So I have now been in New Zealand for a full week (well it's been a week since I left the UK at any rate) and I thought it about time that I sat down and posted some more of what I have been up to. My first few days in NZ were spent at a resort called Ohope, near Whakatane (pronounced Phuk-a-tarn-eh, I think). This is a beach side resort however don't think quaint picturesque towns like St. Ives or Chav infested place like Newquay, instead picture a long road facing the beach of single storey buildings and you will just about have it.
The day me and Emma arrived in Ohope was preceded by some of the biggest storms NZ had seen in years and this was very much in evidence when we arrived at what were supposed to be lovely golden sandy beaches to see grey, damp beaches coated in copious amounts of driftwood! When this was coupled with grey, overcast skies, I was beginning to wonder why I had left the UK at all!
Fortunately when we awoke the next day, all my misgivings were resolved as the skies had cleared and the weather was lovely with barely a drop of wind. As the morning was so lovely, Em suggested that we hike over the headland to Shelly bay.
Shelly bay, or to call it by it's proper name Otarawairere Bay, definitely lived up to its name as instead of sand it was just coated in thousands upon thousands of shells. I have no idea why or how they all congregate in this bay, but it certainly made for quite an impressive sight, even if it is slightly hard to tell that it is shells and not just sand in the below picture.
For dinner that evening me and Em decided to go the to local supermarket and pick up a few bits and bobs. Because it was a public holiday, it meant that there was slightly less selection than there would usually be and the mussels we had originally planned to have were no longer available. I was amazed by the prices of seafood in the supermarket with 1kg of Cormomandel Mussels costing only the equivalent of £1.50 and 500g of king prawns costing me a mere £2.50. With prices like that it seemed silly not to indulge so we had a lovely large amount of prawns for dinner! If my sister is reading this right now, knowing her love for prawns, I can be pretty confident that she is massively jealous!
Travelling back from Whakatane to Emma's home town of Taupo, we travelled along the Thermal Explorer Highway, aptly named for the number of geothermic sites we passed as we travelled past Rotorua and down through to Taupo. Most of these cost over $30NZD which was a price we were unwilling to pay as I am currently unemployed, however whilst checking the prices of one of the sites out, we found a large number of cars parked by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Intrigued we stopped to investigate, hoping that we hadn't simply stumbled over a dogging spot and were pleasantly surprised to find a hot pool which was completely free to use! The pool itself was at the confluence of two little tributaries, one hot and one cold, meaning that just moving by around the pool you could vary the temperature just to your liking! The hottest part of the pool was probably around 40-45 degrees so it was pretty toasty to lie in!
This foray into New Zealands unstable nature was to be furthered once we were settled in Taupo as yesterday Emma took me to the Craters of the Moon. This was a walk around a geothermic valley which was filled with craters from exploding geysers and plenty of bubbling mud pools. Walking around these steaming cauldrons, it really struck me just how dynamic the nature of the land is here, how New Zealand is still such a young country geographically and gave me an appreciation of just how much energy was bubbling away underneath our feet all the time. Little bit of an intimidating thought, but awesome nonetheless!
Today was a bit of a let down weather wise as up until now I had been treated to sunshine almost every day. However with the cloud that came today came along a perfectly still day with no wind resulting in a glass like lake. Apparently in Taupo this means only one thing - time to get the boat out! Despite this meaning that I had to get up at 07.30 this morning, I was still pretty excited to get my first water skiing lesson. According to Emma my technique left something to be desired, being described as "looking like a retarded Bambi on ice", but that being said I still enjoyed myself hugely, managing to stand up first time and even putting a few turns in.
After we had used the skis to our satisfaction, we went out on "The Biscuit". This involves putting a large circular float with a couple of handles on into the water, climbing on top and then being towed at great speed around the lake behind the boat, with the driver doing their best to make you fall off. This was awesome fun with both me and Em taking a number of pretty good wipeouts, one of which I managed to capture on film. I'm sure she will kill me for posting this on here but for the purposes of making my Dad laugh, it is definitely worth it!
