The start of the kiwi experience bus trip......

Hi all,

The kiwi experience bus trip has started and yes I am on the oldest person on the bus by some way Haha. After a nice early wake up call and a lovely walk up a very steep hill with all my stuff, minus the skates (thanks to Katie and Janine who escorted them back to the UK for a small break until August when I will be reunited with the bauers courtesy of mum and dad, and reunited with the parentals of course :) ) I join the bus. Good news, really nice people on the bus, a good start, it's always a bit hit and miss with tours groups as I have discovered with previous tours. So the start of the tour is up to the bay of Islands right at the top of the North Island. We arrive at our hostel where we will be staying for the next 3 nights. We headed out to a lookout, 2hr round trip, and all up hill (as normal), once at the top we were just about able to see through the trees a scattering of Islands. It was a shame the weather was so lousy otherwise the view would have been much better. We started the walk back and the heavens opened, we got totally soaked!!!!!! Once back we got back we had our BBQ and free beer.

Another early start, oh my god I feel terrible when I wake up, hardly any sleep last night due to an incredibly noisy English couple in our dorm, but not noisy in the way you are probably thinking, they decide to rummage through rucksacks and sorting all their stuff at 3:30am! This continued throughout the 3 nights, finally we ditched them in Auckland! Anyway we boarded the bus at 7:10 am to begin the 5hr trip to Cape Reinga. On route we stopped at a forest for one of the many nature walks we do on these trips. The trees were pretty impressive, they were massive. Eventually after what seemed forever being on the coach, we reached the cape lighthouse which provided some very beautiful views including where two seas meet (sorry can't remember which ones!) From the lighthouse we headed off to the dunes for some dune boarding which looked really fun, until I saw how flipping fast they were going head first and then ending up in the stream below. The dunes were incredibly steep and looked like a dessert. From here we drove along 90mile beach, which isn't actually 90miles long! The beach was lovely, a bit windy but really nice. From here is was then off to get fish and chips. Once we arrived back at the hostel it was quiz night. This was pretty funny, the base hostel quiz nights are normally a good laugh and usually end up with one team downing beer mixed with random food in for the 'sink or swim' round and then team members end up stripping to get more points than the other team. you will be pleased to know that I have not been that desperate for points. My team of 2 actually came 4th which was pretty impressive! Cue the hangover for tomorrow!

Yep and it arrived....today we got on the dolphin boat and quote of the trip so far emerged today, so funny, but I'll explain this later...... As well as viewing the dolphins we were also to visit the hole in the rock. Luckily for us the weather was okay today and actually quite sunny and free of rain. The bay of Islands is stunning, loads of little island scattered around the sea - the name says it all! At around lunch time it was time for our little walk to a view point. Eva, our friend from Germany, then announced 'ah this is where we get off to spread our legs'. Harriet and I looked at each other and burst out laughing and pointed out that it should be we are getting off the boat to 'stretch' our legs! It was so funny, we were in stitches, the joke now comes up everytime we have to get off the bus to stretch our legs! Anyway the view point provided 360 degree views, rolling green hills and then sea and islands.

Today we head back to Auckland, the 3rd time in about 2 weeks for me! Very excited about the fact we don't have to set any alarms, but oh no we had about very own alarm by way of the unsociable English couple who insisted on packing at 7am and waking everyone up grrrrrrrrrrrrr. They are not on my Christmas card list! After checking out, I went for a little walk and had a coffee overlooking the water, the sun was shining and reflecting beautifully off the still blue water, not a bad way to start the morning. We boarded the bus at 1:30pm to start the trip back to Auckland. It was then to the bar for farewell drinks with Harriet who was off to Fiji the next day. Then alarm was set for 6 am so we could watch the England game. What a complete waste of time getting up early that!

Having had the first decent night sleep in a week we then departed Auckland for Hot Water Beach. There's now about 30 of us in the bus, a great bunch of people. After a few stops we arrived at Cathedral Cove and went for an hr and a half walk. The beach was beautiful and sheltered. The view on the way back was stunning, the sun beginning to go down and reflecting beautifully off the Ocean. From here we headed to our accommodation which was lovely, at 6pm we went off to hot water beach to dig some holes. It was so cold not many people actually got in the hot water. Just standing on the beach you could feel the hot water some parts of the beach were actually too hot to stand in.

