I’m back!
Well, I got back from the road trip on the 24th March, and I hung out with Mel until the 30th, when she caught her flight to Vancouver in Canada (via Auckland – Los Angeles – Vancouver). I've been spending the past week 'coming down' from the holiday, just mellowing out and relaxing with Mel. And then when Mel had gone, I discovered I missed her a lot. It depressed me for a couple of days.
When you've been with someone 24 hours a day for 11 days, and then 16 hours a day for another week, you really notice they're gone when they're no longer around.
Day Eleven
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
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
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
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.
