North Island Part 2

Day 12

Before leaving Rotorua, we stopped off at the Agrodome to watch a sheep show. Yeah!!! It was very entertaining, especially when we did comical things with the sheep’s wool. The highlight was when one of our more “senior” tour members was sprayed by cow’s milk and then she tried to steal a lamb. Very funny. Off we headed on our way to Waitomo, the site of limestone caves. On the way, we found a shop that had a beach cricket set. SCORE!!!! Myself, an aussie bloke and a Japanese girl had a thrilling cricket match before we set off for our Caving Adventures. I participated in the Blackwater Rafting. It was actually just tubing in the pitch black in an ice cold cave. We did have wet suits and headlights. The craziest parts were that we had to jump down waterfalls, you just put the tube on your butt, hold your breath, and jump backwards. The guides actually helped with a push. I’ll put up some photos of the caving in general. Unfortunately, the CD with our groups photos didn’t work properly.

The most bizarre part of this day was going to see a rabbit get shaved. You’ll have to check out the photos to believe it, but they tie the rabbit up just like Mel Gibson in Braveheart (no blue face paint). They then go crazy with the shavers!

Day 13

Due to a fun pizza party the night (it was technically the last day for all of us north islanders), I forgot my Beach Cricket set at the hotel in Waitomo. D’oh! It was going to be fun in the bay of Islands. We dropped off the 10 or so leaving us in Auckland and headed to Pahia or something like that. I’m just calling it Bay of Islands. This was one of those long drives and no photos days. The weirdest part though was that we dropped off 10, but picked up 30 as another Contiki tour was starting as ours finished. Lots of new people to meet. To make up for the lost cricket set, we purchased a soccer ball, and kicked it around. At the same time, the sand flies came out and destroyed my legs. Great.

Day 14.

The fun day at the Bay of Islands. Myself, and about 5 other from the OLD group took part in an all day Dolphin/Catamaran extravaganza. There were many more NEW people as well. Part 1 was the Dolphin watching, we cruised for a couple hours before finally spotting a couple dolphins. We had the option of swimming with them at a cost of $30. If you hit the water, you had to pay. I was in my swim trunks, and thinking about it, but unsure as the dolphins did not seem very friendly. 3 friends from the OLD group got wet suited up and were all ready to give it a go, however, 18 people had already jumped in (that was the max allowed at one time). What happened next was extraordinary. The dolphins went left, the dolphins, went right, the dolphins went out far …. The people just didn’t move. Only one guy actually started swimming anywhere, and funnily enough the dolphins actually swam up and with him. No one else even got to see the dolphins while they were in the water. That’s 17 x $30. They didn’t let a second group go as the dolphins were not friendly enough.

Part 2 was the much better part. It was a cruise/lunch on a wicked catamaran. All we did was lounge around drinking beer and wine, and having a great time. One german dude hit the booze hard with his bro and picked up a $120 tab. We docked for two hours at one of the islands and snorkeled, explored, kayaked, and Donuted (inner tube behind a boat). Very fun time. That night was the last night for our group. So sad.

Day 15
Left the Bay of Islands, and made it to Auckland. Auckland is dirty and smelly. Not a huge fan so far. I went to the wrong backpackers as there are 2 with the same name in a 5 block radius. The afternoon was spent with some of us old group members lying in a park.

Post tour….. on Saturday (today for me), several of us tour members ferried over to Waiheake (sp?) Island and spent the day bussing around and lounging on the beach. A very fun day.

Updated more photos again.....