Wellington - the capital city !

Our journey to wellington was around 4 hours but the scenary was so nice that you hard.y noticed the time go by and also the driver let all of us put our skydive DVDs on so that was good, it was really fun watching everyone else's ! And it also made us realise that we made the right choice getting the full package as you really need both angles !

So we arrived to our hostel "wellington YHA!" And were pleased it was right on the harbour and right next to new world supermarket :) bonus ! We checked in smoothly was given our free wifi vouchers for being members and went in search for our room....it was on the 5th floors thank god it had a lift! The room was small but fine for us :)

We decided we world go to the supe market and get some supply's and chill out for the evening, we ended up getting dominos pizza ! It was only $5 can't really go wrong!

The next day it was raining :( so we decided to go to the museum - it was the national museum of New Zealand and it was pretty good ! It was huge and had lots of interactive things for us to play on :)......

.....a blue whales heart....the actual size of it! Luke got inside it!

......a huge globe showing the earths plates and where they are located ......we are 

So lucky in England that we are not sitting on any 2 plates that join together. 

......a table with 6 squares with Maori music and you can press as many as you can to here the music together it was fun!

We ended up being I. The museum for 4 hours! We went back and cooked ourselves some dinner and caught up with family and friend via skype and FaceTime :)

The  ext day it was also raining :( but it was on and of so we decided to venture out and explore the town :) there is lots of lovely little shops and street sigh odd things down them.....

 ......this was a little odd! There was also a street called "Luke's lane!!!"

........ How appropriate!

We went in search of some parliament buildings.....

 And then wellingtons cathedral ...

........we then found old St. Paul's ......

........it was getting late by this point so we decided to walk along th harbour front back to our hostel, it was a nice walk with a nice view.....

 

......it was a lovely day :)))

The next day which was our last full day in wellington city it was raining even harder all day :( but we really wanted to go up the cable car to see the views so we wonder edit trough the town on the way picking up my new walking shoes :))) there were a absolute bargain! I had to ring the bank of dad to purchase them tho! My old ones were literally falling Apart :( and we hadn't budgeted to buy new walking shoes :( we thought these ones were originally $280 down to $89.99! And they were super comfy :) so I purchase those and walked out in them! Thanks daddy :))

We got to the cable car and paid our $7 return fare to Kelburn and got on this old fashioned cable car, the view was good on the way up and at the top. It or was raining and over cast so it wasn't the best, we went to the cable car museum it was really small but very interesting! There are over 400 private cable cars being used in wellington ! There are so many hills  and houses that are built on them that the residents need a Cable car to get there, some of the couples we older and couldn't manage the steep climb to there home, some people were sick of carrying bags of shopping up hills and one couple had a couple of dogs one was really old and couldn't manage the stairs so they got a cable car for there dog! Another family with a dog that goes to dog day care send the dog Down in the cable car to be 

Ickes up for his day care! It was soooo cute:) wew really wanted to look around the botanical gardens but it was raining so hard it would not have been fun :( so we went back down and had a Browse around the shops before heading back to the hostel for dinner- Luke made the best pasta dish :) it was so scrummy :)

 

 

 

Tomorrow we take the interislander ferry Kaitaki to the South Island and we have to be up early :) 

River valley :)

So......the drive to river valley was the most scenic so far :) it was just Miles and miles of green land and animals, the animals were so happy and looked really well the sheep and cows were in the same fields some of the time and they didn't even mind! They were eating sleeping, running the lambs were cuddling there mothers! It was lovely to see and it was also the first time I had really seen sheep,cows  and horses just sleeping in the middle of the field on the day, like all tucked up like a dog would sleep! They were that peaceful :)))

When we arrived at river valley we parked at the top of the hill, a truck came and took our bags down and we walked! It was a steep steep hill probly the steepest hill we have encounter so far! We knew then that the climb back up would be a trek! We arrived were told there were not enough double private rooms for all the people that wanted one! This was only one of two places  we havnt booked in advance! Typical but I was t budging there was no way wew ere sleeping in these tiny dooms where you were practically sleeping on top of the next person!i did not budge!and we got a double private room and it was quite nice but had no tv! But the s e ray made up for no tv! We hadn't planned a u activities here we needed to save our penny's! We were just gunna relax by the river.

