TiriTiri Matangi, New Zealand

20th - 21st Feb 2009

Tiri Tiri Matangi is an island off the coast of North New Zealand which, like Ulva island near Stewart Island has had all its mammalian predators removed. A regular ferry service takes day trippers there every morning and brings them back every afternoon. The ferry goes from Auckland and does a stop off near Orewa before heading to the island. I decided to stay in a small hostel in Orewa so I did not have to go all the way down to Auckland.

The place was called Marco Polo backpackers and I booked it ahead of my arrival for 2 nights so I could go to the island and return the following evening. I don't think I have been in a more boring hostel in all the time I have been travelling! Not only was the place too far out of town to walk to any bars (I should have read the small print!) but it also had no TV and no Internet for guests. Also, the only other people staying there all spoke German.

I had the foresight to buy some beers from a supermarket in town, so after I made my usual 'can of meat with microwave rice gourmet meal' in the kitchen, I sat around reading and drinking to while away the night. It turned out that most of the 'Germans' were in fact Swiss except one German woman who joined me in the Kitchen so she could practise her English. She was very annoyed with the Swiss and said that she did not come half way round the world to speak German! Having had the 'pleasure' of working with Swiss people in the past I was not too perturbed about them not including me in their conversation - they were probably discussing how to put together a cuckoo clock anyway.

I got up early the next day and drove to the ferry port which took about 20 minutes. There was already a large group of people waiting for the boat to arrive from Auckland - including a large group of youngsters (bugger!).

Once on the ferry I bought a map/guide pamphlet from one of the several volunteers who were accompanying us on the trip. Before we were allowed off the boat onto the island we were given instructions on what to do once we landed - obviously no mammals were allowed on the trip - including dogs.

Once we landed everyone was allowed to go their own way to look at the birds or simply to go bathing in the bay on the far side of the island. It would be over 5 hours before the ferry returned to take us back so I brought plenty of water and a packed lunch to ward off any hunger pains while I walked round the island (there was no where to get food).

For the first 20 minutes everyone was bunched up together as they walked the marked paths that crisscrossed the island. I hung back so I could get to walk around by myself.

For the next 5 hours I did a leisurely walk around the island admiring the scenery and getting really good views of some of the protected birds. Most of the birds such as the Saddleback I had already seen on Ulva island but there was one bird in particular I had come to see on this island - the Takahe.


Featured Animal - The Takahe



If I had to pick one animal I really wanted to see for each country I had been to on my travels I would say the Great White Shark for South Africa; the Tasmanian Devil for Australia and the Takahe for New Zealand. This flightless bird was thought to be extinct until some where found up in the Murchison Mountains on the South island in 1948. Some of those birds have been trans located to some off shore islands including Tiri Titi Matangi where there is now 13 birds.

I thought that finding one would be hard to do but how wrong was I. About 30 minutes in to my walk I was trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph a bellbird when I heard some rustling behind me. I turned to see a takahe walking out onto the path behind me. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was able to follow it as it walked comically within several feet of me. It was a wonderful experience.

As I continued my walk round the island I got an even better view of a pair of them feeding:




Red Crested Parakeet


Bellbird I managed to get a photo off


A branch or rather a Stitchbird which buggered off before I got a photo!


A shag on the shore (oh! err!)

I finished my walk round the island at the coffee shop near the lighthouse with just enough time to take a quick walk round the gift shop. I almost bought a cuddly Takahe to keep DM and Taz company but decided that 3 was a crowd and they would only start fighting amongst themselves (I think a bit of therapy might have been in order at this stage!)

On my way back down to the ferry pier I managed to see one other very rare bird - the North Island KokaKo (sounds like baby talk!) bringing an end to a very satisfactory outing.


A sort of photo of a Kokako!

After the ferry dropped me off I was in no hurray to get back to the hostel so decided to do a bit of a tour round Orewa looking for an Internet point and some food. In the end I did not find any Internet and ended up getting more supermarket food for cooking in the hostel.

That night most of the Swiss and the German girl had gone. In their place were two middle aged American couples who, judging from their complaining, should have been at hotels rather than hostels. I think I would rather have had the Swiss back!

I had an early night and in the morning quickly packed and left to go to Auckland.

Here's a link to the Tiri Tiri Matangi Site.


Animals I have seen
Takahe
Kokako
Whitehead
Stitchbird

I spent about 20 minutes at a pond trying to get a glimpse of another endangered bird - the Brown Teal after meeting a guy who had just seen one but had to give up - bloody duck!

Waitangi, New Zealand

20th Feb 2009

Just up the coast from Paihai is probably the most important historical place in New Zealand - Waitangi. It was here that the treaty between European Settlers and Maori Tribal leaders was signed in 1840. This document is as important to the New Zealand people as the Declaration of Independence is to the Americans, the Magna Carta is to the English and the Lease on the St James Street Guinness Brewery is to the Irish.

