A View from the Top or How Kevin Got His Groove Back

So... we haven't said much about the skydive. The reason was that we were waiting for the DVD of the experience to get to Brian, Kevin's brother, so he could post it online. And Brian was kind enough to post it online very quickly for your delectation. Thanks Brian! Now, before we post the link here's a little introduction to the skydive.

Kevin and I have always wanted to skydive and we knew that on this trip we'd have the opportunity to do so in either Oz or New Zealand. I thought it would be a good birthday present for Kevin so I gave him the dive and the DVD package whereas I just took the jump (that's why I only appear in bits of it). We knew that New Zealand was an adrenaline overload already and the setting of the Great Barrier Reef just couldn't be beat so we did it in Oz. And...though we didn't know this, the warmth of Queensland meant that we could just jump in our normal clothes rather than those crazy skydiving jumpsuits.

So finally, without further delay, here it is: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1955863094749019410

(click the underlined link and it will transfer you to the skydiving video)

PS. We haven't heard the audio part to it so Kevin says he apologises if he appears (in his words) like a "dork" in it. Raving lunatic more like!

A few final pics

Here are a few more pics that I enjoyed taking.

These two pics are from the lookout point above Napier.





This is of the waterfall at the Botanical Gardens in Wellington. There was supposed to be an eternal flame there, but it must have gone out, because we didn't see it. Either that, or nuclear weapons have been eradicated from the earth. The flame is from the aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and was only supposed to be extinguished when nulear weapons were gone.



This one was in Napier town. I thought it was funny that it said "Post No Bills" on a place that seem custom designed for bill posting.

Napier

Despite having a statue in Trafalgar Square in London, no one really knows who Charles Napier is. Charles Napier also lent his name to a town in the eastern part of North Island, New Zealand. This town probably also would have remained unknown to most if it weren't levelled by an earthquake in 1931. Why was it a good thing to be levelled by an earthquake in 1931? Why, the timing, of course. Within two years, Napier had completely rebuilt itself in the prevailing style of the day, Art Deco. By 1933, Napier was the most modern city in the world. Fortunately for Napier, it managed to keep its Art Deco heritage, and now rivals Miami, Florida as the Art Deco capital of the world.

Karen and I took a walking tour of the city, which was quite informative. Sometimes it felt like we were on a movie set, with all of these 1930s buildings surrounding us. Napier was a nice, quiet town with a great seaside location - even though the beach was terrible, with rocks instead of sand and dangerous riptides that prevent swimming. Fortunately people come here for the architecture rather than for swimming at the beach.



















There was this place in town owned by a German family for years who wanted to symbolize German-New Zealand friendship. You would think it might be a bit dangerous to have a German flag with the year 1933 under it. Fortunately they didn't keep the flag from the time.

Caving In

Do I look ever so slightly exhausted in this snap? It's because I really really am! Our caving adventure in the Waitomo Caves completely and utterly exhausted me. Kevin and I could barely lift our arms for days. But with 3 hrs underground, looking at amazing formations and even more amazing glowworms, it was so well worth it.

What are glowworms? Here is a picture of the glowworms in some daylight with these little strings coming out of them, kind of like their "fishing rods" and the means of catching food. Glowworms, despite their name, are actually algae that glow in the dark...the brighter they shine, the hungrier they are! In the dark, the glowworms actually look like those glow-in-the-dark stars we used to put on our ceilings. Very difficult to get pictures of so we don't have any of them in the dark.



To start with, we learned to abseil because we had to get down the cave somehow! First we trained on a grassy hill, and then down we went 30 meters down a tiny little dark cave hole. I discovered that I'm an abseiling pro (who knew), while Kevin's hands are full of blisters and burns.







When we did get into the cave, I discovered my abseiling prowess would soon be overshadowed by my terrible caving. I just couldn't lift those heavy, water-logged wellies up the cliffs to see all the cool stalagmites and stalagtites. I also seemed to have an equally hard time maneuvering those inner tubes through the freezing cold water.







Finally, to get out of the cave we actually had to climb some waterfalls. It was nice to see daylight again!



I think we were all pretty knackered but exhilarated by the experience.

Wai-O-Tapu

One of the main towns to see in North Island is Rotorua, which is famous for all of its local thermal activity. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, this thermal activity also brings with it a nice sulfur smell, aka rotten eggs. No matter, some of the activity produces weird and wonderful landscapes that you are unlikely to see elsewhere. We visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, which has an interesting selection of various geological sights. Since I'm not a geologist, I won't try to interpret what's going on in all these pictures, but I hope you enjoy all the same.

A lush landscape dotted with thermal vents:



Lovely colored rocks:



Not so lovely colored rocks:



Bubbling mud pool in a cave:



Surface mud pools:



Beautiful waterscapes:









And, the Champagne Pool. The orange shelf on the side contains gold and silver (along with a lot of other stuff you probably don't want in your jewellery).

