Departing the North Island

Kia Ora!

After all the excitment of skydiving, I spent the rest of the evening completely elated with my achievements. We headed to an Irish pub for a pub quiz night and I even managed to score a free drink for showing off my party trick! We remained in Taupo for a second day, which was spent catching up on all the essentials: Internet, laundry and food shopping. That night, Andy and I cooked ourselves a curry along with Jonny, Toby and Dan who are the group of lads we've been spending lots of time with.

The next day we left Taupo and headed to River Valley. On the way, we stopped at Tongariro National Park for a two hour hike along the Taranaki Falls and Silica Rapids. This provided many great photo opportunities and we took full advantage. After a long drive through some narrow country roads off the beaten track, we arrived into River Valley. Aside from the lodge we were staying in, there's very little to see in River Valley with it being located in the middle of nowhere. It's biggest appeal is being able to go on Grade 5 rapids and experience the best white water rafting in New Zealand. This had been the plan for a number of us, however we woke up the next morning to be told that the water levels were far too high and dangerous to allow us out on to the river.

We left River Valley slightly disappointed at not being able to go rafting. Still, it had been an enjoyable stay and had provided us with an authentic taste of rural New Zealand, removed from the commonly found tourist influences. Our next stop was the capital city Wellington. It was a long drive down, but we arrived with enough time to check out the famous Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. We then enjoyed a night out on the town, meeting a few locals along the way.

The next morning was a very early rise in order to catch the ferry across to the South Island. The bus picked us up at 7am and we were dropped off at the dock. I slept most of the way on the ferry however, I did manage to wake-up and enjoy the scenery of the Queen Charlotte Sounds as we entered Picton. On arrival, we collected our luggage and boarded the bus to begin our travels of the South Island. I'll look forward to updating you on more of this soon!

Much love!

Sam

p.s. I'm starting to consider getting a tattoo...something small and well hidden - I'm thinking a philosophical karate principle written in Japanese script. Thoughts please? I should probably run it by my parents first!