Today we went off to Waitomo caves, on route we travelled through the Kopu ranges where we stopped at the Karangahote scenic reserve to have a look at the gorge. Part of the gorge was shut due to being damaged from the weather. The gorge was incredibly green, we also went through a series of caves and two swing rope bridges which were pretty difficult to walk on. We arrived at the Waitomo caves and set off on an walk around the caves. We started off by walking down a spiral lit up staircase, it was like walking into the batcave! Once inside we saw a brilliant cave network with impressive formations. We then saw the glow worms which are basically maggots whose arses glow! Nice! It was then time to get the England shirt on to walk into to a pub full of All Blacks supporters! We know how that game ended......

We left Waitomo caves to head to Roturua, but before we got there we went to Hobbiton. We drove through a farm before we reached Hobbiton. The pictures will show everything..... It was pretty cool. Once we had arrived in Roturua we checked in and chilled out and then went off for our cultural evening at the Tamaki Maori village. This was very very cool! It started off with a chief being elected from our bus, they then had to be accepted by the Maori warriors before we could enter. After the ceremony bit was over we went into some of the learning house to learn about the traditional Maori practices. The best bit was seeing the boys being taught how to do the Haka, this was pretty hilarious. Then it was time for the hangi, this is where they cook the dinner underground. Omg this was amazing, we ate loads, anyone would've have thought we hadn't eaten for weeks!

From Roturua we headed to Lake Taupo for 2nights. Before leaving Roturua we visited the the thermal park Te Puia, this was great. There were a large number of pools with boiling water and geysers spraying up meters into the air, along with bubbling mud pools. Our guide cooked us a boiled egg in one of the water pools which was pretty cool. The pictures of this place will show the wonderfulness of this area. Before reaching taupo we stopped at the Hukka falls, the sheer volume of water going down the falls was incredible, so powerful, if you got swept down there there is no way you would survive. Lake Taupo is beautiful, I will do some more exploring here on the way back to Auckland.

Today is the day we attempt the Tongarirro Alpine crossing. The alarm goes off at 4:30am, we grab breakfast and are on the bus at 5:45 am. Luckily for us the weather looks to be okay today, the last few days have seen the crossing shut, today was the only window we had. We arrive at the start point at 7:30am, after the bus driver had checked we were wearing the appropriate clothing we set off. The first part of the walk was fairly flat and gave us a great view of Mount Doom, a huge cone shaped snow capped mountain. The volcanic rock provided a multitude of colours. Then the climb to the crossing then began. This started off with steep steps, that got the the heart rate going! Then it got steeper and I released this was not going to be easy. The higher we got the better the view of where we had walked from got. As we got higher it got colder and much much windier, the wind icy and bitter. We eventually make it too the top, and get a glimpse of the emerald lakes, well that is until the cloud sets in and we can see b***** all. Once at the top we then had to descend down the volcano and what seemed like really corse black sand, I fell over a few times, the drop either side very very steep!we made it alongside the emerald lakes which had quite a sulphuric smell to them. We caught up with the advance rugby boys and then had lunch. Then the rain kicked in, so that was it, no hanging around, head down and power on! Legs quite sore now and still a few hours to go, but I love a challenge like this, I just thought of the 100 mile skate and how this should be a piece of cake incomparison! 5.5 hrs later we made it back to the car park. On the the way back to Auckland I want to have another crack at this this to get the time down and to also get to the summit ( we couldn't do that today as we would have got lost in the cloud, which could be quite dangerous). Once back I had the most amazing hot shower and then did my favourite job......washing. Then it was to the bar for a well deserved pint!

Wow I feel horrific today - having been totally dehydrated from the walk, going to the pub for beers was not the best idea I have ever had.......well you learn! ( sometimes that is!!!). Today we leave for River valley, which is literally in the middle of nowhere, not quite our bus drivers words, but mum wouldn't be very happy if I wrote it on here lol. On route we went to the Tongarirro national park for a walk.....in the rain, saw a waterfall that featured in The Lord of the rings then got back in the bus. The lodge is great, and has a large open fire and most exciting of all, we are having roast beef and Yorkshire pudding tonight - I am in heaven. First Yorkshire pudding since December!!! It was delicious! The white water rafting was cancelled due to safety reasons - the river was too high. So this meant we left for Wellington at 10am giving us more time there. We arrived, and my cold has well and truly kicked in :( not done too badly, considering I have been fighting this off for the last month. Anyway so what this meant was no pub crawl for me, we also have to leave at 7am and we know what happens when i go to the pub the night before an early bus trip...... A small tendency to miss the bus........

The kiwi experience has been fab so far and I suspect it will only get better and better.....

So the next update will be from the chilly South Island of New Zealand.....

Photos to follow when I get a decent wifi connection

Take it easy ay, sweet as!

Awesome!

Lou xx