at the bottom of the north

hey everyone!
so we're in wellington right now and we are very much enjoying the city life after many ventures through the tiny towns of new zealand. since we last wrote on here we have been very busy as always.. man the unemployed life is hard! so adding to what sarah wrote about the beginnings of our travels (she missed the best bit!) we have so far been from auckland, to tauranga, to opotiki, to rotorua and then to taupo. we enjoyed the wondrous experience of zorbing in rotorua, which for those of you that aren't familiar, it involves two of you getting in a huge blow up ball at the top of a big hill, they throw in some water, and you roll down! although it sound kind of mental, its so much fun, and we recommend anyone to try it.



so after that we had a great time in taupo... we treated ourselves to some nights in a hostel, and went kayaking to some maori carvings on the lake. we also did the tongariro crossing, a 16km hike that goes through a number of active volcanoes including mt doom from the lord of the rings. the hike was quite hard work at the start, which included a steep trek up what is known as the devil's staircase. the winds were absolutely crazy high up and the conditions were verging on gale force, but we held on and the decent was pretty easy going... (we're experienced hikers now). unfortunately a lot of the views during the day were ruined by the bad visibility levels which was kind of a bummer, but we still completed the walk though!

so after almost doing a sky dive but it being canceled due to bad weather, we moved on to napier and hasting. although our journey was no less than traumatic. we had half a tank of gas when we left and hoped to pick up some on the way, but there were no warnings that there wouldn't be one for the 2 1/2 hr stretch to napier. being slightly worried about our situation, and finding we were on empty very quickly, we proceeded to coast most of our way down there, and fortunately made it, finally! so we stayed at a really friendly hostel, where we camped out in their yard. (oh did we mention we acquired a tent in taupo from some leaving travelers, how nice) we were in napier with the intention to stay for a couple of weeks as it was APPLE PICKING SEASON!!! needless to say we got ourselves a job and started on our third day in the town. after 2hrs Sarah had had enough, and after another 2hrs I had too, so when we worked out how much we were getting paid vs. how much of a blag it was, we upped and left and hitchhiked our way back home to the hostel. we then found out later that day that some guy broke his wrist after falling of a ladder, so we were relieved our career in apple picking is now over! (we lasted 4 1/2hrs). so after partying a little, oh and enjoying the art deco architecture to its fullest in Napier, we left for the bottom tip of the north - capital city, wellington!

so far we have had a great time. it seems that wellington, unlike much of new zealand has actually caught up to rest of the world and has lots to keep you entertained. we have done some gallery visiting and there's an arts festival on too at the moment which is great. we have also given Gerald (our car if you've forgotten) some love in the form of 4 new wheels and a wheel alignment. apparently our wheels were getting pretty dangerous, oops, but all is good and smooth now. so we're planning of sticking here for a day or so more, then we're going north a little to do some Woofing (working on an organic farm) for a week or so. and after that we're going south for more adventures.... so we'll keep you posted on our progress.

also we have had to move our photographs to snapfish coz flickr wants to charge us to put them up there so sign up and you can view our photos, plus its much easier to view slideshows on there!

feel free to comment on our blog by the way!!!

bye x
gary (and sarah too)