30/5
Sleeping in the van was not that bad at all, just had to be careful rolling over as there was a gap between the bed and the door which one could get wedged in! We decided that there wasn't that much to do in Whangarei so we left and hit the road for Paiha and the Bay of Islands. On the way we stopped to see the place where Lion Man is filmed but couldn't go in as it was shut as a tiger had mauled a senior keeper to death a few days before. There was lots of nice views on the way to Paiha. It was raining when we got there so once it cleared, we went out and had a wander. Finally sat Ell down to watch Lord of the Rings (Two Towers), he has never seen any of them-wierdo! But we got too hungry so missed the end as needed to get some grub.
31/5
Today I was up the earliest to go and hopefully see some dolphins. I had a nice tour of the Bay of Islands and got to stop off on one of the islands and climb to the top to a lookout and saw some amzing views. There was fab views across the lakes and by this point the sky had cleared from the early mornings overcastness. I went through the hole in the rock, its some famous hole in a rock island that is a main thing in the Bay of Islands. Saw the Princess protector in the rock, which was a proflie face of a girl. There was also a lot of volcanic islands and rocks in the sea. I got to watch some people fishing and trying to pull in their catch, it looked a big fish from the effort they were putting in. Unfortunately I did not see any sign of a dolphin : (. For dinner we had some snapper and chips. The fish we had was caught by Ell and Emma who went fishing for 4 hours in the afternoon. Good fish.
1/6
Today we drove to some sand dunes and spent the morning climbing up them and boys being boys, throwing themselves down them! The van and our clothes are now full of sand. It was a mission to climb up some of them. It seemed a strange place to have sand dunes as over the other side were fields. We then drove up to Cape Reinga which is the northern most point of NZ. It was really really windy. We got to see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Nice views. We then had to catch a ferry across a lake to save a few more hours driving. We finally after a long day arrived at a nice little lodge with a warm gas fire.
2/6
We drove to a forest and saw the most ancient tree in NZ, it was also a really big tree. We then drove on and on and on down some really windy roads. We had all brought dinner from the supermarket (Pak n' Save) but it was getting late and we were all hungry and still some way to travel so we caved in and had a McDonald's at a service station. Thank god for being in a place with normal food at service stations rather than the stuff we were seeing in Asia! The place we were on our way to, Raglan, is lower than Auckland so it was a massive drive today. I managed to finish Angels and Demons in the car before it got too dark. We had a really hairy last leg of the trip, windy roads, nightime, animals in the road and fog patches! We basically spent all day in the car.
3/6
The hostel in Raglan (Manu Bay) had rooms that were old train carriages, with no heating. So as we had such a cold night last night and after walking around the village and finding nothing to do we left and went to Waitomo. Last night was so cold but eventually being snuggled up in my sleeping bag with the liner and two layers on I got cosy. I was so snuggled in the bag that you would have bearly been able to see my head. Arrived in Waitomo and booked the Black Water Rafting for tomorrow. We had a curry for dinner that we all made together.
4/6
Got a precious lay-in this morning as we were not caving until the afternoon. What a funny sight we were in our outfits! Wet suits, white rubber "fishing boots", helmets with little lights on and to top if off some shorts over the top of the wet suit. There was no rafting involved so I'm
not sure why they call it that. We had to firstly abseil 40m down a
shaft to the bottom of the cave area. I had a freak out at the top as I
don't like things that just drop. I went nice and slowly though. It was
a tight squeeze in some parts and you had to keep turning around to not
smash your face against some sticking out rocks. Then we had a zip wire in the dark, that was fun and one of the best bits for me. It was a bit strange though as you finished hanging in the air not on the ground like usual. Next
was jumping off a ridge with a tube and then having to land in the
water in your tube. It must have been a 3 or 4m drop into really cold
water. The scream I let out was massive, not through fear just because
I wanted to, the side effect of that was that I inhaled lots of water
as my mouth was still wide open when I hit the water- me with my mouth
open, never!! Then we tubed down the cave in the dark for a bit,
we had head torches to light the way a little bit. We got to see some
cool glow worms- which apparently are just maggot lavae, lovely! Then
we had to climb, well more like shimmey up some waterfalls. They were
still in the caves and shaft like if you know what I mean so we were
climbing with no safety equipment straddling the waterfall if that
makes any sense? The last bit was a tad on the scary side, the boys could see we were a bit worried and did their best to make us feel better about it.
5/6
What a strange thing we did today, we went to see some Angora Rabbits be sheared.... Poor thing was tied to a "restrainer" and then sheared whilst every now and again being turned- it was although it was being cooked! The rabbit was in no distress though and is used to having it done as they are sheared every 3 months. Some people obviously think it is cruel and complain but the NZ version of the RSPCA go out and check regularly and say the animals are fine. The process is over very quickly. We got to stroke it afterwards and it was so soft. Mooched about in the hostel in the afternoon while Si and Emma went horse trekking. In the evening we helped Emma finish her box of wine and then hit Curly's Bar. Oh dear is all I can say. A beer, some wine and a few Smirnoff's later well I'm sure you can all imagine, enough said about that I think!
xxx
