NZ Tripping

[Slick]

Well, you've been waiting for it (I think) and here it is, photos and all. This, incase you haven't already realised, is my two week trip to NZ, taking in alot of scenery, theme parks, and fart tax (more on that later). Day 1 Alright so we got to Auckland airport finding out that we were now jetlagged by 3 hours ahead in a time warp so we went to my auntie's house (which is a lovely house near blucklands beach) and spent the night there. Day 2 So after eating breakfast and whatnot, we started our 3000km journey down the north island, and our first stop was none other than Stinky Rotorura (god bless that sulphur). We walked around, did a bit of sight-seeing and then headed to see a whole heep of relatives which i played mini-golf with until 8:30pm at night. This was weird because the sun in NZ doesn't go down until 10:30pm at night during summer. Day 3 This was probably one of the climaxes of the trip for me. This 1/2 theme park located about 500 metres up on top of a mountain is called SkyWay. First, you buy a ticket for the SkyWay chairlift, which takes you from sea level, all the way up. Then, you buy more tickets to go on the Luge, and this place, was something. I have been to what the locals call the Luge before, but was too young to go on the steel track, which was unfortunately permantly closed when i got there, but you get that seeming it went something like 70km down the mountain . Alright, back to topic, there are 3 tracks, scenic (which is slow and boring, that's why it's called scenic), intermmediate (yeah it's alright, a bit of fun with a bit of scenery, which replaced that steel track, damn it) and the advanced track (this baby rocks, it splits, there's obstacles.......oh yeah baby). All tracks are made of reinforced conrete which is nice until they lie and you're on some crappy old tarmac pathway(hehe). They also had a big shot (unfortunately i didn't go on that one, but i got a Quikctime video of it.) And so that was half of the day gone, after that, we did a whole bunch of sightseeing, like those steamy geisers and stuff like that. And so the journey goes on.... and i'm now taking a brake, so you going to have to wait for Part 2,3,4,5,6............. and so on. ;)Videos, and pictures are in the next post.

[Slick]

Is everyone dead now or don't want to spend 30 seconds making a post..... Please guys, feedback!!

[screammachine]

Sounds like you had a great time down in NZ. I have relatives who just recently moved down their. I think their in Auckland but i'm not 100% sure on that. Can't wait to see the pics , It looks like a beautiful country. The Big Shot attraction you talk about. Is it a Freefall ride? I'l do some research on the place tonite... Can't wait for the rest of it... Screammachine

[Gazza]

Are you going to rainbows end? I might be going to NZ at the end of this year. A couple of questions.. Do you need a passport coming from Australia? Do you need any special driving licences or is an Australian licence valid there? On the luge, how do they take the little car things back to the top?

[Slick]

Alright then, guess it's time for Part 2 of NZ tripping. This time, instead of going day by day, i'll just let the whole thing flow..... Alright so by this time we had left smelly old Rotorura and went further south, down to hastings, a very respected wine town which has a very nice water park indeed. Unfortunately by this time I could only walk around the entrance, as the park was closed, and add to the fact that the charger for the camera was nowhere to be seen, I wasn't able to take any photos, BUT, i was able to get a brochure which lead to a site which had photos, so I guess you have photos in the end. Now, after spending new years eve flicking between channels etc. etc., we travelled down to our final southern city, Wellington. Wellington was nice and peaceful, considering the fact that because of New Years, the only place that was open in the city was literally macca's, or should i say, mercdornelds........ So it was pretty peaceful there, apart from the big shot they had there, which is the same as the one on the gold coast, and in auckland city, which i reckon is weird, coz they have one pissweak park and a large number of big shots...... right........ So after doing the tourist thing some more we were on our journey back north, stopping at Taupo. Now, one funny thing about taupo was that us ozzies at a bit of a amusing cultural clash. So we stopped at this nationally renouned Cafe nursery place (a cafe which sells trees basically) and walked in to get a coffee and a coke. We walked up to the counter and the lady said all the usual stuff and then said "would you like to try our fresh ginger & peeerrrr muffins sir?" Whoa? "Sorry, what did you say?" "You know, ginger and peeer!" "Sorry, what was that last word?"............... At this point she was making a whole lot of hand gestures and funny stressed noise which was quite amusing to watch now that i think about it. Finally after ranting and raving, one of the ozzie waitressess stepped in and said "sorry sir, she means pear, ginger and perrrrrrrrrrr......" Alright so we are now at Taupo, and what was I lucky enough to see and ride? A nice aqquainted.... errr.... well it was a roller coaster that looks like the Metropolitan i think at Luna Park Melbourne.... you know...... the... errr.... galaxy.....err..... SPC something arada...... Anyways, like I said before, the camera was dead, so i wasn't able to take any photos of this rollercoaster, but we all know what it looks like anyway.... So after hitting Rainbows's End back in Auckland (which will be in the next post) we went up to Matouri Bay, which is where my Uncle works and lives. Here's a history lesson for anyone reading, does anyone remember the rainbow warrior that was sunk by the french? Well it was sunk just a 1km out from Matouri Bay as a natural reef and coincidentally, my uncle's work is diving the rainbow warrior, cool...... The only bad thing about this was that he was a bit too busy for us to go on a private session but my uncle knew a bunch of really nice millionares (coincidence again) WHO OWNED THEIR OWN ISLAND, HOW COOL IS THAT? And even cooler, WE GOT TO STAY THERE FOR A NIGHT!! WoW! And i got photos of all this aswell..... But unfortunately, all trips have to come to an end, and so did ours, but something still remians, Rainbow's End...... don't worry, another post away! Cya Soon!