Oh god. enough said.

Wednesday 21 December

Today was by far the most difficult, tiring, injure-ness, but, most rewarding day of the adventure to date. We went to the Fanz Josef glacier and I went in the fast group. Now, to be honest, I maybe shouldn’t have gone in this group because a) I’m not fit enough b) because I was at the front, I didn’t really chat with my friends, which was the reason for going in the group. BUT, I did it and enjoyed it – however, we had to hire boots and from the beginning I could feel blisters, which to this day are annoying.

I spent the day at the front of the group with our guide, Doug.. he was brilliant and will make an excellent guide once he has completed the training. It was at the front that I found a new lease of life and continued and forgot about the amount of pain my feet were in (amazing I know), and I was keeping up with Doug fine, so I think I needed to see where I was going and where to position my feet, because at the end of the day, it was dangerous. I tried everything, went into all of the crevices, and went over massive drops and in all honesty, I wouldn’t have done this normally, but I think it’s because I’m away and trying to make the best of the adventure and actually make it adventurous!

Afterwards though, I was dead, so it was nice to get free entry into the hot water pools to sit in 40 degree pools until I couldn’t take it anymore. Tomorrow will be interesting.. I’ll be aching and we have a 7.15am start. Great.

The sun will come out.. tomorrow..

Tuesday 20 December

So, I woke up this morning, all bright and breezy.. others did not and spent most of the day asleep.

We made one stop en route to Franz Josef and it was so random that the bus drivers must get a cut from the amount of people who go in there because we each paid $4 to go into a shed, watch a movie about how to catch a deer using a helicopter (I know..) and we saw a couple of possums - that was all. It was very strange and as we were leaving another coach was pulling in, so there's some conspiracy going on somewhere. Anyways, the best part was the café, where I had the best pancake EVER with standard sugar and lemon.. it was immense.

Back on the road and we stopped at a nice spot to catch a glimpse of the glacier we will climb tomorrow – I am excited about this trip, but not sure whether to go in the fast group or the slower on – advantage of the fast group: you go further, giving you more chance of seeing excellent glacier forms. Advantage of the slow group: you take a better pace so that you can take time to and enjoy it more. We’ll see I suppose..

Dressed as an angel? me? no way.. but yes..

Monday 19 December

Still raining, getting a bit fed up of it to be honest, I keep being told that the weather is going to clear up, but with only 6 days until Christmas, I'm unsure.

So, bearing this in mind, I wasn't filled with the joys of spring when Bruce announced that we were going for a walk through the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony.. in fact, I couldn't think of anything worse, I would have liked to have seen the seals, but in that weather, no way. But, I did it anyways, there's some corker pics of me being very 'happy' about this fact, which I will post at some point. It was nice to see the seals actually, just a shame about the weather because I got soaked.

From there, it was on to Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes (I know what you're thinking.. and no) - another excellent photo opportunity, but we power walked around it all as the weather was still horrific and I was only just dry from the seal walk.

Our journey ended at Lake Mahinapua with Les, the oldest New Zealand publican who is 86.. Not going to lie to you, we were all apprehensive about staying there because we had heard horror stories about the cleanliness and general attitude of Les (he's known for the C-word and you all know how I feel about that). Another thing was the themed party that he was holding. We all went to town to buy our costumes with a theme of Christmas (obvious choice really wasn't it). I was worried about what to wear to this, but when with an angel and was then on the hunt for a white dress. In the end, the plan turned into making a dress out of white bin liners and a stapler (I know, I am a Guide leader though) – then I would modify Christmas decorations into wings and a halo… a challenge for a sunny (yes, sun again) afternoon in an airing cupboard of a room, but I took it on and the end result I was proud of. Vicky went as an Elf, Alex a Christmas Tree and Amy and I as Angels (Amy used sleeping bag liners for her dress – we’re a creative bunch). We looked amazing and hoped everyone else had gone to the same effort.

