Okay, so as I said we were planning, we've had a volcanic / hot stuff etc extravaganza in the past few days. I have completely lost track of days of the week so use your imagination / bonus points for people who can work out what days I'm talking about.
Went to Huka falls which was indeed a big and impressive waterfall. Also the
'craters of the moon' which did look like craters but big steaming ones like they were about to explode. Also saw some rapids which have a massive dam in them which is opened 4 times a day (largely for the tourists). A 2 minute warning goes off, hilarious numbers of tourists rush towards the bridge in a frantic panic, and then suddenly huge huge amounts of water come crashing through what was previously dry rocks. Pretty cool. By far the coolest thing around Taupo though was Orakei Korake (sp?!) or Hidden Valley as it is in non-Maori. It's difficult to explain (check out the photos) but was like being in another world of awesome colours and steaming things and bubbling mud.
After 3 nights in that camp site in Taupo we moved onto another campsite by the beach, which would've been awesome in theory except it chucked it down the whole time we were there so we saw no beach, just inside of tent. We also went via Mount Teranaki but didn't see much of that due to cloud (see photos again). Er I am getting really bad at remembering stuff. Maybe I need to start making notes?
Anyways, am currently in Auckland. It's weirdly huge and spread out cos all kiwis expect to have a house to themselves and a garden so even in the biggest city no one will live in flats. So even though there are only about a million or so here it's way bigger than London. But nothing old or pretty! We're staying with Lan's lovely friend (who is a chef, mmmm yummy food for Jules) and her hot rugby-playing boyfriend (who won't let me come watch him train, shame on him). Yesterday I went into Auckland on the train which was good. Lots of sitting around in cafes eating cake, drinking tea and reading my book ie ideal Julia holiday material. I was going to go up the sky tower which is Auckland's most famous monument (although I thought just a bit of a crappy version of the one in Seattle?!) but it was too cloudy so I didn't think it was worth the $30. Went to an art gallery instead which had lots of cool Maori and Maori-inspired art (as well as a cafe with nice cake!) so that was good too. Also did a spot of shopping, including some souvenirs for you lovely folks. Obviously the highlight was finding upwords in a whsmith-type shop, sadly not for 5pounds like the McKinley bargain upwords and I decided it was really too bulky to carry around the rest of NZ / Aus / US so that was distressing of course.
Woke up today with a nasty cold / tonsilitis-type thing so have spent the day watching the olympics, on facebook and reading my book. As well as eating far too many delicious home-made brownies. So again, excellent Julia holiday stuff.
Okay, I have been told that I need to ask more questions on my blog so here goes. Oh, and answer to glacier one was The Devil Wears Prada.
1) What is the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere?
2) Why is the water in some super cool NZ lakes so blue?
3) Who sings the song of this blog title?
4) What is the acronym of Especially Super Terrific Umbrellas Are Really Yummy?!
Tune in next time for the answers...
One more week in NZ then off to Aus and Clairey! May not get on again before then so enjoy, savour the photos, and keep texting. Text thanks go to Fruity, Dave, Chrissy, Jim, Trots AND E-war this time. Well done people! xxx
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