Laura & Weeny's Travel Adventures

21/3/06
We arrived at Rotorua at 7pm and checked into the Base hostel, new and very modern and has a crazy very high indoor climbin wall and Cinema, tonight we ate and went to bed.
22/3/06
We decided to go to the Whakarewaewa Thermal Resort which is also a Moari arts and crafrt institute, we walked arround and saw boiling pools of mud,sulpher springs and geyzers. One gyzer was 20 meters high and flowed 99% of the time. We alsowatched

21/3/06
Brilliant, today were going on a adventure trip called,'RAP,RAFT AND ROCK' After arriving and gettin into all this special safety gear(wet suits,socks,rousers,grippy gum boots,harnesses and a mining hat with light and battery pack) we drove near and after our briefing we started with a short walk and then abseiled 100ft into mid air which was good scary, then sat in big car tyre inner tubes and floated down the caves and suddenly we could see what we came to see, millions of glow worms! Fantastic,they let off a lovely torquise light to attract little flys ect... We climbed through some very small tight gaps witch looked like u couldnt nearly fit but did. At the end of one of the caves well all switched off our lights and had a hot drink and some chocolate which was really nice and peacefull, it was pitch blach for about 20 mins, really relaxin.
After we headed out of the cave and our final task was a very hard high rock climb, that day was brilliant as was our group of 6 and our guide. After all thet we had another 4 hour drive to Rotorua. (See why weeny fell asleep so early the other night)

19/3/06
After a big brekkie we went to 'the adventure park' which was really close by, It was wicked fun, there was a massive Trapeze,Tight rope,Water slide,a massive inflateable slide(about 40ft high), a tarzane frameand trampoline, it was so much fun. Weeny loved it and made some friends with these lads, laura got chattin to there mum and it turned out she knew Tom Butler! She was called Dot, she invited to take us fishin later that night and we happily accapted. We met up with her and her sons about 7.30pm. Firsly we fished off the beach, we were havin a fantastic time,laura cought a fish and i cought three and a big eel! We fished for around 2 and a half hours and after she invited us to come back and cook the fish for our dinner,she de-scaled and gutted them in seconds! Then rolled then in flour and added a little pepper, they truley were gorgeous. We sat up talkin with her and her husband till gone midnight, they were lovely.

20/3/06
Today we done half day trip around the Bay of Islands, this place is beautifully stunning,and half an hour in was spotted a massive pod of Dolphins(300+), so we switched the engines off and drifted with them, they rubbed against the boat and jumped right out of the water next to us and came up for regular breaths with little sprays of water. After a bit we had to leave them and explore the islands,theres 144 of them and the 'Hole in the Rock' which was a hole in a massive rock created buy water crashin on it, our boat drove through it!
After our tri we had a huge 8 hour drive to get to the 'Waitamo Caves' We were lucky enough to find a hostel still open at gone 8pm and checked in,here was only one other Irish couple there who were lovely and we talked and exchanged storys and info that night.

16/3/06
After breakfast our EZY RENTALS collected us and took us to the office to collect the car and sigh the rental agreements. We were soon on the road and heading north towards the 'Bay of Islands'
Not long into the drive we picked up a 60 year old kiwi hitch hiker, he was really nice and told us loads about the country. after droppin him off we saw a sign for Kai-iwi lakes and decided to have a nose, and wow we were so glad we did too, they were amazing, huge crystal clear blue water with sandy beaches. We got out for a paddle but thinkin it would be freezing but it was lovely and warm and the day was great too, about 23oc again!
After a while we headed back on our mission. a couple of hours later we were going through a town caled Kaikoe and spotted a KFC so pulled over for dinner. The town was filled with Moari people, there absolutly massive!! We got chattin to the guy in front of us in the queue and next thing he invited us to stay with his family in there caravan they use for holidays thats in there front garden. His name was Tom Butler and he was huge too but the lovelyest funnyest kind people, we all ate our KFC together and it was good to be in a family atmosphere again. We brought some drinks and chatted all night,we were told about the moari culture and traditions, it was brilliant.

17/3/06
We got up at 6am today because Tom was taking us to work with him,he drives the school coach and collects the children from the surrounding villages, you can see how everybodys all so friendly and happy. He used to be a tour guide and gave us a tour in the coach and told us loads about nz. We also were shown around the school.
After we drove up to ninety mile beach around a 3 hours drive. When we arrived we hired a snow sledge and done sand tobogganing on really steep sand dunes.We drove as near as possible but was about a hour and a half walk each way,but had lovely views and was good excercise i spose. It was so hard climbin them and the san was so hot aswell, on the walk back we met another Moari family who invited us to have a drink of water at there tent, we had a good chat and they gave us a pearlesent shell. After we headed back to Toms, en route we stopped and had a sneaky shower and freshen up at a campsite. It was St.Patrics night and went out with Tom's son Tom and his girlfriend. In our second pub there was Karioke which was a laugh and met some of their friends, we had a right laugh. When we got in we made some noodles and crashed out fpr the night.

18/3/06
We had a much needed lay in and at lunch time went Speed-Way car racing with Tom who normally enters in his owne race car, today was the year finale so was very busy and entertaining. But after this we said our good buys to the friendly family and parted headin towards the Bay of Islands, we arrived at 6 after a short drive and checked in at 'Bay Adventures' It was lovely with its owne pool and spa and was immaculate. Weeny fell asleep at 7pm for the night with out even havin dinner due to the recent late nights and lots of drivein.

Today we woke up nice and early and were excited because we were goin to New Zealand!! Our flight was at 11.40am from Sydney and was for 3 hours. Nz is 2 hours ahead of Sydney. Once we arrived and collected our luggage we took an airport shuttle to the center and checked in at 'The YHA City' We got a twin room which was on the top (7th) floor and had a good view over the city and Sky Tower. It was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny, about 24oc and a suprise to us, after unpacking our rucksacks we sorted out our hire car. We had done alot of re-search in Oz before and told them we had a quote for $20 a day(8 pound) and they regretably matched it and we got an upgrade to a good sized 4 door automatic with air con and all the extras, we were really lucky, we met some people who payed exacly double and had a really rubbish small car,they werent happy..
That eve we went for a meal in Nandos, which was nice and after walked around the city. We decided we were going to leave Auckland in the morning.