New Zealand - North Island

I dont even know where to start, how fantastic is New Zealand!!!! I dont want to put people off Australia, but this place is far better and thats not just because the Maori men can be rather cute!! The scenery is amazing, the people are friendly and everyone is chilled out.
I arrived in Auckland, usual bunk bed sigh and being woken constantly by backpackers who think its sensible to put every item they have into a separate carrier bag so when they need something they can rustle for hours!!! As for Auckland I thought what a cool city. Theres only 1.6m people resident in NZ, so you can imagine how quiet really Auckland is even though most people live there, but it has loads of city stuff and the obvious irish bars!!! Its pretty, the museum was fantastic and im not really one for museums all the time but this was worth the visit. Firstly it meant I had to get the bus and passed through the quaint part of Auckland, called Parnell - very old english in style with lawn tennis clubs!! The museum was only $5 to get in so that was a welcome relief after Australia, now named by me - the most expensive place where men have mullets still, in the world!!! They have loads of maori carvings and items of history, with great info on the history of NZ through to modern day. They have a house which you can sit in, and witness an earthquake and volcanic eruption, which they say is always possible as many of the volcanos are still active here - great!!! scary, it was like being in one of those disaster films!! The skytower gave great views and of course with it being New Zealand, you can jump off it if you want to - attached to a bungy type thing obviously!! its not just for suicides!! I didnt, mainly because I wanted to save my pennies for the sky dive that i did today in Taupo which i shall come back to!!
I went up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland on the magic bus. We ummed and ahhed about transport and actually this was a good call. We think the alternate bus choice - the kiwi experience (or 18-25's party bus as it could be called) call us on the magic bus, the tragic bus, but who cares. We dont have to smell vomit every morning on it so thats cool!!! good mix of people but the nearer the front you sit (which i like to do so I can see more, be less travel sick and have a sort of control thing going with the driving - which remains awful!!), the freakier the people are!! that says alot for me!! mainly older ones, or very high maintenance old women from germany who dont shut up and expect the driver to organise their entire holiday. its entertaining. I ended up with old man from india who sadly had been booked into the wrong YHA in a place we werent even going to and he was very confused so I became his PA or as some including the driver said, his girlfriend - urmmmm NO!!! he was sweet enough except for the constant hacking and gobbing he did which really wasnt nice, especially before breakfast!! Had another french lady who thought i was the guide and kept asking me questions! i just made up the answers, kept her happy and me entertained.
The bus takes you from a to b, sadly despite being called magic there is no platform 9 1/2 or chimney dust that makes the journeys quicker but it doesnt matter, for you see NZ and it takes you to other places of interest in between mainly so you can have a go at trying to kill yourself in some extreme way that day from rafting to bungy! they had the helicopter bungy banned as apparently that was just too extreme - you think!!! nice bunch of people who you tend to see most of the time, by overlapping with what they are doing or just staying same sort of places for same length of time. this resulted in us actually spending quite a funny night in an irish bar, obviously with some irish people called Patrick and Patrick and other friends of ours from the bus, heather, Steve, James and Jesse and just having a laugh. I was momentarily distracted from our conversations about farts - well they were boys, so it was turned to that level, anyway i was momentarily distracted by a conversation with an american named Tyler with very lovely eyes and quite a fit bod, who had a house in Taupo, house in LA and ran his own company!! Sadly my backpacking attire, lack of hairdryer and make up didnt help my flirting! i returned to the farting conversation instead, far more my level obviously!! Anyway i digressed as usual!! First stop was Paihia which was beautiful, its part of the Bay of Islands and the sky was blue and there was no rain!! we were only there overnight and whilst meant to be there by 12, we didnt get there until 2.30 because our bus driver at that time was obsessed with stopping every half an hour for coffee!! i managed to do a 16km walk to the local waterfalls, past the Treaty area and so saw a fair bit. shattered but worth it. I had an older couple walking behind me, mid 50's and so i kept speeding up so they could walk alone and so could i, then they sped up, it ended up with me doing a run for a few km's on and off but they still caught up!! apparently they wanted to walk with me as they were worried about me doing the walk back on my own!! whereas i thought they were going to murder me! haha. that will teach me for thinking of blair witch whilst walking through the forest and mangrove swamps!
