Napier

After being spoiled by the Ashton's in Palmerston North, we headed back on the road to Napier, the Art Deco capital of the world. In 1931 Napier suffered an Earthquake and rebuilding at this time was inspired by Art Deco. The beautiful buildings very quickly got Angie snap happy taking as many photos as the camera would allow! We went up to the lookout point witch over looked the Pacific ocean giving spectacular views for miles. The next day whilst Angie was sleeping Antonio decided to go for a walk on the beach and get a few pics. After getting too close to the water however a huge wave came in knocking him off balance and before he knew it taking his flip flop off his foot and back out to sea! Hilarious. Before we left Napier Angie found a Hair and Beauty college and got a hair cut as she has been desperate ever since we left England for one! We left Napier and went to a remote campsite for 2 days half way to our next destination Taupo.

Taupo

We arrived in Taupo and just chilled on our first day before heading to the Aratiatia rapids where the dam is released periodically dropping water from the Lake above. After hear we headed to the lookout point for a waterfall known as Huka Falls. We then headed to a place called the craters of the moon, a large thermal area where water deep in the earth is boiled to such extreme temperatures that it is released as steam in cracks in the Earth's crust. You walk around the area for about 45 mins seeing bubbling mud pools, steam vents and explosions of steam.

In the afternoon we went to go check out the prices for Skydives and we found out that they had a space available more or less straight away so Antonio was in his jump suit and ready to go much sooner than we had expected. Surprisingly Antonio was completely relaxed shocking even himself...that was until the plane thinking he was near the jump point and found out he was actually only 500 ft high and had 24 times higher to go to reach the jump point of 12,000 feet! Once leaving the plane however all nerves go and you just forget everything and enjoy it. Upon landing with a massive grin he wanted to go again!

After spending a day charging at a campsite we then visited Oraki Korako a throw back to a time when man did not walk the earth. It was a combination of mud pools, waterfalls, geysers and over 20 million litres of boiling water trickling across the area everyday. Despite the stench (which was hideous!) it was a beautiful place and a really nice day. Whilst we was there we found out that we were able to camp there overnight as we had paid to go in so saved on the petrol. This seemed like a good idea, however when it got pitch black and we were the only camper around, things did get a little spooky!