Day 112 - Discover Bay of Islands

We got up today and knew we couldn't leave Paihia without seeing the Bay of Islands, Chino researched into some of the cruises Chaggie could do. Jamie was always going to stay back at Paihia and keep himself occupied as he is to be visiting Paihia again later on in his travels with his girlfriend, so he wouldn't of wanted to have ruined the surprise for both of them. We packed our bags and packed the car, then chilled out in the lounge most of the morning.

Chaggie were lucky to book for two on a 'Discover Bay of Island's Cruise' which would leave at 13:30. Until then we hung out in the lounge online. Jamie got in contact with his girlfriend, he stayed in the lounge at YHA throughout the duration of our cruise also. The cruise was brilliant, we booked it with 'NZ Extreme', after picking up the remaining passengers from 'Russell', the first capital of New Zealand where Chino had to get a picture of the sign for his Dad, we continued on around the Islands.

The scenery was amazing, the Islands offer many fantastic beaches and walks, most all isolated and untouched. 1 or 2 used to be privately owned but they are now all open to the public so if you can get hold of a kayak or boat, you would find the most amazing places to spend your day on.

A Baby and Adult Bottlenose Dolphins

The favorite part of Chaggie's trip and most memorable will be seeing the dolphins, not just one species but two at different times. The Bottlenose and Common Dolphins were both seen on our cruise, we had enough time with both to take plenty of pictures and video. They would come very close to the boat, all friendly showing off their speeds and skills. They would then keep with the boat for a bit when going to the next spot.

Common Dolphins

An important part of the trip was to sight see the popular 'Hole in the Rock'. Basically one big hole...in a rock. The skipper managed to cruise through it with today's conditions which was pretty cool. We stopped off at 'Otehei Bay' on the way back to Paihia, a beautiful beach on a small, quiet Island. Was very Caribbean like!

Hole in the Rock

We got back to YHA at 17:30 to find Jamie watching 'Team America'. We thought we'd use YHA's lounge although we were no longer staying there for as long as possible, chilled out to some TV and a comfy sofa till 22:00. This evening we skipped out on dinner, took us a while to find somewhere we could sleep for the night. Again Jamie and Staggie were going to crash out in the car and Chino was fine with the hammock, just wanted a nice, safe spot to camp out, preferably close to the car.

Night Night Chino

We couldn't find a quiet, free car park anywhere so we tried a camping ground nearby. To our amazement we found one where the office had closed and no gates kept us out. It was quite a busy camping ground so we weren't scared to park in a space between many campervans. All couldn't go so smoothly though, when setting up Chino in the hammock between a tree and the car, we must have tightened it too strong, when moving about the hammock broke. The material completely tore down the middle. Not good! Chino thought about it and is a person who would do anything for a free night anyway! He took one for the team and slept on the ground next to the car, he had a sleeping bag and used the hammock as his mosquito net! Can't get much more rough than that, after the amount of spoiling though that we have received from family and friends, staying in lovely homes, to live rough for a week was needed and we were fine with it!

Chaggie x

Day 111 - Our Last Night At YHA

Cosy car for Staggie and Jamie

Handy hammock for Chino

< Good Night Sleep >

We all woke up at around 09:30 this morning, Chino rose from his Hammock as the others got out their vehicles,  was another brilliant day, the sun was shining, blue sky.

Chaggie and Parsons got their camping gear out; frying pan, stove, gas cylinder and out came the sausages. A sausage sandwich later and we were on the beach, just chilling. We spent the morning on Matapouri Beach, got out our beach ball and kicked it around with the 3 guys we met last night. The waves were strong this morning also so we made sure we rode a few of those too.

It was a hot day, around mid-day we went for a walk to 'Whale Bay', another gorgeous bay we had heard about. It took us about half an hour to get there, once we were there we realised we had forgotten our towels but the sea was far too inviting to say no. Jamie got out his camera and went on a photo taking spree.

We headed off to Paihia at 14:30 this afternoon, our next stop looking out on the Bay of Islands. We went searching for the cheapest night we could get at a backpackers once we arrived, there were plenty of them. In the end YHA was our top choice. We always knew that we'd have just one night of this week spent in a backpackers, to re-organise ourselves and tidy up a bit. Due to us not getting it at Whangarei, we chose to try and stay in one at the Bay of Islands, almost half way through the week.