Naturally I could not leave the bay of islands without going to see this historic document so after I checked out off my hostel I drove the 1/2 mile or so up the coast in the pouring rain to the treaty grounds.

I was a bit shocked to see that it was $20 for non Kiwis to get into the place. I was thinking that if I tattooed my face I might be able to get in for free but decided against it and coughed up the cash. Once inside I had a quick look around the visitor centre. There were portraits of some of the main signaturies of the treaty - both English and Maori as well as a reproduction of the actual treaty. It also had a a theatre room where they performed daily tribal dances and Hakas for anyone willing to pay extra money.


Treaty of Waitangi - if you feel the need to read it. One slight problem - I photographed the maori language version! (you eejit Raymond!)

I think the gist of the treaty goes something like this:

"We, the English, now own New Zealand. You, the Maori, can now call yourselves British subjects. This means you can keep your lands until we want them. You can keep your religion until we convert you and you can be called upon to act as cannon fodder for any war we deem fit to send you to. God save Queen Vic"

Outside the visitor centre I walked through an elevated forest walkway which lead down to a large open building near the foreshore. Inside it there was a full sized reconstruction of a war canoe or waka. It was very impressive - it took 3 full sized kauri trees to make it. The canoe is called Ngatokimatawhaorua - try saying that 3 times fast!


War Canoe.

The path then lead up to the actual treaty house which used to be the residence of the governor and is now a museum of how the residents used to live. Judging by the number of photos I took inside the place (none!) I think I found it all a bit stuffy and boring.

The last major building I visited was another reconstruction, this time of a traditional Maori meeting house:


Meeting house

A notice outside asked everyone to take off any footwear before entering.

This is what the inside looked like:



Polished wooden floor, me in my sock soles, nobody else about. I just had to! Sock slide extravaganza!

I don't think the wooden people inside were too pleased:

'Disgraceful behaviour'


'Me want gum gum'

It was time to leave the bay of islands and begin my journey back to Auckland. On the way to my next stop in Orewa I made one last detour to Whangaria falls - the next day I was going to do my last bird watch in New Zealand.


Whangarai Falls

Glossary Update:
E:
Eeejit: Irish Slang: Idiot, Moron, Numpty, Muppet, Spanner. Gobshite etc (the irish seem to have a lot of words to describe stupid people)

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

17th Feb - 19th Feb

Before I headed from Whangarai I made sure that I booked a place ahead for the bay of islands. The place to go appeared to be Paihai (I wrongly pronounced it as pee-high) which seemed to have the most accommodation available. I booked myself into the Saltwater lodge for 2 days before heading off.

At around 3pm I arrived and signed myself into the hostel. The hostel looked like a good enough place to hang out and it had the bonus of free parking underneath it so I extended my stay to 3 nights. Once I settled in I checked out the excursions on offer and after consulting with the receptionist in the hostel decided on a combination dolphin watch / yachting trip with a company called explore NZ. The trip would be leaving pretty early the next morning - that left me the rest of the day to look around the town and get my bearings so I went for a walk along the water front.

The place had a really good vibe to it (it helped that it wasn't raining!) with a good combination of touristy shops and restaurants. What it seemed to lack was a good bar!


Boats and islands


Parasailing

After searching in vain for a good place to have a pint I settled for the bar attached to the saltwater lodge itself. The reason was quite simply - HAPPY HOUR 5-7pm and they had a cheap pizza and pint deal. The pizza was rather small but did the job for the moment. I then had another happy hour pint. I was given a raffle ticket with my pint and in the middle of enjoying it the quiet barman that had been serving me came from behind the bar and went to the DJ's area. He then proceeded to transform himself from mild manned barman to super loud bingo host as he started to call out raffle numbers for the people in the bar - which consisted of me, several (other?) lushes and a large crowd of 19-20 somethings who were sitting in the far corner and lapping it all up.

As each number was called the lucky winner had to go up and do a 'take your pick' from a list of boxes. These gave them chances of proper prizes, booby prizes and karaoke! The major prize was a free skydive but I decided to sneak off before my number came up and I would be forced up to do a rendition of 'baby, one more time' or some other song.

I did another walk around the town looking to get some more food to supplement my meager pizza. Eventually I settled on a large bag of chips (more healthy food!). Afterwards I went back to the hostel - past the raffle bar which had managed to entice more punters inside and was now a 'take your pick'/Karaoke frenzy. It was still early so I went to the bar in the base hostel near my own hostel. At least in the base bars you were guaranteed to have a decent crowd - especially as their own happy hour had only just kicked off :)

While there I got chatting to a Scottish girl Mhairi, her English friend Sarah and Donald, another friend of Mhairi's. Donald was a character to say the least - a middle aged guy in his late 50's (or is that 60's?) from Mhairi's village on the isle of Skye who was travelling around New Zealand by himself. Before I could say "Three, Tui, One" I was in a round with them and was also ordering shots - a great way to prepare for the sailing trip the next day! I eventually managed to force myself to go back to hostel for some much needed shut-eye.

