Part 4: The Road trip (Part 2)

On the way to Taupo we stopped at the Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland and spent just over an hour walking around the park, the first thing we did was take a seat at the front of an amphitheatre full of excited tourists waiting to see the parks geyser erupt, it started slowly, bubbling and trickling before suddenly spurting powerfully upwards in quite a spectacular fashion, after taking plenty of photos of the views and many wonders within the park we continued on to Taupo.

The next day was one which we had both looked forward to very much as we were both due to do a skydive, it would be my second and Amy’s third. We were amazed at how long they spent trying to sell us extras and then no time at all talking about the safety aspects or techniques involved in what were about to do, we literally signed some forms, decided what altitude we wanted to jump from (12000ft or 15000ft) put our suits and straps on and got straight onto the plane. During the climb up to 15000ft Amy made the mistake of telling the tandem instructor she was strapped to that this would be her third skydive, he then got quite excited and decided that they would spin, back flip and do some tracking during freefall. Tracking, Amy informed me, is when you plummet towards the earth head first at high speed by getting into a certain position with your arms to your sides, the combination of all of these techniques left her feeling a little queasy but with no regrets.

I was the last to jump, the feeling of freefall was just as exilherating as it had been the first time I did it, once the chute was open I had the opportunity to see the view of the enormous Lake Taupo, the lake is actually a crater filled with water and was formed by a volcanic eruption a long time ago. As we floated towards the ground my instructor gave me control of the parachute, he asked me to pull hard to the right, I did as he asked and we swung out to an angle and spun around and around, we did the same in the opposite direction and then, in keeping with the typical laid back kiwi attitude he said ‘See that building over there bro?’ pointing out the base which we had taken off from, ‘Take us home, any way you want!’ he then gave me full control, I guided us in the general direction of the base and once we were floating directly over it I pulled hard on the controls to turn around and set us up for the landing, the opportunity to do this made the experience all the more special and I felt the same as I did after my rafting experience, I wanted to go straight back up and do it again and I was sure it would not be the last time I would jump out of a plane.

Next on our itinerary was Napier, a town which was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1931 and was subsequently rebuilt during the art deco era. While we were there we saw our first kiwis at the aquariums kiwi house and later on walked down to a stage by the beach where there was a man preaching but not a single person around to hear what he had to say, except me and Amy. Later in the day a jazz band took to the stage, I’ve never heard such a cacophony in my life, I thought perhaps they were trying to be experimental but no, they were actually just the worst band in the world. After fleeing from the jazz we found another lone star restaurant and once again ate until we could eat no more and were entertained by a bizarre dancing hippy outside who seemed to have a fixation with rope.

In the morning it was time for one of the longest drives of the trip which would take us to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. A couple of days prior to this I had spoken to a contact of ours ‘Peter Brown’ recommended by my sister Heather, we emailed him asking for advice about what to see and do in Wellington and got more than we bargained when he replied with an offer of a place to stay for the night which we gratefully accepted. With some difficulty we had already booked one night in Wellington so Peters offer allowed us to spend two nights there, we had been wondering why it was so difficult to find somewhere to stay and were duly informed that it was because the rugby sevens were on, being a football fan, this meant nothing to me. Upon arrival in Wellington we discovered that the sevens tournament is a big deal and that almost every single person attending the matches dresses up in outlandish fancy dress costumes, we saw people dressed as teenage mutant ninja turtles, danger mouse, men dressed as women, Mario & Luigi, Scrabble letters spelling ‘Kiwis’, lions, Susan Boyle, Superheroes, Avatar characters, Elvis and many more, it was the perfect time to visit the city as the atmosphere was amazing and the weather couldn’t have been better. The first thing we did in the city was visit Wellington zoo and we arrived just in time to see Tahi, a kiwi who had got his foot caught in a trap and had to have his leg amputated, he has been living at the zoo ever since and is brought out once a day. The rest of the zoo was great and really quiet as it was a week day, Amy was happy that she got to see some monkey sex and I was happy to see some red pandas. Later that day after checking in at the hostel we rode the cable car to the picturesque botanical gardens.