We did a bit of blogging, uploaded all the recent photos to Facebook and tidied ourselves up a bit with a very missed shower. Dinner was cooked this evening, we had sausages and beans with home made chips that Jamie had previously learnt to cook on his travels.

Chaggie x

Day 110 - Dive! Tutukaka

We woke up in the car today at 07:00 and got driving straight away to Tutukaka, just half an hour drive away. Chino got us there for 07:30ish, we brushed our teeth, used some public toilets for a quick poo and checked in at 08:00. 


We spent the day with Dive! Tutukaka around the Poor Knights Island just an hour from Tutukaka's coast. The Island is all reserve, marine and land. A fantastic place for snorkelling and scuba diving. The staff were brilliant today, our guide would give us the history on certain places where we stopped around the Island, our first stop was a good place for a dive, Jamie and Chino had only paid for one dive today and it was set for this afternoon so this morning, first thing they joined Staggie and all went snorkelling. 


These islands are special for several reasons. They're along the EAC (The East Australia current. The one that Nemo takes a ride on in the movie. More specifically they’re located on an offshoot of the EAC called the East Auckland Current) which picks up tropical fish, eggs, and larva from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and deposits them in the Poor Knights. This causes a unique situation where tropical and subtropical fish mix together in the same environment. Throughout the day the subtropical makeup of the Poor Knights meant a whole lot of kelp. In fact quite a bit of kelp. Kelp forests. We made our way around the bay in which our boat anchored in, we stuck as a three and saw a lot of Black Angelfish, huge Snapper, Wrasse and lots of Perch we think (whatever the fish are in Finding Nemo, the ones that would create sings and arrows showing both Dory and Marlon where to go). 


In between dives and snorkeling, our skippers would show us around the Islands, one interesting part of the trip was getting a close look at the World's Largest Sea Cave by volume, the skipper managed to fit the boat into it giving us an opportunity to shout out and stomp our feet, listening to the huge bass of the echo that follows. 


This afternoon after lunch, Jamie and Chino got their diving equipment on and met with their scuba instructor. It was just going to be the three of us that went down which was good. We got in, breezed through the instructions and briefing due to both of us doing at least one previous dive. 



We got to a maximum depth of 12 meters, Fish swam through the kelp, slugs hid behind leaves and many interesting fish were seen including the Scorpion fish. The best part of the subtropical setting is that you can touch anything. Unlike a coral reef where a misplaced fin might kill 100 years of coral growth the kelp forest is durable. Not only is it near impossible to actually rip off kelp, even if you did it would grow back in a few weeks. At one point we got down to the sand and did a hand stand, this really did make it quite surreal looking at the marine life upside down. It was a great dive, different to that done at the Great Barrier Reef too in Chino's opinion, in some ways better. 


This afternoon we returned about 17:00ish. We checked out and returned all our gear, Chino hopes to take part in a course once he's home to achieve his PADI certification. Now that he's done 3 dives altogether he might as well become a qualified diver rather than doing an introductory lesson each time and going through the steps and instructions. 


This evening we went shopping, bought food and drink for the next couple of days including a few bottles of wine to help out with tonights sleep. Set off to Matapouri, hadn't heard much about the place, just that it had a nice beach...Only turned out to be one of the most stunning beaches we have seen! A beautiful bay looking out onto Poor Knights Island with forest covering around it. We parked in an empty car park next to the beach, no signs telling us not to park there over night so a perfect spot it was. It even had a public BBQ so we cooked sausage and bacon butties! 

We chilled out after and drank on the beach, turned out we didn't end up being the only people to notice this quiet and amazing camping spot, we met three other English lads on their travels. Also staying the night in their hired campervan. Staggie and Jamie slept in the car this evening, Chino had already planned to sleep in the Hammock. With help from the three English lads, we could tie up the hammock in between both vehicles! 
A wicked idea which worked perfectly, a good sleep for all after a great day all round.


Chaggie x 

Day 109 - Northland Here We Come

We didn't get up to too much this morning, we spent time with Liz and Florence before having lunch with Laurence and his Mum too. We got going around 13:00, departed Auckland and set off up North to Whangarei.