After settling In we headed down to the river in the hope we may have a swim! We never realised how cold the water would be! We waded through it to a little Stoney island in the middle! Our legs were freezing it was truely cold probly the coldest water. We had been in, it made sense as the water was running down from the mountains ! I paddled but of cors Luke went In! It was a lovely first afternoon down there. It was sunny there was no wind we just relaxed! Unfortunately relaxed to much we got sun stroke that first day we had cream on but didn't protect our heads enough plus we were dehydrated :(

 

.....so after feeling quite ill that night, we still decided that we would go and have then roast dinner we ordered for the evening, as we had been cooking ourselves for a long time and wanted a treat! I didn't have any meat, but Luke did he said it was good :) all the trimmings were absolutely scrummy :) we didn't expect it to be so nice ! No other roast dinners we have had anywhere else in the world have ever been as nice as home but this one was outstanding ! They had sweet potato and they had seasoned it with something that made it amazing, they even had parsnips,stuffing veggies and cabbage in cheese sauce! It was really scrummy but they didn't have york shires pudding :( but it was still lovely, after that we both went straight to bed with headaches :( 

The next day we still felt a little poorly so decided to just chill by the river again! This time with a lot of protection from the sun! We also had to. Ove rooms as they had over booked we still had a double private but it was hugely incomveniant :( we spent the afternoon at the river again, there was a little breeze today but it was till not and sunny.

There was this pully bridge across the river that took you one side to the other. On the other side there was a collection of high rocks on the side of the valley what you could jump off of! I wasn't so keen butl Luke didn't obviously! We played around on the bridge took some pics....

 

..it really was a. Lovely view from up there!

So Luke jumped off these rocks a few times .......

 

....the water was so cold, somehow I decided I was going to jump Luke supported me, saying I was fine I could do it! I was terrified but decided it's now or never! Gotta be daring! It was silly really cos I jumped out a plane but couldn't jump of this cliff! So I did it and screamed my head off all the way down, if was cold and I went further down then I wanted to, my bikini top just flew off, I had to retrieve it fast., I then got disorientated :( and panicked, by the time I came up I had winded/shocked myself and couldn't move, talk or breath and poor Luke had to jump in and rescue me ! I am glad I did it but never again!......

We made our own dinner that night, and chilled our going through our holiday video! For tomorrow we head to the capital city wellington :)

Also forgot to mention that Luke bought me a cider and it was $10 ! It was nice tho! And when I checked up us out they undercharged us by $100 ! I quickly got out of there before they noticed!

And as I thought that trip up the hill was not fun!

Taupo

So after the excitement of the skydive we were able to take In the lovely town that is taupo :) taupo is home to the biggest lake in New Zealand "lake taupo!" And also a lot of Maori culture and history.

The town itself is quite small but bigger then rotorua and has a lovely selection of shops, cafés, bakeries, a cinema etc and is was nice just to take a stroll around town. We had to make a stop at the post office it had to send some cards home  and was also sending copies of our pics home on a dvd We had had made so hoped they would arrive safe and sound :) then we could free up some memory card space:) 

Our first stop was huka falls- a set of waterfalls on the Waikato river that drains lake taupo, it was beautiful ......

Anyway our days here were spent relaxing by the big lake taupo with some lunch, wondering around town, playing crazy golf and exploring. We had a lovely ensuite double room in base hostel with a lovely view of the lake :) but unfortunately being so close to a Lake we had hundreds of visitors of the insect kind in our room daily :( and also the hostel had a loud bar underneath it and we had a night club right next door to our room :( so it was at times overly noisy :( 

One of our days here we rented a car "Honda fit!" Which Luke drove and he reported it to be a good little car ! On this day we went to craters of the moon for a 45 minute walk around these craters that basically blew up steam from deep underground it was quite something....

 

 

....next stop was huka bee hive ! It was a Big shop that sold honey things and also showed you how the bees made it and you could also watch, it was very educational for us! ...

......our next stop would be a dam! Aratiatia dam!! The dam opens at certain times of the day for a few minutes and releases some water from the Waikato river which runs to turn a dry gorge into a beautiful waterfall before your eyes! It was well worth it :) ....

 

 

....this  and the last pic are the same place before and after!

Next stop was a free thermal spa! We loved a free activitie! We drove to the park, and set off for a short walk downhill to a small natural thermal area that ran into the river, it was screaming hot, Luke dipped his finger in! It was so weird to see a running little waterfall and pools of hot water in such a natural place that ran into the river! ...

....we decided that we wouldn't go In it was super busy, and we wanted to explore more! We had a bit of a playin the park!.....the grown ups that we are!....

