North Island

Friday was the start of the main tour of the North Island. The group for the start of this was Kerry (driver), Drew, Mark, Keely, Alice, Anita, Jane, Suzanne, Gemma, Jena, Lorraine. The first day was spent getting to and around the Coromandel Penisula to the east of Auckland. This is a very wooded area and is apparently popular as a Christmas retreat for the Kiwis. One of its other 'claims to fame' is that it is a area where a lot of marijuana was grown because of the density of the plant-life. The police used to cut it down and then helicopter out the hauls. However, what they didn't realise was that seeds used to drop out from under the helicopter and spread them even further! Hihei was the destination for the night and we did a walk up to Cathedral Cove before dinner. After dinner we went to the Hot Water beach (had to be visited when the tide was just coming in). There are hot vents (volcanic) under the beach which are normally too hot to do anything with. However, if you dig a hole as the tide is coming in, you can mix the hot water from the vents with the cold sea water to get a comfortable hot tub. No surprises - the girls did very little digging but were the first into the hole!

Next stop was Raglan on the west coast, just the other side of Hamilton. It is mostly famous as a surf area but when we got there it was dull, wet and the sea was very flat so we spent the time in the hostel which was actually a group of buildings built into a clearing in the rainforest. We also had a few sessions on the flying fox, made more interesting by the fact that we couldn't see a thing!

Then it was onto Rotorua, home of a great number of hot mud pools and hence a very strong rotten egg smell due to the sulphur. We attended a Maori cultural show in the evening in which we had to learn the haka as well as the use of some Maori weaponry. Then it was back to the hostel bar for a few drinks (well, quite a few actually).

The hangover the next morning was probably not the best preparation for what I was to do next. Unfortunately the zorbing was cancelled but was still able to do the Swoop (lifted up 40m in the air and then dropped to swing back and forth between two pylons) and a (small) Jet boat course. Didn't feel quite so hungover after that but I'm not sure I would recommend it as a standard cure! After that I took a leisurely walk around some of the hot mud pools in the park in the centre of the city before getting back on the bus to head up to Taupo via the Huka Falls. We were hoping to do our skydives in Taupo that afternoon but it was too cloudy and wet for many of us to get up. This meant a mixed evening for us as some people were able to celebrate having done the dive whilst the rest of us knew that we had a very early start.

The next morning was a very early start for all of us left to skydive. However, I think we had the better deal as the sky was a lot clearer (but there were still some clouds to dive through) and we could see both the lake and the mountains that we would be walking through a few hours later. The Tongariro crossing is meant to be one of the great one day walks in New Zealand, if not the world. Some of it is very familiar to anyone who has seen 'The Lord of the Rings' as it goes past Mount Doom from the film (although there wasn't enough time for us to climb it). The first half of the walk is very impressive, walking through lava plains, past steam vents and some very colourful lakes. The second half of the walk was less impressive as it was quite a long trek through a sub-alpine environment. The total walk is about 17km but it didn't really feel that bad - I'm not sure whether that was due to still being on a high from the skydive or having the chance to relax in a spa pool once we got back to the hostel (which was more like a hotel than a hostel).

Wednesday was very much a express journey down to Wellington with little to see along the way. I wonder if that is why we have such a big night out there and also - why did we bother getting beds - by the time we got back to the hostel it was time to catch the shuttle bus to the ferry for the South Island!