We broke Les’ law and purchased some contraband dark run from the off license, smuggled it into the hostel and drank most of it before the party even began. We turned up fashionably late and some people like us had put in a lot of effort and others who wore a santa hat.. but a fantastic night was had by all. The drinks flowed, we went on a ‘rum run’, played pool and did a lot of dancing. It was great, we had a group photo in front of the bus and all in all, we were fantastically drunken.

A personal highlight was watching Alex completely off his face, trying to get ready for bed – a classic moment in time. At one point, he fell out of the room literally – the door was completely closed and he just fell through it. Brilliant.

Exhilarating Beach Rescue as Woman Slips on Rocks (Slow news day)

Sunday 18 December

Morning was spent in the sunshine (I know, shock horror), by the beach.. sun cream at the ready. We did a bit of mountaineering, or walking over rocks (depends on who you are).. Unfortunately, some didn't make it in the old flip flops as Sam went arse over tit and sliped on the rocks. On first inspection, she said she was OK, but to be honest, it was a bit of a slip and she grazed herself quite badly. Our jaunt was well worth it though because the views from the other side were completely fantastic and we got some lovely photographs. The highlight of the morning was Vicky (assisted by me) building a sandcastle without a bucket or a spade – to be honest, it was spectacular and a highlight of the morning.

Today takes us to Westport.. some people were going off to nearly kill themselves in a speedboat, the rain came again and we decided to go to my favourite place, yes, the supermarket..

Basically, we spent the evening watching the TV in front of a log fire.. we started with UP (yes, I did cry) followed by Bad Santa, which, I had never seen before, but was actually quite good. Was touch a go to start with because I was tired, but it was one of those where I needed to find out the end.

Bit boring, but you know, everyday can’t be an exciting day. FACT.

One week until Christmas Eve.. eeekk!!!

Saturday 17 December

Preparations have begun, we're talking about santa hats, secret santa gifts and Christmas dinner.. whoop!!

Early morning wake up call in order to get the ferry down to the South Island - which was entertaining in itself! The only way to describe it was an outbreak of food poisoning on a ship.. everyone was throwing up everywhere (including down themselves). Luckily I was not one of those people as I sat in a recliner chair and slept through the 5 metre waves - basically classed as rollercoaster with no hand rail (everyone knows I like a good handrail) or seatbelt action.. it was proper stormy.

As we stayed in Wellington an extra night, we now have a new driver called Bruce, who seems OK and has some random stories to tell. One thing that is quite interesting.. he's a new driver and this is his first trip out after the training.. and he seems to have taking a liking to a paying customer.. who looks half his age.. I do like a good juicy bit of gossip..

We've driven to Kaiterteri, which is Maori language means to quickly eat, or 'fast food' (Bruce told us this, I quite like this fact of the day.. I may keep it up). The hope is to walk through the Abel Tasman National Park tomorrow.. if the weather holds out.. but as we've had continuous rain, I doubt it..

So, this evening, just wandering about, looking for something to do and we fall across a spot of crazy golf.. doesn't look entertaining on first inspection, but after persuading peeps to join in, it actually became quite competitive.. admittedly, there was no clowns mouth or a windmill to compete with, so we decided to put ourselves on the course and at one point, I had to put the ball through Laura’s legs.. VERY entertaining.

After dinner (leftover chili, obvious choice), we sat in our room, had a gossip, read a random woman’s magazine (something about a mum marrying the son she gave up for adoption because ‘they fell in love’), the usual Jeremy Kyle stuff.. and listened to Christmas tunes, what a Saturday night eh?! Another sad one though, because we said goodbye to Laura.. who will be missed, she’s staying for a couple more nights, so we may not see her for the rest of the trip. Boo…

Wellington.. named after the Duke.

Nice relaxing day in Wellington today.. it's refreshing to stay in one place for more than one night and not have to be on the bus at all!! However, we decided to get on an electric tram (thought that would excite you transport consultants) out to Mirramar to go to the smallest museum I have ever seen, which is basically in the downstairs space of someone's home. Inside were amazing artifacts from different films where the owners of the house did the special effects for including Lord of the Rings and Narnia. We watched a DVD about it all and then had a look at some of the scaled models that had been produced and also looked in the gift shop (which was well expensive). Morning well spent, in essentially, someone's front room.

