Monday 21 June 2010
Pastures New
So this is it, my last night in New Zealand, and I'm ready to head, not off to Chile, but to Guatemala. Yes I have perfect comic timing having booked my flights 2 days before a volcano erupted closing Guatemala City airport and 4 days before a tropical cyclone caused widespread havoc (and a very interesting sink-hole in Guatemala City). However now armed with my mosquito net, yellow fever certificate (thanks Mum!) and a fully functional backpack (after an hour or so with a needle and thread), I feel ready to take on the world! But I'll start with Guatemala I think.
Saturday 19 June 2010
Up In the Air...
Quite a few days have been spent in Taupo. Some intentionally, some not so. When we arrived in Taupo we found it to be wet and windy, and very cold overnight. Apparently these are less than ideal conditions for jumping out of an aeroplane. Not that I'd ever really considered whether you needed ideal conditions if you are crazy enough to do this. I apparently am. Crazy that is. And using my birthday money for its intended purpose I booked a skydive, that was put off, and put off and put off until the clouds cleared and the wind dropped!
So sitting in the plane knowing what I'm about to do, and rather calm and excited (as well as very cold - it was about 4 degrees C on the ground, -17 by the time I jumped - seriously I was just desperate to get out of that cold!) as everyone stares at me (last in, first out and facing the opposite direction to everyone else chilling on the floor of the plane).
Then we get to the correct height, rather higher than the clouds, and the door opens. Now this was the only point at which I was scared. The reason? There was nothing between me and a long drop - I was sitting right on the edge! Then sanity regained - I was about to jump out of this door, so why was it so scary that there was no barrier? Silly me! So we went, and fell for a few seconds, and then we were floating on a cushion of (very cold) air - albeit whilst falling at about 200 kph - but still the sensation was one of floating, not falling. When the parachute finally opened it was as if someone was lifting me off the air-cushion and we floated serenely down to earth taking in the sights of snow-capped volcanoes (including Mount Doom!), steam vents all around and the deep blue of Lake Taupo. Back on solid ground 4 degrees suddenly didn't feel so cold, but my teeth certainly did from the crazy grin I had on my face the whole way down! If only it wasn't so expensive...
The next day we went on a rather more sedate air-
trip in a helicopter over Huka Falls. That was once we'd scraped the thick frost off the car. We had an amazing view of low-lying cloud due to the steam venting from around Taupo, and this steam following the river down, but seeming to flow into the lake whereas the river flowed out. We continued the perfectly still day with blue skies all around with a trip to see the volcanoes, covered in fresh snow, and found plenty of snow to play with ourselves - Matt made his first snowman and threw his first snowball, and discovered that snow is not only "cold", but also "wet", his surprise and enjoyment providing me with hours of amusement.
We then planned to head to Rotorua, only an hours drive North of Taupo. We got nearly halfway and broke down. After being towed back to Taupo we spent the next couple of days with a mechanic trying to find an alternator. Finally admitting defeat and faced with a weekend the mechanic charged our battery and sent us on our way to the larger town of Rotorua where we had a very successful afternoon in the industrial estate and a very strange evening in a Wild West themed backpackers.
This morning we enjoyed the best of Rotorua by soaking in the hot pools of the Polynesian Spa, watching the steam dance across the water of the pools and vent across the lake. It almost makes the all-pervading smell of sulphur worthwhile. And now we are in a very cosy hostel up on the Coromandel Peninsula knowing the end to my New Zealand adventures is nearly here. Only 2 more days before I'm back in the air, hopefully this time staying in the plane until it lands!
So sitting in the plane knowing what I'm about to do, and rather calm and excited (as well as very cold - it was about 4 degrees C on the ground, -17 by the time I jumped - seriously I was just desperate to get out of that cold!) as everyone stares at me (last in, first out and facing the opposite direction to everyone else chilling on the floor of the plane).
Then we get to the correct height, rather higher than the clouds, and the door opens. Now this was the only point at which I was scared. The reason? There was nothing between me and a long drop - I was sitting right on the edge! Then sanity regained - I was about to jump out of this door, so why was it so scary that there was no barrier? Silly me! So we went, and fell for a few seconds, and then we were floating on a cushion of (very cold) air - albeit whilst falling at about 200 kph - but still the sensation was one of floating, not falling. When the parachute finally opened it was as if someone was lifting me off the air-cushion and we floated serenely down to earth taking in the sights of snow-capped volcanoes (including Mount Doom!), steam vents all around and the deep blue of Lake Taupo. Back on solid ground 4 degrees suddenly didn't feel so cold, but my teeth certainly did from the crazy grin I had on my face the whole way down! If only it wasn't so expensive...The next day we went on a rather more sedate air-
trip in a helicopter over Huka Falls. That was once we'd scraped the thick frost off the car. We had an amazing view of low-lying cloud due to the steam venting from around Taupo, and this steam following the river down, but seeming to flow into the lake whereas the river flowed out. We continued the perfectly still day with blue skies all around with a trip to see the volcanoes, covered in fresh snow, and found plenty of snow to play with ourselves - Matt made his first snowman and threw his first snowball, and discovered that snow is not only "cold", but also "wet", his surprise and enjoyment providing me with hours of amusement.We then planned to head to Rotorua, only an hours drive North of Taupo. We got nearly halfway and broke down. After being towed back to Taupo we spent the next couple of days with a mechanic trying to find an alternator. Finally admitting defeat and faced with a weekend the mechanic charged our battery and sent us on our way to the larger town of Rotorua where we had a very successful afternoon in the industrial estate and a very strange evening in a Wild West themed backpackers.