My days on the shark dive boat prepared me well for being able to get up with a hangover and still manage to go on a boat. As I said the trip I booked onto was a combination trip of a dolphin watch followed by a sailing trip on a very large 'America cup' type catamaran.

First the boat headed across the bay to pick up more passengers from Russell then we made our way past lots of small picturesque islands searching for dolphins. It wasn't too long until we found them - a large pod of bottlenose dolphins merrily swimming round our boat and another smaller boat owned by the same company. The smaller boat seemed to be getting all the best views - including having some of the dolphins ride the bow wave of their boat.

I did get to see some great sights including several with babies:



Dolphin riding bow wave of nearby boat


Mother and calf

Dolphin right beside our boat


Mother and calf


We stayed around the dolphins for a good while watching them jump out of the water in the distance (never did get a good shot of that!).

My best attempt of a photo of jumping dolphin

It was soon time to go and rendezvous with the yacht for the second part of the trip. Myself and about 20 other passengers were taken across from one boat to the other on small inflatables. Once on board the catamaran I found myself a nice sunny perch on one side of the yacht as it started its journey.


Our yacht


The sail.

It was an almost mesmerising experience. We were gently sailing along (slightly too slow for my liking) on a calm blue sea past beautiful islands. There were scantly clad women sunbathing at the front of the boat and best of all you could get nice cool beers. Each person could get a drink from cooler boxes and put a mark on a tally sheet so they could pay up at the end of the trip.


Sea and islands

At lunchtime we anchored beside one of the islands and had a hot buffet of beef, chicken and various salads - at last proper food! The drink tally sheet was looking interesting at this point with myself and some other guy neck and neck in the lead - a challenge if ever i saw one!

After lunch we were allowed to go to the island for walking, swimming, sunbathing and even kayaking. I am sorry to say all I did was sit and try to rid myself of the beer buzz that was filling my head. After we got back on board I decided not to indulge in any more alcohol and just sat wishing I had stuck to cokes.



Kayaking at island


View from island beach

On the way back they were able to put up the spinnaker (that's the big sail they put at the front of yachts when they are going downwind) so we were able to go a lot faster on the return journey. At around 4pm after dropping passengers back off at Russell we arrived back at Paihai. Once I settled my drinks bill (which thankfully was not as bad as it could have been) I returned to the hostel for a kip before going out for the night.

The night was basically a rerun of the previous night as I met up Donald, Mhairi and Sarah plus some other people which included Annette - one of the Kiwi experience people I had met on the south island and who I had already bumped into in Taupo. Not only did she know Mhairi and Donald but she was in fact from their same village! It's a small world - but I don't think you could cover it in a kilt!

As I got more and more drunk the conversation turned to scuba diving and before I knew it I was booked onto a diving trip the following day. Unfortunately (see glossary update) I awoke the next morning to find the sky was overcast and any chance of going diving would be a out of the question. The heavens soon opened up and for most of the rest of the day it poured down. I knew the bad weather would catch up with me eventually - all I could do was sit around the hostel and hope the rain would subside.

I tried to extend my stay in my hostel to the Friday night but it was booked up. The people at the hostel did try to get me booked into other places but they too were fully booked. It was a real pity - even with the rainy weather Paihai was a great place to stay.

I had one last night's boozing with Donald and co (vowing to make sure I go to Skye over the summer) then the next morning I checked out ready to head back down towards Auckland.

BEERS I HAVE DRUNK
Lions red Beer: The happy hour beer I had in the raffle bar. Nice enough for the price!

ANIMALS I HAVE SEEN
Bottlenose dolphin - obviously
Black Petrel - while watching the dolphins

GLOSSARY UPDATE
U:
Unfortunate Adjective
According to online dictionary its meanings are:
1. suffering from bad luck: an unfortunate person. (see www.rays-conservation-travels.blogspot.com for examples)
2. unfavorable or inauspicious: an unfortunate beginning.
3. regrettable or deplorable: an unfortunate remark.
4. marked by or inviting misfortune: an unfortunate development.
5. lamentable; sad: the unfortunate death of her parents.

Rotorua to Whangarai, New Zealand

Firstly - sorry for the delay - been busy doing nothing which can become very time consuming!

Right where was I...

16th Feb

I had to make a major decision as to where I wanted to go to after Rotorua as my time in New Zealand was dwindling - I had just over a week remaining to do the rest of the North Island - including Auckland. I had heard a lot of good things about Coromandel Peninsula but in the end I decided that I would try to get to the Bay of Islands.

One problem with that - it was about 400km away and it was already past lunchtime. Also in order to get there I had to travel through Auckland itself. After about 3 hour of driving (including a greasy lunch break of burger and chips) I came to the outskirts of the city.

