Hello

We crossed over from Picton to Wellington on the 21st January. The ferry bizzarrely takes 3 hours to go about 17km. The journey was pretty smooth tho and we both must have been suffering from TV withdrawl as we sat with the kids watching 2 movies. Arriving in Wellington we had planned to stay in a campsite close to the city and perhaps explore a bit. Unfortunately the campsite was a long way west from the centre so we decided to go north as that was the way we were planning to travel. We soon found a campsite in the suburbs but weren´t all that impressed as it was on kind of an industrial estate (nice). After the beauty of the South the North was looking a little dissapointing. We bought some food and Betty cooked up some fine New Zealand lamb so all ended well.

We set off the next morning for Lake Taupo where we had arranged to meet Mark and Heather and found ourselves stuck in traffic for the first time since visiting New Zealand. We had been told the North was a lot more highly populated than the South and it appears all of them have cars and like to sit in traffic. Still not impressed, we continued north a lot slower than we has become accustomed too. The roads eventually opened up we drove into familiar sweeping mountaneous landscapes, past rolling green hills and even saw a volcano, Mount Ruapehu. We arrived in Taupo in the afternoon and met up with Mark and Heather who had found us a great camping spot by the river just outside of town.

We spent our first afternoon/evening basking in the sunshine and having a barbeque down by the river. Betty and Heather even went for a late night dip. In the morning the river had risen quite dramtically which meant the current was too strong for swimming, but you have to use washing facilities where you find them so we had an al fresco wash whilst holding onto a small Jetty so as to not get swept away. Camping hardcore.

The day had started brightly so we went to visit Huka falls and a local volcanic area. The volcanic stuff was not all that impressive to be honest, just a few steaming holes in the ground and a bad smell. As the day wore on the weather that had been following us and we had warned Mark and Heather about arrived and it clouded over and started to rain. Lake Taupo is enormous and in a beautiful setting but we discovered there isn´t actually that much (appealing) to do in the rain. The afternoon was ending so we decided to go back and change to do a bit of tour of the town in the evening. The tour lasted somewhat longer than expected and finished at the local garage/pie shop (they like their pies, the Kiwis) about 5am. Very good night and a pretty thorough tour.

We had decided to move on from Taupo in search of adventure and more interesting volcanic stuff the next day so drove the 80km further north to Rotorua. As soon as you approach the town you can tell there is something in the air and it certainly doesn´t smell pretty. Rotorua is right in the heart of volcanic New Zealand and pretty much seems to be sitting on a volcano. No one seemed that nervous about this so I decided to keep my sense of panic/iminent volcanic death to myself (altho I did mention the smell a few times). The whole area is alive with volcanic activitity, with steam rising all around and everywhere offering natural thermal spas. The campsite we picked had 2 thermal pools and a beach where you can dig a hole in the sand to uncover warm/boiling water. DIY thermal spas on the beach. Temperature controls and hygiene issues meant the spa prepared by Betty and Heather whilst Mark and I did the shopping (eh???!!) was not easy to use. 8 out of 10 for effort tho (it was someone else´s hole).

Rotorua is a pretty cool place to hang out with a good range of adventure activities and some interesting things to see. Betty and I went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (great name) and it is pretty much exactly that, with a truly bizarre landscape of craters, amazing coloured pools of various steaming, noxious liquids and a green lake. I found the smell again somewhat overpowering and the steam/smell/gas combination makes breathing a challenge. It is the strangest place and appears like a cross between how you might imagine the landscape of Mars or the reamins of a large factory that produced some pretty nasty toxic, industrial waste type stuff. Perhaps I don´t do it justice. Betty was impressed - I tend to like my sight seeing somewhat sweeter smelling! ;)

We had also decided to have a go at some adventure sports and went rafting on the Kaituna river which, (this bit is repeated quite often), has the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world (they should pay me for that). It´s 7 metres which doesn´t sound like much or may, depending on your height I guess, but it makes for an interesting ride. Betty and I had never done any rafting before so were pretty excited/in fear of our lives. Betty mentioned she was feeling a little nervous to our guide Orion (???!!! or maybe it was Oh Ryan), who delightedly said in that case she should sit up the front. We had a bit of a practice of the procedure - ´Hold on!´meaning hang on, ´Get down!´ meaning hide in the boat and hang on and it was all sounding like pretty scary stuff. After a bit of pretend rowing it´s off to the river for the real thing. It was pretty fantastic, exhilerating stuff. You are straight into the rapids and then the waterfall is the second rapid you face. We pulled up for a little reassuring chat beforehand - Íf the boat goes over hang on if you can´t hang on swim this way, If you find yourself swimming down the rapids etc....all notably stuff they don´t tell you before you get in the boat. We were then forced to shout something gung ho (we weren´t a particularly gung ho bunch so settled on Í´ve changed my mind!) and óff we went. It was great, especially when the boat is completely submerged. We luckily didn´t go over and unfortunately neither did any of the groups we were watching follow us (we were to shout ´Tip! Tip! - pretty sadistic bunch the Kiwis). The only upsetting thing was that it was over too quickly and we can´t wait for our next attempt.

Quick note of congratulations to Betty who was the stroke master and practically led the trip although we later discovered was setting such a phenomenal pace by not exactly fully submerging her paddle! Great work.  (This is not true!)

All good fun so we also tried freefall above an upturned jet engine (harder than it looks) and Mark and Heather went Zorbing (rolling down a hill in a large plastic ball). It looked like great fun and they both really enjoyed it. I can´t see it making it to the Olympics tho..

We had a joint of lamb in the evening steamed from naturally occuring thermals and some fine New Zealand Sav. Unfortunately the next day we had to part company with Mark and Heather who are staying on in New Zealand. We had a great time together and it was a little sad to have to leave them and drive on alone. Thanks for taking the time to hang out with us! Good luck with the job hunting!

From Rotorua it was a 3 hour drive North to Auckland, but that´s another story.

Hope all are well, and still awake, apologies for the rambling, it´s damn hot here and is over heating our brains.

Take care

love Paul and Betty