Steve’s Travel Blog

Hello all,

 Well I made it thru Xmas but it was very different without any family around.  I missed them all terribly but I made it thru with the new friends I am meeting.

So the skydive on the 24th had to be canceled because of high winds and they are closed the 25th and 26th.  I am not sure when I will be able to get it done now but I will keep you all informed when the jump happens.

 Christmas eve was realitivly quite and a group of us listened to the xmas music that Boyd downloaded for me before i left (Thank You Boyd).  Most were happy to hear some tunes but others were having a tough time getting into the spirit of things.  I went to midnight mass at St. Patrick’s in Taupo which was a 30 minute walk from the hostel but I listened to the xmas music the whole way.  The mass was a bit different than in Canada because they add in some Maori culture to it.  It was very interesting and they do sing different songs than we normally hear.  The homily was very interesting becasue he talked about that no one is alone at Christmas and it really seemed to cheer me up.  After mass they served port and Christmas cake and I left shortly after for my walk back to the hostel.  It was about 2 am when I got back so I went to bed.  Christmas morning was quiet as well.  I got up about 8:30 and just relaxed for a bit and then got ready for the day.  Gemma, Floss (her friend) and I had breakfast at about 10, exchanged gifts and then went for a walk.  The weather today is much better than it has been for the last 2 days.  At 2pm we were joined by Craig (from Okotoks) and Alex (Geramny) and went to the Urban Retreat Hostel for a Christmas dinner.  They did an awesome job of it.  We got Turkey, Ham and all the fixings.  They also had 12 bottles of chamapagne and a free keg of beer.  After a break in the eating the served us dessert which was cake, strawberries, ice cream, chocolate and fruit salad.  They also had holiday poppers and little chocolate santa’s.  After, one of the workers dressed up as santa and he passed out gifts to everyone.  I got a fleece blanket, Gemma and Craig got sweatshirts or jumpers as they call them, and Floss and Alex got tshirts.  We got all this for $25 which was a great deal and we were all very much in the Christmas spirit after that.  I was pretty tired and ended up going to bed at about 10 but the others were out unlil about 1.

Boxing day is nothing like in Canada.  Some stores are closed and the sales are small at best.  I will be leaving Taupo tomorrow and heading to Tongariro National Park whre if people want we will hike the mountain which takes about 6 -8 hours or else we do a bus tour and a short hike.  We stay in the national park overnight and then go to Wellington.  The plan is for a few days ther and then to Abel Tasman for New Years where I will meet up with Olive and Karen.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas I hope you all find it a joyous day.  A special hug goes out to my nephews and niece (Emerson, Matthew and Kirstin) and my god children (Nadean and Anndrea) and of course my mom.  Happy birthday to Nadean, Audrey (holly crap she is turniong 65) and Lindsey.

Love you all very much,

 Steve,

No pics from xmas as i forgot my camera but I am sure that some will end up on facebook from the others cameras.

Well it is the evening of December 23rd and i thought i would give an update.

It is great that many of you have added me to your Facebook pages and you can see more photos than I can put on this site.  I added another 60 today so take a look.

The last 3 days have been very busy and we did a lot of things.  We started by going up Mt. Eden and overlooking Auckland.  Good-bye big city.  We went to the Coromandel peninsula and got some fantastic views of the country side.  Holy crap are there  a lot of sheep in this country.  We stayed at a campground the first night just outside of Hahie.  They have Atco type trailers set up for dorms and they were pretty comfortable.  Our guide (Greg) cooked supper for us  and he made a salad from cooked yams, bananas, curry powder, sesame seeds, mayo andf sour cream.  We also walked to Cathedral Cove and got some pics from around it.  Later on in the eveing we went to Hot Water Beach which has a natural hot spring under it.  You have to dig a hole in the sand to create your own hot pool.  Ours was not working so well so when a group left we took over theirs.  We had about 10 in the pool.  I suddenly heard my name called out and 5 people (Nick, Cel, John, Danielle, and Michael) I met at VoroVoro were on the same beach.  they are traveling by camper van and it was amazing catching up with them.  I went into their hot pool and theirs was a lot better than the one we hopped into.  Later that night I made smores for the group but I burnt some of them but they were still good.  Our next day was a long drive to a town called Raglan with some stops along the way.  We stayed at the bottem of a volcano and had small 4 bed droms.  They were very nice.  Liam decided to cook chili for the group tonight and it was awesome.  Olive, Alian, Ravi and I went on a hike thru the bush.  At one point I thought we might be lost but we made it back and it was a lot of fun.  It reminded me of hiking in the mountains.  I also got to call home and everyone was there celebrating Xmas early because Rod is gone to the World Juniors at xmas.  It was nice to hear all their voices.  It was an early night because the next day was loaded.  We were up early and on our way to the Waitomo caves.  I abseiled (repelled) down 100 ft of a waterfall and then caved for a bit to another repel and then a 3rd that was completely in the dark.  After that we caved in spots that were so small i wasn’t sure i would fit.  We saw glow worms in the caves that were awesome and then we rock climbed most of the way back up.  It was tiring but i was glad I did it.  Now Rod is not the only one in the familt that has done repelling.  These pics are very big and are only on my Facebook page.  After we went to Maketu for the night and stayed in hall and experienced another cultural show.  I was elected chief of our group and had to accept the welcoming gift from the warriors.  They then did some singing and we learned how to do the HAKA (the chant that the All Blacks do before a rugby match).  I had to lead our group and i was very loud (surprise) and our group did an excellent job.  We all slept in the same hall and di was very comfortable.  Today we went to Whakarewarewa and visited a Maori village and geothermal area.  The village is surrounded by hot pools and boiling mud.  They use the pools for cooking and cooler pools for bathing.  We saw some pools that were so hot that they build up geisers that shoot into the air.  It was amazing to see the water and mud shooting so high.  We got into Taupo and have the evening to ourselves.  My skydive has been moved up to tomorrow as long as the weather holds out.  Right now it is not looking to good to dive but the place is closed on xmas and boxing day.  I will be going at 4pm NZ time.  in the morning I might go and play a round of golf.  They are a few other things to keep me busy until I leave on the 27th and Gemma will be here tomorrow as well.   I am going to spend New years in Abel Tasman National Park with Olive and Karen.

 Till next time,

Kia ora (maori for good health)

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