Skydives and bubbling mud!
Following my last blog we headed on our way to Rotarua. We stopped of at Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland where we looked at all the bubbling mud, steaming ground and geysers. They are supposed to be the most colourful ones in the country and were pretty impressive but VERY smelly. All the sulphur makes it all a bit eggy!
It was glorious sunshine again the next day so I decided I should jump out of a plane.... I decided that I'd give the skydive thing a go... Paddy decided that if I was doing one he had better do one too - He thought I might brag or something :oP We drove back to Lake Taupo as it's the cheapest place to do it and we could see Mt. Doom in the distance so it was pretty cool. We had non existing briefings beforehand and I was slightly unnerved when my tandem master grabbed me to drag me to the plane and quickly introduced himself as Damien. There was no going back :oS He was pretty cool though. It was great fun, though it doesn't last very long! Not quite what I'd ever imagined - really awesome. Ed and I both got videos done of our freefalls and now have action footage of us plummeting towards the earth - all pretty cool.
That night Paddy and I went along to a Mouri Concert and Hangi. It was a really weird experience. There were only 7 "guests" and we were outnumbered by the Maori performers who were all dressed up in their traditional costume along with face art. Being so few of us, none of us got away without getting up on stage doing a dance with them. I had to do a poi dance with the ladies and Paddy did the Haka with the men!! Very very funny! The food afterwards was amazing! There was loads of it and it was all delicious! We crawled back into our little campervan with very full tummies!
On we went from Rotarua up to the Coromandel Peninsula stopping off for a quick look at Hobbiton and then drove up around the coastline. We called in at Hot Water Beach where we had a paddle in the holes people had dug and sat in. Some were so hot you couldn't stand in the water! We were a bit to late in the day to hire our own spade and dig a hole so we just used other peoples which had been finished with :o) We did a walk to Cathedral Cove and took some photos there. We found ourselves an interesting sleeping spot perched on a narrow layby above the road and started early the next day.
We then drove all the way to the Bay of Islands where we camped in a disused airfield! The next day we did one of those super dooper 1600 horsepower jet boats to go through the hole in the rock. Afterwards we went to Waitangi to the Treaty house where the treaty between the British and the Maori was signed. It was a pretty interesting visit with some beuatiful Maori carvings. We continued on down the coast on our way back to Auckland. We stopped to see the Giant Kauri tree and camped in a nice campsite for a change.
Now we are in Auckland! We have handed back the Spaceship and are set up in a hostel which is lovely. Tomorrow we're doing a tour of the city and the next day we are going to the aquarium as we have some free tickets. Apart from that we are going to relax for our last few days in New Zealand!