Things I have NOT learnt: DON'T READ A MAP WHILE DRIVING!
At the very start of this trip I nearly wrote off a hire car (and myself) by trying to read a map while driving. I swore never to do something as stupid again - yet here I was reading a map while driving through Auckland. To be fair there wasn't much else I could do. I was travelling on a multi lane motorway trying to get from one side of the city to the other. I couldn't really pull over to the side of the road and ask for directions as there was no side of the road - just endless slip roads off to various parts of the city. After a couple of near misses and one or two hasty changes of lane ('Same to you mate' was shouted a couple of times) I finally made it across the harbour bridge to the other side of the city.

Now came my next task - the toll road. While I was driving round the south island a new section of motorway called the 'Northern Gateway Toll Road' was opened up to the North of Auckland. On the first day it was opened there were so many cars wanting to use it that it caused tailbacks for miles. It was now my turn to use it.

I had to pay the toll first. Because it's one of these new 'state of the art' electronic tolls there is no actual toll booth on the road. Instead each cars number plate is photographed while you are driving along it and unless you have preregistered online you have 2 days to pay or face a fine. I choose to use the prepay option which meant that I had to drive into the service area just before the road started, queue at a payment machine alongside other drivers and enter my cars registration and payment. For a state of the art toll road it was a bloody long winded way to use it!

Finally I got on the road. What I saw I just could not believe. There must have been about 10 other cars on the road with me and this was still in what should have been rush hour. It was a spectacular piece of road which included a tunnel and several bridges but at a cost to build of over $365million (that's $49m per kilometre) it seemed to me to be an incredible waste of money!

Here is a link to a youtube video of some idiot kiwi who seems to be using a camcorder and commentating while he is driving on the new road - that's almost as bad as trying to read a map while driving! I like the way he nearly veers off the road while trying to turn the camera to a sideways view.

Northern Gateway Toll Road

Apparently the road does now get a lot of traffic on it, especially at weekends when bottlenecks build up as the two lanes of traffic try to merge into one lane to go through the tunnel (who the hell designs these things!)

Things I have NOT learnt:WHEN TO DO A U-TURN (part 1)
After the motorway finished I decided that I needed a spot of food to keep me going so I turned off the main road at the next town which happened to be Puhoi (don't ask me to pronounce it). Unfortunately Puhoi was just a village so had nothing in the way of eateries except for a tea room which was closed.

At this point a person with common sense would have done a U turn and headed back to the main road - but not yours truly! No, I stupidly thought that there was BOUND to be a route back onto the main road once I was through the other side of the village. Even when the road turned into a gravel track I doggedly stuck to my assumption. 4 MILES later when the gravel track turned into a dirt track I finally stopped the car and looked at my map. The map just about showed the road I was on and indicated that in another couple of miles there was indeed a way back to the main road.

I thought 'in for a penny...' so continued on my way up forest tracks, behind logging trucks and over humpback bridges until I finally came to a sealed road that headed back to the main road. One hour later I was back on my way to the North vowing never to do that again (at least until the next time).

My route


Things I have NOT learnt:WHEN TO DO A U-TURN (part 2)
On on on I drove - I was determined to at least get to Whangarai before I stopped and at about half 8 at night just as it was getting dark I arrived - hungry and exhausted. I stopped at the first motel I could find and went to reception to book in. I nearly collapsed when I heard what the price was - $110! A SENSIBLE person would have done a U TURN right back out of there. I just handed over my credit card and wearily took my stuff to the room.

It was really a family room I had booked - as they supposedly had no other rooms available. I mentally added the motel to my 'Places I am going to firebomb' list then drove into town to find something to eat. On the way I passed loads of other hotels and motels with vacancy signs up and a YHA hostel. I got a Thai Curry take away and brought it back to my room so I could gorge myself while watching idiotic American crap on the TV.

The next morning I continued on my way to the Bay of Islands vowing never to waste good money on a hotel room again on this trip.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT:
One thing I did learn after leaving Whangarai was that any place name starting with WH in New Zealand is actually pronounced as if it started with an F. This probably explains with I didn't have a clue where people were talking about when they said 'Stay away from Fangarai - its a dump!'

Kiwis - Rotorua, New Zealand

16th Feb

The one bird I had failed to see on my travels in New Zealand was of course the Kiwi.

Just outside of Rotorua is the Rainbow Springs Nature Park (right beside the Mitai Maori centre infact) where you can book onto their Kiwi Encounter. Admittedly it meant seeing the birds in captivity but it was the best chance I would get of seeing these nocturnal birds.

So on the morning of the 17th as I was leaving Rotorua I called into the park and did the tour. No photography is allowed so I can't show you any photos.

Myself and about 12 other people were given a guided tour through the facility. Eggs taken from kiwis in nature reserves across the north island are hatched in a special incubation room. The chicks are then moved a special brooder room where they are cared for before being placed in a special nocturnal enclosure. Finally the adult birds are released back into the wild. The place has managed to release over 1000 birds into the wild since it started.

