| Diary 16 |
| 6th Nov 2005 Left the Banks Peninsula after a relaxing few days in the same place and drove Arthur's Pass and Lewis Pass back to Hanmer Springs. Another scenic drive, but soilt a bit by the weather - it changes so much here!! Went out for dinner in Hanmer Springs as we haven't done so for ages - roast lamb... mmmmmmmm!!! 7th Nov 2005 Drove to Kaikoura and managed to get on the whale watching trip straight away. Went over 12 nautical miles out to sea on a catamaran until we got to the whales. We saw 6 or 7 - they're huge!!! Four of them dived so we saw the famous tail in the air. They were giant sperm whales - the 4th biggest whale in the world and the biggest toothed whale. They eat up to a tonne a day!!! Pretty amazing experience (another one!!!!). 8th Nov 2005 Drove onto Picton (final destination on the South Island) and a found a really nice campsite. We worked out what we wanted to do over the next couple of days and booked everything and the ferry back to the North Island for Friday. Then relaxed in the sun by the tent in the afternoon. After diner we walkedout to Kakira Point - looking over the Sounds and there were loads of sailing boats going past - obviously something going on!!! 9th Nov 2005 Terry had acupuncture on his shoulder (the old rugby wound playing up again) - he who doesn't like needles feeling proud of himself!! We then walked into Picton and out on the Snout Track - a bit of land jutting out into the Queen Charlotte Sound. The war wounds from the Routeburn came back to haunt us though - knees giving in and Terry's shoudler - so having booked water taxis for tomorrow so we could walk the last part of the Queen Charlotte Track we had to cancel them - luckily getting a full refund. Spent the afternoon pottering around in Picton and relaxing at the campsite again - so hot and sunny here!! After dinner (using the camp bbq) we drove out along Queen Charlotte Drive and followed where the track would have gone (sort of) as far as Mistletoe Bay - so peaceful - the people that live around there are so lucky!! 10th Nov 2005 Well..... the official oaf broke the tent last night - one of the poles snapped (with only a week to go). So spent the morning repairing it while I got all the washing done and dried in this lovely weather. Just stayed at the campsite (with a couple of trips into Picton) - yet another hot and sunny day!! Another bbq in the evening with a couple of bottles of wine and we sat in the sun until it went down!!! 11th Nov 2005 Got up and packed everything away properly into the rucksacks and dropped the car off in Picton. Another 3 hour ferry trip over to Wellington. Picked up a new car there (manual this time, with lovely crocheted covers on the seats!!!), and drove over 400 km to a campsite near the start of the Tongariro Crossing with views of all three volcanoes. 12th Nov 2005 Got up at 5.30am (aarrrhhhhh) and our bus got us to the start of the track about 7am. Quite an easy walk - 16km. Spectacular views from the craters of the Tongariro volcano and the red crater had impressive colouring mixed with splashes of sulpher. The Emerald Lakes also at the top were just that - gorgeous, glistening in the sun. Made it back down before the rain started, but had to wait for our bus back to the campsite and it started drizzling on the way back. Quickly got the tent down and showered and then drove an hour to Taupo - back to try to be more successful in doing the sky dive - but the weather doesn't look hopefull at the moment. Stayed in the free campsite again. Can tell we're back in the North Island again with showers on and off all the time!!! 13th Nov 2005 Woke up to blue skies, but it didn't last long! Terry watched the Ireland v All Blacks game while I used the internet and then we went to the sky dive centre to find out they weren't jumping because the weather had got so bad! So we booked in again for tomorrow and drove to Rotorua again. In the evening we went to a Hangi. We had a meal cooked in the traditional Mauri way - in pits with hot stones - delicious and then watched a 'concert' where they wore traditional costumes and sang and danced. The concert was good fun and we both ended up on the stage. I had to use Poi's, which are like balls on string that you spin round and catch - easy in slow motion but went wrong when we tried to do it to the music!! And Terry did the Haka - hillarious!! 14th Nov 2005 Drove back to Taupo for the sky dive, but surprise surprise the weather was too bad - starting to think it's an omen!!! Stayed at the free campsite again, trying to dodge the rain. 15th Nov 2005 Blue skies - no cloud at all... and they're jumping!! Having said I wouldn't do it because of the bungy experience they managed to change my mind and also persuaded to us to jump from 15000 feet rather than 12000. There was no time to think about it - we signed, put a jump suit on, watched a safety video while they fitted the harnesses and then we were squashed in the plane - all in a matter of 5 minutes!! Five of us jumped - Terry first and me second from last........... AWESOME!! We tumbled out of the plane and although there was a feeling of your stomach being left behind it was nowhere near as bad as the bungy! It was freezing cold at first - should have put gloves on! It all happened so quickly, but the views were amazing. We were spinning round so fast! After a minute of freefall the parachute went up and my guide let me steer the parachute putting us another spin. |