New Zealand (5) - Wellington - Jager bombs, Transport Issues, River Valley Lodge & The Capitol

To celebrate Sams successful sky dive, a huge group of us went out the same night. Needless to say Jager bombs were consumed and our 5am alarm clock was missed; we missed the chance to do the Tongario Crossing. Foretunately weather on the mountain has been really bad with visability being reduced to 10 metres along the track. Instead, Sam and I laid by lake Taupo and got sun burnt; pretty chilled out day.

The next day we went on a walk up to the geothermal park, Craters of the Moon. Which was a little weird, loads of sulpur, bubbling mud, steam vents and the feeling of pending death by being steamed! The next day we bordered a coach heading for the eco-adventure lodge, River Valley Lodge. However, due to an issue with my booking, we were thrown off at a town National Park Village. This town was straight out of a horror movie; a heavy mist, a crazy hostel receptionist, and a population of 14. We spent the day there; because of the bad weather in the area we could do/see nothing, hence the lack of photos. We did watch the first Lord of the Rings movie, I think we did this for some kind of Bullseye gameshow physcology. "This is the scenery you could be seeing?"

We finally got to the River Valley Lodge, which was nice place to chill out. The lodge is miles from anything and requires a small hike from where the coach can drop you off from. We had a nice BBQ here; a load of beer and the next day we relaxed by the river and did some swimming. I did climb up the grade 3 rapids and decided to come down them on my arse; my groin area got smashed by an unmissable rock. Good fun though! White water rafting is available but we are hopefully doing it further down the line. The next stop was Wellington...

The coach down was pretty exciting and involved some games and films; once at Wellington, we got showered, changed and started the drinking! Sam was a total shambles and was very drunk! I write this blog now, while she is asleep upstairs. Today, we went to the Te Papa musuem, which is quite impressive museum of New Zealands Natural and Political history. Once again, Sam surprised me by reading some things, she did get tired quick. Tomorrow we get the ferry to the South Island, we have been in NZ for 2 weeks. As Sam keeps saying, "I can not believe we have been away for only 3 weeks". She says at least once an hour...