On our second day in the capital we visited the famous Te Papa museum, home of the ‘colossal squid’ and many other amazing things. We went into an earthquake simulator (too tame I thought), the ‘High ride’ a movie that you watched while sitting in moving hydraulic seats which jerked around in time with what was happening on the screen (rougher than I expected, but fun), walked through a mock up of a glow worm cave and a ‘bush walk’, we were both really impressed and spent a lot of time in there looking at the various exhibits. In the evening we made our way to Peter Browns house and met him and his lovely wife Carol for the first time, they looked after us really well, gave us lots of advice about the city and country and lots of lovely food, beer and wine. Peter had emigrated to New Zealand in the 1970’s and Carol is Wellington born and bred so they were both very knowledgeable about the area, the next morning Peter and Carol took us out for a scenic tour of the city after which we thanked them for all their help and hospitality and set off for our next destination the Tongariro national park, on the way there we found the worlds largest model carrot, it really was quite impressive.

We didn’t do any sight seeing in the national park area as it was getting late when we arrived, it was just somewhere to stop and break up the drive a bit, everyone that we encountered was there for one thing, hiking, not our cup of tea…

Our next destination was Waitomo, we were heading there for one thing only, ‘Black water rafting’ at the glow worm cave. For those not familiar with the concept, ‘Black water rafting’ involves descending underground into a cave while using a giant tyre inner tube to float through some of the deeper water, it also involves jumping off of the occasional waterfall which is a lot of fun. After getting our wetsuits, boots and helmets on and practicing some important techniques such as paddling, the waterfall jump and the eel which involves everybody holding onto each other to form a chain so you don’t get lost in the darkness, we climbed down into the cave. Some of the rocks were wet and covered in moss and you had to be very careful not to slip and fall, we were soon floating through the caves stream and had left the daylight behind, the only light available now was from the torches mounted to our helmets and the glow worms themselves. We found a suitable place to stop and all turned off our lights, as we looked up at the cave ceiling in the pitch black darkness the glow worms were clearly visible, it was a beautiful sight, very much like a star filled sky. We did this at various points and each time the guides gave us all sorts of facts about the glow worms and their home accompanied by oohs and aahs from our group, on one of these occasions one of the guides produced a bucket of what she explained were chocolate covered crickets and then picked on an innocent member of our group and told him he had to eat it, as we stared expectantly he psyched himself up and bit its head clean off only to discover that it was actually a Cadburys chocolate fish, a popular kiwi treat, the rest of them were distributed and quickly gobbled down and we floated onwards in high spirits.

Towards the end of the trip we were all instructed to turn our lights off one more and find our way out of the cave by following the trail of glow worms with minimal help from the guides, we made it out safely but only just as right near the end Amy nearly got her head taken off by a stalagmite as she floated backwards. After a hot shower and a free bagel and mug of soup we were ready to head to Otorohanga where we stayed in a holiday park for the night, we had a great time staying there, I was particularly pleased to find that they had a gym and then later to discover the ‘Jumping pillow’ an enormous trampoline type platform which was extremely bouncy, we must have jumped on the damn thing for at least an hour and it was not the first time during the trip that we felt like big kids as we larked around with not a care in the world.

Sadly, the next day it was time to drive back to Beach Haven to drop the car off as Phil and Fees friends were visiting from the UK and needed the car for a few weeks, we took a detour on the way to visit something that is unknown by most tourists and as we discovered most kiwis too, ‘The toothbrush fence’. I don’t know why or how it started, the whole thing really is quite a mystery, it was a fence a few 100 metres long with many toothbrushes hanging from it, donated by passers by, at least a thousand toothbrushes of all shapes and colours, it was quite a site to behold and it was in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, the only sign of life was a lonely bearded goat who watched over us as Amy laid her toothbrush to rest.

And that is how our first big road trip came to an end, however it would not be long at all until we were off on another big adventure but that’s a story for another blog.