Ta Moko Tattoo

Here at last (sorrry for the delay), is my new Tattoo.

   For brief explination, see the earlier blog about my week around Taupo. For those that didn't know, I got the sun done while I was out in Peru a couple of years ago.

A Small amount of Nelson, and then Golden Bay

Right, so as I said I'd tell you last time, Nelson!  (Might be worth getting a tea again for this one).

 So I got off the stray bus again, this time in Nelson where I stayed for a couple of days in the Palace backpackers. You can never starve here. Free Breakfast or cereals and breads, and at half 4 the delivery of the leftovers of  a bakery, however large or little that was. Never seemed to be enough though.... Morwen (another Aber connection) is working for accommodation at this hostel, so was nice to catch up as well.

 So what did I do? Relaxed things! It was nice to have a few days where I didn't have a busy schedule of getting around the country, and the hostel seemed to be full of  people doing the same; taking their time and enjoying slowly moving around New Zealand. Also they enjoyed the free food too.
   
  Now, I haven't been to the northen tip of the country, and I won't be getting to the southern end either. But I can proudly say I've been to;

 
Yeah, accomplishment. Well, a ten minute stoll up a hill really. Good views though;

 Nelson is a nice little place. Vibrant arts and music scene which is always good, and just a very good atmosphere. They also like to go to the beach here,  I'm not sure why.

There was also some Poker played, and a few general evenings in at the hostel. Excellent few days.

So over here, alot of places in the South Island are run on the work of volunteers, in exchange for accomodation and sometimes food (if you don't want to cook for yourself!) It's not suprising, as the country has 4.5 million people, and just under a million on the South Island. So stuff like fruit picking, gardening, cleaning hostels is pretty common and relatively easy to find. So of course I had a last minute panick!
 I was supposed to be going to a hostel in a little town in Golden Bay called Takaka, but when I called him up a week before it had  kind of fallen through. Great. No massive panick though, it didn't take me long to find another place, and I'm glad I did, as I went to Shambhala. Literally.

 Shambhala is an eco/buddhist backpackers right in the middle of Golden Bay:

About where the Red Circle is

There was literally nothing around, which was amazing. Private beach, beautiful garden (some parts even more beautiful after I left), and just so peaceful. My head did struggle though, with the journey that started three weeks ago or so in a city with 1.5 million people to here, with three others.
 My jobs included weeding, digging some of the base for a new Greenhouse, remaking a compost heap that had gone wild, and a couple of other bits and bobs. Work for two and a half hours in the morning, and then chill out!
 Now I can hear some crys of concern that I went to a hippy buddhist place...but no worries, I've not renounced all my wealth (ha!), this is still my laptop I'm typing on, and I still have my hair (if you haven't seen me with a bald head be grateful). I did join in with some of the guided meditation sessions though which was really interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone if you get the chance (I'm on Karmic commission now...)
   It might sound boring, but for the most part, this week was about utter relaxation. Talking with the other two woofers, playing the odd game of chess, walking the beach searching for cool little shells, baking. It felt like heaven though. On Saturday and Sunday night we did walk the couple of ks to the highway though to go to the pub there called the Mussel Inn  (Yes they do Mussels, and yes they're great), and I hitched into town a  couple  of times.
 Hitching over here (at least in Golden Bay) is very easy and  absolutely fine (still got my Kidneys!).  Met some really interesting people doing it, including a digereedoo carver. They even have little designated hitching posts around  for people to wait at. So, photos of Shambhala:

The view I woke up to every morning

The main part of the backpackers

Teahouse on the left which had a little gas stove and cups

There are some photos of inside too, but they're on my camera, still need to upload them.

 And yes, as you can see by the constant blue sky in photos, I have more freckles and the farmer's tan in coming on nicely. Starting to think the beard was a mistake. Don't hate me too much!

National Park to Wellington, Over the Cook Straight, and to Nelson.