....we drove to a look out point over the same river and it was simply stunning:) ....

We decided that after a bit more driving around exploring we would call it a night!

The next day we decided we would play a spot of golf! Crazy golf that is! It was such fun, I bought a dress that morning as it was super cheap, and got so hot half way round I decided it would be a good idea for me to change Into it! .....

Our verdict of taupo was......it was pretty good:) apart from our room being next to a club! We really enjoyed the layed back life of this little town, everything in this town cost quite a lot of money, so our budget didn't stretch to everything we wanted to do but we had a good time and loved our little car we hired from "rent a dent " a honda fit! It was a. Lovely little car :) we were excited to get to our next destination river valley :))

...our car :)

Also forgot to mention the great mc Donald's they had here it had a airplane that was Infact a kids play area! It has been voted the best mcdonalds In the world! .....

 !!!!!

Sky diving :) the most exciting and scariest thing I have ever done!

 So......the journey from rotorua to taupo wasn't t long but i was thinking quite a lot about the sky diver was going to do in taupo so it seemed to go on forever! I was super excited to do this adrenaline filled activity that I had wanted to do for many many years but never really got the chance, plus who wants to do it in England!! I would have rather waited to jump over some amazing scenary ! And that is exactly what I did..........

.......our coach stopped at huka falls (see taupo post!) and that is where the first group of jumpers would get picked up ! Luke was coming with me to see me jump! He didn't fancy the jump. He had debated it! But it's not something that he had ever wanted to do he was already very unseen on flying let alone jumping out of one! It's such a drastic and terrifying activity you have to really want to do it !

We arrived at "taupo skydive" it was a small place but just perfect, I felt very comfortable ! We sat down and watched a video on skydiving and all the different packages you could do, 12,000 feet jump had a free fall time of 45 seconds the 15,000 feet had a free fall time of 1 minute!  I couldn't decide but at the last minute I decided to just do the full package ! 15,000 feet jump (just under 3 miles!) with both handheld video and pics and free fall vid and pics! With included interview with me And a free t shirt ! So I went through to watch a safety vid and instructions for what to do at what point but by this point I couldn't concentrate at all and didn't take any of it in but wasn't surprising worried, I was so scared by this point and Luke was getting it all on film! My tandem jumper came to find me and introduced himself........although I have no idea what his name is! I suited up in my jumpsuit ! and he harnessed me up! I was is ready to go up!

....,I had a few mins to get even more scared! We had our first little chat on film where I told him I was f*****g terrified! He then said let's go.......I quickly kissed Luke goodbye and we was boarding the tiny plane! 

There was 5 jumpers in thee and there partners a couple of jumpers that would take our pics free falling, the pilot and a few others! If was pretty packed! It was a twenty minute flight up and as I was going to 15,000 feet I had to have oxygen put on me and also watched the other jumpers all jump before me and watch there terrified look! I was breathing in that oxygen like it was going out if fashion! I was so scared! The first jumper was terrified you could see it all over his face! He was sitting right by the exit.....it was time for him to jump the shutter opened him and his tandem partner turned to face to sky......and off they went quick as a flash! Then the next and the next......

The shutter closed and the two of us that were left flew to 15,000 feet and then it was my turn......

.......the shutter opened .....my camera man climbed out on to the side of the plane, my tandem jumper. Moved us to the edge......I had literally no time to think about it before I was hanging out the plane! With just my harness holding me on to my jumper ....I was literally sitting on air ! I put my head back on to his shoulder held onto my straps, tucked my feet underneath me .......I couldn't believe I was going to be falling from this plane any second now ! 

He rocked us forward once then the second time we were out.......falling and I was screaming! It was the most amazing feeling, I was falling though the air tumbling all over the place.....upside down, side to side, my brain had no idea what as going on! 

 

It took a good 25-30 seconds for it to register! And when it did I was still screaming! Screaming but smiling my head off :)) couldn't believe what I was doing! When it did register I was still free falling :) and my camera man was taking loads of pics and video footage I shook his hand in the air! The wind was blowing through my face I put my hands out and enjoyed falling and all the feelings I had :) ......

 

....when it was time to put the parachute up I had no idea what was happening we just shot up in the air it was quite a shock! And then I had time to breath ! I put my head back and just breathed a sigh of relief ! I don't know why! but I no that I had so many feelings, I was super happy :) we were flying around the beautiful scenary I was even allowed to control our parachute ! and do some 360' turns over lake taupo! I took in all the views around me the scenary was amazing :) ......

