DAY ONE
Having made it to the Coromandel area of the North Island,
our next destination to visit was Cathedral Cove. It was a cove in which you
had to go through a tunnel in order to get to it.
You had to watch out though as these signs were about!!
When we got there we had to walk for 45 minutes to reach
Cathedral Cove, it was a lovely walk giving us little snippets of the view
between the trees. It was well worth the walk!
Our next stop was Hot Water Beach where it was easy to find
the area on the beach we had to be, due to lots of people getting to work
already! We had hired out some spades ideal for the beach and these were well
worth it...not that we carry spades around in our backpacks! It took abit of
adventuring, digging a few holes on the beach, and patience however we found a
steaming hot jacuzzi eventually!
There was alot of warnings for the temperature and rightly
so!
It was great fun! J
Using the sat nav, we made our way to our campsite and got settled for the night. Nat must have been feeling ill due to her
actually doing her diary hehe!
DAY TWO
In the morning we adventured the campsite’s facilities
including the three hot pools available! Nat got dramatic and decided to do the
‘kicking-water’ shot...
Then dad was annoyed and tried to push her in! Haha!!
Then he was eyeing pushing me in...
We then hit the road on our way to Rotorua, the home of the
natural thermal pools. Stopping off for diesel on the way, it didn’t take too
long to get there. The views were so lovely it made the journey go extra fast!
On the way there we slowly started seeing more and more smoky areas and pools
that weren’t at all tempting to jump into! Nature at its best! When we arrived
we went straight to the thermal pools to have a look around J
We then spotted a lovely little pool that you could go in, obviously the other ones you can’t! This was lovely and warm and we enjoyed that for a while before hitting the market we’d seen nearby.
We got to the market which, after asking, was on every week. It had fruit and vegetable, hot food stalls, all you can think of. After much deliberation we decided on a mince pancake, cheap and ultra delicious.
From here we took a look around Rotorua and the town centre.
Visiting the i-site of course for local knowledge. They also had wifi so we
took our chance and jumped on the internet. After here, we got back to the
campervan and decided we needed to go shopping. Countdown it was again!
The only thing was, why does the chocolate have to be so
cheap!! I was not pleased.
We got to the campsite for tonight and settled the bill. We
then fancied a wander around the grounds. I got excited due to finding a
playground, such a child!, but don’t worry Mum I got you involved!
It soon got dark and we headed back for dinner and the new
game to the batch, scrabble! Bloody hard! Haha.
It was all going so well until Nat pulled ‘equipped’ out of the
bag giving her 38 points, allowing her to win! She was extremely pleased about
this...
We also played a game called ‘Cheat’ and due to Nat not
winning that she seems to magically forget we played that! Ha!
DAY THREE
Today we were heading south to visit Wai-O-Tapu, which is
south of Rotorua. We got there but due to there being a giant park with loads
of thermal pools that you could visit for free, like others we chose this
option. Free is always good J
After this we went even more south down to Taupo. On the way
we stopped at a picnic area and set up shop, making ourselves a sandwich and
enjoyed that alot. What I do like though is the angle Nat’s chosen to take this
picture with, very nice J
Also there was a couple having a major photoshoot, tripod and everything! Bless
them, we saw them giving their best smiles!
As we literally entered Taupo we noticed a sign saying Huka
Fall Jet, we changed our direction straight away. We had planned to do this so
we paid, got ready and off we went 5 minutes later.
It did 360 degree turns really fast, making you slide left and right, and we all absolutely loved it!
After the adrenaline had been experienced, we got to the
i-Site Visitor Centre in Taupo. I decided to ENQUIRE, notice the word ENQUIRE
about the possibility of skydiving there and 10 minutes later the worst had
happened......I’d kind of booked a 15000 ft skydive for the following morning!!
Crazy person. No one else fancied it but I just thought, ‘why not?!’. Safe to
say I woke up a few times the night.
After this we ventured into the local park where they had a
light festival there so there was lots of photo opportunities to be taken.
I then found a spider...
We got to our campsite and got ready for a unsettled night
of nerves.
DAY FOUR
Today was the day, skydive day, the time I’d throw myself
out of a plane from 15,000ft in the air. I woke up exactly 4 times, and had no
appetite at all at breakfast time. I forced myself to eat some toast and we got
ready to head to the airport. Firstly though, we had to go to the i-Site to
confirm the weather in order to go ahead to the airfield. There was not one
cloud in the sky, completely blue sky, absolutely perfect day. As expected the
I-Site gave the go ahead and we were off to the airport. Blimey it was
happening!
We arrived at Taupo Tandem Skydiving and were all ready to
go. I had heard Mum say a couple times how she was thinking about it but she
always ended the conversation with the word no. Hmm...
I got ready briefed, signed my life away and headed to the
clouds.
Then it happened, I jumped with Ian who had 8500 skydives
under his belt, and I absolutely loved it!
And then something happened, we were in reception and Mum
said, ‘I’ll do it!’. She had asked whether there was space for rest of the day,
much to her surprise and disappointment I think haha, he said, ‘No plenty of
space!’. So with that within 5 minutes
Mum was all kitted up and on her way up to 15,000 ft. Such a cool Mum! J
We were all so proud and couldn’t stop talking about the
day!
It was lunchtime now...skydiving makes you hungry!
It was lunchtime now...skydiving makes you hungry!
We stopped at a lovely picnic area which had a fantastic
view of Lake Taupo. Before our sandwich and crisps (Nat hehe) we did some solo
jumps!
After a delicious lunch and taking in the fab view we headed back to Huka Falls! Not for another jet boat ride, but for a look at the viewpoint from above the water. Highly recommended!
