TravelStream™ news feed for member jamhev270708 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jamhev270708 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:37:36 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232551500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232551500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232551500/tpod.html Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:37:36 -0500 Here we are!

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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

Hello all and welcome to our last blog! Yes 6 months has come and gone and we are back into the UK after a gruelling 30 hours on aeroplanes and a 5 hour drive up north.  We were greeted with in the usual UK way with rain, wind and a load of miserable customs officials!  It was made easier by being greeted by Heather's mum and dad and then breakfast at McDonalds! We are already missing the weather, the scenery and the people but we are ready to come home as living out of a bag and moving on from place to place was pretty knackering!  We have travelled 8 countries and have taken more than 2,900 photos and we have covered more than 25,000 miles!  I am sure you'll agree that it has been a great adventure. We both agree that it is very hard to name a favourite place but we think it comes between Croatia and New Zealand and we encourage you all to venture forth and travel.  There is a big wide amazing world to see and we hope our travels have inspired some of you to travel. As we were in Christchurch for little over a day, we did not do much other than shop and celebrate our last day with a meal and a giant handle of beer! This blog is just a big THANK YOU to you all for logging on to our blog and the comments and emails made regarding it.  We hope you have enjoyed reading the blog as much as we have writing it.  We have received over 4,000 hits from you all and some comments from the public too. Our experience was just amazing from the intense travelling and site seeing in Europe to the beautiful and laid back Oz and the lusciously scenic New Zealand and we are glad that you have followed us from one end of the world to the other. So thank you for all your support and we wish you all the best for 2009 Your travelling friends Jamie and Heather xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232090400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232090400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1232090400/tpod.html Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:06:50 -0500 Here we are!

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

Hello folks from our penultimate destination!We have reached Queenstown via a very strange experience (we are getting used to these experiences now!) as we were dropped off at Puzzling World along the way.  This place claims to be a mystery in all things illusionary and it certainly was (especially the price!).  We stood up in rooms were the center of gravity has been moved and endured countless illusions including faces that come to life and follow you around the room!Another stop along the way saw us park up at AJ Hackett's famous bungee site.  It was horrific - people were just throwing themselves off a bridge and were paying for the pleasure - no thanks!!The drive into Queenstown was pretty spectacular and was again full of the most amazing scenery - there are endless mountain ranges and lush green-land along the way and we did stop off at the mirror lakes - called this as the reflections in the lake are somewhat special.In Queenstown itself we booked ourselves on to the Milford Sound cruise which was one of the highlights of this trip.  With endless picture perfect scenery including seal watching and waterfalls, this was as close to perfect nature as you can get! (Throw in the free buffet lunch and it was well worth the trip!)  We got a free underwater aquarium trip thrown in too and it was great to see what happens 10 meters below sea level - some weird looking creatures.......or was that my reflection in the glass???We also befriended a German couple (sorry Liz!) from the Kiwi bus and had a drink or two with them at the World bar which was interesting as they both spoke better English than we did.  We obviously made a great impression with them as we left them our email address and a week later we have still heard nothing from them!  (Did we mention the war?)Queenstown is a real shopping haven.  You cannot help but shop, shop, shop and so we did.  Coming to the end of our travels means that any money left over is a bonus and so with some extra cash in our pockets we treated ourselves to some new clothes and then proceeded to go up the Gondola (cable car) to the top of Queenstown before luging (a luge is a go-kart type vehicle that you operate with a lever and handle bars) back down on a winding track (a bit like Mario-kart) - great fun!!Apart from that we have just been enjoying our final few days of our trip and with our clothes and limbs looking severely dirty - it's almost time to go homeEnjoy the piccy's and look out for a special achievement of mine in one of the pictures........a milestone anyone would be proud of!Kia OraJ & H xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231813440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231813440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231813440/tpod.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:48:57 -0500 Here we are!

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Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand

Your challenge is to do nothing, and enjoy the amazing sights and weather of Wanaka! And this is exactly what we did!The day after our Franz Josef mission we leave to go to Wanaka, that would normally be okay although my legs won't work as every muscle have seized up and the backs of my legs are bright pink from sun burn so the skin is very tight and very sore. This is not the best state to be in to travel on a bus for half of the day but hey.......We head out to lake Matheson which is near the Fox Glacier and you can also catch a sight of the famous Mount Cook. We opt out of doing the walk as my legs still don't want to work.Wanaka is an amazing place, and to be honest we have done nothing apart from sit out and look at the stunning lake and imposing mountain ranges. Sorry it's a bit boring but money is running low and our old bones beginning to hurt. Only a few pictures but we will be in Queenstown in the next couple of days for our last big adventure.Enjoy Wanaka and speak to you all soonHeather and Jamie xxPS Just as the saying goes "It's a small world" it really is when we came out of our room in the hostel a girl asks "Are you Jamie"............it was only a girl from Jamie's uni who is now working in Wanaka, was on the same course as Jamie. Damm small world!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231578180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231578180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231578180/tpod.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:33:38 -0500 Here we are!