The afternoon was also productive in Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum, with six floors dedicated to different areas including Space, Mauri, Earthquakes etc. The earthquakes floor was my favourite because I actually learnt a lot. Another highlight, which could be seen as a lowlight was seeing my childhood toys in a museum.. I felt old, but there were toys like my little pony and keepers.. great times. Anyhoo, it was nice to see them again.

The evening was special because we said goodbye to our friend Jess who had been travelling with us since day one, she was going back up the north island, and then on to South America, so, we cooked up a nice dinner of Chilli, with all of the trimmings, followed by a pavlova - which was amazing. Sad to see Jess go, but all the same, it was a lovely send off for her.

Another point to make was that we did our first load of washing today, which went swimmingly well actually.

The rain also stopped for the first time in 5 days, so we were all happy about that.

Bet you thought I would never set foot in a grade 5 rapid, but I did and it was amazing..

Today I woke up and felt terrible, cold setting in at rapid speed and I definitely did not want to do white water rafting.. amazing what a bacon sandwich can do.. :o)

But, on the water and I was there with the paddle in my hand, wondering what I was doing there and before you know it, we've spent 3 hours on the water going down grade 5 rapids.. it was pretty special and probably my most favourite activity to date (but then I've only done two so far!). We were told before the actual rapids started that if one of the team falls out (which was likely), then the person opposite would move across the raft and lean over to pull them back in - So, when Vicky decided to fall in during a grade 5 rapid, I lept across to save her and she had gone.. it was scary stuff, down river she went and none of us could reach her.. I honestly thought she may have been a goner.. then, out of no where, she was back over by the raft and Sam (our guide) hauled her back into the raft. I can't believe I was close to losing my adventure partner!

I feel like these blogs are getting shorter, but I don't really have anything else to say because the rest of the day was spent travelling to Wellington, which was a mammouth adventure in itself and I was mostly asleep for that, so have nothing to report other than it was still raining.

Isn't it funny that when you have a lot to write about, there's no internet access....

Tuesday 13th December

Killer pool was interesting, all the girls took part and in the end, Claire was the last one standing, so won a $25 bar tab.. and bought us a round of jaegarbombs.. obvioulsy I took the challenge and won..

Quiz night was also very interesting.. we got a respectable 33 out of 50, but the best part was watching Amy go out into the bar during the bonus rounds and winning us a round of drinks.. she is excellent at limbo.. has a very interesting party trick of popping her hip bone out of place and then, the piece de resistance, Amy joined Alex and imitated the most sexual positions in 1 minute (and I thought they were the quiet couple) - we all had a great night though and we're making lots of friends, which is ace.

Wednesday 14th December

We left pretty early to get to River Valley today and it took forever - en route though, we went past 'Mout Doom' from Lord of the Rings and then went into the Tongarirp National Park for a two hour walk, luckily for us, the rain came just as we got back onto the bus, so it was totally worth it.

We finally arrived at River Valley and purposfully opted for the bunkhouse, which was the best choice, far cheaper and generally loads of fun - It's the loft space converted into two heights of 'giant shelving' to sleep on, it was fab. The evening was filled with a game of cards, lots of brews and random reading in our best and cheapest accomodation to date. The lodge is set in a valley (duh!) with lots of amazing scenary and most of all the river that flows past has grade 5 rapids in..

Tuesday is the new day of rest.. because of the weather.. grrrr

Yesterday we arrived in Lake Taupo and it was raining, which meant that all trips had been cancelled, with the possibility of them being back on again today - which they haven't. So, I haven't managed to go and do the crazy hike :(

Yesterday we got showered and headed to the bar to watch a pool competition, which promised to be entertaining, but consisted of a load of locals and no kiwi experience contingent to give them a run for their money, so, we drank instead. Got into a bit of jaegarbomb trouble, but won, so that was all good. Then had a boogie and made it back to the hostel for about 1.30am, where I crashed out and stayed in bed until 10.40am.. bliss!