It was a very informative and interesting tour, however, I found myself questioning the whole set up. The amount of money required to process each chick was quoted as several thousands of dollars. The eggs have to be flown by helicopter from the wild and the chicks flown back again using the same method. If all the money required for the process comes directly from the tours and nature park then I have no problem with it. But if other money is required (eg government grants) then I think that money could be better spent on saving the birds in the field by controlling predators and saving habitat.

After the Kiwi tour I went round the rest of the park which had other cages and enclosures with other New Zealand species including another tutuara. It also had several large pools full of fish. Unfortunately they were mostly non native rainbow trout but they did have other native species as well. They was also a farm section with sheep, chickens, pigs and goats - not really sure what that has to do with New Zealand nature!


Rainbow Trout pool

Heres the link to the website which has more info on the Kiwi and other animals.

Rainbow Springs Nature Park

Rotorua, New Zealand

15th Feb

The day after my skydive, which seems like a lifetime ago now, I headed to Rotorua which is where they have all the hot springs and geysers. Its also one of the top places for Maori culture.

On my way there I did a couple of detours. The first was to Huka falls just outside of Taupo. This is where the Waikato river, which drains lake Taupo, is funneled through a narrow gorge to create incredibly powerful rapids and falls. This one river system is able to supply 15% of the total power of New Zealand.

Bridge over troubled water?

Last and biggest falls

Some guff about the falls

It was not the most spectacular waterfalls I have seen on my trip (Iguazo falls are still to come!) but I certainly would not have liked to fall into the water none the less!

My next detour was about another 7 miles up the road - the Craters of the Moon. This is the most recently active (only started bubbling up in the 1950's) of the many thermal parks around the volcanic area of Rotorua. The park consisted of a mostly elevated walkway around hot springs, thermal vents and a couple of bubbling mudpools.

To be honest I was slightly disappointed. Most of the vents were small and looked like someone was blowing cigarette smoke out of holes in the ground. The walkways did not allow you to get close to the larger vents. A sensible precaution given that the vents shift position from time to time. Given my luck it was definitely sensible - I could just see me peering into one of the vents and ending up getting a superheated steam facial!

Open air sauna

Large steam vent

Very quick video of mudpool which I gave up on because I've seen more bubbles when I farted in a bath of dirty water!


My last stop before Rotorua was another set of thermal springs except these ones were meant to be a lot more impressive and included a geyser. However when I found out the price of the entrance and the fact that the geyser was not due to erupt until 10am the following morning I decided to give it a miss. I could always come back the next day - which unfortunately I did not do (another thing to come back and see). I did take photos of some of the carvings outside of the park.


Looks like he's having trouble - a bit of constipation perhaps?



Judging from where the cobweb is this one is constipated AND getting no action!

I drove on into town and after some extensive searching I found the hostel I had booked into - the Funky Green Voyager which had a nice laid back feel to it. The manager (whose name I forget) was very helpful in finding me things to do around Rotorua. As I was in the heart of Maori culture I decided to book myself onto a traditional Maori Hangi banquet and show at the Mitai (pronounced like the cocktail - so it must be good!) Maori centre that night.

At 8pm a bus picked myself and 5 other people from the hostel up and took us to the centre. There were loads of people there - at least 100 all in a large marquis. After some Maori greetings from the host (and a couple of well earned beers) it was time for the banquet. For a traditional hangi meal all the food is cooked underground in a large pit. We were all taken out to see the food being uncovered before being served:


Uncovering the food for the Hangi meal

The meal was great with Beef, lamb and Chicken with loads of potatoes and lots of salad. I had not eaten that well for several days!

After the meal we were all lead down to the local sacred stream to see some Maoris paddle up in a war canoe (called a waka)

Statue on way to river:

I always wondered what happened to Beavis!

Oxford boat crew relaxing on their day off?


Then it was back up to a large theatre for the main performance of the night. It was here in front of a backdrop of a traditional Maori village that the Maori men and women performed a selecton of songs and dances culminating in their tribes own Haka.




'Oh bugger I just followed through'


Tapanga two heads was the star of the show!

Finally, to end off the night we went back down to the river to be shown glowworms and the sacred spring of the tribe. Water companies have offered millions to the tribe to get their hands on the water that bubbles out from this spring as its some of the purest in the world. I just liked the big eels that swam around it.



Although at times some of this show seemed to be a bit tacky it was still good to see and quite enjoyable. They also were able to make light of some parts of their traditions (eg the fact that instead of disfiguring their faces with tattoos they used paint instead for these ceremonies) while keeping faithful to their ways.

However, they didn't know how to make a Mai Tai cocktail!

Hola again

Hi everyone - I've been back in 'sunny' Ireland for more than a week now and its only now that I have gotten sufficient time to even look back at my blog and hopefully continue it on from where I left off.

