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Turbo New Zealand

IMG_3454So I’m now in New Zealand. The flight from Australia was uneventful and thankfully considerably shorter than the one home is going to be. It almost felt short!I knew New Zealand was going to be wet but didn’t realize it would be absolutely pouring when I got into Auckland. For the couple of days I was there it rained and rained and rained. I wouldn’t have minded the rain so much if I had an easier way to get around. Walking in the rain with limited ability to dry things out afterwards gets tiring after a while.Second day in Auckland was spent finding my way to the Icebreaker outlet store. I needed(wanted?) a couple more things to bear the cold down south and thought this would be the perfect place to get a few more pieces. Most of a day later I had a thin long sleeve zip, a thicker full zip and a collared shirt.IMG_3335A day later, I was up early and on a bus down to Rotorua. We went through Waitomo and some people did a bit of blackwater rafting in the freezing cold water. I took a stroll through a cave system that took you to a bunch of glow worms. They were featured on Planet Earth and hang gooey threads down from the cave ceiling to catch their food. The tour usually ends with a boat road through the rest of the cave but the water was much higher than usual due to the high amount of rain.Then off to Rotorua. The whole place is very geo-thermally active and it stinks like sulphur all the time. Not a kind of place I’d like to live but there sure is lots of fun things to do. This is were the zorbing is in New Zealand. I’ll be hitting that up on the way back through the North Island.After Rotorua it was on to Taupo. We stopped at a highropes course that no one did and then headed to Huka Falls. We all took some photos from a spot above the falls and then a few of us did the jetboating up and down the river.IMG_3428Jetboating is my new favorite thing. They cruise around the river up to 85km/h pulling crazy turns and spinning all over the place. The boats draft is only about 7 or 8 inches so they’ve got the freedom to do almost anything. We were inches away from trees and logs in the water. They ran us right up to Huka Falls to take some awesome photos and then back down the river for some more 360’s. Depending on which the boat turns, different seats got soaked. Every time he hauled the boat around we had to hang on for our lives and then wait for the water to pour over. They gave us jackets to wear over our clothes but still had water regularly drizzling down my back.Afterwards my face hurt half from laughing so hard and half from the rain. It had started to rain a bit and it starts to pelt your face pretty hard.I finished in Taupo with a 17k run around part of the massive lake taking in the scenery. The weather took a turn for the worst on the way back and I was thoroughly drenched when I finally got back to the hostel.The next day took us on the next leg from Taupo to Wellington. Because of the distance and the lack of crazy things to do in between, the ride was basically straight to our hostels in Wellington. We stopped for a few shots at the top of Mount Victoria and then piled back into the bus for the winding ride down into the city.It’s unfortunate that it’s been so fast and furious so far and I think the rest of the trip will be much of the same. I’ll be checking out as much as I can on this trip but will be back soon to check out the rest.