Wednesday : We got up early, to check out of our hostel, and then went to the other end of town because that was where a mountain (small mountain) and beach that we could lie on. Sadly, it was still a little overcast, and not really warm. BUT NOT raining, which was a bonus. So, we decided to go to a little cafe, and then went to walk up this mountain. Matt had already done it when he went with his Dad but he was willing to do it again. We started out on the path but soon made our own path because we (Mark and I) followed Matt and Alex on their “off path” adventures. It was worth it, and we got a beautiful view from the top. This mountain is literally on the edge of the water. So on one side of the mountain is the harbour and the other side was the beach and the ocean. By this time, the sun had come out so we decided to rush down and enjoy the beach for a little. Since all of us got soaked kayaking, we had put our wet clothes in bags. Us girls had remembered to take them out and dry them somewhat, but the boys had forgotten and produced some pretty disgusting smelling bathing suits. Before the hike, they had set out their bathing suits on top of the car, hoping that would de-stink them, unfortunately, that did nothing and it was pretty stinky once we got on the beach. The clouds had come back when we got to the beach, but we decided to try and lie out anyways. It didn’t last very long, we slowly put on our clothes over our bathing suits as the wind and cloud cover was not helping our ‘beach day’. It was nice to not be in a car for once though! There was another little outlet from the beach, that we decided to adventure to, we ended up basically rock climbing to get down to the water, and we scaled back up to the top (some more than others...can you guess who?). I took the easy way, and Matt and Alex basically free climbed to the top. Mark had decided to stay at the top. We were all getting hungry, and found a place that made ‘toasties’ (toasted sandwiches). Mark, Matt and I got them and Alex got pumpkin soup. The boys wanted to watch the basketball game and Alex and I wanted to look around at the shops, so we went our separate ways for a little and then decided to meet up at get on our way to Rotorua. Alex was getting good at remembering to book a hostel ahead of time, so we got into Base (the Backpackers) and decided that we wanted to go out for food and where did we end up? Indian food, once again. We got there and Mark saw other exchange students from Dunedin, and they told us their story of their rental car getting stolen! We soon got our own table and ordered food. Matt got REALLY spicy Indian food and soon suffered the consequences of it. He was sweating almost immediately and ended up eating some of my food to cool down his mouth! I tried some as well, and my mouth was burning for a few minutes after. Let’s just say, it was an amusing dinner! We ended up having our room to ourselves, even though it was a room for eight which was pretty sweet. Hung out and then ended up skyping with Alex's boyfriend, Brody, and then going to bed.
Thursday : We decided to stay in Rotorua for two days and we had a much needed sleep in! Matt woke us up at 11 and we slowly but surely got up. We had some plans to see if we could go white water rafting or sledging (basically going down on boogie boards). By this time, we figured out we were all pretty indecisive so we were all up for anything. Alex said that she would skype with her mom that day so she went down to do that, and I went down and we discussed that we wanted a chill morning and then maybe white water raft in the afternoon. So, I went up and told the boys “I think we should basically just do our own thing in the morning, so we don’t kill each other, you know...”. I later, really regretted this... My ‘humour’ was not appreciated...ha! Anyways, Alex and I shopped around a bit, and then found a little cafe to sit down and read at and I believe the boys tried to find a sports bar that had a game playing. They later came and joined us (It didn’t seem like they had a grudge about the ‘joke’ I made that morning) and then told us about their grand plan to ‘destink’ their bathing suits. Our hostel had a heated pool attached to it, and they decided that the chlorine would get rid of the awful smell. IT DID and JUST in time before the rafting people picked us up! I had been warned about the smell of Rotorua, as it has a lot of sulphur from the volcanoes around/in it, but I hadn’t really smelt it until I got to the rafting place and it smelt ROTTEN! The town LITERALLY smells like rotting eggs. Matt said that “It’s like they are living in a big fart” and it seriously smells like that. I don’t understand