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Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand

Kia Ora folks from the middle of the south Island, After leaving the rather colourful Mahinapua pub behind we went to an even more bizarre place on the way to Franz Josef.  This place was a museum type thing about animal sustainability in New Zealand.  We were introduced to Pete, the owner and Manager of the place, who used to wrestle wild deer for a living!!  We were shown a short film on capture methods of wild deer throughout the decades - weird!! After the film we were treated to a wild pig show.  The poor pig was probably older than me and was none too chuffed that we awoke him from his slumber all in aid of a piece of stale bread!  The surrounding courtyard was where Pete kept some rather random animals including reindeer, goats and a Wallaby!! After that bizarre stop-off we were on our way to Franz Josef - the home of the countries biggest glacier.  When we arrived in did not look hopeful for the following day.  The rain was pouring and was set in for the day and so we were worried on missing out on the climb the following day. However, we awoke to a beautiful bright sunny day and we were off to experience one of the countries best attractions - I couldn't wait to pull on the boots and rucksack again! I should have waited longer as the kit they gave us was wet and old, very old (but Heather always says I'm a snob when it comes to mountain equipment - she's dead right!)  Also with my experience I jumped at the chance at going into the top group.  We then decided it would be better to drop down to the middle group but were then placed into the bottom group as we were a couple!!  Still our group were great and we were soon all relying on ach other for morale support! The walk was tough but was truly amazing.  I have walked on ice before but nowhere with such views and temperature.  We were in shorts with the sun beaming down on us walking on a huge icy hill.  (The sun was very unforgiving and the reflection on the ice meant that both Heather and I were extremely sunburnt with some horrendous boot marks!  We continued to climb and listen to the ice melting around us while crawling through cracks and avoiding crevasses - great fun!  It was a long day; we set of at 9am and didn't return back to our hostel until 7pm, so the rest of the evening was spent doing nothing and covering ourselves in after sun as Heather's legs were on fire. The pictures and memories are amazing, we couldn't take enough and choosing which ones to put on the blog has been a hard challenge. Hope you enjoy them, we have one more big experience left, but our thoughts are on coming home and not been able to wear shorts on the ice in England - no chance!! See you all soon J and H xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231274580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231274580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231274580/tpod.html Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:37:30 -0500 Here we are!

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Westport, South Island, New Zealand

Hello Everyone!!From leaving sunny Nelson in the North we headed down to a sleepy little town o Westport - famous for absolutely nothing!!  We decided that we needed to start hammering out emails for future plans and catching up with people and to sun ourselves before heading back to the big freeze in Blighty.  As nearly all of our great plans go - this one was no different!  As soon as we reached Wesport the heavens opened, non stop!  So that knocked our sunbathing in the park opposite us out.  So we consoled ourselves with the fact that the hostel provided wireless internet - the one that we bought in bulk.  Wrong again - the wireless was out of order and so here we were for 2 nights stuck inside the hostel with no communication to the outside world and no chance of going anywhere.  To our amusement in Westport we found out that a router for the wireless connection does not mean the same thing in New Zealand. When I went over to the lady at reception and asked where the router was she just looked at me and then starting laughing - router in New Zealand means someone who is a real "goer" in the bedroom........Ohh I say! That wasn't what I was looking for!However all was not lost as we made friends from the Kiwi bus and watched dvds and chatted and in the end we still had good old cups of tea which is the main thing - so not much to report about Westport I'm afraid.After we left Westport a half an hour drive saw us at Cape Foulwind where the largest natural seal colony is situated.  These creatures are so funny to watch as they flop around the rocks and watching the pups run about is so cute!!  You'll have to look hard on the piccys as they blend in with the rocks!After looking at the seals we were back on the bus to travel to Punakaiki and the Pancakes Rocks. The Pancake Rocks are a series of stratified limestone stacks which, over many thousands of years, have been eroded to resemble giant piles of stacked pancakes. You'll be able to see them in the pictures, and we also got to check out some great blowholes but it wasn't quite windy enough to get the full effect. Our overnight stop was a place called Lake Mahinapua Hotel which is run by the legendary Les Lisle, Les is New Zealands oldest and most eccentric publican and he certainly does not mix his words and at 84 years old has something to say about everything! For tea Les cooks a huge BBQ of steaks and venison stew (which I stayed clear of) but this spread was gorgeous and I was completely stuffed afterwards. However the fun was not to stop there, the Kiwi bus arranges a party night here every night and often have a fancy dress theme..............we should have kept the Lords and Ladies outfit although they might have been a little up class for this party. We decided we weren't going to spend much on our outfits (we actually spent $5 which is £2) on a plastic glasses and nose for Jamie and some doctors equipment for myself. Not very impressive and it was never going to win any prizes but to be honest the money is running low and we just wanted a few beers. Turned out to be a very strange evening some of the locals turned up in a helicopter knocked back some shots and bottles of beers and then took some of the more drunken, younger girls out for a ride in the helicopter...........can you get done for been over the limit driving a helicopter? - unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to be one of the chosen girls not drunk enough or young enough I think!!! But hey all makes for a great chat up line "Fancy a ride in my helicopter"  That's about all folks, going to Franz Josef tomorrow where we get to do some Glacier climbing so that will be very exciting. Hope you enjoy the pictures and not long till we are home. Take Care H and J xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231127820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231127820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1231127820/tpod.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:23:28 -0500 Here we are!

