When in Taupo

Taupo is centrally located in New Zealand's North Island and the gateway to Tongariro National Park, the backdrop for the Lord of the Rings movies.  We had planned to hike the Tongariro Crossing, one of the most popular day hikes in New Zealand that takes you across LOTR's Mount Doom and the Emerald Lakes.  As I said, we had planned to.  We woke up at some ridiculous hour in the morning (5am) so that we could get the early pick-up and get to the trail early to beat the crowds but the bus we were supposed to be on decided to leave us and two other behind.  So, no Frodo for us :-(

We had some free time on our hands so we decided to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet.  We were in freefall for over 60 seconds.  It doesn't sound like much  but when you're plummeting to the ground at 120 miles an hour it feels like a lifetime!  Words can't really describe what an amazing experience it was so we'll just put up a few pics.  We have videos of the jumps that hopefully we'll be able to post soon (too slow in this internet cafe).

Smelly Man goes to Sulphur City (and we get to share a room with him)

With our adrenaline still pumping from playing on the swings in Waitomo, we made our way south to Rotorua a.k.a Sulphur City.  Rotorua is a hotbed (I had to) of thermal activity with lots of bubbly mud pools, hot springs, and geysers and as a result the place stinks of egg most of the time.  Amazingly this doesn't seem to have deterred tourists and backpackers from visiting as Rotorua is one of the most touristy and commercialized areas in New Zealand.

We chose to stay at Treks Rotorua, one of the 2 YHA (Youth Hostel Association) hostels in town.  When we arrived we were happy to find a very nice, newly constructed building with a spotlessly clean kitchen (a rarity at our price point).  We were also pleased to find that we were 'upgraded' from a 6 bed dorm to a 4 bed.  What a treat!  Looking forward to spending some time at this lovely facility we made our way to our room.  As we opened the door a wave of pungent stink wafted from the room and violated our nostrils.  This aroma was a thousand times worse than any of the eggy smells produced by Rotorua.  It was our roommate for the night, Smelly Man.  So much for the upgrade.  This guy was so ripe that we had to sleep with scarfs around our faces.  Luckily he checked out the next morning so we had the cleaners empty a can of air freshner in the room and strip his whole bed down to the bare mattress and replace everything.

Rotorua didn't totally stink though.  In fact, we had a lot of fun there.  In the morning we headed out to the Kaituna River and did some whitewater rafting with Kaituna Cascades Rafting Company.  We did the Grade 5 rapids (the biggest, scariest ones) which included several drops and the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world at 7 meters (21 feet).  Awesome!

In the evening we decided to take a relaxing dip in one of the numerous thermal pools in the area.  We went to the Polynesian Spa which is located right on the lake and has some great views from the spa.  Aparrently the minerals in the water have healing powers and can help all sorts of ailments.  That may be but all we know for sure is that it definitely helps to remove dead skin as most of it was floating around in the water, urgh.  If you can stop thinking about the fact that you're sitting in other people's filth it's actually quite relaxing and enjoyable...and our skin feels great!

Don't leave home without it...or do.

Best thing we've brought with us:  Quick-dry microfiber towels.  These things are amazing.  Nice and soft and they dry in minutes.

Worst thing we've brought: Bar shampoo.  When we bought it we thought it might be weird to wash our hair with what is basically a bar of soap...and it is.

Off the beaten path in Waitomo

Above:  What we didn't do in Waitomo

Waitomo is best known for the Waitomo Caves, a sprawling underground cave system where one can do all manner of fun things such as spilunking (sp?), black water rafting (the underground equivalent of white water rafting), or checking out the millions of glow worms that live down there - all for a price of course.
Being the independent, free-thinking adventurers that we are, Court and I decided to go off the beaten path and see what other (cheaper) treasures bucolic Waitomo has to offer.

Not much it turns out.  We were dropped off in the tiny Waitomo Village which consists of a tourist info center (where you book your caving adventures), a seriously overpriced cafe, and a bar.  It was too early to start drinking so we headed over to the little park across the road from the tourist info center and had a few goes on the swings.  Great fun and, most importantly, FREE.  Highly recommended.  There's also a slide if you're so inclined.

