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As we drove back through Auckland, I was annoyed to be seeing the city again, having achieved nothing in the 2 days since we left.

Oli had a friend that lived in Hamilton, 1.5hours south of Auckland so he called to see if he was around and ask if we could park the van outside his house that night. It all worked out, so we spent the evening with him and his girlfriend drinking a combination of the god-awful beers we had bought in Auckland and the much nicer beers that he had in his fridge.

It was another bloody cold night but this time I decided to sleep fully clothed with the addition of my beer jacket so the chill was not quite as cutting as the previous night, but the hangover was worse.

The next morning, we had planned an exciting day… A morning surfing in the massively hyped up town of Raglan and and afternoon Black water rafting in the Waitomo caves, famous for their, er, glowmorms.

The drive to Raglan was spectacular. Everywhere looked like a set from the Lord of the Rinds. Every green hill could have been the Shire. Even the State Highways in New Zealand (which certainly isn’t a highway by most other Western countries standards) are some of the most beautiful and scenic drives I’ve ever known. Driving around New Zealand isn’t just a way of getting from A to B – it’s something that is actually massively enjoyable. you’d almost pay money just for the drive.

From New Zealand

Anyway, once we hit Raglan, we had yet another massive disappointment. Absolutely no surf. I’m not just talking about little waves. There were no waves. The sea was so calm, you could see a clear reflection of the surrounding landscape in the. As we drove through the little surf-town of Raglan, it was clear that this would be a very cool place to spend some time, were there actually anything to do here except surfing. But with no surf, there were no people. As was becoming something of a recurring pattern, we walked into the coffee shop to find ourselves the only customers, ordered our coffee, drank our coffee and left the place empty once again.

We took a back road to Waitomo so that we could have a scenic stop-off at the Bridle Veil falls. As we tried to make our way on foot to the base of the waterfall our path was blocked “for maintenance and path improvement”. It seemed to me that there were dark forces at work to make our journey through New Zealand as difficult and full of obstacles as is humanly possible.

So we got back in the van and headed to Waitomo on a back road that was more like a rally course. Fittingly, by the time be arrived, the van was covered in so much mud, it actually looked like we HAD been rallying it.

Fortunately, the “legendary black water rafting experience”, was pretty worthwhile. It essentially entailed riding down a river in an underground cave system on a rubber ring. The highlights were riding over a couple of small waterfalls, and riding without our helmet lights on in complete darkness through a huge cave lined by glow-worms which looked like little blue stars lighting the night sky. It almost would have been tranquil maybe even serene were it not for the fact that it was soo very very cold.

After warming up with a shower and a bowl of soup, we headed back to Hamilton for another night so that Oli could meet up with his distant relations the next day. We parked outside his friends again and spent the first part of the next morning sorting out activities and administrative things on the net such as the ferry crossing from the north to the south island and most importantly booking a skydive in Lake Taupo, the world capital of skydiving.

Oli’s relatives took us out for lunch, which was very nice of them. Then we set out on the road again to Lake Taupo via Roturua. We knew when we were getting close to Roturua because it absolutely stunk. Roturua is famous for the natural sulphur pools and springs which seem to pop up everywhere in and around the town. I mean literally everywhere. I took a photo of a sulphur spring venting steam in someone’s back garden. We could have stayed in Rotorua, but the smell the sulphur (sort of like fart mixed with rotten egg) was more than enough motivation to keep moving. And besides, we had a skydive booked in Lake Taupo the next day.

From New Zealand

We arrived in Taupo as the sun was setting and parked the camper right on the Lake for million dollar views of the lake. There were “no camping” signs everywhere, but a local had told us that we would be fine. The skies were clear and if it held, it would be an absolutely perfect day for skydiving. Surely we were long overdue a little bit of good fortune on this trip?