Adrenalin Junkie??

Hi everyone!

My time in New Zealand has been action packed since I last posted.  New Zealand is the home of adrenaline junkies, and I have to say I am getting quite a taste for it!  The faster, the higher, the louder, all the better!  Although it is quite an expensive habit to take up, so I think I may have to going start cold turkey soon.

From Auckland I headed north to the appropriately named North Land, and more specifically, the Bay of Islands.  On route, I stopped at a marine reserve to view the under water world from a glass bottom boat which was really cool.  The water was so clear.  We didn't get to see the abundance of wildlife that are normally seen in the area as the tides and fish were behaving 'unusual' due to the tsunami causing surges.  You might think what the hell is she doing getting on a boat when the tsunami is around, but you really couldn't notice these so called surges unless you were an expert.  Anyone expecting to see a giant wave approaching would have been disappointed.  By the way, thank you all for your concern, about my well being during the tsunami, but it had no affect here really and I knew nothing about it until I woke to a worried text from my Mum!

So the Bay of Islands is where the adventurous activities begin.  I took a trip called 'dune rider' to the very far north of Northland to Cape Reinga.  In order to reach this we travelled along '90 mile' beach on the big 'dune rider bus/lorry hybrid'.  The beach is actually 64 miles to be specific, but named 90 miles as the best estimate by farmers who used to transport their sheep along this stretch of beach which took them about 3 days.  In the bus/lorry hybrid, it only took us about 1.5 hours, but despite the rather overcast day, it really was an awesome drive, the beach was really wide and it just stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions.  At the end of 90 mile beach a set of massive sand dunes were waiting for us to 'board' them.  This was so much fun, although I only managed to go 3 or 4 times as the climb to the top of the dune carrying the board made your legs and lungs burn, it was hard work!  To dune board, you take a mini surf board, lay on it on your front and some gives you a push and off you go down the steep dune using your feet to steer and brake.  My first run involved me getting rather wet as I had a bumpy landing into the stream at the bottom, but for the attempts after that I soon had the art of elegantly aquaplaning across the stream to see how far I get my board to go.  I did pretty well I think, although the driver kindly informed me, some people have an advantage over others, and it may not have been my skill to do this, but more that I had a bit of weight behind me!

While in the Bay of Islands, I also hoped on a boat to swim with Dolphins.  Finding the dolphins was pretty easy, but keeping up with them in the water was real hard work.  When I filled in the usual disclaimer at the beginning of the trip to sign my life away with no responsibility on the organiser, I ticked 'yes I am a confident swimmer'.....I'm not great, and can't do front crawl, but I thought I'm sure its the just the usual over cautious questions and I'll be fine.  Turns out they ask that for a reason, snorkeling out in the open sea with no life jacket, chasing dolphins and working against the waves the boat is making, wearing flippers is pretty hard work!  Especially when my swimming style tends to be to kick with one leg and do frogs leg with the other....Jodie and Lucy, stop laughing.....I'm still scared from the mocking!!!

I finished my stay in the Bay of Islands with a 15k walk to see Haruka waterfalls which turned out to be not all that impressive as the river was quite low, but it was still a nice walk anyway.  Then it was time to head back South to Auckland and begin my travelling around the North Island. 

The first couple of stops around the North Island were to beach towns.  The coastline here is absolutely beautiful and stunning to look at.  I've only stayed one night at each of the beaches as these are more appealing to surfers.  Whilst I'm up for doing all the adventure stuff, I'm sticking to things that require no skill and only need a pair of balls, so to speak.  I don't think I'd stand much chance at being able to stand on a surf board.  Especially seeings as I got taken out by a unexpected wave and saw my life flash in front of eyes whilst I was just paddling in the sea at Raglan! 

On leaving Raglan, I headed to Waitomo caves where I signed up to the Tumi Tuni Toobing adventure.  Seeing as EVERYONE goes toobing in Loas and I didn't, I was well up for this to make up for it, and I think was a much better toobing adventure!  It was great fun!  The hardest bit was probably getting into the wet suit, and once this was achieved, the adventure began, looking super stylish of course!  We ventured down into the caves and spent about 2 hours navigating our way around with just the glow worms lighting the way.  We walked through sections, swam though sections and laid on inner tubes through sections.  The most fun/scary part was climbing up the cave wall and launching me and my inner tube into the water by jumping backwards from about 5ft up.  The guide said I had a good technique but he was laughing as he said it, so I'm thinking it was more like a drowning blimp technique!

Yesterday I arrived in Lake Taupo and I decided to stay here a couple of days as I wanted to ensure I had a good weather day for the ultimate action adventure.......yep today I went up 15,000ft into a plane and launched myself out of it.....a sky dive.  This was the most amazing thing I have ever done, it felt brilliant.  Quite literally a 'I'm on top of the world feeling'.  As soon as I had done it, I wanted to do it again and again.  For those that are interested, I have posted the DVD of the dive on to Facebook.  If you ever get the chance to do it, you really should, nothing else in the world feels like it.

I'm absolutely loving my time in New Zealand, the Kiwis are so friendly, there are so many activities to do and the landscape is spectacular.  I'm also enjoying doing my own thing and not being part of a tour group anymore as it enables me to have so much more independence with how long I want to spend in a town, what hostel I stay at etc.  I've posted several photos on facebook, but these, and my blurb above, really don't do NZ justice.  It is a great place, and I have done and seen so much in the couple of weeks that I have been here, that I can't talk about it all!  Its great!

So that's a little snippet of what I have been up to....hmmm what shall I do tomorrow....?  Urm, I think some white water rafting tomorrow, and then time to do something more sedate on the next day....I think it will be the 17KM hike over the Tongariro crossing!

Take care everyone.  Sending lots of love to you.  Keep letting me know the gossip.

Love from

Katrina x x x x