Hard Graft ! - Blogabond

Bay of Islands & Taupo

First few days were getting better, had had a few freebies too a ride on a jet Boat, a Maori concert ,the morning sand boarding...this jobs a doddle...

A flash of work and loads of freebies...fair enough the hours are long, Sunrise till well after sunset, but I'm loving it !

Spent a day or so heading down from the Bay of islands to get to Taupo, went via Coromandal and Cathedral cove, got to see them again this time drenched in amazing early morning sunshine !

Swam out to a rock just off the shoreline at hot water beach and collected a few mussels, sparked a trend as this group of girls spotted me, 5 minutes later they were, then 5 minutes after that everyone on the beach was gathering them, we cooked them in the evening, really fresh had them the next night too ! new fave food !

spent the next day at my one of my favourite spots, the kick ass beach Whiratoa, the amazing place where there was no one on the beach, I just ran down from the board walk...pulled of my t-shirt, and just jumped right into the sea, instantly deep enough to swim in, and clear enough to see with your eyes open...a true slice of paradise ! looking back as I float on my back all I can see are rolling green hills, and amazing cliffs covered in temperate rain forest...and a Golden beach with no one apart from the advancing members of our bus party !

Whiratoa

Does it get any better than this ?

Rolled in Taupo another sun-dreched day, took one of our passengers up to bungy jump, a young japansee girl, dont think she knew what she was doing, she seemed to brick it as they strpped her in, and I could hear her scream right down the vally as she plummed towards the lake from the platform 50 meters above !

Spent the afternoon Skydiving ! the ultimate perk...any future job must live up to this...this time I did 15,000 ft and it was even better than before as I could take it in from the second I left the plane, and had a longer free fall ! awsome !!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2nd time around

Just before the skydive I went for a dip in the river fed by a thermal water fall, so freezing river water mixed with steaming water from a hot spring, makes a nice bath water style temp !!

Dolphins - Kaikoura

Through onto the South island, the job is still going really well, spent some time in Kaikoura and went Dolphin spotting, ment getting up at 4.20 am...

but got to see over 150 Dusky Dolphins all playing in the water just off the shore, many jumping doing all sorts of back flips etc...

really cool to see them, in full flow at top speed !

Dusky Dolphons

Kaikoura - 'Dolphin Friendly'

...and Hannah...there is no back seat gang this time, they aviod that part of the bus, must be sacred ground now...I'm up at front with JP now...

written by

tomrendell on March 22, 2007 from Taupo, New Zealand

from the travel blog: New Zealand

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