We got there around 15:00ish, we had booked (or so we thought) to stay at the YHA backpackers for the night, this was going to be used as a night to organise and catch up on blog's, sleep, pictures etc before living a rough, backpackers week for the rest of our time around Northland. In the end we soon found that we had booked to stay at the YHA Whitianga rather than Whangarei, an easy mistake to make! Unfortunately they had no space at Whangarei so it turned out sleeping it rough was going to occur sooner than we first thought!

We chilled out in town, was a nice sunny day. We spent a bit of time at McDonalds trying to get online via their free wi-fi, couldn't find a hotspot though so after a big Mac we headed into town.

We went to a Pool Bar this evening, had a few games of pool which took up a bit of time, we were all looking forward to tomorrow, the last expensive thing we had planned, diving at the Poor Knights Island off Tutukaka.

Later on this evening we drove back to YHA, not to stay there though but to stay outside on the quiet road we noticed before hand. We got out our sleeping bags and got into a position we hoped we could rest in. Was certainly not a comfortable night but a couple more beers helped out a little. Chino had the steering wheel, Staggie in the passenger seat and Jamie with bent legs at the back. Was a pretty crappy nights sleep but surprisingly went fast.

Chaggie x

Day 108 - Another Stagg Seen In NZ!

Today Phill had planned to meet up with his Sister, Liz who flew in from the UK just a couple of days ago with her Daughter, Florence as well as Flo's Dad, Laurence.

First of all this morning, we re-organised ourselves once we woke up at Michael and Emilie's house. They had gone to work but left us to pack up and leave when we wanted. They were also very kind enough to lend us some of their camping gear including pots, pans, a portable camping stove, cutlery and a hammock! We really did appreciate it all and packed it all into the car. We then had to go all the way back to Thames in order to retrieve Jamie's jumper which he left behind on the 22nd at YHA. They fortunately had it and put it aside, we got there, picked it up and headed straight back to Auckland.

We were lucky enough to be staying at Laurence's Parents home this evening in Manukau. The family are Polynesians and were very warm and welcoming. The three of us met the family as well as Liz and Flo who were in Auckland for only a few days more. Was weird for Staggie to be seeing his sister and niece in another country, especially one so far away from home.

It was a really good afternoon and evening, Chaggie and Jamie were introduced to the family, Laurence's siblings and their families were all round for a BBQ. The three of us joined in a game of rugby whilst the meat got cooking. An amazing BBQ it was too, a feast of meats as well as Kumara, Sweetcorn, Potatoe, Salad and Chips. Certainly filled a spot!

This evening people soon had to leave, the home soon started to get quieter, the three of us slept in the lounge  with bedding provided by Laurence's Mother, very generous. We were spoilt once again today, a fantastic meal and a very welcoming family.

Tomorrow is the big day heading off to Northland, the last part of New Zealand to cover in our travels.

Chaggie x

Day 107 - Farewell Basil

The 4 of us woke up and checked out at 10:00 once again, the receptionist had no idea. Classic cheapaslad!

We went and got a bite to eat before going to an internet cafe. Last night we got the car out of the Sky City car park and parked over at another car park for the evening just down the road from the hotel, cost us $6 for the night, was then $4 each hour after 08:00. We planned to leave at 11:00 so before heading off, Jamie, Staggie and Chino each said there goodbye to Basil. Which wasn't much, we were in a rush so it was a quick one. Good luck to Big Baz though on his travels down South. His reason for going alone was so that he could speed up his trip and get back to Sydney for work, so that in the long run he can get home quicker too.

So from now on until the 5th it will be Chaggie and Parsons (Jamie) down-under! We had been in contact with Staggie's Dad's Partners Niece and her husband who both live in Beechlands, not far outside of Auckland. They were very kind to take the three of us up for a night so we got on the road to Beechland. 

Not long after we were greeted by Michael, a Welshman who moved to New Zealand just a few years ago. We spent the day with Michael, he showed us around and took us to some nearby beaches including one at Maratei and one at Beechlands. Once Emilie returned with their son; Yannick we all had a BBQ this evening, Chaggie and Parsons supplied some beer and meat for the meal. Was a great day, both Michael and Emilie are very good people and made us feel right at home. 

After the meal a little later on Staggie asked Michael to get out a game he once showed Staggie, a game played in India where the aim is to flick your objects into the oppositions goals at either corner of their table. We had a good laugh playing this, some very tense matches.

