Alanz Eyes

Day Eleven

Add comment March 24th, 2004

I'm back home.

YAY!

The holiday was fantastic, but damn, it's good to be home.

Ok, yesterday we travelled from Taupo to Napier in Hawkes Bay. Before we left Taupo we went to a place called Huka Falls, where we saw an amazing display of the power of water. A river was channelled through a narrow rock passage, and the force of the flow was thus increased. Imagine the flow of water down a 100-foot wide river suddenly channelled into a 20-foot wide rock channel. Suddenly the peaceful river becomes a force of destruction as it rushes through the channel before exiting the other end into a larger area again. However, the force of the water has cut out a hole in the ground and so the exit has become like a waterfall, but not one you want to stand under. :blink:

Day Nine

Add comment March 22nd, 2004

5:46pm

We're at Lake Taupo now. What a day…

We woke up, had breakfast (I didn't bother with the spa, deciding I wasn't interested in carting around wet shorts), and then went for a walk through a nearby park. Amazing. The park was built around mud pools and steam vents. So much of it! And they're wrong - you don't get used to the smell, it just starts to make you feel sick. Revolting. The smell is caused by escaping sulphur gases from the area, and we were walking through areas where the sulphur gases just waft over you. What I DID get used to was just not breathing when you're walking through the sulphur gases.

Day Eight

Add comment March 21st, 2004

4:30pm

We arrived in Rotorua today, where active volcanoes provide the tourist attraction. Isn't it funny that a city is built around an industry that takes advantage of volcanoes about to blow. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination…

There are geysers here, and hot mud pools, and thermal springs, and steam coming from rocks in the centre of the city park, and oh, so much more. I'm sure nothing's going to happen before I leave tomorrow, but I'm also sure one day, someone will be looking at the glowing stream of lava exploding out of the city park and thinking, 'I just KNEW I should have gone to Brisbane instead…'

Day Seven

Add comment March 20th, 2004

I'm knackered. As usual, I'll start at the beginning.

Went on the boat trip this morning, which was awesome. We followed the coastline around for a bit and saw heaps of amazing cliff faces and beaches and stuff - took heaps of photos. There was a cave formed by the water, which was about 15 metres deep, and probably the same high. Got photos of that too, as we went inside it while in the boat - it wasn't that far in though, but still pretty cool. It was about 2.5 hours out on the boat before we came back into Whitianga.

Day Six

Add comment March 19th, 2004

We went to an underwater world attraction for the morning, where I got pissed off 'cause I discovered the camera batteries had gotten loose and caused all the settings I'd fine tuned to revert back to default. So most of the photos from the underwater world will be Mel's.

Day Five

Add comment March 17th, 2004

11:36pm

Just got in from having some drinks. Ok, I had 2 butterscotch and bailleys, 2 bourbon and cokes, 1 beer, 2 glasses of water. And that was after 2 beers and 2 cocktails before dinner. I'm surprised I'm still standing, but I'm even more surprised that I seem to be able to drink 'so much' without actually getting that drunk. I'm pleasantly happy right now.

Day Four

Add comment March 16th, 2004

My mistake - it's not a seaside town, but it's a riverside town that's close to the sea.

Anyway, today was a relaxing day, with us deciding not to go to the Bay of Islands and instead just chill out around here. Turned out to be a reasonably good idea, seeing as how it's been raining most of the day. We spent the morning in town, looking at a couple of sights and having lunch close to the marina. We went to a clock museum, which was quite fascinating. There were a few other things we could have done here, but because of the rain, we came back to the backpackers instead, and watched a couple of movies on the laptop for the afternoon. Then we went shopping, and got lost a few times before finally making it back here!