The last of New Zealand

With Michelle (brunette) and Liv (blonde), the Blackpool girls!

We went from Napier up to Lake Taupo and waited around for a day or so to see if the weather cleared enough to do a skydive, we met up with Liv and Michelle again and had a catch up.  We booked one dive and had it cancelled then decided if the next day was cloudy that was it, no skydiving.  We woke up in the morning to clear blue skies, and I thought "Oh no, I'm actually going to have to go through with this!"  

Just before the skydive in all our gear-
 yes, that little thing was the plane we went up in!

We did go through with it though and were so glad we had, Tim took it all in his stride obviously, but I was so scared.  I was last in the plane so first out which was a good thing as I had to just go for it.  It was amazing- 45 seconds of freefall then a parachute trip for about 5 minutes.  The views were fabulous and the rush was fantastic- I keep thinking back to it and can't believe we actually did it.  


Also, my skydive instructor was like a brown haired Robbie Savage, which in my eyes is a good thing!  

Huka Falls after the sky dive. 

From Taupo we headed north up to Rotorua where we went to a few of the thermal springs and Huka falls, then spent the next few days travelling up through Auckland to the Northlands so we could go diving at Poor Knights, which is one of the top ten dive spots in the world.  

Thermal springs- like another planet!

Poor knights was amazing, it isn't coral reef it's kelp and it is all protected as a marine reserve so there are loads of fish and wildlife.  We saw loads of huge stingray, some were about 1.5m across and there were shoals of fish and caves to explore too.  It was really different to places we've dived so far.  

Thermal geyser

We went for a walk by this waterfall in Whangarei.  35mins round trip- we returned to the van 2 hours later, soaked, covered in mud (I fell over) and Tim had only one working flip flop left.   

  

A vintage steam train we rode at Kawakawa

Over the last few days we have found some lovely places to camp along the coast so there are a few photos of them too.  We're heading over to Sydney again tomorrow, for Sophie and Alec's wedding then after that off on the next leg- South America! 

Poor Knights dive site is the island in the distance

Sunny bay before the diving

Near Omaha