This evening Jamie had shotgun the Double bed, Staggie had the air bed and Chino was well up for trying out the Hammock outside on the balcony. A sleeping bag and mosquito net also, could this be the answer to our cheap week intended for next week up Northland? 

We'll just have to see. With his Ipod plugged in, tucked in and zipped up, the 3 of us soon went to sleep. 

Chaggie x 

Day 106 - The Return To Auckland

We left Thames at 10:00 this morning and got going back to Auckland, Staggie did the driving and got us there for 12:00. We found the hotel where we would be staying quite quickly, one we booked online yesterday using a last minute, cheap bookings site. For $50 we managed to book a twin room and planned to sneak Jamie and Basil in on the floor.

Once we got to the hotel, what was going to be difficult was finding a car parking space. Very difficult to find one on a week day that won't cost and it was annoying the hotel didn't have their own parking area. We found that the Sky City parking would be cheaper if we bought admission tickets to go up Sky Tower, this was our original plan for the day anyway so that worked out quite well. Sky City was just next door to our hotel too. We got rid of our bags, were lucky to be able to check in at 12:00, we then went and got lunch and popped into an internet cafe.

Later on Jamie, Staggie and Chino headed off to Sky City leaving Basil at the internet cafe where he preferred to save money by staying online. The three of us bought our tickets and went up Sky Tower. Chaggie have been up quite a few Sky Towers now with our first being QDeck at Gold Coast. Sky Tower Auckland was in our opinion, the best. Beats Sydney's and Gold Coasts with nice views, glass panels on the floor which can always be quite a scare and being able to watch a few people jumping off it via Sky Jump was a laugh too.

We planned to meet Basil back at the car, it took us quite a while to find the car though, getting lost in the meantime around the car park. We got outside to find Basil walking up the hill which was lucky and carried on with our day. We went shopping so that Basil could buy a Harmonica, something he's wanted since the beginning of his trip. For the rest of the day we chilled out in our hotel room, crisp sandwiches for tea. This evening we went to the Imax Cinema and watched 'Unknown' with Liam Neeson. Was a brilliant film, along with 'Taken' Liam Neeson plays a great role in both.

We headed off back to the hotel and went to bed soon after, tomorrow Basil has booked his bus to take him back to Rotorua where he will then be carrying on with his trip.

Chaggie x

Day 105 - To Thames

Weather wasn't so good today, we had been really lucky with it the last few days throughout our trip around the peninsula. Now at the other side to where we started, there wasn't much else to do other than chill about at YHA Thames. We noticed that there were good facilities around the backpackers so they became very useful. A nice lounge with a huge TV, a good kitchen and a room with wi-fi.

Chino and Basil managed to get in touch with relatives through skype. Shops were just a walk away, so lunch and dinner were cooked by the 4 of us. A nice big lunch, bacon baguettes with beans and egg. Dinner was slightly vile heating up Pizza's in the micro-wave due to a lack of ovens.

Along with all this exciting stuff, we watched 'Kevin and Perry Go Large', 'Snatch' and 'A Knights Tale' as well as a few games of Pool.

Chaggie x

Day 104 - Some Sweet As Beaches

We got up to be checked out of the caravan at 10:00 today. Staggie and Basil had got up earlier this morning around 06:00 to try and get online and watch the Crawley Town vs Manchester United game. It wasn't possible unfortunately but going straight back to bed i'm sure was a good sub.

We checked out Hahei beach this morning before setting off on a walk to 'Cathedral Cove', a beach recommended to us by Murray and Kate. Was signposted as an hour and a half walk but we did it in about an hour. We had to make our own way past a fence saying that 'Cathedral Cove is unfortunately closed due to hazardous slips on the walk'. We noticed others going round it so we chose to too, had walked a good half an hour to get there and weren't prepared to turn back. It was so worth it, the walk was fine, all but the last few meters where we had to slowly climb down a slip. It was so worth it.

The beach was amazing, the Cove was pretty cool and a natural waterfall was also used. Was a wicked beach though, we found a few caves by swimming to them, chilled out on the bank inside.