This morning we enjoyed the best of Rotorua by soaking in the hot pools of the Polynesian Spa, watching the steam dance across the water of the pools and vent across the lake. It almost makes the all-pervading smell of sulphur worthwhile. And now we are in a very cosy hostel up on the Coromandel Peninsula knowing the end to my New Zealand adventures is nearly here. Only 2 more days before I'm back in the air, hopefully this time staying in the plane until it lands!
Thursday 10 June 2010
On the Road to Nowhere
Yes that's right I'm on the road again - or maybe I should say "we're" on the road? Having worked in Christchurch for the past few months the cold finally caught up with me. Overnight frost? I can get that at home.
So we packed up our life in our little car "Betsy" (not my choice by the way) and headed off for pastures new. Pastures new turned out to be straight North for warmer climes and our first evening on the road was spent winding our way through twisting mountain passes in the driving rain feeling sorry for the guy on the motorbike in front of us, but equally wishing he would hurry up a bit. The problems with an old car being that you're never quite sure whether it will make it to the top of the hill unless it gets a run-up.... Finally we made it to Picton, only to find that we had missed the promised free chocolate pudding (obviously the mention of this did not sway our choice of hostels at all...), and awoke, after a night of drumming rain, to find that we had not in fact floated away overnight, but that the promised free breakfast had.
We headed off to the ferry where I discovered that, despite living on an island for his formative years, Matt had never been on a car ferry. Matt on the other hand discovered that rough seas lead to seasickness, and seasickness makes me grumpy. On arrival into Wellington we discovered that the weather was not better in the North Island of New Zealand. We proceeded to get rained on, and then later hailed on, for 2 nights before finally deciding to pack it in and flee further North, whereby the sun promptly emerged. This distraction may have been responsible for Matt's unusual mode of driving whereby if he doesn't hear otherwise from his navigator (yours truly), he turns left instead of continuing straight ahead... Possibly.
We headed North through the Hutts (Lower and Upper), heading through twisting mountains that showed traces of last nights snow by the sides of the road, before plunging down to surprisingly cold valleys. Finally we fled to Palmerston North, which seemed a reasonably pleasant city (despite what John Cleese may think: "If you ever want to kill yourself but lack the courage then a trip to Palmerston North should do the trick" - or something along those li
nes...), but certainly had very strange hostels, where Matt was reasonably convinced that the trapdoor in the living-room was where they kept the bodies - he watches too many horror films.
Fleeing crazy hostels in the light of day, in fact very bright and sunny light of day, we decided to head towards Mount Taranaki, a real life, not quite dormant, snow capped volcano. Pretty exciting, if it wasn't cloudy and raining here in New Plymouth. I'm sure the volcano would be really impressive if it were visible... Ah well, the land of the long white cloud is truly living up to its name.
So we packed up our life in our little car "Betsy" (not my choice by the way) and headed off for pastures new. Pastures new turned out to be straight North for warmer climes and our first evening on the road was spent winding our way through twisting mountain passes in the driving rain feeling sorry for the guy on the motorbike in front of us, but equally wishing he would hurry up a bit. The problems with an old car being that you're never quite sure whether it will make it to the top of the hill unless it gets a run-up.... Finally we made it to Picton, only to find that we had missed the promised free chocolate pudding (obviously the mention of this did not sway our choice of hostels at all...), and awoke, after a night of drumming rain, to find that we had not in fact floated away overnight, but that the promised free breakfast had.
We headed off to the ferry where I discovered that, despite living on an island for his formative years, Matt had never been on a car ferry. Matt on the other hand discovered that rough seas lead to seasickness, and seasickness makes me grumpy. On arrival into Wellington we discovered that the weather was not better in the North Island of New Zealand. We proceeded to get rained on, and then later hailed on, for 2 nights before finally deciding to pack it in and flee further North, whereby the sun promptly emerged. This distraction may have been responsible for Matt's unusual mode of driving whereby if he doesn't hear otherwise from his navigator (yours truly), he turns left instead of continuing straight ahead... Possibly.
We headed North through the Hutts (Lower and Upper), heading through twisting mountains that showed traces of last nights snow by the sides of the road, before plunging down to surprisingly cold valleys. Finally we fled to Palmerston North, which seemed a reasonably pleasant city (despite what John Cleese may think: "If you ever want to kill yourself but lack the courage then a trip to Palmerston North should do the trick" - or something along those li
nes...), but certainly had very strange hostels, where Matt was reasonably convinced that the trapdoor in the living-room was where they kept the bodies - he watches too many horror films.Fleeing crazy hostels in the light of day, in fact very bright and sunny light of day, we decided to head towards Mount Taranaki, a real life, not quite dormant, snow capped volcano. Pretty exciting, if it wasn't cloudy and raining here in New Plymouth. I'm sure the volcano would be really impressive if it were visible... Ah well, the land of the long white cloud is truly living up to its name.
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