Hot Springs, Skydiving, and Fishing in Taupo, NZ; 4-11-2010

Once we arrived in Taupo we checked out a waterfall called Huka Falls and then headed off to a natural hot spring nearby. Hot water flows from an underground geo-thermal point and into the Waikato River (the longest river in NZ). Our Kiwi group sat in the boiling hot water for a bit and every so often would drift over towards the river and into cooler water. You know when you’re a little kid and jump from the hot tub to the freezing pool and then back again? Well, it was just like that… except all within a few inches.

That night (the night before my birthday- April 11) we all got together in a BASE hostel room, put on plastic Burker King-like crowns and drank wine and tequila. The bartender in the bar downstairs, ELEMENT, gave me a complimentary birthday shot and the receptionist who checked me in handed me a few free drink cards. I already knew it was going to be a good night…and it was.

I had planned my NZ trip so that I would be skydiving on my birthday. The skies were perfectly blue and clear as I thought to myself, “it’s a perfect day to jump out of a plane”. When I was 18, I went skydiving in Miami, 13,500 feet where I had a view of the whole peninsula of Florida, the bay and the Florida Keys… it was amazing! This time, I’d be jumping out of a plane at 15.000 feet with views of the Tongariro National Park, Mount Ngauruhoe (“Mount Doom” in ‘Lord of the Rings’), and Lake Taupo (the largest lake in NZ, larger than Singapore!). My friends Kate and Serena, both English and from the KIWI bus, were jumping on the same day as me and we’d all be in the same tiny plane together.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as our little plane soared higher and higher into the sky. Amos, my tandem jumper guide, was strapped onto my back and I could feel him continuously tightening the bits and pieces that bonded us together.

Kate jumped out of the plane first at 12,000 feet and disappeared so fast! It was like watching a bowling ball being tossed out of a skyscraper’s window. I was next to jump at 15,000 feet and as our plane continued to ascend, Amos placed an oxygen mask on my face to help me breath in the altitude we were at.

As soon as 15,000 feet registered on Amos’ altimeter, we scooted towards the open door of the plane and I felt the strong wind hit my body. I tilted my head back against Amos’ chest and before I knew it we rocked forward and were spilling out of the plane, somersaulting and flipping through the air, freefalling and weightless. We leveled our bodies flat and sprawled out like and up-side-down snow angels and continued to fall through the air. The swooshing sound of the wind blasting by at 100 mph is unlike anything else and is spectacular.

It’s hard to explain the feeling while skydiving. But it’s anything but scary. It’s the most blissful and exciting and happy feeling I’ve ever felt. Although I was falling thousands of feet through the air; to me, it didn’t seem like I was falling at all. The views of the land below remain the same the entire way and I had a birds-eye view of volcanoes, mountains, lakes and so much more.

There are many people out there who think skydiving is crazy and terrifying. But, I’m here to say that it’s not scary and it’s the best adventurous thing I’ve ever done. On top of that, it gives you the greatest adrenaline high possible! Everyone should try it at least once in their lives.

After we free-fell for thousands of feet, Amos pulled the chute and we skyrocketed up in the air. Our parachute filled with air and for the next seven minutes we floated down as slowly and delicately as a feather. To go from sound-blasting speed to gentle drifting is another reason why I like skydiving so much. When you’re floating down and still that high in the air, it really does feel like you’re a bird who can see the whole world.

At this point on my NZ trip I had established a little clan… a family of friends I would be spending the next several weeks with. Kate and Sam were a young couple from England, along with Aaron (Sam’s friend from back home), and Serena and Steward (friends who knew each other from home in England). Each had their own quirky personalities, but somehow together, we all worked.

The following day in Taupo we all decided to go fishing on the enormous lake. We hired a fishing charter for the day and set off to do some deep-lake fishing. The captain and his wife played ‘King Of Leon’ all day and we caught a few trout to cook for dinner.

Just like that, we were ready to say good bye to Taupo and head to River Valley.

Kiwi Experience, Mercury Bay, Louging in Rotorua, and Black Water Rafting in Waitomo 4-8-10

I hopped on the neon green Kiwi bus and joined 50 other backpackers fresh to NZ. Everyone was between 18-25 years old and mostly just starting out KE. Our driver, Rich (yes, a very common name apparently), handed out our name cards randomly and had our packed bus of people hunt down our correct name card while the bus was moving and swerving about. It was a good way to meet people.

We stopped at the top of Mt. Eden for a 360 degree view of Auckland and then hit the road heading south to the Coromandel Penisula. We drove to Cathedral Cove first and hiked 45 minutes down to an enclosed white sand beach.  It was sunny and windy so we had our jackets on while at the beach; something I’m not used to. Another two hours on the road and we arrived in Mercury Bay (Whitianga).  We stayed at turtle cove for the night and had a quiet evening since we would be setting off bright and early in the morning.