We knew that today we wanted to check out the Hot Water Beach, famous for its natural hot baths that you can dig up in the sand. Best time to do it though is when the tide is in and that today wasn't until 15:30ish. So we walked back to Hahei for around 13:30, got back in the car and set off to the hot water beach not too far away. We had lunch in a cafe just off the beach, then hired a spade and got digging! You can tell where abouts the hot magma spikes are under the ground as a heap of people are all digging in the one spot. Water at temperatures of up to 70 degrees formed these hot water natural bath's in the sand, was pretty weird!

 What was even more weird was to run in to the sea after a good long chill out time in the hot water to find the sea is normal temperature and only a few meters away! We were at the hot water beach till about 18:00 this evening, the sea offered some huge waves as well so an all round quality beach.

We drove to Coromandel where we stopped off for the evening at a YHA backpackers. Dinner was bought from a local store, Jamie and Staggie then made pasta, Basil and Chino washed up. We ended up just slobbing about, what we do best. Watched a crappy film with a guy from Yorkshire and crashed out around 01:00.

Chaggie x

Day 103 - To the Coromandel Peninsula

We woke up to a huge breakfast this morning, a feast prepared by Murray, one that would hopefully last us the next few days (we were hopeful). It was a full breakfast with sausages, eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, burgers, toast..the works! Was amazing.

Once we gave it a while to digest, we set off to Mount Maunganui at 11:30, the 4 of us, Murray, Kate and their nephew who stayed over last night. We climbed all the way to the summit, giving us amazing 360 views of Tauranga and surrounding towns, could see where we were going to be heading this afternoon too.

After an Ice Cream once we all got back to the bottom, we returned to Murray and Kate's to pack the last few things and say goodbye. Were very kind to home the 4 of us for 3 nights and made us feel right at home.

We drove to Wahei first of all this afternoon at 15:00 getting to Wahei Beach at 16:00. We chilled out with a few games of PAJB before setting off to Whangamata where we stopped off for dinner. We carried on to Hahei at 19:00 where with thanks to Kate, we had booked a caravan for this evening at one of the camp grounds right on the beach. A 3 man one was going to be made to bed 4, we found a way! The beach was really nice, Chino went for an evening swim. We all got showered and chilled out, watched 'Inception' this evening before going to bed.

Chaggie x

Day 102 - Film Club

Should be a pretty quick and easy post to write really.

Basil was up for watching some films today, both Chino and him are very keen on cinema so they hired out a few.

This morning was spent watching 'The Experiment' and 'The Expendables'.

We waited for Murray to return from work, we then all went and got Fish and Chips from a very popular place by the sea. They were quality fish and chips, superb!

This evening once we got back, the 4 of us sat down with Murray and Kate and watched the Kiwi film: 'The Fastest Indian' with Anthony Hopkins. Turned out to be a great film based on a true story about a man from Invercargill who broke many speed records in his own built Indian.

We chilled out with Murray and Kate till they went off to bed, we then got back to our room and watched 'The Collector', so we finished off with a twisted horror.

Pretty relaxed day of doss. No problems with that.

Chaggie x

Day 101 - Beached as Bro!

Today was a day for the beach. Sunny, hot weather with clear skies. We had a great sleep and headed off to Mount Maunganui after breakfast.

We ended up there till about 16:00ish, did a bit of shopping and bought a beach ball as well as a beach cricket set. This kept us entertained all day with PAJB still a popular sport.

After chilling out back at Murray and Kate's house from 16:00ish, once Murray got home from work we soon had dinner before getting ready for an evening's bike ride. Murray had invited us to a 40km cycle that he does every Thursday with a few of his mates. We set off around 19:30 with all our gear, luckily Murray was able to find 4 spare bikes, helmets and other bike accessories. Didn't take long to meet with his friends and get going.

Now Chaggie had both neither been on a bike for years, it certainly showed with Staggie coming off on a steep off-road downhill. Chaggie after about 12km decided on bailing out and turning around, going off-road turned out to be a little too difficult for us, amateurs! Jamie and Basil however carried on, managed to do a 28km ride before getting back. Murray and his mates then cycled back to the car. All pretty shattered we had a few beers, started watching a film but gave up half way and crashed out.

