Well, the title says it all in this one...since the last blog, its been amazing. Absolutely amazing...and surreal.
We left for the Bay of Islands first thing in the morning on the Magic Bus, Didn't take too long to get there, so took the ferry over to a place called Russel. Had a couple of pints in the first ever licenced hotel to sell alcohol in New Zealand. Beautiful place, Russel I mean, not the hotel...that was pretty standard but we sat outside to look at the beach, water and boats. Headed back and booked a couple of trips, one of which was to Cape Reinga (the most North-western place in NZ...I think) and the other was a dolphin viewing trip.
So up again early doors for this day trip to Cape Reinga, I only took shorts and a singlet (vest)...I immediately regretted this decision as it started pissing down. Luckily by the time we got to our first stop of the day, it had brightened up. This first stop was at a gum-tree forest. It was so boring, and the guide cracked terrible jokes that only the oldies enjoyed. But the forest itself was pretty good looking. Luckily we weren't there too long, and headed up to the most northern tip, where there's a lighthouse and the most spectacular views Ive seen so far (although I'm sure it will be topped at some point in NZ). You could see where the Tasman sea met the ocean. I mean, that wasn't too impressive, but it still looked pretty incredible. Next stop was at the massive sand dunes, where you can 'boogie-board' down from the top. It was awesome...took ages to climb to the top, but it was well worth it. Had a few goes, and managed to reach the little stream at the bottom, got soaked, then covered in sand. This was by far the highlight of the day. We were then driven along the beach to see the "hole in the rock" ...guess what that is. Saw some wild horses pottering about as well which was good. Our guide, by the way, didn't enjoy talking...he f**king loved it. Allllll the way he just didn't stop, some things he said were mildly interesting, but this was about 4% of the content. He told us how to tow another truck out of the sand, how they had a power cut recently and other such fascinating things. Harmless though.
The next day was the dolphin trip around the bay of islands...another tour-guide who enjoyed his own voice, but this one sounded like he was auditioning for radio 4. Every word over pronounced, with no ers or urms, and of course classic jokes that he's made every day forever. Again, harmless though. We saw a huge pod (as its called) of Dolphins, around 30 apparently. We got all excited as we thought we'd be able to swim with them...sadly its against the law to swim with a pod that has a baby in it. This one did. We didn't swim. They still put on a show for us though, leaping 5 metres into the air and flipping and what not. If it wasn't for the dolphins, the day would have been a non-event...being shown rocks in the sea isn't the most exciting thing in the world.
Had a few drinks that night in the hostel then hit the hay as it was an early departure on the Magic bus the following morning. Magic, by the way, are the company we are travelling with...And I'm impressed so far...they book your hostels for you, sort out trips, and book you on the next bus so you don't have to sort it all out yourself. Not bad.
On the way back, we stopped at a cafe. We were told no longer than 30 minutes before we were to be back on the bus. Everyone was back in time, apart from a Japanese lady. We drove down to the museum to see if she was there, but she wasn't. In fact she was nowhere to be seen. About 20 minutes later, a guy flagged us down and said he'd seen an Asian woman walking on the other side of Bogey (I don't know either)...This place, though, was about 4 miles away, and when we finally caught up with her, she was still walking away from where she started. No idea what she was playing at, but we gave her a massive cheer and applause when she got on...plonker.
Anyway, onto the best part...
I saw in a book that Arj Barker, (Dave from Flight of the Concords) was performing his stand up tour at the Sky theatre in Auckland that night. Chris and I wandered down to see if there were any tickets left, and there were...third row to the right. Buzzing. Came back and had a few beers at the bar (free I might add...an hour of free beer in a hostel that gives you a free mini-meal at 7pm and only charge you 9 pounds a night...Fat Camel its called) Then headed back for the show. It was class...some woman on the front row kept getting up and touching Arj's feet and shouting during jokes, so eventually she was escorted out....A bit later on, Chris need the toilet so headed out...when he came back, he stayed near the back as there wasn't long left. He was lucky enough to be sat right by the foot-fetish woman. He text me saying that he was at the back, and she had a go at him for using his mobile...unbelievable!
So after the show, we thought we'd pop up to see if he was doing any meeting and greeting. He was...having photo's with people etc etc. We didn't have a camera so we just went up to say hello and that we enjoyed it and what not. Got chatting, then he introduced us to a couple of his mates...then invited us for a couple of beers. Obviously we said yes, and went along. It was awesome, just sat having a few beers with Arj Barker and 2 of his mates, chatting about all sorts of comedy etc. We even recommended a comedy to him that he hadn't seen (Garth Marenghi's Dark Place). So anyway, Facebooks got exchanged and we went back to the hostel feeling pretty excited about the whole thing...decided to go out with Julie from our hostel. Ended up in Burger King (standard) at 3 am, throwing gherkins at each other.
Now onto the really amazing bit...
Get a call from Alison, Arj's friend who tours with him...asking us if we want to do the Sky Jump off the Sky Tower. Yes please. So we hurried down, paid a heavily discounted price, kitted up and headed up in the lift to the top floor. Again, it was quite surreal (as we were about to jump off a building with Dave off F.O.T.C) and frightening as we were about to jump off a building. Chris was petrified. Absolutely petrified, it was hilarious.
What happens is, you walk to the end of the platform and jump off....your suspended about 180m above the ground for a few seconds and a photo...then dropped all the way to the bottom. It was mental.
So yeh, that's been the last few days...been invited to have a few more beers with Arj and co after his show tonight, as its his last one in NZ. Might pop along.
Cheers,
Jay
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