Kiwi Experience: A Few Failed Experiences

9th-13th Sept 2013

Day 8

On we go again on the bus leaving Rotorua heading for Taupo. No rest for us, another early start with the first stop being Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahio. No I haven't fallen asleep on the keyboard, this is the actual name but its more commonly known as Te Puia. This is a well known thermal park with geysers, mud pools and a Maori Arts and Crafts Centre.

Maori church type place

We weren't so interested in Maori side of things having spent the previous night at a Maori village so we skipped on in to the thermal park. It's a really strange sort of place with the hillside just steaming away. It kinda makes you feel like it really isn't a safe place to be and I suppose it isn't really but there would be some warning before anything major were about to happen. We were shown down to one of the bubbling pools by a guide who talked about the thermal park before boiling a basket of eggs in one.

Cooking

He then showed us over to the largest geyser in the park which was shooting water 30 feet into the air. He gave us our eggs to eat which were now fully cooked and let us wander around the park by ourselves after that. I tried for ages to get a decent picture of the geyser to show how big and powerful it was but it was proving difficult.

Big ass geyser

Super cool looking

We then went over to a huge boiling mud pool which looked awesome before going into a small kiwi bird sanctuary. It was cool to finally get to see a real kiwi bird as seeing them in the wild is extremely rare. No flash allowed so unfortunately no photos.

Mud pools

Just outside Taupo is Huka Falls. The Waikato River is new Zealand's longest river so its obviously quite a wide river except for one narrow gap of hard volcanic rock pulled apart by an earthquake. The roar of this 11 metre waterfall is incredible as 220,000 litres of water crashes over it every second!

Huka Falls

Raging river

We took the opportunity to get our first bus picture - unofficial and missing a few people but still.

Say cheese

Lake Taupo

Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand and is one of the worlds supervolcanos although you wouldn't realise it looking at it. There is thermal activity in the area and under the lake but it all seems rather peaceful and tranquil. I can't really remember what we did in the afternoon. It was rather uneventful it seems. We went to the bar that night with the hope of winning a prize in the competition but that got cancelled because there was only us in the bar and that made it only 8 people.

Drinks

Day 9

A few people were planning to to the Tongariro Crossing but as it was still icy up the mountains they wanted you to pay for the winter crossing which was an extra $100 so I decided I would do it at a later date given that I have a years visa. I was worried that I may have just passed up an opportunity but the trip was cancelled due to weather anyway so the deliberation was pointless.

Taupo River

So instead I thought I'd go for a epic walk. There was a nearby mountain with walking trails on it so I decided I would go walk up that but an hours walk down a highway with no sign of how to actually get to the mountain even by car I turned back. I ended up walking down the river and seeing the sites down there instead.

Hot springs

There is a thermal spring just next to the river and further up on the cliffs is where they do a bungy jump from. The river itself was unbelievably clear. I don't know if its because of the thermal activity in the area killing bacteria in the water or something but it was absolutely transparent. That night proved as uneventful as the previous night.

super clear water

Bungy ledge on the right

Day 10

Having missed out on the Tongariro Crossing the day before today would be chance of seeing Mount Doom, the first true Lord of the Rings scene I would recognise. And here it is...

Not the best view!

Yep, torrential rain. Couldn't see anything the whole way around Tongariro National Park so I didn't get to see anything of Mount Doom or any other mountain! Not happy.

Beautiful scenery

Thankfully the weather cleared up a little on the way to River Valley to allow us to see the beautifully green rolling hills in the area. Then it was down a steep road, following sheep, to River Valley Adventure Lodge, home to white water rafting.

Sheep!

The Valley

This huge wooden lodge is rather impressive. A two-story building with private rooms on one side and a dorm room on the other side containing what can only be described as one huge bunk bed. Despite its size it seemed extremely cosy with a large fire roaring in the middle and long benches in front of the bar.

Living room

Epic bunk bed

The valley itself is also a stunning place to be with spring flowers beginning to blossom next to the river so we decided we had to go exploring! There was a track that led up to a waterfall which was recommeded to us so off we went, well most of us. There was a rather large drop down to the river from a cliff that you had to use a rope to basically abseil down which put a couple of people off but us hardy folk carried on.

River Valley in all its glory

Don't slip

We found the waterfalls and spent a good hour messing around taking pictures of everyone and I managed to persuade everyone to get into a group photo which took some time to organise as we had to shuffle along a rock over the water. I didn't fancy falling in, save that for tomorrow.

being a tit

Awesome place!