Chaggie x

Day 100 - White Water Rampage

Today the four of us were up at 08:00 to get ready for an 09:00 pick up. We got picked up from the White Water Rafting company; 'Cascades' for today we were going to be travelling down the Kaituna River, famously known for it's 7 meter waterfall! We got to their base and chucked on some warm clothing before getting briefed in what was going to be our raft for the next hour. It was quite slow waiting to get on to the river, many companies were queuing to get going. We were very fortunate to be rafting at all as it was only the 3rd day in the last few weeks that the river was safe enough to raft on.

The 4 of us were in a raft with a German and the guide, we went down 3 waterfalls and many rapids in the 45 minutes it took us to get to the point in the river where our trip ends. It was a great morning, exciting and enthralling. We all loved it, was fun to be rafting alongside each other going down a huge waterfall in the process, Chino was told about the Kaituna when rafting in Cairns, so glad we did it.

We got back to Base Rotorua around 13:00, got some lunch and ate in the car. Chaggie left Basil and Jamie to check out the town for about 45 minutes whilst we headed off back to Jan's just to catch up with her and tell her what we managed to do over the last few days. Had been very successful with what we managed to book, we said goodbye again and got back to Base where we picked up the other two. We then set off to Tauranga at 14:15.

Was our first road trip as a 4, Brian the car was fully packed but still comfortable for the hour long journey. Phill couldn't get in touch with Murray and Kate who we had planned to stay with for a few days during the trip so once we got to Tauranga we carried on to Mount Maunganui where we had heard is home to a lovely beach....And so it was. This afternoon we came up with a game called 'PAJB' using our initials, a game with a rugby ball using skills from Basketball and Volleyball on a small pitch with two teams. Very fun and kept us amused for an hour or so. We hit the sea too of course before drying off and heading off to Murray's house in Tauranga.

Murray and Kate were so kind to put the 4 of us up in a room built onto their garage, was perfect for a few nights. We made sure we had plenty of beer and meat as tonight we had a BBQ with Murray, Kate and a few of their relatives for today was their Nephews birthday. Was a great evening, nice for Phill to catch up with his Cousin Murray too. Murray also gave us a tour of Tauranga and Mt Maunganui later on in the evening.

Chaggie x

Day 99 - Maori Day!

A very cultural day today, Chaggie woke up at 08:00 and got ready to go at 09:00. This morning we were booked in to learn the Haka. We left Basil and Jamie in bed and set off.

Once we got there, we realised we were the only two booked in for the morning lesson! So it was the Teacher and Chaggie. Was a brilliant activity, we learnt the history of the Haka, what it means, how there are many different Haka's etc. The one we were learning today was the one shown by the All Blacks before every test match...The war Haka.

After learning the history of it, we learnt the pronunciation of the words and the dance. After going through it a good few times, last but not least, we dressed up for it too! We did it infront of a camera to look back on it after, was great fun. Chino will be soon feeling it after too with nice big marks on his thighs, certainly got into it.

We got back to Base around 11:00 to find the other two still in bed. This afternoon we chilled out, watched a few films and episodes of 'Black Books'.

This evening we attended a cultural evening called 'Mitai'. We were given a traditionally cooked meal called 'Hangi' which included Lamb, Potatoe, Kumara, Chicken and stuffing all cooked in the ground.

We watched an evening concert where a local Maori tribe performed a Haka, showed us weapons traditionally used, traditional music and songs as well as sports and games they would play. Was a memorable evening, good all you can eat buffet too. We were shown a local Spring with Glo-worms too, one sacred to the tribe.

We returned back to Base at around 22:30, watched another film. Starting to get more money conscious now.

Chaggie x

Day 98 - Chaggie Re-Unite with Basil and Jamie!

Woke up at around 10:00 today, booked a few activities for the next few days including White Water Rafting and learning the famous All Blacks 'Haka'!

We chilled out at Jan's this morning, packed our bags ready to move to Base Backpackers where we had planned to meet up with Basil and Jamie. Looking forward to the last month where they will be travelling around with us, should be a laugh!

We left Jan's at around 12:00 today, drove to Red Woods just down the road. After a short walk we went and got some lunch and ate by Lake Rotorua.

This afternoon we played Putt Putt Golf and tested our golf skills. Staggie ended up thrashing Chino, very tense match.

At 14:15ish, we got to Base Backpackers and who were there checking in? Basil and Jamie, terrific timing! Was once again pretty weird to see them both, now the 4 of us travelling around the other side of the World! We all had a good catch up in our 4 bed dorm, slobbed about for a couple of hours before going to Skyline to do the luge! Yes it may be Chaggie's second time but it never gets boring.