 

Our first stop-off was Kopu Ranges for lunch and then the Karangahake Scenic Reserve where we went on an hour walk across bridges, through tunnels, and around mountain ledges. Back on the bus again before stopping at Paeroa, “world famous” in NZ because they originally made the L&P drink (lemon and Paeroa spring water mixed together and carbonated). Crazy stuff (not really).

We checked into a BASE hostel in Rotorua and a group of about 15 of us headed off to do some “luging”. Luging consists of sitting in a little cart that has a hand brake and racing downhill against other lugers on a winding, fast-paced track. After each run, a ski-lift took us back up to the top so we could race again.

We would all line up before racing down the track. Rich, our driver, claimed that he has never lost before and it became an instant challenge for me to beat him. The first two runs I succeeded, but on the third run there were some complication. I passed three other lugers and Rich was in the lead with a Kiwi backpacker, Stew, behind him. The three of us were almost bumper to bumper, rocketing down this hill with sharp turns at 30mph. None of us were using our brakes and on each sharp turn I could see Rich and Stew sticking their legs out to balance their weight and turn faster. I saw a very sharp turn coming up ahead and was determined to pass, so I didn’t use my brakes. The left side of my cart hit the outside of the turn and I was thrown out of my seat and rolled down the hill. Back on my feet, I ran over to my little cart.

No major injuries, just some dirt on my jeans, and I was ready to continue racing. Turns out, at the next turn, Stew flew down the hill, and Rich wound up in 1^st place with Will behind him. Even though by the third run, most of us had fallen off at least once and were a bit scratched up and dirty, we had the times of our lives! I would luge any day!

We headed back to the hostel and changed before catching a ride with Tamaki Tours. We were taken to a traditional Maori (the indigenous people of NZ) village from the 1600’s. Each tribe member was dressed in warrior attire and was covered in tattoos with tribal war paint on their faces. We watched a Poi dance, a Maori challenge (to determine if we would be allowed into their village for the evening), a weaponry display (how they would hunt and battle), and the haka. Afterwards we had a feast of food that was all steamed underground on hot rocks for hours before we could devour it.

In the morning we left Rotorua and headed off towards Waitomo. On the way we stopped at a sheep farm, the Agrodome, and watched a sheep getting sheared at a farm show. I missed the bus by litterarly 1 minute, and Rich left without me. A taxi driver brought me to the Agrodome before Rich got there and when Rich noticed it was me he left behind, he apologized to me a few times and promised to buy me drinks. It was alright. During the show I was called up on stage to see whose goat could drink milk from a bottle the fastest. My goat was very hungry and I won two arms-full of wool. Super.

We were cruising back on the bus when we heard a loud noise hit the back tire. For the next half mile, something was wrong. We pulled over and Rich tried to fix the problem. A scrap of metal had lodged itself between the tire and tire well and was scraping off the tread on our back tire. We drove to the closest town and while the bus’ tire was fixed, our Kiwi group laid on the grass, ate 50 cent ice cream cones from McDonalds, and Aaron and I drank some ice cold Guinness’s. A perfect afternoon.

When our tire was fixed we jumped back on the bus and made our way to Waitomo. This city is world renown for their vast limestone caves which attracts thousands of thrill seekers a year to experience black water rafting. I booked it and in the morning I would be black water rafting for the first time.

The name is a bit misleading, because there are no rapids or large waterways to raft or kayak down (like one would think with “rafting”). What black water rafting is, is exploring underground caves that have water in them. There is absolutely no light (except for glowworms on the ceiling), so we were wearing head lamps and were carrying inner-tubes to float on while underground.

It was incredible! For a few hours we were exploring the inside of caverns. The water was the coldest I’ve ever felt in my life, even though we were all wearing two wool sweaters under 10mm wet suits, wet suit booties, and rain boots. We jumped off ledges and waterfalls onto our inner tubes, saw stalactites and stalagmites; and when we turned off our torches at certain points, could see thousands of glowworms dotted along the ceiling. Such a great experience!

We changed out of our wet suits, showered off in hot water, changed, and then were greeted inside with hot tomato soup and toasted bagels. Mmmm, the perfect lunch after a frigid morning in underground caves!

Auckland, Bay of Islands, and Mangawhai, 4-1-10

I arrived into Auckland at 7:00pm, Rich (my Kiwi friend I traveled through Vietnam with) picked me up and we went out for some sushi downtown. We made a bonfire at his house later and had some drinks while catching up on what we’ve both been doing since Vietnam. It was nice to see him after being apart for a couple months.