So here's a quick summary of the story so far:

Croatian vultures, beer,
South African bush fires, beer,
lions, rhinos, elephants and horses, beer
great white sharks, beer + picaso shots
cape town township tours, wine tours & milky beer,
Australian marsupials, very cold beer
Sydney wine tours,
Great ocean road trips, beer
Melbourne xmas, new year, beer
New Zealand - pulling up pines, Ale and wine tours
Glacial walks, beer
Swimming with dolphins, beer
Black water rafting, water (ha fooled ya - it was actually beer!)
Skydiving, LOTS of BEER

I hope that brings everybody up to date - now lets continue our story....

Last post

Hi

I am afraid that I have been unable to get sufficient time on internet due to every other tosspot wanting to use the computers in the hostels I am staying in. So I won´t be able to do any more posting until I get home.

Rest assured that I will complete the blog when I get home - if only to remind me what I did before the rest of my brain becomes sozzled with alcohol.

As the job situation is so bad back home in Ireland I was thinking of doing the following blogs as follow-ups.

Rays Job Market Travels
Rays Road Sweeping Travels
and
Rays Bin Hoking Travels

Hasta Luega

Bad News for blog

Things I have Lost/Broken/had stolen

Another set back in me doing the blog I'm afraid. I no longer have my powerlead for my laptop which means that I can no longer use it to do posts. I either left it in my hostel in Iquazu falls or it was taken from my bag when I came out of the bus station in Buenos Aires. I had my first run-in with thieves when I was walking from the bus station to the subway.

I was just merrily walking along when I noticed my shadow consisted of an extra person attached to my backpack. I swung round to see a guy skulk off quickly in the opposite direction. On investigation I discovered he had zipped open my daypack attachment on my larger rucksack. I was actually quite chuffed with myself for stopping a potential robbery and anyway all he would have gotten from that bag was a bottle of clothes washing liquid, several pairs of smelly socks and a headtorch.

It was only later on that I remembered I had placed my laptop power lead in there and it was now no longer there. Not sure what the thief is going to be able to with UK power lead but I hope he tries to change the wires and electrocutes himself in the process - BASTARD.

Its a bit too late to buy another lead now - especially as it will have an Argentine end so I am just going to wait until I get back home to buy a replacement.

I can still write posts on the blog but unfortunately without photos which are all on my now dead laptop.

Things I have learnt
Watch your shadow very closely when walking around with a rucksack. Always look in mirrors or shop windows when you are walking around with a rucksack. Try to have a lock or tied ends for your zips when walking around with a rucksack. Lastly ALWAYS ensure that you have used underwear at the top of your rucksack.

Skydive - Taupo, New Zealand

13th-15th Feb



Unlike Turangi Taupo is set up for adrenaline and partying with the largest lake in New Zealand thrown in as a backdrop. I booked into the tiki lodge backpackers and while doing so asked if it was possible to do a skydive tomorrow. 'No problem' she said 'Just come down tomorrow morning and we will sort you out' GULP! I went up to my room and had a lie down.

At about 5pm one of the people in my dorm turned up and intorduced himself as Paul from Scotland. He had just done the skydive and said it was the best experience ever. I told him I was going to book one the next morning but he persuaded me to go online and book one straight away - before they got booked out. I duely did that and then met him at the local Irish bar for a couple of pints and food. Well when I say a couple I mean a couple of couple of couple of pints. We got talking to a couple (not pints but people this time - although I probably was talking to my pint by the end of the night) from Scotland who had also just done the skydive.

The next morning I said goodbye to Paul who was, coincidently, heading to South America - my next port of call. He also went and bought the exact same hiking boots as me in the same shop in Christchurch on around the same time
SPOOKY!

I settled down to wait for my skydive which was not until 2pm - nearly 4 hours away. At 12 o'clock I rang the company to confirm that I would be doing the skydive (nearly chickened out) and was promptly asked if I could come earlier. Hell yes lets get this over and done with.

At 1 o'clock I was picked up by the skydiving company's shuttle (another Scot only this one did not have the same footwear as me - so it wasn't spooky). I was soon at the skydive site getting weighted. 90 KILOS! All I can say is that I was wearing a lot of clothes that day - honest! I had also to decide which option to pick for the jump 12,000 or 15,000 and whether I wanted a cameraman to jump with us. I decided to go with the full works - 15,000 plus cameraman. What the hell you only live once (not the best thing to think of at that moment).

After all the paperwork (disclaimer, next of kin etc) I was lead through to wait for my jump and wait I did. I think I spent about an hour in the hanger as jump after jump went ahead - I even had time to go online and update my facebook status:

Raymond Finn is waiting at the skydive centre so he can be thrown out of a plane at 15,000 feet - OH BUGGER!!