Ok, so having had a very chilled evening in National Park with some awesome food, I got about ten hours sleep to catch up, ready for the longest bus journey stage; National Park to Wellington, which took us about 6 hours including stops.

   We did have quite a few stops on the way, including getting out at a military museum to climb on the tank and get a photo (I didn't get one as my camera was stowed with the bags, but one is getting sent to me).
 Kiwi's like big things here. We drove through a town called Okahune which is famous for it's carrots. So of course, at the edge of town, there's a giant carrot.

  We stopped in a little place called  Bulls for lunch. The town has used it's name to create as many puns as possible; the police station was labled as Const-a-bull. Food was delect-a-bull. There was a little antique shop selling collect-a-bulls. Normally, I like puns, but this was just too much for me. They were everywhere, and got very repetative. Almost unbear-a-bull. (I'm sorry....)

Back on the bus for another three hours and we finally got to....

Wellington

 Wellington the capital of New Zealand is still only the third largest city. It was decided to make it the capital during the Gold rush on the South Island, to make sure they could keep hold of  the money,  and stop the South Island breaking away to make it's own country (I don't think this was likely, but people get concerned at the thought of losing money).

 The job back in Auckland came in handy here, as I had a free night in  a set of 4 and a half star apartments in the centre of the city, with a free breakfast. Score! So it was a nice quiet big room all to myself, with a nice comfy bed. It's the little things. 

  

 Only having a few hours of the working day (we had to get to the ferry port at 7 am the next  morning), I took a quick wander and then headed to Te Papa, the national Museum of New Zealand.  Te Papa translates as our place, and is one of the best museums I've seen. I only had an hour and a half in there, but you could easily spend a whole day. I was mainly looking at the Maori history stuff, and about the founding  of the country (with the British and the Maori), and learnt a lot.

 

 Had some great fish and chips that evening with some of the guys from the stray bus, and got a nice early night. 

Journey to the South Island

Getting up early wasn't a problem (especially with a hotel wake up call) and a quick taxi ride later, I was at the ferry port. 

 Now the Cook Straight (The bit between the North and South Islands) is beautiful, especially the sounds before getting to Picton. It was beautiful weather, nice and calm, so I took a lot of photos, here's some of my favourites.

Wellington got smaller....

And smaller...

First view of the South Island

First real view of the South Island

In the sounds

                                                          

Picton, where we got off

There were also some blue penguins in the water, but those guys move fast! 

 From Picton we took a bus out towards Blenhiem where we did a wine tasting, and a fudge tasting (Yum on both counts. Then we started towards Nelson, stopping for lunch near a little bridge where they've filmed some of the Hobbit apparently. 

You just can't escape the Lord of the Rings over here...

So after a nice relaxed journey day, I got dropped off in Nelson, which I'll tell you all about in the next entry. It may be a while though, tomorrow, I'm off to a little eco retreat hostel in Golden Bay to work for accomodation for an unknown amount of time!

Taupo to Whakahoro (Blue Duck Lodge), then to National Park and the Gates of Mordor

After an awesome few days in Taupo, time to get on the road again. 

 First stop; Blue Duck Lodge. This is a remote station in the middle of the Wop wops (Kiwi slang for the middle of nowhere). It's a massive farm, about 44 kilometres from the nearest town. They run a lot of conservation projects, mainly looking after the Blue Duck (or Whio) itself, which is an endangered species. They also make honey, have alot of sheep and cows, and do tourist activities. 

View from the lodge we were staying in

 Also got a chance to catch up with Gary from Aberystwyth who's been living and volunteering on the farm since February. Official job title, Eco Warrior. He's been loving it, and this ex vegetarian told me how he shot skinned, cooked and ate a deer. Pretty Impressed. 

 The downside to this day was that it was pouring it down. So instead of doing a horse trek, I decided to clay pigeon shoot instead. We did  ten shots, five practise shots and then five competition shots. In the first five I got three, was quite pleased. In the second five... Well, I got three in the practise round ok? Now don't ask again. 