 

 I'm sure there's tons more stuff to do but we didn't have a chance to find out as we were only there for about an hour and a half before the bus came back to get us with all the cavers on board who no doubt had a marvelous time.

Next stop, Rotorua.

Pahia Triathalon - Kayak, Bike, and Tan

Pahia is beautiful so we decided to extend our stay and have some much needed beach time.  We've only been traveling a week and already we're taking a rest?!  Give us a break, we're new at this!
So we stayed the extra day but we checked out of Pipi Patch and into a place called Bay Adventurer just up the road.  Bay Adventurer was cheaper AND offered FREE kayaks and bicycles (Pipi Patch just offered drunken teeny boppers and a swimming pool the size of a large puddle).  Another bonus was that we scored a double bed.  There were still 5 other beds in the room but it was a small win.

Double bed!

We spent morning zipping around the bay in a couple of sea kayaks and then grabbed a couple of bikes for a nice ride along the beach to the grocery store to pick up some essentials.  We also managed to squeeze a bit of tanning on the beach in.  All in all not a bad start to the week.

Grocery store run on the free bikes 

 Back to Auckland tomorrow before heading south into Hobbit territory.

The Far North

We visited the northern most tip of New Zealand yesterday, Cape Reinga and it was incredible. Beautiful countryside, great beaches and all around amazing scenery. Left Pahia on the Dune Rider at 7am and headed north with our leader for the day, Kozzie (he's a Kiwi that sounds like an Aussie hence the nickname). We were treated to a drive along 90 Mile Beach, a 64 mile stretch of beach on the western coast. Why would someone name a 64 mile beach "90 Mile Beach"? Because the boob that named it measured wrong and thought it was 90 miles long. Brilliant! ""64 Mile Beach"doesn't really have the same ring to it does it?

The drive on the beach took us to the main event for the day, sand boarding. I'm imagining a few gasps of terror among the Hunter clan as you picture us being subjected to some form of torture similar to water boarding, only much drier. Well you guys can relax as sand boarding (also known as dune surfing) is what people do for fun up on 90 Mile Beach, and boy is it fun! There are some humungous sand dunes at the end of the beach and people basically body surf (some use sleds but it looked pretty lame) down the slopes and across a little stream at the bottom. Great stuff although the walk back to the top was actually torture.

Riding some gnarly dunes on 90 Mile Beach

Bay of Islands

Up early for our bus ride up north to the bay of islands. Lee almost missed the bus waiting in line for an egg McMuffin (you know he loves his breakfast!) We took Stray bus company up there and our bus driver Sue was new to the job...and boy you could tell. Was a little annoying to hear her chatting the entire time but the views were amazing. And people are right about NZ, there are TONS of sheep!!

McKinney Tree

We stopped off first to see the Mckinney Tree which is one of the largest trees in the country. The myth is if you hug and kiss the tree you will bring good weather. Courtney had to give it a try because the weather has been quite rainy since we started our trip in LA. I think it worked because the weather has been great since that afternoon! We made our way to Goat Island where we took a free glass bottom boat tour (no snorkling...that was not free...someone lied). Courtney learned that all snappers are born female and then half the population turn male around three years of age!!! We were both extremely impressed with our tour guide Ian. Ask for him if you are ever thinking about doing the tour, he has been there for 13 years.

Our last stop of the day was to the Bay of Islands where we spent our first night in the Pipi Patch Hostel which is more like Cancun Mexico during spring break. Again, a lot of 90 pop music, boys with their shirts off in the bar, and 1/2 naked dorm mates (i wont go into more detail). We made our way to the grocery store in town which was about a 1/2 hour walk along the water. Decided to buy some groceries so we can pack our lunches and make our own dinner. We decided to go simple for our first dinner (cup of noodles) but when we got into the kitchen people were making three course meals with breaded chicken and fresh veggies. I think there is some hope for us when we learn the ropes a bit more.

We were lucky our second evening we had a 8 person dorm to ourselves because the hostel emptied out after the weekend. We got some much needed sleep.