Who says life isn't all fun and games?

I'd never heard of sandboarding but Kevin was super keen so off we went. Turns out it's loads of fun, but then there is the big climb up to the top of the sand dune in order to make your way down again. Since all you need are some dunes and a duneboard, it's a pretty inexpensive way to have an exhilarating time.

And the surroundings could not have been more gorgeous






That's the thing with New Zealand, it's such an unspoilt country of natural beauty and its inhabitants have developed so many fun ways to enjoy the country. We hadn't heard of some things but from fellow travellers we've gotten a good idea about what we want to do. One of these things was the luging we did in Rotorua. We knew it was a town famous for its hot springs, but we didn't know there were so many other fun things to do there. We went up these ski lift kind of things and were given 5 tries on the luge, with 3 kinds of routes to choose from. I encourage anyone with small kids to come to New Zealand because there's so much for them to do. We saw so many parents speeding down the tracks with their kids safely tucked in front of them and these kids were seriously having the time of their lives! Here are a couple of big kids having quite a bit of fun...

Zorb

One of the activities we (OK, well, me) were keen to try in New Zealand was the Kiwi-invented activity of Zorbing. For those not familiar with Kiwi adventure sports, Zorbing entails placing yourself inside a PVC ball inside another PVC ball and the two balls are connected by bungy cords. Once inside the ball, you proceed to roll down a hill, bouncing every which way along the way. There are two variations - wet and dry. The dry version entails strapping yourself inside the ball so that you go head over heels, etc. Unfortunately all the dry zorbs were out for repair while we were there so we only had the option of the wet version. The wet version entails water being in the ball with you, so that the experience is equivalent to a waterslide that you bounce inside of.

The runs were about 150-200 meters in length. For the first ride, Karen and I went together down the straight run. I enjoyed it so much that I then decided to sign up for the solo run down the zigzag track. That was even more fun, especially as you try to stand up along the way, which is nigh impossible. I had a blast zorbing.

On a side note, the service in New Zealand leaves a lot to be desired, with many a diffident waitress and other service staff. The staff at the Zorb place were typical, with the first girl taking 15 minutes just to get us paid for and signed in. And then when I went back for a second ride, the other girl was in the process of telling some potential new customers that the wait was over an hour, even though the main reason I went back for a second ride was because there was no queue at all. She then took a further 20 minutes to take my second payment. So, NZ has two areas to improve upon - service levels and driving skills.

Here's a pic of my fellow Zorbonaut, Karen, before our run, with a Zorb and the hill we run down in the background.



That's me inside that Zorb coming down the zigzag track.



Here's me after my second Zorb bath of the day.



The Zorb place is actually located on a farm that also features a sheep shearing show (say that 10 times real quick) that we saw. The show was OK, but since NZ is know for its sheep (sheep (40 million) outnumber people (4 million) 10 to 1), we figured we'd might as well watch it. Here's a pic of the 19 varieties of sheep in NZ, including the huge and regal Merino sheep, at the top of the pile.



One of the other things I enjoyed seeing in NZ was the enormous kauri tree. Kauri trees used to be extremely common in the North Island, but since they grew almost straight, had very few branches on the trunk, were very solid, and provided a massive amount of wood per tree, they were almost logged out of existence. Fortunately a few remain and there are replanting programs to bring them back. Unfortunately they take hundreds of years to grow to full size, so it'll be a while before you see large forests of full-grown ones. I'm not sure, but I think they're even bigger than the redwoods in California. This one here is the largest in NZ and is over 50 meters tall and the trunk girth is an amazing 13.8 meters.

New Zealand Wonderland

Auckland is a gorgeous city from afar, though it lacks the life and soul that Wellington has. Most of the Kiwis we spoke to said they would give Auckland a miss but we thought it was a nice introduction to New Zealand. Though Kevin may have complained that we missed the COMET while in Auckland, we did get to see the comet in Rotorua on another night! Yes, hunger kept me from seeing the comet but we didn't know at the time how amazing it actually was! It was so cool--and the tail was extremely visible. Luckily, we got our second chance. Phew! I would never have lived that one down otherwise :)



We also went to the National Museum in Auckland and admired the Maori carvings. We also made friends with some of these Maori warriors there. I am trying to convince Kevin that we need a Maori wooden carved statue for the house...but he has so far not relented. Aren't they awesome sculptures though? I think we could do with one to ward off bad spirits...





Kevin had this little confrontation with the sheep. The sheep won...


Here's Kevin trying to figure out what hairstyle to adopt on North Island. It was a tough decision but as you can see he decided to keep it simple and stick to the facial hair!