how anyone could live there. Haha! Anyways, we had a boat to ourselves, and of course a guide. There was another group of girls going rafting, and two of them were from Ontario, they were studying in Sydney and came over for reading week! Anyways, rafting was A BLAST! As I have gone before, I knew what to expect, and it was just as, and maybe even more, enjoyable as before! We went over the highest commercialized waterfall you can white water raft over in the world! It was scary, but also a LOT of fun! Alex and I got thrown out of the raft by our guide and I got left by my raft, to be picked up by the one behind us. It was a scary experience thinking that you are getting sucked into a cave where Maori put bones of the people they ate (or maybe it was just a burial cave, but still...bones in a cave that I was being sucked into). Luckily, I survived this incident and live to tell the tale! It was REALLY funny and a good group ‘building’ activity (much needed after I told them that I was going to ‘kill’ them...). We got back from rafting, cold and wet but jumped into the heated pool to warm up and slowly one by one got out to shower. With booking the rafting through our hostel, we each got a free pizza and drink from the bar attached to the hostel. So we went and ate and drank! It was delicious! Later that night, Alex brought up my ‘joke’ and I expressed my regret to that statement. Both boys were very understanding. We hung out and then got ready for bed and went to sleep!
Friday : We slept in past ten, as none of us put an alarm on, and got woken up by the cleaning ladies. We were apologetic and hurried to pack and check out of the hostel. We were then, once again on our way, this time headed towards Taupo. On the way, Matt had read about a hot spring which sounded quite lovely! So, we stopped at Kerosene creek (fortunately, not toxic) for quite a while. The river was SOOOO warm, that is was quite difficult to get out of but the smell did help a little. While in the spring, Matt and Mark met the ‘love’ of their life, which was a South African girl who woo-ed their hearts...unfortunately for them, no phone numbers were exchanged. We eventually got back into the car, and started, once again, to Taupo. Matt, as the great tour guide he was, read about a huge waterfall and “Craters of the Moon” which were also on the way. So, taking advantage of any opportunity that we could take to not be in the car, we went to both. Huka falls had the blue-ist water I have ever seen and there was just SO much of it! It was pretty commercialized unlike most things in New Zealand and there were a lot of people there to see it. It was in a big gorge and lots of rapids. We were discussing if we could raft over it, and decided that we couldn’t. Haha! We got back in the car, and crossed the highway toward “The Craters of the Moon” which a man at the Falls said was good. There is a lot of volcanic activity in the area we were in and the craters of the moon were supposed to show steam and bubbling mud. We got there, paid $6 and started walking. There were board walks throughout this field that led to different landmarks, none too exciting. After about 5 minutes of looking at steam coming from the ground, it becomes quite monotonous but there was only one way out, so we kept walking for another 20-30 minutes. We then got back into the car, and complained how ridiculous it was. We got to Taupo an hour or so before dark and went to the iSite to discuss the ‘hike’ we were going to do the next day. The next thing we know, the boys hop back in the car, and tell us they are going skydiving. We get to the skydiving place and within half an hour, the boys had skydived! It was a sweet experience to see from the ground, especially because I had done it before and knew the feelings they were experiencing! I was a little jealous though, because the sun was setting as they were jumping and that would have been amazing from 15000 ft. Anyways, after that was done, we went to our hostel and got settled in our room. We planned on cooking our supper, as we had been dining out a lot. So we got a lot of pasta and made our own! It was great to eat ‘a home cooked’ meal. We were all pretty tired, so we went on the computers, and watched the pre-show to the royal wedding. Alex and I went to bed pretty early, as Matt informed us that we would be getting up at 5:30am to get to the Tongariro Crossing. The boys stayed up a little later, and informed us, the next day, that they watched the wedding.
Still too lazy to upload pictures, and most people who read this have me on facebook and have probably already creeped my pictures!
Hope everyone is well!
Love,
K
K
No comments:
Post a Comment