Again, sorry its been such a long time since the last entry but here we go!

My last day in the Bay of Islands was spent visiting the Waitangi treaty grounds where the founding treaty between the Maori and the British was signed before heading back to Auckland for another night before heading to Mercury bay in the Coromandel peninsula. I had hoped in the region to go to hot water beach, where hot spring water bubbles up through the sand when you dig, but the tides were wrong in the short time I spent there with the bus, so this leg of the trip was fairly uneventful. It was great to be wit the same people on the bus for a while and the drivers all have funny names like Flea, Spud and Nancy boy, to name a few. It's laid back but a little to easy for my liking as they hand around sheets of activities and then book for you but it's a good way to get around in my time frame as there are only about 6 major highways in New Zealand and very few train lines to anywhere of use!

From here ther bus went straight to Rotorua where I stayed in a hostel with a climbing wall, just my scene! On arriving though, I went straight out to go Zorbing, where you dive inside a large plastic inflatable ball and they chuck in some water and roll you down a hill! Great fun, if brief, but one of the wierder things I've done! In the evening we all went to a Maori village where we were put into tribes, elected a chief who had to take part in a 'challenge of peace' with a Maori Warrior. It looks quite strange at first but involves a fierce display with a spear ending in a leaf being offered to the chief. In days gone by, the accepting chief may still have had his head cut off if he messed this bit up or seemed disrespectful. we then attended a show in the village demonstrating the Haka, traditional dances and music before having an all you can eat Hangi meal, where the food is buried in baskets with wet sheets and hot rocks. I had two huge platefuls of chicken, lamb, fish, various vegetables and salads followed by a traditional New Zealand Pavalova! Could barely move aftrewards! the following morning we went to another cultural centre to see geysers, kiwi birds, weaving, carving and learnt the Haka! I really enjoyed Rotorua, even with the continuous smell of rotten eggs due to the sulphurous volcanic activity!

The next stop was in Waitomo, where we had a great BBQ in the evening followed by a 5 hour caving/ blackwater rafting trip. This has nothing in common with white water rafting as it is a still underground river floating slowly on a black rubber ring but involved some zip lining, climbing, swimming in ther river (which is full of eels!) and abseiling, all in complete darkness, apart from the glow worms hanging from the ceilings, which looked like stars. It was freezing down there too so the guide poured hot orange juice down our wet suits!

Later the same day we arrived in Taupo only to be told by the driver that because of the weather we would not be able to skydive that day or do the Tongariro crossing walk in the nearby national park. Put a bit of a downer on the evening but we all went to the bar anyway and had a few drinks and soon forgot about it! The next morning however, my luck changed with the skydiving. It was still very cloudy but the shuttle bus to the airstrip said it was OK and as I was one of the few opting to jump from 15000 feet, I went on the first plane and I am so glad about that because it was the only one top go that day. In fact it almost turned back as they couldn't find a break in the clouds but on the final pass the green light came on in the cabin. I was amazed that I was not at all nervous with my feet hanging under the plane and when I jumped out (strapped to an instructor in a tandem jump) I had a minute of freefall and I have never done anything so exhilarating! I also aksed the instructor to throw us around a bit in the parachute which he did whilst soaring over stunning views of Lake Taupo beneath the clouds. this left me buzzing, if slightly deaf due to my ears popping, all day. In the evening as well, a friend from the bus found another bus company unaffiliated with my bus, which agreed to drive us to and from the Tongariro crossing. This is an alpine crossing, the landscape of which was partly used as Mordor in the Lord of the Rings films, including Mt. Ngauruhoe, aka Mt. Doom! It ended up just being me and Bruce, a Scottish guy from the bus and we were keen to climb Mt. Doom. The bus picked us up at around 6am and we arrived some time later at the start of the crossing, known as one of the best one day walks in the world. We ploud on up the Devil's staircase to the bas of the Mountain and visibililty was so bad that we couldn't see the mountain at the base of it. Did that stop us? Of course not! As it is quite a new formation, it still has a perfect conical shape and steep sides covered all the way in loose volcanic rock ranging from huge boulders to almost grains of sand. As a result it was very challenging, climbing on all fours in parts and not knowing where the top was as we could only see about 30m in any direction. We eventually reached the crater and took some misty photos before scrambling down again, which was even harder work than going up in places. We eventually made it down and somehow picked up the crossing path again almost where we had started. Then, almost as a reward, the clouds parted to give us a perfect view of what we had just climbed. We then had to climb up onto the main saddle of the crossing at which point I got cramp in both legs and the clouds came in again. We still got some views of the spectacular emerald lakes at the top and eventuall finished the crossing hours later. However, we did the lot in 7 hours and the books mark the crossing alone, which we effectively did in 4 hours 30 mins, as an 8 hour walk. I ached for days afterwards and it was a shame to miss some views but it is still the best thing I have done anywhere so far.

anyway, next day (in pain) we headed to the remote River Valley, a rafting lodge, surprisingly in a river valley in the middle of nowhere. A beautiful setting but the river was too low to do any actual rafting so I went horse treking instead and as a novice had a horse that basically needed a defibrilator to get it moving but better than some which refused to move! Still good fun but no chance of even a canter! The next day we had a brief stop over in Wellington before catching the ferry to the South Island.

the first you see of the south island from the ferry is sailing throught the spectacular Marlborough sounds in blue waters surrounded by huge rolling glacial valleys covered in dense subtropical rainforest. You immediately get the impression that the south is the more picturesque of the two islands. Night was spent in the tiny city of Nelson. I felt a tad restriced by the bus at this point so the next day I found my own way to the Abel Tasman national park where I met Americans Sylvan and Franco who I spent the following day exploring the park by sea kayak with. We started in Marahau, a small town at the very south of the park and kayaked all day around the various bays, stopping on Adele island where we saw a small seal clonony. I also discovered my nemesis, the sandfly. thoses things can bite and I am itching from head to foot! I then explored the park by foot the next day before heading back to Nelson to rejoin the Kiwi bus to head down the West coast, first to Westport and then to another remote hotel/hostel owned and run by a lovely old man named Les! Here we had a plastic costumes fancy dress party for which I fashioned a Batman costume from binliners, black card and duct tape! It was hot but worth it!

Finally, I am now in the Franz Josef Glacier Village, unsurprisingly to experience the glacier, which I did today in the form of an ice climbing trip with all the crampons, ice-axes and harnesses. This was a great way to get experience the glacier which provides so many great photo opportunities, being one of the few glaciers in the world to be surrounded by subtropical rainforest. You lose your sense of distance on the glacier as it is so vast. the highest point of the glacier that we could see looked close but apparently would take a couple of days to get to and back. The climbing itself I didn't find too challenging, probably because of my rock climbing hobby but it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

Thats brings me up to date I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear, sorry its another long one! Take care all of you! xxx