Taupo & Rotorua: 17th-18th April.

Battling fierce winds, we crept north on the number 1, stopping at dubious toilets on the way. The crosswinds were immense causing Cleopatra to cross into oncoming traffic rather more often than we would have liked! The road consisted of a series of towns, a stark contrast to the South Island where only a quarter of the population live and the roads seem to go on uninhabited forever. On arrival, we hastily made our way to Pub ‘n’ Grub on the lakes edge to rejoin Kate and Jason to explore the North Island for a few days together. After dinner and a couple of drinks, we moved Cleopatra to a camping spot next to Shabos- Kate and Jason’s car (if you saw the number plate, meaning behind the name would become clear- SH48O5!). Jason then proceeded to substantially wind Armelle up about her sky dive the proceeding day “did you enjoy your last supper?” etc…… The next morning we thought it might be too windy for Armelle to throw herself out of a plane due to tales that people had to wait for days for the weather to clear to make a jump. But after a quick phone call it was all go so we escorted an increasingly nervous Armelle to Taupo airport. After a bit of a wait, Armelle decided to change her dive from 12,000 to 15,000 ft- once in a life time and all that! All geared up in a fetching red overall and harness, Jess and Kate took great pleasure in silence by reading the sign on her back- ‘Warning: Parachute may not open, serious injury may occur’.

Arm in arm, Armelle, a cameraman, and Mike M (the dive master) were the first to clamber onto the plane as the rest of the group were leaving the plane at 12,000 ft. After much taunting about death and other trivial matters, the rest of the party departed leaving just the 3 of them to climb another 3,000 ft.

The sky dive was spectacular and apparently from that height you could see both coasts but a 60 second free fall felt like 5 and Armelles eyes were fixated on the lake below- yes, there are copies of extremely hilarious photos and a DVD to match depicting rather stunning facial expressions!

Once ungracefully gliding towards the landing spot, Armelle was greeted by 3 little faces glaring upwards armed with more photographic equipment!

The next stop was Rotorua. We piled into the i-site and armed ourselves with leaflets of what to do but since we arrived in the evening we opted for dinner and cinema. McDonald's was cheap and cheerful, though a tad confusing for Jess who gets flummoxed by this set menu and that set menu, and what size this, what size that! After a brief Internet pause and much frustration at trying to follow Jason’s unpredictable driving and dodgy places to stop and discuss, we arrived at the cinema to a stunning sunset.

We decided on Black Sheep (largely because it was a NZ film) and settled down for a film of dubious comedic quality which was appreciated more by some than others. Armelle found this film hilarious as the story follows: a strict looking English scientist was genetically engineering sheep to improve their wool in rural NZ, however, a crazy activist stole one of these mutated foetus’, which he then dropped. This foetus then proceeded to bite the hippy, which turned into a horrific looking human sheep, and then continues to chomp on the other sheep until they all become evil too. Then the evil sheep partially ate all the humans on the farm and then their remains mutated into cannibalistic sheep… Only in NZ where sheep out number humans 10:1!

That night the 4 of us slept in our respective vehicles next to Lake Rotorua, only to discover the next morning that the sulphurous smell was escaping from a drain practically underneath the camper van- the area is famed for its geothermal activity.

Thursday the 19th, being pushed for time, we split into 2 separate groups, Kate keeping Jess company on the way to the Waitomo caves while Jason and Armelle would visit the Wai-O-Tapu thermal area and the redwoods in Whakarewarewa forest. The main attraction of the caves were the glow worms which looked like tiny blue stars, and which dangled over the water flowing through the caves, but of course jumping backwards off a waterfall in the dark with your bottom wedged in a rubber ring was a pretty novel experience too!

The Wai-O-Tapa thermal area hosts a huge array of bubbling mud pools, erupting geysers, hot springs and wildly coloured mineral pools.

After 3 hours of investigating the features on every trail in the park, Jason and Armelle then headed ton the quest to find the redwood trees that Armelle has always wanted to see. The 100 year old plus redwoods soared spectacularly into the sky and had been planted by the government as an experiment to see whether they could be chopped and used for timber products. Thankfully for the general public, the wood is too soft so the trees remain!

After a couple of hours of ambling through the woods, Jason and Armelle made their way south (stopping frequently for glorious sunset photos) to meet Jess and Kate at National Park Village to complete the Tongariro crossing the next day.