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Nelson, South Island, New Zealand

Hello all from the final destination on our trip - the South Island Yes can you believe it; we have less than two weeks to go - crazy! Our first port of call - Nelson, the sunniest place in New Zealand.  Getting here though was a mission.  The ferry across was packed to the rafters and was the average size of Ipswich!!  Heather had remembered to take her sealegs although the water was very smooth. After a short stop in Picton it was another few hours on the big green bus to the sea side town of Nelson.  As independent travellers, Heather and I like to go our separate ways from the Kiwi bus kids when it comes to accommodation.  Sometimes this proves to be a great idea, a quiet, clean and cosy place with helpful staff is the travellers dream.  Unfortunately, this was our nightmare.  We were dropped off at a dilapidated hovel called Bumbles; home to the roughest, skankiest, gang members in New Zealand!!  The characters who greeted us were horrendous.  We dare not make eye contact with them and so after checking in we hid all our belongings and scarpered into town.   The town centre itself was gorgeous and was reminiscent of a European city, dominated by an English built Cathedral.  Shopping was high on the agenda as Nelson is a real shopping haven and its claim to fame is that Peter Jackson had the 'one' ring made here at a place called Jens Hansen and the ring is displayed in the shop (although they don't like you taking pictures of it in the shop then walking out!) After wandering if we were going to have our room broken into overnight we awoke to another beautiful day in Nelson.  We decided to walk to the geographical centre of New Zealand which was situated at the summit of a rather steep hill just out of the centre.  Whilst the views at the top were spectacular with valley and sea views, the walk nearly killed us - after six months of down-time fitness is severely hampered these days!!  After surviving another night (we actually slept so well at Bumbles despite being the local half way house) we ventured into Nelson's surrounding city parks which are beautiful as is the wildlife and plant life - stunning!   We split most of our time in Nelson between shopping, sunbathing and sorting out our lives back home.  We are both sad and excited about coming home - WE MISS YOU ALL!! And living out of a backpack is starting to take its toll. Our last port of call was the Nelson lakes just before departing to Westport.  This place was truly amazing with postcard perfect scenery round every corner.  Already we can see a major difference between both Islands with the North more built up and the south much more rural and scenic. Well, enjoy the pictures from our new camera: only the best piccys for our loyal viewers!Kia OraJ & H xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230856200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230856200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230856200/tpod.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:59:32 -0500 Here we are!

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Napier, North Island, New Zealand