Was a great afternoon doing the luge, racing down the tracks, Chino came away with a nice few scratches after coming off at a tight corner. Once again, very close races! Staggie, Jamie and Chino were always pretty close to coming first...Basil soon followed in 4th place.

This evening after showering and calming down after an enthralling afternoon, we went out at 22:00 to the bar joint onto the Backpackers. We met up with Raymond also.

After a McDonalds a little later, we got back to Base.

Chaggie x

Day 97 - Zorbing!!

Chaggie today were going Zorbing!

Zorbing, in the wise words of Wikipeida: Zorbing (globe-riding, sphereing, orbing) is the recreation of rolling downhill in an orb, generally made of transparent plastic. Zorbing is generally performed on a gentle slope but can also be done on a level surface, permitting more rider control. Ironically, Zorbing was invented in, you guessed it, Rotorua! We just had to do it here!

There are two types of Zorbing, the first is where you a strapped inside the Zorb and you are pushed down the hill and roll up side-down and so on, The other is having the Zorb containing some water, with you, not strapped in, inside it, falling all over the place! Chaggie took the option of the water Zorb as it just looked insane! We also brought Raymond with us and he decided to also do the water Zorb but he did it alone.

It was pretty damn awesome to be honest with you! Staggie managed to elbow Chino in the face on the way down.. a total mistake.. honest! (cunning). We will definitely be doing it in England as Chino got it for Staggie's birthday last year!

After Zorbing Chaggie headed back to Jan's for a chilled out afternoon. Staggie's grandparents (the English side this time) were out in NZ for a few weeks and were arriving in Rotorua this evening, so Jan suggested we invited them round for a BBQ. It was a lovely evening and good for Staggie to see his grandparents, Chino is slowly meeting literally Staggie's whole family, not just the Kiwi side.. he should really be privileged and honoured.

Chaggie dropped Staggie's grandparents back at their hotel as they are in Rotorua for a few more days before heading back to England on the 24th.
We came back to Jan's and decided we needed to completely update the blog.. so here we are, finally up to date, WOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!

Chaggie x

Day 96 - Skyline Rotorua followed by Rugby League

Chaggie had a late-ish start today but we were off to the Skyline Rotorua. If you remember we did the same kind of thing in Queenstown, with the gondola ride up to the top of a hill with a restaurant at the top then Luge rides down the hill. Well this is exactly the same but apparently better!

We headed up there and got ourselves 5 luge rides. The luge was supposed to be better than Queenstown and my word it was! Instead of just two tracks in Queenstown, this one had five! The first track was noticeably longer than Queenstown's but it was very tame so we decided to step it up a gear!

The intermediate track was more exciting but we had our eyes set on the advanced track and it was absolutely insane! Both Chino and Staggie managed to lift off the ground on a few occasions as the speed was ridiculous and also we managed to get the kart on two wheels.. we are mental.

We had lunch up there before heading back to Jan's then heading off to the Rugby. It seemed only fair that we saw some rugby whilst here after seeing Football and Cricket in Australia. The game was a pre-season fixture between the only NZ team in the Aussie Premiership (Vodafone Warriors) against Aussie side, Paramata Eels. The game was quick and intense and the Warriors ran out easy 24-4 winners in a one sided game in the Rotorua sun. Superb. Chino was happy.

We headed back to Jan's for a wonderful curry before chilling out in front of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with other great TV!

Chaggie x

Day 95 - Hell's Gate.. literally.

In the morning we contacted our Canadian mate Raymond to organise meeting him and going to the 'Burried Village' in Rotorua that was literally buried after the 1886 volcano eruption.

What we were not aware of, was that there isn't just one active volcano dominating the city, nor is there two, but three volcano's, all connected together. It was these three volcanoes that erupted on that fateful night in 1886. The white hot ash covered the village and probably about 2 meters fell over the village.. just huge amounts.