In the morning I took an 8am bus north to Paihia, to get to the Bay of Islands. I checked into the BASE Hostel (these hostels are spread all around Australia and New Zealand) and met a group of people to hang out with instantly. We all went to the BASE bar that night, which had a sandy beach floor, and then proceeded to get nice and drunk. George, the reception guy, bought everyone in the bar tons of shots and soon the bartender, Nate, was handing out rounds too.

As it turns out, Nate, the bartender, was also the photographer for my boat trip in the morning. I went out on a 6 hour boat tour around the islands in the bay where we saw gorgeous coastlines, small islands, and about 200 dolphins that followed us as we cruised around the bay. We stopped at a quiet island for lunch and I hiked to the highest point of it which had a great scenic look-out. Before sailing off, a group of us jumped off the boat into the water from the 2^nd and 3^rd deck; I did a backflip and a couple dives and jumps, the water was freezing but it was well worth it! On the way back to Paihia we saw the “Hole in the Rock” which is a famous natural landmark in the bay.

The following day I hopped on a bus to tour the very north of NZ, know as Cape Reinga. Along the way we stopped at Puketi Kauri Forest, which holds trees over 2,000 years old in 15,000ha of land. I hugged a 500 year old tree and my arms only stretched around 1/5 of it. We stopped at Taipa Beach for lunch and mostly just dipped our feet into the freezing cold Pacific and rested in the sun for an hour.

As we made our way north we stopped at Te Paki to do some sandboarding on the massive sand dunes. We were all given body boards and began the ascent, hiking to the top. With each step I slid halfway back down, it seemed impossible to climb up. The best trick I found was to stab my toes into the sand like picks and then take another step up doing the same, it was a killer calf workout!

Exhausted, we all had to rest before sliding down. I laid my chest and stomach on my body board, arching backwards and pushed off with my feet towards the gigantic slope downwards. Our guide told us to lift up our feet and only let the tips of our big toes touch the sand, less resistance equals a faster ride. I took my feet off the sand and was FLYING down this hill! I hit the bottom, skid across the water, and thought one thing- “I want to do that again!” On my third go I took a running/jumping start and zoomed past everyone! I was half loving it and half scared for my life- it was amazing.

Wet and sandy, we got back on the bus and drove all the way up to the northern tip of NZ. From there we hiked a bit and were able to see where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. The two oceans crashed together and the white water waves crossed each other. I’d never seen anything like it and the views around were spectacular as well.

 

On the way back to Paihia our bus drove on a 90 mile beach. Apparently, our bus was a semi-truck that was converted to look like a passenger bus for these tours. So, although it looked like a normal greyhound bus, it had the super power ability to go 4-wheel driving on sand and pass every other vehicle in our way! Of the 90 miles of coastline, we drove 60 miles of it and then veered off the beach to stop for dinner, ‘fish and chips’. On the way back I half read my book and half faded off to sleep.

A Kiwi Experience group had just arrived at our BASE hostel when we got back and all of the KE backpackers went out to our sand bar to party. Kiwi Experience is a bus company that prides itself in busing around a groups of 50, twenty-something year-old backpackers around New Zealand. Kiwi Experience’s reputation is that of a party bus that takes its travelers to every great city and adventurous activity in NZ. Of course I bought a pass (while in Melbourne), but mine wouldn’t be starting for a few more days. I met a few of the KE backpackers and we had a good night out for my last one in the bay.

My 7:00am intercity bus brought me to a town called Wellsford, where Rich picked me up. His family’s beach house, “batch” as the Kiwis call them, is about 20 minutes away from Wellsford in a small city called Mangawhai. Mangawhai is a beautiful coastal town, with very little going on, but wonderful views of mountains, sand dunes, and blue ocean.

When we arrived his parents were lounging on the porch watching the sailboats and kayakers in the ocean and Rich and I headed off to hike to a lookout point nearby. We had a nice dinner at the house… it was a quiet night. In the morning Rich and I made breakfast and packed food for the day. We walked kayaks down to the water and paddled across the estuary to the sand dunes on the other side of the water. We pulled the kayaks up onto the land and then walked across the sand dunes to the other side where the Pacific was. The water was frigid and rough and there was not one other person in sight for miles. I love the feeling of being on a secluded beach and from what I’ve heard, NZ has a lot of these beaches. Unfortunately, we had to leave the batch and drive back to Auckland that evening since I was starting Kiwi Experience the following morning.

I was supposed to have another day or two in Auckland, but because of the new Kiwi Experience Winter schedule, I had to run off sooner than expected.

All I can say is, I had no idea what I was about to get myself into. Kiwi Experience, the partying and adrenaline rushes begin now!