New Zealand – 5th Nov 2008 - Day 13

Rain, rain, rain!! Did it rain last night and it was still pouring this morning. The wind was also up and it was chilly, again!!

After breakfast with Ray and Barbara, we drove to Waimandu, near Mount Tarawera where they have a great deal of volcanic activity and Lake Rotomahana, created after a huge eruption in 1860.

We began our walk down to the lake, which is supposed to take two hours. The clouds kept rolling in and the rain was heavy at times. We reached the lake after an hour and a half.

Suddenly the sun came out and we were able to sun bathe for 40 minutes on the jetty. With blue skies above us and the sun shining, it was warm. What a delight! The boat left for a 40 minute tour around the volcanic lake. However, once underway, the clouds and wind came back and we had heavy, heavy showers. Luckily, the sun peeped out again when we arrived at the geysers. One of them shot up unto the sky on time, the other just whimpered. Still, they are vey impressive and the smell is quite something.

Boat trip over, we began the walk back up to the visitor centre. Most people take the bus back to the top, but we were determined to walk the steep trail. One section of the trail consisted of high wooden steps. The steps went on for over then minutes but we were rewarded by the most magnificent views of one of the volcanic lakes. In the sun, the steam from the lake was swirling round, making the most amazing shapes. It looked so prehistoric. We sat on one of the viewing benches for 15 minutes, taking in the weird views.

We made our way to the top, purchased John a new NZ hat and drove back to our B&B. Ray was there to welcome us back and to offer us a glass of wine. We declined, came back to our room and planed the next 3 days.

John popped over to their house and used their broadband to up lift these entries to the blog and to use their phone to book our next B&B’s. By using a local phone card we can do all this phoning for just 2 pence a minute.

CNN just reported that Obama has won the presidential election. FABBY!!!! Lets hope he can undo all the bad that Bush has managed to create over the past 8 years. Some task!

New Zealand – 4th Nov 2008 - Day 12

Rain greeted us this morning. All the Americans had left the previous day. Leaving just the two of us. We ate breakfast with Robin, our host discussing our planned NZ itinerary. Robin has travelled extensively over NZ, so her comments were well worth it.

We had begun to suspect that 8 weeks in NZ, would be too long, especially as the good weather does not really arrive until January. Robin’s comments and suggestions confirmed our thoughts. After much replanning we decided to change our flight from Christchurch to Sydney so we could go to Hamilton Island. This island has good snorkeling and warmer weather as well as a host of other activities.

We phoned Qantas Airlines and much to our surprise, they agreed to bring our flight forward at no extra charge. We phoned Hamilton Island and they confirmed they could accommodate us for six nights.

However, when we phoned Qantas back to book the Sydney – Hamilton flights, the price had doubled. We searched the web and found a far cheaper alternative. So, after an hour of phoning we were booked in and all flights were changed. Now we return to Sydney on the 7th of December, fly to Hamilton Island for six nights, return to Sydney on the 14th of December, allowing us 6 nights in and around Sydney before flying back to the UK on the 20th of December.

Robin allowed us to use her phone card, which resulted in all the calls to Australia and the airlines costing next to nothing. We plan to get one of these phone cards as they allow us to phone both the UK and NZ at approx 2 pence a minute.

We said our goodbyes, jumped in the car and headed for our next destination, Taupo, via Rotorua. We are staying at Brackenhurst B&B 16km North of Taupo.

The weather was not great with rain and cloud. As in many other places we have visited this year, the early summer weather in NZ is very cold and cloudy!!! Many parts of the North Island look like England, so it’s really like driving through England on a cold, rainy day, a bit disappointing to say the least.

We visited a volvanic visitor park on the way, as we plan to walk there tomorrow, weather permitting. After a cup of tea/coffee, we drove to our next B&B, where we met our hosts, Ray and Barbara. Very hospitable people indeed. Within a few minutes of arriving, we had a glass of Wine and Beer in our hands and were chatting away.

We settled into our room and were about to make our evening meals when half the lights went out. Ray and Barbara’s freezer’s had also gone off. An electrician was called and within half an hour everything was back on. We watched a Harry Potter movie and went to bed, listening to the heavy rain hitting the tin roof. We don’t like tin roof’s.