That night we had delicious roast dinner. Not quite as good as the one the Maoris cooked for us but good all the same. We organised ourselves on the huge bunk beds by spreading out as there wasn't all that many of us. It was supposed to cost us an extra $3 for use of a duvet which to most of us seemed uttely ridiculous. If you pay for a bed you don't pay extra for the stuff that goes on the bed! There were another set of dorm rooms next to the lodge that were open so I snuck in and stole a duvet. A few people copied me which must have really pissed off the owners but ah well they shouldn't be so stingy. We go into bed and oh how the heavens opened! Torrential rain all night left us with this site in the morning...

Day 11

Not so peaceful now

A storm had swept up for the south which had raised the river level by nearly 2 metres meaning our white water rafting trip was cancelled and so was other peoples activities like horse trekking. We set off earlier than usual to Wellington as there was nothing else to do.

We had lunch in the small town of Bulls which had some pretty cool names for your usually town commodities. The police station was Consta-bull, town hall is Social-a-bull, library is Read-a-bull, ice cream store is Lick-a-bull, museum is Memor-a-bull, subway is Submerge-a-bull and there were a whole heap more!

Wellybob

More of out party were to leave us Wellington as there's quite a lot of cool stuff to do but as I planned to finish my Kiwi Experience in Wellington on the way back north to Auckland I only had 24 hours here.

Wellington

It was a choice between climbing Mount Victoria or a trip to Te Papa Museum. I choose the museum as I was told it was an absolute must do. It had a large section of the geolocical history of New Zealand including a room where you can experience what an earthquake would feel like which was rather entertaining but massively scary if it were real!

Earthquake room

There was a section about dinosaurs which is always cool, a big part about sea life including one of the biggest squids ever caught, an outdoor area with lots of different types of trees and bushes, an interactive area and obviously a huge Maori section. I didn't get to see all of it as it was taking hours to see everything because it was so big and it was already late so I definitely need to go back!

Dinosaurs!

Huge Whale

Trees and stuff

Interactive zone

I like the interavive zone. This floor would light up as you walked over it and there was a wall where you could take pictures of yourself and write stuff and be all arty. At the very top was the Maori bit and also a good view of Wellington.

messing around

Maori place

Wellington by night

Day 12

The next day it was time to wave goodbye to the North Island. I done some pretty cool stuff in the North Island despite the last few things being cancelled but at least I have the chance to go back and do it again. It was an early start to get to the ferry to take us across the Cook Strait to the South Island where my Kiwi Experience would continue.

Bye Wellington

Hello South Island!

Kiwi Experience: Hot Water, Cold Water, Smelly Water and a Maori Feast

6th-8th Sept 2013

Day 5

Continuing on the Kiwi Experience and once again leaving from Auckland we set off early to the Coromandel Peninsula towards Hot Water Beach aptly named for its hot water beach!

Just a few trees

As we approached the the Peninsula the mountains got bigger and the wilderness wilder. The bus was slow climbing over the hills but there was plenty to look at. Trees as far as the eye can...oh no wait hang on...what's that huge brown patch? Forestry is a huge business in New Zealand as there's a type of tree which matures in only 30 years (which is a really short time for those who aren't tree experts). This means that as we were driving through the forest there would be huge areas of bare land which is such a shame as its such a beautiful area and surprising considering the number of endangered species in New Zealand.

Hot Water Beach

We arrived in Hot Water Beach just after low tide so we were too late to dig ourselves some natural hot pools during the day and we would have to wait until 1am for the next low tide to do it. I would like to point out at this point it was me who organised this! It was me who went to the driver to ask when the next low tide was and it was me who went round the whole bus to get everyone to go. You would have thought our new driver Toddy would have mentioned it without being asked but hey ho.

Cathedral Cove

With the afternoon free, half the group went kayaking and the other half went to Cathedral Cove to - well piss about!

Using the force to hold it up

Spot the face!

A few of us had seen on the Kiwi Experience website some people to the KIWI sign so we tried to recreate it - not very well I must admit! We also tried to organise a pyramid which was rather painful!

It says KIWI

So does this one apparently!

Hurry up and get on top we are dying!

Back to our hostel/campground/hut/whatever it was we had some tea and piss about some more on this bouncy tubey thingy.