Finally it was my turn and I got kitted up with all the gear. I was going up with a swiss couple and an English girl who was petrified which actually made me feel alot better. Off we went to the plane - all 12 of us and there was lierally no more room on the plane for anybody else. As we flew higher the skydivers were all joking and taking footage on their camcorders. At one point my tandem partner said we were 1/3 of the way there. I nearly fainted when I looked down at the trees and Lake Taupo below us - 1/3!!! When we still had about 5,000ft to go everybody got serious and we were stapped into our tandem harness - which meant basically sitting on my instructors lap - very cosy.

Finally we got to our height and the doors were opened. I was the last one to go - after the English girl. I had to turn my head and smile at the inside camera as my legs dangled out of the plane at 15,000 ft!

Before I could say I DON'T WANT TO DO IT! My instructor had flung us out of the plane and we were somersaulting through the air. I can't remember anything about the first 5 seconds but eventually I realised what was happening as I peered down at the lake and mountains below us. It was a spectular view and took my breathe away. My instructor had to grab my head so I could look at the cameraman as all 3 of us fell at 200kph. I was having a ball and started to relax - I even jokingly started to swim through the air.

All too soon the parachute opened and we started drifting down. My instructor had to adjust my harness which meant that I had to drop slightly in the seat - That was pretty scary! After that we started drifting down to ground. Every now and then he would make us twirl around in the air which meant we floated down even faster. I was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable in my harness (lets just say it was crushing a couple of things) so I was quite happy when we landed with abump - my instructor made a bit of a balls of the landing and we ended up on our arse.

I was still full of adrenalin for the next 10 minutes as we went and seen our dvds before purchasing. I had to hang around for my shuttle which was the same Scot. On the way back he told me of an English pub along the front which had the best pint of Guinness in Taupo. So once I got dropped off I made my way there and had a local pint instead with my staple bangers and mash.

That night I proudly put on my free Skydive teeshirt (Well you would expect something free after handing nover nearly $500NZ!) and went back to the Irish bar. I was soon surrounded by a bus load of KIWI Experience people and ended up with another night on the tear.

The skydive was probably one of the best things I have ever done and I would certainly do it again if I got the chance.

Here's the photos - even though I've put them up already!

Black Water Rafting - Waitomo, New Zealand

13th Feb

It took me just over 2 hours to get to Waitomo from Turangi so I had over an hour to kill before my 'Black Water rafting began'. I took a quick trip to the main visitor centre of the town and ambled round their exhibtion. Interesting enough but a bit too based towards the geological side of things (I suppose it had to be - its caves after all!)

At 1pm I met up with my fellow cohorts and we started getting into our gear which consisted of the obiligatory wetsuit, helmet with headtorch, boots and, rather surprisingly shorts which you put on over the wetsuit - apparently to protect your bum.


Me in my S&M gear - now where would an S&M person stick their mouse i wonder?

After a couple of photos off we went in the bus to the actual caves. First we had to get our inner tube ring which we would be using:


Everybodies bum looks big in an inner tube!

Then we had to all practise one of the things we would be doing in the caves which consisted off a sort of sit-down conga chain:


The reason shall become apparent later on.


Finally but by no means least we had to practise our waterfall jumps. It was at this point I started to realise that this was not going to be your normal 'cave tubing' where you just gently float down a river through a cave. No, in this one you had to jump off, backwards, holding your tube off a couple of small waterfalls and to make sure we knew what to do we had to do a practise jump of a small platform they had erected.

Practise dive - not me as I was wearing a blue helmet


Not me either - I wasn't wearing blue boots!

Naturally I made a pigs ear of it by jumping out too far. Then when I surfaced from my drowning I started floating past the get out point and had to frantically grab for somebodys hand to be pulled back.

Finally it was on to the cave system. We had to climb down steep rocks to get into the caves and then clamber over more rocks in the caves before we got to our first rafting section. As I said this was no ordinary cave tubing which actually made it a lot better. Our first raft was in quite shallow water and only lasted for a bout 20 metres. Then we had to get back to our feet (not an easy thing to do from sitting in a inner tube) and continue on through more rocks.


The gang in the caves

Time for our first waterfall jump which I managed to do slightly better than my first attempt. After that we did some more rafting through water with very little headroom to the top of the cave.

Then we came to a section of cave where there appeared to be tiny LED lights above our heads. Our guides told everybody to turn our headtorches off. Up above us shone the glowworms. It was magical to see - although in this section there wasn't that many off them but we were quite close to them. One of our guides gave a talk about the worms (they are infact insect larva) before getting everyone to turn their torches back on. We were able to make out the long dangly silk threads that the worms hang below themselves in order to catch their prey.

Further on the cave system started to open out in to large caverns with glowworms twinkling at the top. It was an incredible sight. We did our second waterfall jump which was slightly more dangerous than the first one as you had to keep to one side of the cave before jumping. If you didn't you fell down a big hole in the water. You also had to make sure you didn't bang your head while doing the jump.

