Hello New Zealand and Phill
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2007
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41
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Trip End
Mar 16, 2008
Auckland,
New Zealand
Monday, July 16, 2007
Its been a busy first few days here in NZ (as you can probably see from the recent map additions), first we met up with Phill (from back in the day Durham and Oxford) in Auckland where we spent two sunny and remarkably warm days (considering it is winter here rather than the lovely UK summer!). We took a boat trip out to Rangitoto island for some wonderful views of the city and also visited the excellent museum to learn a little more about NZ history and nature.
Then it was onto the Bay of islands, first stopping off to admire the huge kauri trees, and visit the museum which tells the history of these huge trees and also about the gum rush (the fossilized gum from the trees is similar to amber and a large number of people in the North were involved with digging it up in the late 1800's)
Maori rock carvings
.We spent a couple of days in Paihia (we stayed at a excellent place called the Mousetrap), visiting the oldest houses in New Zealand at Kerikeri (http://kerikeri.co.nz/Feature.cfm?WPID=262) to learn about the first Europeans to arrive in New Zealand.
We also visited Russell a picturesque village across the bay from Pahia, before heading off back down south.
After a quick overnight stop in Hamilton (All blacks vs Oz was on so there was an evening curfew on driving by Phill!), we headed off to the Waitomo caves to see some amazing cave formations and some funky little glow worms. This area also has given us our strangest visit so far, as our budgets are suffering after SA we always try and visit the free attractions and here this is rabbit shearing! We watched a very fluffy angora rabbit called Gina getting her quarterly haircut and it was very interesting indeed. I certainly recommend it, but just make sure you give it some extra time as the ladies in there like to chat!
Next stop, Rotorua where we had a lot of fun on the luge (a little like dry sledging) and checked out the thermal activity at the Orakei korako park http://www.orakeikorako.co.nz/, Some secret mud pools known by Phill's tours, and Craters of the moon
Maori rock carvings 2
.On our way into Taupo we also stopped off to admire the impressive Huka falls and the rapids at Aratiatia (http://www.mightyriver.co.nz/Generation/AboutUs/HydroStation s/Aratiatia/Default.aspx ).
We are now in Taupo, where today we took a loop around the mountains including Mount Doom and tomorrow we are hoping to visit the Maori carvings at the edge of the lake (Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Australasia).
Phew, that is just the selected highlights so it has been a pretty busy time! Just as well we didn't get jetlag...these things seemed pretty good considering there was a 17h time difference (http://www.nojetlag.com/) ...thanks mum!
So far the weather has been holding out most of the time, if a little cold.
Bye for now! Photos coming soon.