Hello All, After a great Christmas spent with Kate we had a few more days in the Mansion, Laura was back at work so Logan and his brother Aaron took us out to see "One Tree Hill" however no longer is there a tree that stands as some bloke cut it down in protest at tree logging and is now serving 4 years in jail!!! So really it could be called "No Tree Hill". This place was great and gave us yet more opportunities to take some great shots as the views were amazing  out across Auckland, and with our new camera in hand I couldn't help but go mad. Unfortunately we have had some bad news but I think it's great, Jamie's sandals have finally been chucked out!! He's not happy but these things have been his only pair of footwear for 5 months and when we were sat in the car everyone could smell them so it was time to take them to the nearest tip and hope they didn't come back!! The next big adventure was New Year, and this didn't disappoint and I'm sure when you see the pictures you won't be disappointed either - even if it's just to check out how "HOT" Logan looks!! Although he's no man compared to my Jamie hee hee. The plan for New Year was to stay with some more of Laura's friends Andre and Aisling who live in Napier which is 5 hours south of Auckland. They were holding a New Years Party which was themed as Lords and Ladies, you had to come in fancy dress complete with who you were and your title and then a story to how you got that title. Myself and Jamie decided on the Duke and Duchess of York and basically the Duke's father had earnt his title by matching 10 thousand men up to the top of the hill................yes you know the song!! Well the story got worse the more we drank!! Lord and Lady Lever were incredible hosts and Lord Lever excellent in making some fine cocktails which I have no idea what they had in but boy were they strong. Anyway check out the pictures all taken with my new camera so they are pretty impressive. Laura and Logan looked great in full Samoan costume Logan was chief of his village with Laura basically been his slave.  The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine so decided to have a cooked breakfast made on the BBQ - Isn't this the complete opposite to England, it's so strange!! Strangely everyone was feeling okay so we ventured into the centre of Napier with Andre and Aisling who gave us a guided town into their beautiful town. Napier is an Art-deco town which still has the 1950s feel to it, you can't help but love it. After a long walk in very hot sun we made it back home for some fine cooked tea on the BBQ again before all heading off to bed early. I think the sun and the night's partying before had caught up with us all. Next morning we woke when the alarm went off, which was at 8.30am as arranged with everyone as we needed to get the 10am bus out of Napier 5 hours onwards to Wellington. Everything was going according to plan until.........I checked the tickets and realised that we had in fact MISSED the bus we were suppose to get which was 8am. We rushed down to the Bus Station in the hope that we could still get the 10am bus out and pay for some new tickets...........NO that bus didn't exist anymore and the only one out of Napier was at 1.40pm and guess what....that was full. So with a ferry booked for the following day to the South Island our kind hosts Lord and Lady Lever jumped to our rescue and were kind enough to drive us to Wellington!! Poor Laura didn't know what to do as the friends she brought to the party who had been put up for 2 nights were now been driven 4 hours south..........."Do not bring these friends again" might have been said but we can not thank Andre and Aisling enough for their kindness in driving us what a "ROAD TRIP" - we owe you guys loads and we know 2009 is going to be just a great one for you two. Hope the house renovations keep going well, and we look forward to seeing all the updates, you guys honestly made our New Year the best!! So it's been fun packed and we have made 2 more great friends (although not sure they want to hear from us again) and we are very sad to be leaving Laura and Logan. Jamie has loved having another man around to stick up for him but you'll both never be right!! Enjoy the pictures and we'll see you all in 2 weeks - yes it's countdown from here on in.  Heather and Jamie x  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230616620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230616620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1230616620/tpod.html Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:21:24 -0500 Here we are!

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

Happy New Year folks and we trust you all had a good one! Our Chrimbo was certainly great although not traditional, which was certainly different!After a 10 hour coach journey we arrived back in Auckland from Wellington and once again met up with the hostess with the mostess - Laura.  Laura had a friend over from Sydney (also a fellow Yorkie from Bishopthorpe) called Katy and together with Logan we drank in Christmas day with a drunken dance at Rick Astley's expense - what a night!!  Bearing in mind we have barely drank since we stepped off the plane in Madrid, the alcohol went straight into my system and after hours of robot dancing to pretty much every song, illness soon took over and I was a right old state on Chrimbo morning. Throwing up was never on the agenda for me to kick off the festive period - Heather was not amused!! We were all invited to Logan's sisters for Chrimbo dinner which was of course a gigantic BBQ with around a years worth of meat!  We also got to meet Jessie who is Logan's little nephew and he is gorgeous and so well behaved - we all queued up for a cuddle before having a game of cricket which I somehow managed to scrape myself out of a chair to play!!  The day was awesome but the mid-twenties temperatures did its best to make us forget the traditions of the day - but the company more than made up for it!! On boxing day we all piled into the car and went bargain hunting at the malls before moving into a mansion for the week.  The mansion belonged to one of Laura's friends and boy does she have a friend there!!  This place was HUGE and it even came with a spa bath!!  We chilled in the mansion recovering from the past two days and drank and ate well and flopped in front of the plasma TV - bliss! The day after saw us once again in Mission Bay with a re-match of mini golf.  Aaron, Logan's 16 year old brother came along in pretty much the same state I was in on Chrimbo day and he stole the show with numerous holes in ones mostly by using one hand on the club and the other to stabilise himself!!  Heather and I came second with Laura and Logan last - serves them right for beating us last time!!  In the afternoon we went back to the mansion and made Chrimbo dinner the UK way with a full roast with chicken - and all the trimming including crackers and poppers!! We then hit the malls again the next day and so we bought ourselves a new camera so stay tuned for some better piccys in the New Year. Best wishes J & H xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229916420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229916420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229916420/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:39:54 -0500 Here we are!