Finally it was time for our caperpiller conga line. We all had to line up behind one another with our legs under the arms of the person infront off us. There was a rope at the side of the cave which made getting it all organised a lot easier. Once this was done we started floating down the caves and then our guide told everybody to turn their headtorches off again.

It was then I realised what the conga was for. Our guide could drag all of us through a section of cave in the dark while we could stare up at the glowworms above us. This cave section had much more glowworms in it and they were far above us. It was like looking at a starlit night - a really unforgettable experience.

After some more rafting down sections were I was never able to steer myself properly and even ended up backwards in some places we ended our trip. We went back to the centre for showers and some soup. I bought the photo CD as it didn't cost too much - unlike some of the trips I had been on in the South Island.

The blackwater rafter was a really wonderful experience to do and was nothing like what I expected. A slight disclaimer on the sequence of the events which I might have gotten slightly the wrong way around because its so long ago now scince I did it.

No such worries with my next experience where just consisted off two things - up then down - VERY FAST. On to Taupo for the skydive!

Some more images from the CD (not taken on our trip I hasten to add)





Featured animal: New Zealand Glowworm

Firstly IT IS AN ANIMAL. If there's one thing that annoys me its people who think that the animal kingdom stops at beasts with 4 legs or a backbone.

As was said the glowworms are not really glowworms at all but larva of the fungus gnat which set up shop in not just caves but in hollow trees and alongside riverbanks. I think glowworm is a slightly nicer term than fungus gnat! They spin sticky silk threads which they hang down below them in order to trap flying insects which are attracted to their glow. Interestingly the glow is produced by waste products which is another nice way of saying that their shit glows (something I'm pretty sure I have been able to do after a night of drinking Newcastle brown ale and an indian curry).

After they pupate they turn into the adult flying form which can no longer eat and whose sole purpose is to mate, lay eggs and die - must be some shag!

Anyway heres the wikipedia crap (pardon the pun) on them. New Zealand Glowworms

Turangi, New Zealand

12th - 13th Feb
I had a long drive to my next stop in Turangi where I intended to do the famous Tongariro crossing (well Lloyd said it was famous!) This one day trek is rated as the best in New Zealand and takes you past the volcanoes of Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngaurahoe (which is active and which you can climb to the top of if you want).

You can also see the volcanoe Mt Ruapehu which famously erupted in 1995/6 - right in the middle of the ski season:


1995 Eruption (nicked off the web)

I actually drove past the volcanoes on the way to Turangi:


Mt Ruapehu

Mt Ngaurahoe

And as I did I heard a loud explosion and saw this below mount Mt Ngaurahoe:



I near did the proverbial in my pants thinking the bleeding volcanoe was erupting until I realised that I was near an army training camp and the explosion must be a shell going off. What sort of army explodes bombs near active volcanoes?!

I arrived at Turangi and was lucky enough to get the last dorm bed in riverstone backpackers. I asked the manager about the crossing to which he replied 'you have no chance! its going to rain heavily for the next 2 days!' I also asked him about skydiving in Taupu which he also said was highly unlikely for the next couple of days.

BLOODY NEW ZEALAND WEATHER!! Secretly I was thinking 'good I have an excuse not to do the skydiving!' That night I went to the supermarket and got some provisions and then walked round the town - when I say town its really a village with absolutely nothing in it. I had arrived too late for finding out anything else to do from the local tourist office. They did however have '24 hour touch screen facilities'. One slight problem with that - the touch screen was in the closed office!


24 hour touchscreens - for burglers!

In the hostel I met two Irish girls who were into caving (one of them works in Marble Arch Caves back home in Ireland). They had just come from Waitomo were they had spent 3 days doing all sorts of different caving trips (all for free - sort of a busmans holiday for them). They said I had to go there and do some 'black water rafting'. I had Waitomo penciled in on my itinery anyway so got more details about the best trip to do when I was there.

The next day was supposed to be my trek but instead I drove to the ski village of Whakapapa (pronounced Whack a papa?) which I was told had a good visitors centre. I was also going to try to do some walking around some of the marked tracks at the village. Instead when I got there (passing by the start point for the crossing) the heavens opened up and all I could really do was go to the visitor centre which was pretty good and had a decent display about the 1995/6 Ruapehu eruption


Start of the crossing - I am sure you csan make out the volcanoes!


Golf course just before Whakapapa village - I bet there was somebody out there playing a round of golf!

After my excursion I headed back to hostel and spent the rest of the afternoon inside watching the monsoon that was happening outside. I booked myself onto the blackwater rafting the next day as it was not dependent on rain and then settled down for a boring night of tv and blogging.

The next morning I awoke to find out that rather than the expected second day of rain the sun was splitting the trees! Typical. At 9.30 I said goodbye to the two Irish girls who were heading down to Wellington and headed for my black water rafting in Waitomo.

Heres the website for the Tongariro cross: What I DID NOT SEE