 One of the things about being this far removed from anywhere; power issues. The power was off more than on in the evening, but there was an awesome little fire in the lodge, so it was a case of chilling out in front of it for the evening. There was one girl complaining about the situation and suggesting they have generators for all the huts. Don't think she quite got the Eco message they were trying to live by... 

 Worst nights sleep so far though. Never take the top of a metal bunk-bed when it's not attached to anything. Whenever the guy below moved, my bed moved an extra inch or two in either direction. So no sleep and no shower in the morning, you can imagine how happy I was...

National Park

One of the big draws of this area is the Tongariro Crossing. A 19k walk between two mountains, Mount Tongariro  (Tong-a-rare-o) and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Nah-roo-ho-ay) . Probably more of a draw since that area became Mordor in Lord of the Rings, and Ngauruhoe became Mount Doom. My leg is still hurting at times from the tattoo (Almost stopped scabbing, ready for photo soon!), so I decided not to do a massive walk. Instead, got a shower at the hostel, and our driver Snowflake (they all have nick-names, Snowflake works winter seasons on a ski field. My first driver Scratch had an unfortunate incident with a newly painted bus) took four out of six of us on another little trip for no extra  which was great, as he lives around here and knows the area really well.

 First we went to the information centre at the base of another mountain, Ruapehu, where he works in the winter. Loads of info on Volcanoes (all of the mountains here are volcanoes pretty much). It's very humbling knowing that at any time you could be burnt to death by lava or choked on ash.

 We went up the mountain (in the bus!) to have lunch and then went for a 15 minute walk. This did give us the bonus of being able to walk to the Gates of Mordor:

Mounth Ruapehu. This is one of my favourite photos I've taken so far.

That's Mount Doom in the cloud, you can see the snow. Aparently they had to wait for days to get a clear shot. And then went and added all the CGI. 

The Gates of Mordor (or where they are in the movie).

I felt very pleased that we didn't have to do a greuling walk but still got to see the stunning scenery of the region (especially as there's just been a big thunder storm too!). I am a bit annoyed I didn't do the actual crossing, but still glad I saw what I did.

 After this we had a quick walk to a waterfall on a river that comes from on the the glaciers before heading back to the hostel. Wierd mix of sun, snow and rain all in a day.

  

 

Maketu (Uncle Boys Lodge) to Taupo via Rotorua, back to Rotorua, and back to Taupo.

Ok, this is going to be a long one and a bit scattered in the order. It's ok though, there's lots of pictures. Grab yourselves a cup of tea of something. I'll wait.

Welcome back. Hope the tea is good.

So, after waking up naturally at 6.30am or so (I know!), had to sneak around quietly so as not to wake up fourty other people, apart from the other guy who was awake. Think I was pretty successful. After breakfast, there was a quick photo of the new group in the family (of about 40,000), then it was back on the bus to Rotorua.

Ta Moko

 I'd been to Rotorua earlier in the year for a weekend, so was prepared for the lovely eggy sulphur smell that is throughout the town. I'd also done the geothermal area that was an option on the tour. So, having decided before I left the UK that I wanted a tattoo while I was out here, I went to the thermal village (where Maoris live and work) to go see a guy called JP, who was going to design me a Ta Moko.
 A Ta Moko is basically a personalised tattoo, using Maori symbols to show your geneology, personality, aspirations, a few different things. So I had a chat with him for about 40 mins to discuss me, and what I wanted from the tattoo. I then had a wander around the village for 2 hours or so while he designed it.
 There was a cultural show as part of the village activities, so I watched a different poi dance and haka, saw some geysers, and eventually wandered back. He showed me the drawing he'd done, talked me through the meanings (so I can probably read other peoples a bit) and I immediately fell in love with it. Booked there and then to come back on Wednesday (this was on Monday) and get it done.
I won't keep you in suspense, I went back on Wedsnesday, and after about three hours now have this on my leg:

    (I've left it too late to take a photo, so it's now at the stage where it's all scabby. Mmmmm. Will give you a photo as soon as possible!)