Flip

That night we had a few beers and played a few drinking games waiting for low tide to come and then we headed down the beach to dig ourselves a hole. We had borrowed some shovels but digging the wet sand was taking forever! The story goes - you dig yourself a hole in the sand and sit in the water which is heated from below. The reality is burns your bloody feet. I didn't expect it to be so hot. The sand is literally steaming and you can quite easily burn yourself if your not careful.

DIG!

Hot Water Beach - not wrong!

Our trench finally dug we all piled in. It was really quite cold by now so getting into the hot water was really nice and any limb that wasn't in the water started to go numb! One by one people left but a few of us didn't want to move because we knew it would be freezing and we eventually did move it was possibly the coldest I've ever been!

Our very own hot pool

Day 6

It was another very early start the next day so everyone was a bit blurry eyed after staying up late. Most people slept all the way to Waitomo (pronounced Why-toe-mo), only waking up for the walk around Karangahake Scenic Reserve which was stunning!

rubbish view

Awesome

This walk is mostly around the rail tracks of an old gold mine meaning at some points we were in pitch black caves. No one thought to bring a torch and the light from my phone wasn't enough to prevent me from stepping in some pretty large puddles! The valley was incredible though. Almost a sheer cliff on either side with the path cut through the sides.

Very dark tunnel

Now it was the time for the first adventure activity of the tour - Black Water Rafting! Essentially white water rafting underground.

Gearing up for an epic day!

There were a few different options to chose from. I decided to go for the best and most expensive one - well if you gonna do it then do it properly! We got all our gear including wet suits, climbing ropes and other stuff and got ready to do some serious caving!

Don't look down

The first part was to abseil down into a large cave. We lowered ourselves into a rather small opening where you had to shuffle you way in before abseiling properly down to the bottom. From there were did a zip line down to the waters edge.

Safely inside

We had some hot chocolate and a biscuit to warm ourselves up before we got in the water and to do that we had to jump of this ledge with a rubber ring. The water was ridiculously cold! I could have coped with it if we were doing something to keep warm but were essentially just sat there in the rings.

Jump!

We pulled ourselves along this rope deeper into the caves and then turned our lamps off and looked up. There must have been millions and millions of glow worms which is what these caves are famous for. Our guide slammed his rubber ring on the water which made them shine brighter. Not bright enough to cast light but to look like many green stars. We floated back down the river with our lights off looking at the ceiling at glowworms whilst our guide told us more about them and the caves.

Going for a walk

We ditched the rings and set off walking down the river. The ground was really uneven so it was slow going, not to mention you couldn't really see where you were going! We went down what was essentially a water slide which was cool and climbed through a couple of holes in the wall.

Slide!

Adventure Caving

We had got another hot drink at the side of the cave and took a couple of group pictures trying to be funny. I went for the 'oh no the roof is falling look' but I don't think I managed it!

Funny faces

The first bit of the trip was more waiting around for other people to do stuff then actually doing stuff, the middle bit with the glowworms was cool but the best bit definitely came at the end when we did some proper adventure caving. The way out from the caves was to climb up a set of waterfalls. It got narrow, the ceiling got lower and the noise of the water was almost deafening after the tranquillity of the glowworm cave. Most of the waterfalls were small but there was one big one where you had to climb around the walls of the cave to get to the top of it.

I'm alive!

A couple more small ones and we made it out into the open air. It was a really cool trip and I recommend it to anyone. Really good fun.

We all made it!

Back at the hostel we went to the bar to watch the All Blacks play. I watched about half the game and lost interest and spent the rest of the evening uploading pictures on to facebook.

Day 7

As if the day before wasn't epic enough I managed to cram a whole lot of cool stuff into day 7. Apparently we did a short walk around a national park in the morning which I have no memory of or pictures of but I wouldn't have slept through it - least I don't think so. It was getting increasingly difficult to stay awake on the bus. They were quite comfortable.

A museum in Rotorua

We arrived in Rotorua about lunch time and immediately you are put off your lunch! The park in the city is called Whangapipiro (fong-a-pe-pori) which means evil smelling place. Its a hive of volcanic activity with many geysers, boiling mud pools and steam coming out of the drains and it stinks of rotten eggs!

Sulphur lake

I would have liked a bit more time to explore the place such as the museum above but there was limited time. Perhaps I should have jumped off the bus for a couple of days but we were bonding as a group and I didn't want to leave it. So we went for a quick walk around the park to have a look at the steaming lakes and boiling mud pools before I had to head back to the hostel to be picked up.