As the hike was cancelled again today, we went to burger king, and watch Cars 2.. which was refreshing from the rushing around we've been doing for the past week. A new coach load have arrived today and tonight is a BBQ followed by pub quiz action - as we have made friends now, we're hoping to win the $100 bar tab!

Tomorrow we travel on to River Valley, where we have the opportunity of white water rafting.. we'll see what we decide to do.

Finding out that a glowworm is basically fly poo was a massive letdown..

wow.. I am really pleased I'm back up to date with this.. more posts to come, I won't leave it so long..! So, today I am in Rotorua, but only until tomorrow morning and then I'll be heading to Lake Taupo.

 

However, yesterday I went to Waitomo, in search of the glowworms. Many thanks to my Grandad and Aunty Les for the lovely Christmas present to go on this trip - I had a blast and it was the best day I have had so far. When the sheet came around for this trip, there were three options, 1) a little walk and then a boat ride, 2) caving and tubing through the caves or 3) abseiling and zip wiring and pot holing through the caves. Obviously, I was not enthrauled by option 3, but at the same time, I thought option 1 was for the whimps, so I went for option 2. Warning bells did go off when I paid for the trip and was waiting outside - I saw the sign which said "Take a leap of faith over the waterfalls"... now, I did not know how to take that to be honest and thought it would be an optional thing at the end of the day.. if we wanted to.

 

So, the afternoon began and we arrived, we were fitted with wetsuits and given the safety talk.. then we went down to the river and found a rubber ring for our bottoms and that was when the guide (Matt), took us to a ledge on the river and asked us to jump off backwards, into a rubber ring, without hitting ourselves on any rocks and land in the ring into the river.. as a test before doing it in the caves.. So, you can imagine what's going through my mind at this point.. so much to think about and is there a technique to getting it right? what happens if I make a fool of myself? etc etc. Before I knew it, I was doing it.. actually jumping into the unknown.. and it actually felt great!

 

All in all, the trip was 3 hours and it was split between caving and walking through the caves, as well as sitting in the rubber rings 'lazy river style' and jumping off these waterfalls in the dark, with just a head torch (I know, I was giddy about the head torch action too) and rocks everywhere.. which, in normal circumstances, I wouldn't have even gone near, but I knew it was in a controlled environment and would be safe. Oh, and I almost forgot, we saw the glowworms.. loads of them, and they were pretty.. also, learnt the truth about the glowworm and it all revolves around hot sex.. so, yay for the glowworm..!!!!! It was brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed myself... the caving... obviously.. - also got the CD of photos to prove that I actually did it..!

 

The evening was pretty good too, I went to the bar with some new friends and we had some drinks, played on the juke box and generally had a good time. We have also decided our complete itinerary and will definitely be in Queenstown for Christmas along with a couple from England and a group of guys from Sweeden, who, apparently celebrate Christmas on 24th??? So we'll be having celebrations from 24th - 26th I think, just to make sure everyone's included!

 

Today was Rotorua, famous for the Maori culture and also the hot pools of mud that bubble (and smell of rotton egg..). We arrived just after lunch and had a wander around - Most of the group are staying in Base hostel tonight, but we heard it was like a jail and so, we're in YHA.. actually worked out very well because it was way cheaper, a really lovely hostel and Base does look like a jail, so yay for us! When I say us, I mean that Vicky and I have made friends with two girls travelling alone.. Jess from Holland and Abby from Korea. Abby is a special moment in time, she worked for a year in AUS in a hotel and still hasn't picked up very much english - we took her under our wing because yesterday, she thought she was going on the walk and boat ride to see the glowworms and ended up with us doing the caving.. you should have seen her face when they presented her with a wetsuit.. immense.

