Nov 06

As ever I haven’t stopped to catch my breath these past few days! I am currently in Kaikoura. Friends who have known me a long time know how much I have wanted to come back to Kaikoura and this is really the reason why I came travelling. It has changed a lot since I was last year but it isn’t spoilt as I had feared. The paintings are still on the buildings! I spent yesterday day seal watching (well, really you just smell them out and then you spot them) and walking the beach. Today I was booked to swim with the dolphins and go whale watching in a plane but both got cancelled because of the wind. However, I got to watch Hectors dolphins (the smallest dolphins in the world) from the beach so all wasn’t lost and there is always tomorrow!

As soon as I had done my skydive (still feel as if I haven’t come back down to earth yet) I visited the mountains nearby - my favourite being Mount Ruapehu.

I then travelled State Highway 43 aka The Forgotten World Highway. It certainly lives up to its name. Afterwards I read that you should allow 5 hours to do this trip but I didn’t start it until 5.30pm! I didn’t see hardly anyone during the drive - 12km was unsealed and 30km of road works! I was extremely tired once I finally got to New Plymouth.

I spent a day at New Plymouth - mostly fascinated by the Wind Wand then drove to Wellington via Palmerston North. I spent the day at Te Papa - a fantastic museum.

The ferry crossing over to Picton was very relaxing and I spent a couple of nights in Nelson. I was very lucky to be able to go kayaking on the Abel Tasman. It is such a beautiful place and certainly one of my highlights. However the wind picked up throughout the day making the sea extremely rough. Despite us all being strong kayakers we didn’t make the full 13km because of the wind. However, I did get to kayak with lots of seals and to some remote beaches and saw 'Split Apple Rock'

It was close to Nelson where I found one of my favourite beaches of the trip - on Rabbit Island. I had the whole island to myself - pure heaven!

As promised here are a couple of extra photos of my recent travels:

View from Mt Maunganui that I climbed

Rush hour in New Zealand. So far I have had sheep, cows, horses, goats and even pigs block the road so far!

East Cape, North Island - the first place to see the sunrise each morning

My time behind bars in Napier

Kelly the Common dolphin I swam by myself with

And finally congratulations to my friends Erin and James who have just had their first baby - a gorgeous boy! Can’t wait to see you three!

Can you believe it! I just did a tandem skydive in Taupo and did the highest jump - 15000 feet!!!! It is one of the best things I have ever done. Free falling for 60 seconds is the best feeling. It wasn't scary at all and actually very relaxing! It doesn't sound possible. Plus I got amazing views of the North Island. I was extremely lucky as the weather is now turning and jumping has been cancelled this afternoon and was yesterday as well.
No doubt I shall bore you all with the DVD and all the photographs when I get home!

As you could guess from my previous entry that I visited Omakere School, the school that class 2 at Somerleyton School were emailing. It was lovely to put names to faces and to see the differences between New Zealand and England curriculum. It was also great to be in a classroom again!
I'm now off to New Plymouth and to see the West side of North Island.

Ethan,Blake,Emma,Lottie and Hannah say hello from Omakere school we are all year 8's except Blake. Blake is a year 7. We have 57 people at our school. Most people come to school on the bus and some of us are on the bus for nearly an hour.

As I am not having much luck so far with swimming with a dolphin in the wild I decided to swim with a dolphin in Napier’s 'Marine land'. I swam with 'Kelly' a 37 year old Common dolphin. I didn't realize that I would be the only person in the pool with Kelly, let alone be the only guest in the whole park as it was two hours before opening time. I had a great time playing with Kelly - chasing each other, playing with the balls and generally checking each other out. I then got to have my own private viewing of the other animals - seals/sea lions, gannets, and blue penguins (sorry Gill - more penguins I'm seeing without you!). What a fantastic way to start the day.
Keep an eye out at the end of the week for my next adventure!

...luckily it has been turned into a Backpackers! I had a cell to myself. It wasn't actually as scary as I'd thought and had a fantastic night sleep, so much so that I'm spending another night there. Needless to say though that I'm not going to take up a life of crime! The prison was only decommissioned in 1993 but it is a very privative prison - especially the showers!
I’ve been doing lots of driving recently. I left Rotorua and went to Whakatane where I got amazing views of White Island - New Zealand’s active volcano. I then did the East Cape drive along State Highway 35. Not many tourists do this drive and I hardly saw anyone! I went to the East Cape Lighthouse - the most easterly point on New Zealand. I stayed the night close by and got up the next morning at 5am as this is the first place in the world to see the sun! I then drove to Whangara where the Whale Rider was filmed. I haven't seen the film yet but the book is fantastic. I spent the day in Gisborne before driving to Napier. A very long drive to do in two days!
I love Napier with its Art Deco buildings. Its beautiful and sunny here - can’t wait to see more!

I’m now in Rotorua having spent a lovely time driving along the Pacific Coast Highway to The Coromandel. I stayed at Hahei very close to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. I was extremely lucky with the weather as it had been awful the day before. However, it was beautiful weather the next morning and I managed to go kayaking to Cathedral Cove - something I'd always wanted to do. Sea kayaking was wonderful - I forgot just how much I'd missed kayaking. Cathedral Cove was beautiful and hardly any one was there. We also visited a couple of the islands, Gemstone Bay and saw several rays at Stingray Bay. We even managed to kayak with penguins! That afternoon I walked to all the places again and visited Hot Water Beach - where you dig a hole in the sand and have a hot water bath!

I walked the Karangahake Gorge where it was the first time I have actually been nervous walking by myself - part of the walk was down a 1km (didn’t know this at the time) pitch black tunnel where I couldn't even see my feet! Very scary but glad I did it! I visited Tauranga and climbed Mount Maunganui then drove to Rotorua. Since being here I’ve visited Te Puia, The Buried Village and Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and have seen many geysers, cultural performances and thermal activity. Today I'm going to relax in a hot mud bath! So all in all a stressful holiday!

Look closely and you can just about see me jumping!

Near the Bay of Islands

Dolphin watching in the Bay of Islands

Can’t miss a photograph of lambs as they are everywhere!

Cape Reinga lighthouse to show how far away from you all are!

The meeting of the two seas - this was amazing to see!

Kayaking to Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove

Geyser in Rotorua (Te Puia)

Thermal activity at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Ps - I'm withholding the best photographs to bore you with when I get home!

I’ve just spent a relaxing few days up North staying in Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands. Here I did many walks to various waterfalls and beaches, visited some cultural sites and went on two boat trips around the Bay of Islands. The reason for two trips was my attempt to swim with dolphins. The first trip we didn’t see any and the second trip (luckily this one was free) we saw lots – even a day old baby dolphin. However, as there were babies in the pod we were unable to swim with them. Fingers crossed for my next attempt somewhere else in New Zealand!
I then travelled further north (after travelling to as many beaches as possible on the way) to stay in Kaitaia and went up to the most northerly point of New Zealand – Cape Reinga. I thought the place was going to be very tacky but was pleasantly surprised. We had beautiful weather and I loved watching the two oceans meet. We then drove for an hour down Ninety Mile Beach and went sand tobogganing! I drove 1600km over the few days – hiring the car was certainly the best decision! After spending time in Auckland again I am on my way to the Coromandel.
Photographs of my Auckland Sky Jump (look on the internet to see just how big the tower is!)

Ps – photographs will be on the way soon!