The bit behind my knee hurt! The black was ok. When he was doing the yellow it hurt. When he was up there the third time with the red, it was agonising at times. But, as you can't see, beautiful result!
 I then hobbled back to the bus stop (not stray), and headed back to Taupo.

Taupo

I have fallen in love with Taupo. It's a small little town (might be classed as a city over here...) right on the shore of Lake Taupo (the whole area is basically the top of a volcano that exploded back in 300 and something BC (not that imformative I know, but you are on the internet. I would suggest using Google), second largest explosion ever, there's reports of ash being seen in China and Rome).
 Very chilled out little town with a beautiful view. A panorama of perfection to paraphrase someone. One of the things you can see from my friend Nat's house (where I'm staying), and alot of other spots is Mount Ruhapehu which is a massive Ski field (in Winter), Mount Tongariro and Mt. Ngaurohoe, better known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.

View from Nat's Balcony

Same View Zoomed in.

So what I've done in Taupo;

Sailing

On my first full day here, I did a sailing trip on the lake, out to see come carvings done in the rock from the historic age of 1980. They are Maori carvings, but just not old.
 Sailing was fun, I've never done it before, got a bit scared when we were using  the wind and the boat was at a 45 degree angle, so the pull of gravity was towards the water (I can't swim). But it was a beautiful day and we were lucky enough that the wind changed, so used the sails there and back.  

Walk to Huka falls

 From Lake Taupo comes one of New Zealand's main rivers, the Waikato (There's also a region with the same name - see I can be informative!). About 5km up the river are the Huka (pronounced Hook-a) falls. Not massive, but powerful - the equivalent of 5 Olympic swimming pools goes over the falls in a minute, so as you can guess, swimming is not advised. 

 As it was a beautiful day today (Friday), I decided to take a walk up the river to the falls: 

Huka Falls

Skydiving! 

 That's right, I threw myself (well, got thrown really) out of a plane at 15,000ft. Never have I been so scared. I was shaking just waiting on the ground before getting ready, bit off all my nails. The plane ride was also scary, but I did calm down a little (and then got scared again). My friend Nat who I am staying with works with Taupo Tandem Skydive and has done 269 jumps now, so I realised that it's probably safe. She isn't dead. Neither was my Tandem Master Andy (The guy with the parachute who I was strapped to). 

 But there is that part of the brain that was screaming: "You aren't supposed to throw yourself out of a plane!" 

 After dropping out and screaming for the first few seconds, it kicks in that this is AMAZING! Freefall is undescribably awesome, and the view was perfect, over the lake, city, surrounds. You can see both sides of the North Island as well. It was then I started to feel so elated, wondering what the hell I'd been scared about! Andy also let me steer the parachute for a bit after it had deployed which was cool. My first thought on landing was that I wanted to do it again! 

 Nat had been trying to convince me to do it from before I set foot in Taupo, and by giving in to her cajoling, I had one of the best experiences of my life. I quite happily admit she is Amazing, and Wins. (Stubborness battle I lost).

 She was also very helpful, got me a discount, free photos and video (getting the video tonight, I'll put it on Facebook. So here's some photos, they are not always flattering with the 200kmh wind in my face!

While trying not to think of impending death, I thought the camera would be able to catch me saying "Yippie Kai Ai!". Fail.

The girl in the black and pink is Nat, my mate who I've been staying with. And  who convinced me to do this! Thanks!

The kind of view I  was getting!

The other great thing about this week has been the weather. Sunny all the time! I may have been sunburnt a little, but now am remembering the immortal words of Baz Luhrmann; everybody's free to wear sunsceen. If  you haven't seen or heard this song, do so now.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI