Jo's Blog

So I left Auckland and began my journey South down the North Island.  On our way to Mercury Bay we stopped at Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove which were both so so beautiful.  I stayed 2 nights in Mercury Bay and saw some amazing beaches.  As you can see I had one beach totally to myself!  I did some treking here to see some of the beaches and saw some of the most beautiful views!

Then we headed to Rotorua where the earth’s crust is so thin that there are heaps of boiling mud pools and geysers, plus the place stinks of sulphur so you can totally let one go and then blame it on the sulphur smell!!!  Not that I would do such a thing!  Apparently there are only 3 places in the world where you can see this sort of stuff.  It was crazy to walk across the street and see a boiling mud pool in the park!

The night I arrived here I had the chance to go to a traditional Maori evening and a Hungi which was just the most awesome meal!  I ate sooooo much and the whole evening was just brilliant.  They did the Haka too which is what the All Blacks do before a Rugby game.  So cool!

I spent 3 nights here and to be honest didn’t do a massive amount!  The hostel had a pool so I did a lot of swimming and sunbathing, and we partied hard at the Lava Bar next door every night!!  What can I say… it’s a hard life being a backpacker!

After Rotorua we went to a place called Waitomo where you can go caving.  My first extreme activity in the country that loves doing crazy insane things for fun!  This involved abseiling down a 27m drop, followed by seeing gloworms in the caves, some black water rafting (which is essentially being swept along the underground river in an inner tube!), some caving (which involed some extremely small spaces), and finally a 24m climb back up to the surface.  All in all pretty awesome!  Let me tell you that I ached the next day!

I hope that you like the pictures!!!  I know that I look hot!

So right before we left Waitomo we got chance to see something hilarious and also quite disturbing!  We went to a place called the Shearing Shed where they shear Angora Rabbits… yes rabbits!

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!

Me and a fellow traveller James right after our dive!

I won’t bore you for much longer.  After Waitomo I got to Taupo where I am now.  It’s christmas eve and I started off my day with a skydive!  How every christmas eve should start!  I did a jump from 12,000ft over Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in Australasia, and so big that you can fit the entire island of Singapore in there and still have room to go fishing around the edges!!!!  Pretty cool.  As you can imagine the view was AMAZING!  Such a rush and highly reccommended!

Tomorrow we are having christmas dinner and drinks at the hostel, there is a good group of us so it should be fun.  So all that’s left for me to do is wish you all a very merry chritsmas and a happy new year!  Love and hugs, Jo.  xoxox