Feejee Experience Fiji

Back in Auckland

19th June

As there is not a huge amount to do in Auckland apart from shop, which I dont have money to do, I decided to go on my free tour of the city from Kiwi Exp. Our first stop was to see the harbour, apparently 1 in 5 Aucklanders (Jafa's) own a boat. We then got harnessed up and put on our hard hats to walk over the Harbour bridge which had amazing views of the city. We walked to the bungy jump point but no-one in our group wanted to do a bungy jump as it was quite expensive. They then asked who wanted to do a free tandem bungy jump and my hand was up straight away! I then had to convince someone to do the bungy jump with me that was under 70kg, none of the girls wanted to do one so I jumped with a random german guy! When I was standing on the ledge I could'nt actually believe what I had let myself in for as you could just see the drop! Though the countdown had started and I was attached to someone else so we both had to jump no matter what, there was definately no pulling out. As we jumped I screamed as you could just feel yourself falling with nothing holding you back, it was sooo different from skydiving where at points it doesnt even feel like your falling. As we were getting closer to the water the bungy started to work and pulled us back up phew!! It was by far one of the best freebies I have managed to blag, apart from the horse riding of course!

20th June

Doing final preparations for flight to Fiji tomorrow, like washing etc. Meeting up with Sinead in a few hours time.

Bay of Islands 2

17th June

me and 2 of the guys I met, Raj and George went on a Te Waka tour which is Mauori boat a bit like a kayak. We visited a few of the islands, with me being in charge of the time we switch our paddles over by shouting out 'Huh'. We stopped at one of the islands so we could walk up to the viewpoint which was really pretty. We then went to collect some muscles from the sea, though only 3 of us had the guts to go in. It was absolutely freezing! I was so cold that I only managed to pick 2 muscles. We then paddled to the shore and our instructor cooked them. As i went through so much pain to get them I thought I would try one but shortly regretted it as it tasted disgusting and the texture was horrible, it was a really big one as well. We also looked for shell rings and our instructor made one into a necklace for me. After chilling out on the beach we paddled back to the main land.

Bay Of Islands

16th June

I headed up to the bay of islands on my own but I quickly made friends with some people on the bus which was good. We also found out that theres a free trip on the 'excitor' which is a really fast speed boat that visits the hole in the rock and goes around a few of the 144 islands. they were doing filming to promote activities for the World cup in 2011, what was even better an ex all blacks player was there Tana Umaga (i think thats his name). Despite having to do loads of takes when we got on and off the boat we had a brilliant time as the boat went soooooo fast and the fact that it was free made it even better!

North Island

Journey to the North Island

9th June We had quite a rough ferry crossing to the North island- Wellington (NZs capital) which lasted 3hrs, I am surprised I was'nt sick. we are still under debate as to whether we sawa whale or not but we definately saw a dolphin which was cool. We decided to check out the bars but it was surprisngly really quiet and quite disappointing after a night out in Queenstown. 10th June A few of us went to the free museum which was actually quite interesting, we then took a tram up to the viewpoint which reminded me so much of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, a lot of memories came flooding back!! 11th June We left the capital to go to Taupo. We stopped off at a river called Huka Falls, where loads of water rushes out of Taupo lake which is massive! It looked really scary, i dont think I have ever seen water flow that fast before! As we have already done a lot of activities there wasnt a huge amount extra to do in Taupo. Though we did find something funny and cheap to do and I have a really embarassing video. We basically had to try and hit a golf ball onto this island in the sea and laura and i were the amusement as we were sooooo bad at it! 12th June We stopped off at a mud bath on our way to Rotorua which absolutely stank of rotten eggs, though despite the smell it was fascinating as I have never seen bubbling mud before. That afternoon despite the stomach churning smell we though we would try out the Polynesian Spa pools. The first pool was acidic and apparently it was meant to be good for our bones and muscles. The others were of different temperatures. that evening we went to a Mauori village to see how the locals used to live. they did a welcoming dance and then told us a story about a Mauori couple. After the singing and dancing we sat down for a traditional meal that had been cooked in the ground. It was really yummy, especially the fruit salad, pavlova and chocolate cake with hot custard! As it was all you can eat, you could tell who were the travellers as we all went up for seconds/thirds to make the most of the good food. 13th June We had a chilled out day, a sit was good weather Laura and I went for a wlk down to lake Rotorua. We then went to pak 'n' save (cheap supermarket) but it decided to absolutely chuck it down and we were at least 20mins from the hostel. Neither of us had our umbrellas so we had to try and run in flip-flops to the shopes that were covered. Then the rain turned into hail, so not only were we wet we were freezing! 14th June Laura, Dan and I said our sad goodbyes to the boys that we had got to klnow really well after 3 1/2 weeks of travelling together. On the way to Auckland we stopped at Hobbiton for lunch, feeling slightly hung over we bought steak pies which was probably the cheapest and yummiest pie I have ever eaten. We then got pictures with Gollum. the journey was actually really quick to auckland as we all fell asleep on the bus. To make the most of the day we headed down to the harbour. We t6hen treated ourselves to 20p icecreams from Maccy d's which has to be the smartest Macdonalds i have ever seen.