 

 

......we then had to think about landing, I was given my instructions and we started making our decend, before I knew it we were almost on the floor! I was a little nervous as I was so accident prone ! I didn't want to break any bones !! But by the time I thought of that we had landed! I touched the grass and just sat for a second! It was all so surreal !.......

I got up saw Luke had been filming me :) and watching me come down :) I was so excited to tell him all about it I was full of adrenaline :) I derobed of my jumpsuit and found Luke :) he was videoing me getting the verdict! What an experience! We both couldn't wait to see the video footage and pics ! I was so proud of my self as was Luke :)

While my pics and video was put together me and Luke was chatting about the jump! It all happened so fast from being picked up to jumping to landing but it didn't feel rushed it was so well organised, I felt really comfortable, what's weird is that many people including me worry about the parachute opening! I had wanted to do this for years so had thought on and off about the parachute not opening but when it actually came to the day and the actual jump the thought never crossed my mind! Which was weird, it was like I was so excited and scared my mind would not allow me to think of any thing else! 

We went into a small cinema room to watch all the DVDs, mine was last as it was the longest and I was the last to land! The girl that actually jumped last didn't like it so landed before me and throw up! 

Watching the al, the other jumpers DVDs I was glad I got the full package as the free fall pics and hand held ones are completely different but both excellent! I got to be interviewed, pic my own music and gave a mix of both cameras on the DVD ! It was so amazing, we watched it a few times over the next few days and it bought tears to our eyes, it quite emotional and brings back all the feelings if the day! I cannot wait to show my family :) 

I am so so proud of myself and glad you gave made such an amazing memory :) the main thing I wanted to do in New Zealand was sky dive as the scenary was out of this world :) another dream has come true!

I didn't tell my parents or anyone I was going to skydive and when I was going to do it! Mainly because I knew my mum especially would be worrying all day! But I was so happy to tell them I had done it and was safe and sound :)))

Rotorua

Third stop on the tour is rotorua, we are spending 4 nights here. We were already I formed that the smell would be like boiled eggs through the entire town as the town is full of geothermal areas, where ever there is a opening in the ground e.g. Drain holes there is smoke coming out from the ground! So all over the town there is smoke coming from underground! It was very odd! 

The first thing that hits you as you drive into the town is the smell! It's awful, but as the driver told us you do get used to it after a while I got used to it but Luke didn't ! He hated it it made him gag several times!

So after some pit stops we arrived at the hostel, which we were very anxious about as we had booked into the party hostel base and we were feeling pretty old and tired! We had heard these hostels were full of teens drinking until silly o clock in the morning! As there is a bar attached to the hostel ! God I feel old writing that! But we havnt saved hard for a year to go and piss it up the wall and miss out because of hangovers! ......

.......anyway we arrived and hada. Double room booked for one night then a double ensuite for the rest of the time, the first night was quiet we were right over the over side of the hostel furvest from the bar and the rest of the time we were on the ground floor next to the staircase.....so a bit noisier and the bed was broken :( like actually snapped in two! Not the kind of bed Luke wanted to sleep in! I was ok I sank in to the edge of my side of the bed half way down!!

Anyway ....rotorua it self was stunning :) a lovely little town, wide streets, lots of trees, little town shops all around  and a massive lake !! Our first afternoon was spent on a sky ride going to the top of a mountain so we could see the whole of rotorua the view was out of this world! ......

....and then we luge down the hill ! Luging is a Type of go karting I suppose not motorised, you just sit in this cart thing and you have a brake and a go lever and that is it! There are 3 seperate course - scenic, intermediate and advanced, you aren't suppose to race but our driver encouraged us to! It was such fun :) we went so fast, at one point we both went airborn and I had it on two wheels! It was fun :) we had five goes at that! After each time you would get the ski lift back up! It really was fun, we raced a few times  and I almost caught Luke up! .....

....what a fun afternoon :)

We spent the rest of our time in rotorua, chilling by the lake with a subway ! Taking walks, and going to the Polynesian spa, which was a spa with 7 thermal baths! Which  we could use for as long as we liked and it over looked the lake! Perfect relaxing afternoon that was! Although the pools were super hot! 

We loved our time here the town is small but perfect :) we are off to taupo next where I plan to jump out of a plane 15,000 feet high over lake taupo! I am scared but extremely excited I have wanted to do this for years! And I simply cannot wait ! Luke will be waiting for me at the bottom with his feet firmly and safely on the ground.