highway ...

... held on to the ropes after that little tale. Since then, we've made it up to the ferry at Picton which brings us across to Wellington, the first port of call on the north island. Not much in the way of activities until we get to Rororua, though, just lots of driving and lamenting the god awful weather. Already noticed that the north isn't nearly as postcardy as the south. At times, did struggle to keep the eyes on the road down there with all the deadly views. Up here, just ...

... it was a nice walk and we were beginning to think that this was going to be a piece of cake, then we reached the bottom of this mountain and saw fellow trampers at the top of it, we thought that they must be doing another walk as we couldn't possibly get up there but it soon became apparent that we did actually have to climb it! I think that was the point when we started to ask ourselves why ...

... climb that followed up the mountain side! It was frighteningly steep and very hard work but totally worth it for the views! We had a brief snack on the summit before beginning our descent - set to take a further 4 hrs!! And down a loose gravel/sand track made things v entertaining. The last 2 hours were very boring with ltos of clloud and no ...

... to him about the history of his family - fascinating. It was a bit of a whistle stop tour of the North Island, but we managed to relax on the beach, hike and sight see a little too. Great to see old friends over here, and make a few new ones. Sadly the crossing back to the South Island was just as rough, so we missed out on the glorious view of the sounds as you enter them that I remember so clearly from my previous visit. Back to work!

... but the weather was awful, absolutely pouring it down, so we decided to play some more darts. We actually wanted to play pool but there was a group of not-very-friendly-we're-off-a-bus-tour people watching a DVD and being sniffy about the noise so we swapped to darts, and I'm glad because I blooming well WON the first game of darts in my life - wooooo-hoooooo! All that practice had paid off and I won. Yay!

... petrified fever! Then I reached the edge - it was really cold as I hung out of the plane (did I mention it was at 15,000ft?!) then we went on three and I entered a state of bliss for about 2 seconds, then that levelled out to adrenaline fuelled glee for about 45 seconds as I fell through the air, which in turn was swapped for utter calm as we floated to earth. It was absolutely amazing! Much patting of backs and smiles followed. Next stop Rotorua.