After Paihia, down to Rotorua via Auckland again. Fab place, cant actually remember what i did there. oh yeah i have remembered (this is the second attempt at this blog though which meant I had to go and look at what i did!! im old, so what!) Rotorua was nice. Had a mooch as usual, which included a bit of shopping for a pair of long trousers as only have jeans and i resisted the temptation for pretty tops, not necessary really!! i also found loreal suntan lotion which we had been looking for since SA!! anyway, of important, its a massive geothermal area, ie volcanic and you may die, so went to a geothermal spa, called Hells Gate spa. I know, why wouldnt you want to go there, its so inviting!! i expected both before and on arrival, which sorry to digress again, involved a pick up driver who toured us around the industrial area of Rotorua showing us and telling us about the pine tree industry and planting, the five girls on there were a bit dumbfounded as we were really more interested in the spa and massage but needless to say it helped the following day with information as my second role as tour guide on the magic bus with mad french lady!! back to the spa, expected there to be bikers outside and there should have been. The spa, not so relaxingly started off with an hours walk around the geothermal pools which had signs like if you throw something in it we will make you pick it up, and you will have no skin left!! it smelt and was bubbly hot stuff but actually pretty cool especially as you dont many of those around Norwich, well except in Prince of Wales rd on a Fri night or yarmouth!! after the hours walk around and millions of attempts to get actually bubbling up of bubbling hotpools, i came across Benny the maori carving man who suggested i have a go. So i had a go, my attempt to carve a symbol (of mother and child - cheap present for mum!), looked more like that of a five year old and i may be doing an injustice to five year olds but anyway, it was fun. then the spa. first of all 20 mins in a mud pool. Wasnt really sure what to do, do i put more mud on me or do I just sort of sit there, so i just did and then thought others have been in here, nearly freaking i realised it doesnt matter you are sat in a pile of mud anyway, how dirty can you be!!!! after that a lovely massage, nice end to the morning. In the evening was the Tamamaki Village night. This was superb despite our being picked up with the rest of those staying at the Base Hostel who were the Kiwi Experience people. We had to elect a chief and the guy was more julian clary than jonah lomu so we thought our chances of being scary were slightly slim!!! He sort of did the Haka in a whigfield styley!!! oh well!!! The maori evening was fantastic and that was not just because i spent most of the night perving at muscles and trying to work out what , if anything, they had under there regalia!
After that, we had a fire alarm go off at 2.46am because one of the drunken kiwi experience teens opeend the fire door!! so it was a bit like being back at uni, standing outside, next to a bar, in pjs except this time an old german man was moaning at me, about the english including me, and muttering profanities to me in german!!!
Next day, bit tired, we headed for Taupo, without the kiwi experience vomiters, and I did go through the glowworm caves at Waitoma with the old indian boy who gave me a hug and obviously thought as it was dark, it was like a date!! we were in a boat in teh caves i hasten to add otherwise i would have moved away!! We stopped at the Huka Falls, which were amazing and no way would i try to raft down that. seems no one did as death was a certainty based on the past!!! Then we arrived Taupo and the sky dive. Fantastic. no bunks this time in the hostel but beds that if they had painted wheels and a steering wheel would haev been the right size for a child!!! anyway, after an evening in the pub with the tennis and irish people plus others, we got up ready for me to do the 15000 feet sky dive. It was the best thing ever despite having the guy strapped to me - this was all legal and not bondage as Sam refered to - who thought it funny to keep laughing and saying my straps werent on right and just giving me this oh dear look, then tapping to the other guys, looking at me and my gear and just looking sorry for me - men!!!! anyway, best jump ive had - so to speak!!! i think i swore - in a good way all the way down!! not sure what to do next to top that
anyway, maybe a bungy............

New Zealand - North Island

Auckland, New Zealand