WELLINGTON

I was lucky that Nicole,the daughter of Kate and Lyn's neighbour, Andrew, was travelling back to Wellington. She offered me a lift.We had a great drive down through Rotorua.We stopped for a while by lake Taupo,which is beautiful. She also had to do a bit of work and check out the fences at an electricity sub station on route.



The views on the journey were fantastic.
I booked into the YHA in Wellington. It is very central, so I went for a wander round the city. I really liked the feel of it. I was sharing a room with three other girls. I climbed to the top of Mount Victoria with one girl from LA .We had a great view over Wellington.

We were lucky with the weather as well, because it rained enough to cool us down but not too much so that we did not enjoy the climb.
We also went up on a cable car ride for another overview of Wellington..

Then we went back to the YHA and met up with another girl in our room. All three of us went out for a good night on the town.
It was great fun.I ended up going to bed at three in the morning.
This was not a good idea as I had to get up at six thirty to go for the ferry to the south Island. Needless to say I did not feel very well on the ferry trip between the north and south islands!!
But the views were beautiful,so that cheered me up.
I was heading to Nelson to meet up with Carolyn, the girl that I had travelled with for three weeks in Northern Queensland in Australia. But when I was about to board my bus at the ferry terminal in Picton I turned round and she was standing there!!!! She was on another bus that had arrived from the south. It was good to see her again. We travelled well together last time.
We booked into the YHA in Nelson for six days. Another friend,Rachel, who I travelled with in the outback in Australia, came to meet up with us. We got a triple room and hung out together in Nelson. It is a really lovely city.

LAST DAYS IN OPOTIKI

On the Queen's birthday they have a holiday in New Zealand. So lots of people were going out mountain biking in the hills.Including their neighbour Andrew and his daughter Nicole.
Lyn and I got up early to take some of the bikers and their bikes up into the hills. Then we went for a lovely, if a bit of a cold, walk round the Waterfalls at Whinray.





Kate had a stinker of a cold so she stayed in bed to chill out.
One of the things that amazes me here is that so many people roam the hills with guns for hunting the animals.They randomly shoot possums, pigs and deer.I know it is a way of life, but there does not seem to be enough co-ordination of hunters for my likeing. There are always people getting shot by accident!! And they just leave little blue signs on trees to say that a trap has been left.
I was glad Lyn pointed that out to me because I would not have had a clue what the blue flag meant and I would hate to be caught in a trap.
Later that night Lyn's brother and his wife came round for dinner, They cooked the lamb joint and Kate and Lyn provided the pudding and roast veg.
It was a nice way to spend my last evening in Opotiki.
And Kate and Lyn gave me a hilarious sendoff , they put on the most horrible false teeth and sang me a very funny song.

They really welcomed me into their home for over a week and made me feel so at home. I cannot thank them enough for letting me have a real insight into life in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand.

This is just a picture of their fruit bowl.I just loved the variety of fruits that I had never seen before.

OPOTIKI WOOD SPLITTING AND TREK

When Kate and Lyn asked me to come and stay they said that Friday would be wood splitting day and it would be ALL HANDS ON DECK!So when the machine arrived we all got to work.
The blade just ploughs though the big bits of wood and splits them. Then I got busy stacking the smaller bits of wood in the sheds for the winter.

They even let me have a go at using the machine, but it was a bit too scary for me with the massive bits of wood. So I just stuck to stacking!


It was great fun, but I was shattered when we finally stacked the last bit of wood. Every muscle ached.
On the Saturday we had a lazy day, then went round to Kate and Lyn's neighbour, Richard, to watch the final of their national rugby tournament. All the guests brought some food and it was great fun. But you could have heard a pin drop when I said that I thought the referee had made the right decision sending one of their players off after he hit someone!!! All eyes were on me, but they decided to forgive me and a good night was had by all!!!Thankfully their team won!!
The next day Kate, Lyn and her sister-in -law Susan and I went on a hike.
The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. We had a great time.



We stopped by the river in the valley for a picnic.

WHITE ISLAND

White Island is New Zealand's most active Volcano and I decided to book a trip out to the island. I got the boat at Whakatane and we sailed for about one and a half hours out to White Island.
I have to say I was slightly nervous about the prospect of stepping onto an active volcano. Especially as the nearer we got to the island you could clearly see the steam coming out of the big crater.
And as we pulled up alongside the island there was steam eminating from all over the rocky ground.It looked like a set from a Doctor Who film!!
On the main boat they then issued us with Gas masks and hard helmets. I started to wonder why I had decided to take this trip. And as they transfered us in small groups in a dinghy from the main boat my legs really were shaking.
It took me a while to compose myself when we reached the Volcano.
But it was so fascinating that I was awestruck by the fragile beauty of it all.
Stepping foot onto an active crater amid the hot thermal streams and bubbling mud pots was mind blowing enough. But then seeing the glittering yellow sulphur crystals all over the place was fabulous.
I had to put the gas mask on several times because the sulphur fumes were so overpowering.


We were shown the ruins of various sulphur factories that had been established on the volcano through the years.And where several miners were killed in the early 1900's by a landslide!
When we eventually left the island we sailed around it just taking in the beauty of the active landscape.

And we spotted this seal asleep on the warm rocks.It did not seem to be phased by the prospect of its bed erupting !