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Tena Koutou
01/04/2010 Back across the Cook straights on a smaller and older ferry to begin our tour of the North island, It started with a 10hr bus trip to Auckland for one night. The North island is totally different from the South, We now have volcano's rather than snow capped alps, The scenery which is still good but less dramatic, with cows instead of sheep on the rolling plains, Even the accent of the locals is different, its less pronounced.
We are still on a Stray bus, with only Grace and Susan left from the original group we headed off to Hahei at 7am with 2 stowaways on board who thought it was a normal city free bus (extremely hung-over and on their way home) They got on when the driver was around the back of the bus welcoming the new comers, the 4 of us kept Quiet for an hour, Until we decided to let the less than impressed new driver know. (We thought it was funny even if he and the stowaways who were now further from home didn't). At Hahei we took spades down onto the beach and dug our own hot water pools, due to volcanic seismic activity underground , at low tide the water starts to boil, The following day on to Raglan for some surfing .
05/04/2010 Maketo, for a Maori experience night, I was made Chief of the Stray bus tribe and had to front the challenge of 2 Maoris warriors, then accept their token of friendship, Lots of eyeball rolling and tongue poking, this ended with both tribes pressing noses and foreheads exchanging kia ora (hello's) a Maori feast and traditional dancing followed, We as Nai Stray had to return the compliment with our version of the Haka (for men) and Poi (for girls) which as chief and his wife, We had to lead the dances.(highly entertaining) This ended with 30 of us sleeping in a traditional Maori hall (allegedly I didn't snore???) At Kuirau on the outskirts of smelly Rotorua (the place stinks of rotten eggs from the sulphur gassing off from the volcanoes) Oonagh and I sledged over grade 4 water falls and rapids on body boards with hand grips for 2 hrs, it's the new adrenalin water sport in New Zealand, bloody hard and bruising, but exciting.
07/04/2010 Lake Taupo, a day of standing around waiting for the wind to drop at the tandem skydive Taupo centre, all to no avail, the wind kept blowing so no sky diving for us. At 10am the following day we did finally launch ourselves out of the plane at 15,000ft for the ride of a life time, free falling towards the ground at 180 mile per hour with the wind whistling past its absolutely, brilliantly, awesome, Then the parachute opens to great relief, a gentle glide to earth its all over to quick.. What a great experience !!, what a buzz !! and another tick off the must do list, We have got the videos and are trying to get them compressed to put them on the blog. The only downside was for Oonagh, she wanted a hulking Maori strapped to her back but instead got a Lee from Bournemouth and i had an ex Para. Now Oonagh is dare devil mode she decided to bungy herself, 47m over the Waikato river far below, A quick wave to the camera and she fearlessly leapt, Bloody brilliant showing some guys up who's bottle went.
After some sad goodbyes to the group, Anne-Marie cried and Emma said it was like saying goodbye to her Mum and Dad. 12/04/2010 Up to the Bay of islands in the far north and the town of Paihai for a couple of nights, another great little town another all action place set on the Pacific ocean. And where the treaty between the Maori and Europeans took place.
New Zealand is a place of fabulous scenery at every corner, Carefree locals who have a great outlook on life, The whole country loves the great outdoors and its adventure pursuits, Its best summed up as an AWESOME place.
Would we come back ? You bet we would.!!
Haere ra the Chaffer's
- comments
AMK hi guys! had to check up on your blog! So jealous your still out seeing everything. Me and Laura are back home now we left steph fending for hreself in Thailand, shes happy enough with all the boys there hehe. Glad i made it to your blog by being an emotional wreck, it was like saying bye to mum and dad though, you guys are awsome! Still missing you lots n loving the vid of the Haka, im going to stalk the rest of your blog again now :) xxx
AMK hi guys! had to check up on your blog! So jealous your still out seeing everything. Me and Laura are back home now we left steph fending for hreself in Thailand, shes happy enough with all the boys there hehe. Glad i made it to your blog by being an emotional wreck, it was like saying bye to mum and dad though, you guys are awsome! Still missing you lots n loving the vid of the Haka, im going to stalk the rest of your blog again now :) love Anne-Marie xxx