 

This evening we went to a Maori culture show, where we went into the sacred land and learnt more about the history of the Maori's and also what they still practice now - all very interesting, including the dancing, which did look like that from the Rugby.. The food was ace as well.. and I had Pavlova, we've now decided that we're going to attampt to make a Pavlova in the hostel before leaving new zealand, maybe at christmas, just for fun.. I will take photos.

 

Tomorrow is Lake Taupo, which is where they recommend you do the skydive as it's cheaper. I didn't put my name down because I'm still not sure about it all - I've made the first step with the jumping off the waterfall, so it's a one step at a time thing. What I am doing is an 8hr walk through Tongariro Crossing - I have my walking trousers, boots, water, lunch, fuel (chocolate) and everything that can prepare me for this - apparently it will be a massive challenge, but I would like to do it, otherwise, I'll regret it.

 

Basically, if you don't get another post from me, it's because I am either still trying to cross the river, or I didn't make it...!!!

Lazy time on the beach? don't mind if I do.. Paihia

As we didn't really do a lot on Tuesday - I can sum it up in one paragraph.. we arrived, and straight away I felt jet lagged, so got our room, went for a wander and chilled out. In the evening, we watched 'The Bank Job' with Jason Statham, had a BBQ in the bar area and then took part in the pub quiz.. got to be done really. We were greeted with Christoph from Germany, who joined our team and considering he didn't speak excellent english, the three of us came 7th out of 12 teams, so we were chuffed with that, had a couple of beers, and started the NZ playlist on the iPod.. good times really.

So, day three, and we decided to go on a little adventure to Haruru Waterfalls - which involved a little walk. So, the map told us it would be a 5 hour round trip, so we set off with sun cream, water and lunch in search of the waterfall. The scenery was beautiful, walking through trees and onto a wooden footbridge through the mangroves and no handrail - now, I like a good handrail, so this was all new to me, having to balance on some random wooden planks?? Nevertheless, I managed it and we were back in the wilderness en route to the falls.

We actually arrived at the falls in 1 1/4 hrs, which was in half the time they suggested, which either means we were supper fast, or the walk is designed for the more leisurely walker. Anyways, it was worth the walk because the falls at the end were beautiful. We stayed there to take some snaps and eat an apple (I know.. fruit!) and then made the trip back to the town centre.

The afternoon was spent on the beach, which was lovely, caught myself some rays, which is always a good thing, but can now see the parts where I forgot to put the sun cream.. very amusing really. Evening was spent relaxing and sorting through our stuff for our trip back to Auckland, where we will stay for one night before heading south to Coromandel and the hot water pools.

Leaving on a jetplane, don't know when...

The adventure was slightly stalled by the lack of lighting on the plane, which meant that we were going to leave Manchester at least two hours behind schedule.. connection would be gone by then, so began to get a little worried about when I would actually get to Auckland!
The duty free kept me occupied for an hour.. the benefit counter kindly removed the makeup from Friday night and reapplied with a fresh face, closely followed by a 'demonstration' of ghd straighteners.. I felt much better after that..!
Finally left the country and did was anyone would do on the first weekend in december.. put on Home Alone, closely followed by Elf.. got to be done really - also laughed out loud a number of times and I simply didn't care!
Singapore brought a stamp in my passport (win) and a 10 hour stay in a hotel.. which didn't charge by the hour.. lol. Ate nice food, caught the sun (as in got burnt - suncream was in the bag at the airport) and had myself a bath and little nap.
Eventually made it to Auckland 13 hours behind schedule, but at least I was refreshed and ready to go. Met Vicky and her friends Ed, Bex and Paul and we went for dinner at the Sky Tower, a revolving restaurant, where we were lucky to have a window seat! We got two revolutions and the views were amazing, the food was great and the company was amazing, we had such a great time - haven't laughed that much in ages. Nearly fell asleep in the car on our way back and promptly got a solid 7 hours sleep before getting up for the beginning of the kiwi experience.....