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Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

Wet Welly Welcome to what may be our last blog of 2008 (depending on whether we can get web access over Chrimbo) We arrived in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, late on Friday night as it took all day to travel down from River Valley.  We had an interesting stop at a place called Bulls.  The town have tried to create a brand name for this town and so have named shops, services and even toilets with the name Bull in the title.  For example a cheap shop is called Afford-a-Bull whilst the toilets are called Relive-a-Bull!! The local estate agent is called Move-a-Bull..........Genius!!  Anyway, we spent most of the day sat on the bus as it was a long journey and so not a great deal to report there. We woke up on Saturday morning to be disappointed with the weather.  Wellington is named the Windy City and you can see why.  Gale force winds and driving rain stopped us from doing any site seeing but of course, nothing can deter us from shopping!! We came across a shop called Tiger Eye.  This shop was crammed full of over 100,000 different beads and decorations that can be turned into jewellery with a bit of imagination.  So for Heather's Chrimbo prezzie, we sat down in the shop for a couple of hours designing and constructing a one of a kind necklace.  See the piccy for the end result! The rain and the wind continued again on Sunday and so we took cover in the impressive $350 million Te Papa museum.  It took two attempts and all day to walk around this place which had everything and anything New Zealand.  The main exhinition was that of a rare Colossal Squid which weighed around half a ton.  We watched a cool 3-D animated film which was pretty cool followed by a short film on how they caught it, froze it and then pickled it so they could study the ugly thing!  We then got shaken up in the Earthquake House and watched movies on erupting volcanoes and wildlife. Other than that, another capital city has disappointed although the weather was to blame this time.  Still can't complain as the weather has been on it's best behaviour for us for the last five months! All that is left to do now is to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year - 3 weeks into the New Year - scary!!  Best wishes and holiday cheer J & H xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229769060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229769060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jamhev270708/1/1229769060/tpod.html Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:56:35 -0500 Here we are!

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Taupo, North Island, New Zealand

Hello all once again from the other side of the world! How unlike Chrimbo does it feel for us??  There are barely any decorations up and the weather is getting hotter and sunnier.  Anyway, I digress, here's your new blog.  We have decided to combine the two days in Taupo with the one we spent in River Valley as it was easier.....so there! We left the glow worms behind in Waitomo and headed out towards the heart of New Zealand to the small town of Taupo.  We got off just down the road when we came to a short but very beautiful bushwalk.  We walked around the lush woodland and clambered in caves which was great fun although it was only short.   When we got back onto the bus, we had barely driven five minutes when the driver stopped at the interesting named Shearing Shed.  Thinking that we have already seen this at the sheep show we were not too bothered.  That is until the driver told us that it was indeed rabbits that were being sheered.  That's right....rabbits!! Apparently these New Zealand breed get their haircut twice yearly as the rabbits overheat and die.  The sight of the rabbits being strapped in with their little paws was cruelly hilarious!!  What was even better was when the lady who was sheering them, turned a little handle and the rabbit swung over onto its back!  It doesn't hurt the lovely little blighters and it is a life-saving technique.  We didn't know whether to laugh or cry at such a sight!  Anyway, you'll enjoy the piccys!  We then headed to another short walk at the stunning Huka Falls.  This was an impressive waterfall of blue/green water that squeezed through a tiny gap that is overlooked by a suspension bridge.  The views here are awesome!  After more piccys and a short rest we were off to Taupo.  We used Taupo for some much required downtime as the trip is once again catching up with us.  Luckily the YHA we were staying at had a free spa......yep, FREE!!  So we spent one afternoon looking for a new camera and the second in the spa followed by sunbathing!!  Ah that's better! The next day saw us back on the bus and again back on the hiking trail, this time on the Taranaki Falls walk.  As the name suggests, we were again heading for another stunning water feature in Tongarrio National Park.  This was a beautiful part of the country and the walk took a good few hours to complete and the scenery made every minute of it worthwhile.  For all you Lord of the Rings fans, the mountain that the Eye of Mordor was set in (Mount Doom) was present in the background and was snow-capped. River Valley was just that.  It was a gorgeous wooden lodge set in a deep sided valley with guess what......yep, a river beside it!  The place was simply amazing and brought you back to one with nature.  The stars shone more brightly than I have ever seen them shine......well it was 4am as we both darted OUTSIDE to go to the loo!! Finally on the morning we were due to leave, Heather and I played out 18 holes at the lodges mini-golf course and with a few expert pointers I managed to hit the ball....more than once!! Well I best leave it there and let you get on with the piccys. Kia Ora everyone J & H xx
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