After learning a lot about the destruction a volcano can cause, we headed off (minus Raymond) to a place called Hell's Gate. This was another Geo-thermal restoration area but for one the name is awesome (there is a reason for it) and you can also bathe in Sulphur and Mud pools - quality!
The reason for calling this special place Hell's Gate, is that the earths crust is an awful lot thinner than any other normal part on the planet. This specific area within a few kilometers distance, has a 'Magma spike' (pretty damn not, we are talking thousands of degrees.. I think) is literally 2.5km below where we were standing.. hence the hot pools and hot lakes.

If that made no sense, which is likely, I shall let Wikipedia explain better:
"Hell's Gate", is Rotorua's most active geothermal area on state highway 30, between Lake Rotorua and Lake Rotoiti in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It includes many geothermal features including steaming lakes, mudpools, fumaroles, a mud volcano and Kakahi, the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere.

Pretty crazy stuff hey!?

After that Chaggie went for a bathe in a Sulphur pool which was over 40 degrees Celsius.. pretty hot! We were there for a good 20 minutes which was more than enough, it was way too hot for us Pommy's!



We then headed back to Jan's, stopping off to get some food from the local shopping centre as we were cooking for her this evening!
Yet another wonderful cooking performance from Staggie which finished off the day nicely!

Chaggie x

Day 94 - Rotorua, Maori Capital Of The World.. and so many Volcanoes!

After just about managing to wake up for the 10am checkout of Base Taupo, Chaggie, plus our Canadian friend, Raymond who we had met in Queenstown, headed off for Rotorua, the Maori capital of the world.

The first thing that hit us (although we had already been told) was the extremely strong smell of Sulphur that is evident in Rotorua. This is obviously due to the volcanic activity that happens around here but it was rather strong! Almost as if someone had seriously bad toilet issues.
We dropped Raymond at his hostel before arriving at Staggie's Dad's old best mates widow's house (Jan). Jan was extremely helpful as she gave us some leaflets with information on what things are available to do in and around Rotorua.

Chaggie decided to go to a Geo-thermal Restoration area which we could walk around. There they had boiling hot mud pools and a Geyser, which every hour or so, shoots water 15 meters up into the air! This is when it hit us how extraordinary this part of the world is. We spent a few hours walking around, being amazed by the volcanic activity that was going on around us. There was also some Maori culture and arts on show, so we also had a good look around that.

We headed back to Jan's for a roast dinner! Roast lamb to be precise.. magnificent!!
After stuffing our faces, we chilled out in front of the telly, before hitting the sack!

Chaggie x

Day 93 - 'Rock 'N' Ropes' and a night out in Taupo

Chino got up at 08:30 this morning in order to get in contact with his Dad before our trip to 'Rock 'N' Ropes'. He got upstairs to find Staggie still in bed at 09:30, we needed to leave by 10:00 so it was a rush to get ready. Staggie got some breakfast beforehand, we got to 'Rock 'N' Ropes', a company based just outside of Taupo at 10:30. Here was a big adventure playground for Adults pretty much, lots of balancing, jumping, swinging, climbing from pretty high up. Was pretty cool and cheap too.

Didn't look much from ground level but once up there you couldn't help your legs shaking. We were harnessed in, just one bloke at ground level had us covered if we fell (so he said but we really didn't believe him due to his lack of attention in what we were doing). He was a good lad though, a Kiwi who told us it was his second day on the job, good banter, we hoped. First of all it started with a couple of easy tracks holding ropes to get across from one side to the other. The next two challenges were balancing challenges where our arms had to be held out to our sides. The next two were wicked, the first was having to climb up onto the top of a pole that was shaking pretty bad, pretty thin too. Once at the top, without holding onto our ropes we had to jump and catch onto a bar. Chino caught on but slid off whilst Staggie caught on and held successfully. On both occasions the Kiwi guide dropped us surprisingly a good few metres closer to the ground, our reactions were pretty hilarious.

The last challenge was a swing, one very high up but getting you pretty close to the ground. Same fear as the bungy jump once your up the top. Both Chino and Staggie did this, it was Staggie's claim to being extreme.

We got back at 12:00 and got a Pizza Hut for lunch. Later on this afternoon we met up with Raymond again, bought some booze and prepared for a night out in Taupo. Pre-drinking was a good session, after 12 ciders each and a lot of 'Black Books' episodes as well as 'Family Guy - Something Something Dark Side' we were in the mood for a night out at 23:00. The night gave different opinions, was a pretty crap one but a bloody good one at the same time. Boom.

Chaggie x