We got to the bridge and saw the falls. It was so powerful
and make such a monstrous noise. We had learnt on our jet ride from the driver,
no he didn’t demonstrate, but as the water dropped down, the current actually
go backwards meaning things (and people) can literally get stuck in that
pocket! Really scary and on the signs it did say people had tried to swim down
it and obviously this was a big mistake for them sadly.
We went back to the i-Site to tell the woman who’d served us, Jane, all about the skydives. She was very proud and so pleased Mum did it J
We went back to the i-Site to tell the woman who’d served us, Jane, all about the skydives. She was very proud and so pleased Mum did it J
On the night we were registered what had happened earlier,
looking at the pictures and videos. And yes I slept soooo well, not sure why!
This morning was Skype time. We had wifi at our campsite and
took full advantage. We skyped 5 people in total, was so lovely to catch up as
wifi whilst travelling New Zealand is on an as-and-when basis so every chance
you get. We decided we needed to fill our water station up this morning before
leaving the campsite so did that job!
On our way out of Taupo we stopped off at a bridge where
they do bungy jumps. Loved the skydive but wouldn’t fancy doing a bungee,
potentially, possibly, we’ll see...
Although we did enjoy other people experience of bungee
jumping.
On our journey to Napier we stopped a scenic lookout for lunch, it was beautiful. Just us four, sat down for lunch just looking at a giant waterfall in all its glory. Was nice until Nat took all the crisps!! Haha.
We were then on the road again towards Napier! We had sufficient diesel, this was a good job due to their not being a petrol station for 120kms!
We made it thankfully!
Our first stop was Bluff Hill Lookout which would give us a
lovely view of the city. It was quite the adventure though due to our sat nav
directing us up an extremely steep and windy road. Again, we made it though.
However, even before we came across this, we took the wrong road therefore we
passed the port 3 times so we know that port very well!
The view was lovely from the top, it was coming to sunset and it was interesting as you could see into the port and also see all the machines transporting the cargo onto the ferry. The sunset was very lovely though J
On the way to the campsite, again!, we caught sight of a sign saying ‘Coronation St’. As Mum and Nat are big fans we pulled over and took some piccies!
We then had 2 minute noodles and a pie in which we’d bought previously today.
We were really getting into ‘campervan life’, Nat constructing her bed every night (her slats!), me climbing a ladder to get up to my bed and mum and dad figuring out which side is best for them to sleep on. It’s a soap opera in itself! It’s great.
DAY SIX
Today was eventful, mainly due to a certain person not
being able to park properly in a petrol station. Natalie... Whilst filling up
we almost had to stretch the whole wire in order to reach the diesel vent. It was
extremely funny though. But before that we all got sorted and made a visit to
the Napier i-Site Visitor Centre. On the way there was a lovely little park
area where we had a nice look around and I was also wearing my skydive top
today.
We grabbed some lunch, naughty fish and chips, only because it was so cheap and then headed to the petrol station. Yes, the petrol station. After 5/10 minutes of 3 point turns, strangely angled steering and directions being thrown everywhere, we managed to fill with diesel. No Nat did well as it was very tight for such a big motorhome but was still really funny and we all laughed about it.
We had been delayed due to us having to go to a garage to fix our sat nav. It was turning off intermittently and so we rung Maui and sorted out a new sat nav for us. Shame about the hot water but that’s a whole other story.
Mum took to the wheel after and we made our way down to Wellington, she was
doing extremely well. As we got closer, I took control due to the roads turning
to motorway's and Mum categorically said no to motorways bless her! J
It was quite the drive but we did well and got to our
campsite when it was dark. We set up for the night, gas on, stove on, kettle
on, all go!
Then it was domino time! There was alot of cheating going
on!
DAY SEVEN
This morning we noticed that the motor inn we were staying
at had Shetland ponies and donkeys there! Right next to the powered site area, in
fact. Nat called the middle one Lady Gaga, for obvious reasons and they really
enjoyed a good fuss and grass!
This is after of course, Nat got up!
Dining room and bedroom in one!
After we were all ready to go and had said bye to the
animals we headed into the main town Wellington for...yes you guessed it,
i-Site! We were told we could see seals at the Owhira Bay, it was over an hours
walk one way to get to the seal colony but we were well up for the walk. It was
not possible to drive on, the path following the coastline, due to only 4x4’s
being suitable. We parked at the closest car park and headed on our way!
It was such a lovely walk, it took about an hour and a
quarter but was so lovely it flew by!
.JPG)
We had the ferry at 3pm so we were pushing it, but we just
made it to the seal colony and was well worth it! There was alot of seals!
Possibly 20-30 seals easily.
On our way back to the car park we were watching the time as
it was pushing on. I decided to go ahead and bring the campervan closer to the
entry gate of the inaccessible road.
.JPG)
It was then ferry time. We were heading over to Picton which
would 3 hours so we were to get there at 6.10pm. We got there in plenty of time
and waited in our lane as instructed. The only thing was that I was in Lane 2,
so I had Lane 1 & 3 beside me. The thing was that beside me I was told by
Nat was an Audi and a Bentley! Ideal. They were the most tightest lanes and it
was all fine but I was mighty close to that wing mirror!
After getting a few evils from my left and right, we made it
onto the ferry J
We grabbed a seat and decided to grab a muffin, they were very nice and well
needed. Mum had an experience due to being asked to demonstrate use and
function of the life jacket during the ferry’s weekly compulsory drill. Very
well demonstrated J
Other than that we got on with our diaries, chatting and laughing away as
usual!
When we got in we headed straight to the campsite. Mum and I were wearing our matching skydiving tops! Dashing!
We are doing so many amazing things everyday it is going so
fast, too fast!, but absolutely loved this week.
The Week Three blog post will be up asap, obviously you can
tell there is alot to write about and alot of pictures so hope you stick around
and see you on the next one ! J
Rach xx
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