I am now in the beautiful but very rainy New Zealand. Arrived in Auckland on Saturday where Josee met me at the airport. We stayed in an absolutely huge hostel - with over 600 beds, a travel and job centre, bar, movie rooms, internet cafe and a shopping centre and food court downstairs. We kept getting lost on the 10 floors and v.confusing lifts.
Our first night there we went out and partied, we went to the hostel's bar then stumbled down to some clubs by the marina to have a boogie, had a fun night.
We went our seperate ways on Tuesday as Josee went to go work somewhere. I joined the Kiwi Experience which is like a backpackers tour thing where you get a bus to take you around the country, they organise visiting sites and book activities (which I have been doing lots of!)) and even book your choice of hostels and drop you right to their door - god travelling has never been so easy and stress free! On the first day I made friends with a bunch of English people, its cool 'cos there are four of us girls so we always get a four-bed dorm together - no sharing with smelly strangers!
On the first day the weather cleared up and we drove to Cathedral Cove where we walked a scenic path down to the lovely cove and beach - the water was freezing but the sun came out and it was really pretty. We spent the night at Mercury Bay a little kiwi holiday town by a marina. We tried out the local fish & chips which was really nice. The hostel was great too - it had a spa! A group of us stocked up on lots of drink then squeezed all 13 of us into the little hot-tub. One guy had a guitar and we all sang along v.loudly and drunkenly. But we eventually got thrown out for being too loud.
The next day we had to leave very early. We dragged oursleves on a hangover walk along a beach. Then we visited Karangahake, where we crossed a pretty gorge on a very wobbly swing-bridge. We followed the river and and walked through an old gold-mining railway tunnel in complete darkness. We had to all hold hands, it literally was the blind leading the blind.
In the afternoon a bunch of us went Zorbing. Which is basically a big plastic ball which you climb inside of, I shared one with 2 people, they fill it with water then roll you down a steep hill! Slipping, sliding, twisting and turning in every direction until you dont know what way up you are - it was so fun! I almost lost my voice screaming so much.
We got dropped off at a hostel in Rotorua. A bit later our little gang headed out to do Luge riding. We caught a sky-lift up to where there was a great view of Lake Rotorua then drove these toboggan-like things down the tracks.
In the evening we went out for one of the girls, Laura, birthday. Was so knackered the next day when we had to get up early again to keep moving. We drove through miles of green fields and hills, there is an unbeleivable amount of cows here. We stopped off at the only place in the world where they shear rabbits. They demonstrated it to us. It was very weird, the rabbits were so hairy as they were bred especially for their fur, ahh they were so cute and soft though.
In the afternoon us girls went blackwater rafting, which is a pretty scary experience, Im not sure if I liked it but I certainly wont forget it. After struggling to squeeze into our sexy wetsuits and wellies, we all stood in the rain and were told to jump into a freezing cold muddy river off a quite high plank - backwards! Ugh. Straight away I wanted to back-out, and that was just a practice! So after that little ordeal, equiped with head-torches and big rubber tubes we went down to the dark underground caves and clambered through shallow waters and rocks to reach the deeper water and strong currents. We sat in our tubes and rode through the caves. When we reached a waterfall we had to stand at the edge and with our tubes around our bums and do that backwards jump again into the darkness and freezing water - brrr! Then we all linked up in a line, everyone holding the feet of the person behind, turned off our torches and floated along in the darkness, singing. When you looked up there were millions of glow worms up above looking like twinkling stars, that was the part I liked. That night the four of us got a little chalet and warmed up with the heating on full blast.
Yesterday we were supposed to go sky-diving but the weather conditions wernt good at all. we went to Huka falls where the water was amazingly blue then drove to the town of Taupo where we'll spend a couple of days. Last night we had a lovely BBQ then went out to the clubs and danced all night long. Today it is pissing down so a couple of us treated ourselves to a massage - it was amazing! i feel so relaxed I think I may go back to bed....