Boiling mud pool

It was quite clever how they had managed to use the natural features of the park and make it look like they had built them in that place purposely but every now and then you could see where nature was fighting back. One pool had the fence around it falling inwards and every so often you would see a patch of dead grass with a small ditch in the middle of it which was the start of a new hot pool.

Park features

Once you got over the stench it was really quite an interesting place if your in to volcanoes and stuff which I kinda am.

Steaming lake

So after that quick lap of the park I went back to the hostel to be picked up for the Hobbiton Tour! I was always going to be doing this tour and I was very excited to go to the actual shire. I expected a few people from our bus to go but it was just me and one other person.

The driver of the bus there was a really interesting guy. I had my Ipod on but I turned it off so I could listen to the conversation he was having with an American couple at the front. He had had a very interesting life and been involved in some very strange things. I can't actually remember what any of them are now but I remember being very interested!

The shire!

We jumped off that bus and on to another which would take us down in to the shire. This bus was unfortunately full of asian kids who had absolutely no interest in a hill with some doors on it and the parents weren't exactly doing much to stop them running riot

Not seen in the movies - yet...

Built just off Buckland Rd (an unintentional Lord of the Rings coincidence) it was originally made to only used for the films so everything was made out of wood and temporary fittings but then left as the farmer realised he could make some money of it. It was then rebuilt with more permanent materials for the Hobbit films with an extension that will be seen in the final Hobbit movie.

Party Tree

On the day that Peter Jackson came scouting some of the farmers were on there way to chop down the famous party tree as its dead and slowly rotting away. Quick thinking from Peter Jackson saved the tree for the films although it is still a dead and doomed tree.

Outside Baggins house

I hadn't realised the level of detail Peter Jackson had gone to for the Lord of the Rings films. Even the trees in the shire are all fake with each individual leaf purposely place. He employed people just to walk on the grass to make paths rather that try to manufacture it, he wanted it to look real. Even all the sheep on the farm were carted off to another farm for the duration of filming.

Sam's house

SHIRE.....BAGGINGS!!

The end of the tour now finished in the newly built Dragon Inn where you can try a specially brewed beer exclusive to the Inn. They also let you try on some Hobbit Clothes and stand behind the bar for a photo which obviously I did.

Dragon Inn

I feel like a Hobbit now

Oh look I AM!

I would have rather have gone round by myself than with the annoying group but the guide did his best he suppose. It was a really cool day out and I will forever be a bit of a hobbit at heart!

The day wasn't over after that. Back to Rotorua and I had about half an hour to scoff some food and its on another bus for the Tamaki Tours. I had already done some cool stuff in the New Zealand but this blew them all away. The Tamaki Tours takes you to a Maori village with real Maori people who teach you about their ways and their beliefs. I'm not such how much is gimmick and how much is real but it was a really fun and interesting night.

The entrance to Maori Village

It started with a weird kind of challenge dance where the leader of the Maori tribe and an appointed leader of the visiting group said 'hello' and then we were welcomed into the village.

We're allowed in!

We went in to the village and were split in several groups, each sent to a different station where we could learn a little bit about what they do.

Learning the Haka

Our first station is where we were shown and taught the Haka. Then we went to one where we played a sort of game with sticks where the person would say left or right in Maori and you had to let go of your stick and grab the next one either going left or right. This taught you about reflexes. I was involved in this one and I finished 3rd out of 4.

Stick game

Then there was one where you had to run across a ladder doing various fighting moves, another showing you wood carvings and another with the girls showing you something with a pom pom type thing. I dunno - it was for girls.

not so conventional ovens

We were then invited to a feast and shown were they cooked the food in these underground oven type things called Hangi.

We went in to the main hall where there was a bit of a show. They did the Haka and a couple of tribal songs about some ancient stories. This was really interesting and they were surprisingly good singers

Showtime

Then we went another big room for dinner which was possibly the best roast dinner I've ever eaten. I'd pay all the money for the whole tour just to eat this meal again! so good! Then it was time for one last Haka before getting the bus back to the hostel.

Haka

This was the best thing I had done so far. The people who ran it were so friendly and so funny and really see the purpose of teaching people about their Maori ways. It was hilarious, fascinating and delicious all at once!

More to come...