New Zealand

Brrr! I cannot believe how cold it is in this beautiful country! I am a bit of a baby but I really didn't come to this part of the world to freeze. Anyway, Wellington was an amazing city right on the water and my hostel was a block from the harbour. I wandered through the Te Papa museum, which was fabulous and then toured through parliament (wicked cool buildings) before hiking up to their Botanical Gardens (great view of the city). I took the cable car down, I was exhausted from the hike.

They have great shopping in Wellington but I didn't buy anything-I'm on a budget again! I also did a full-day tour of the Lord of the Rings. There were only six of us on the huge bus but we had a blast re-creating the scenes and I got to see a lot of Wellington plus the surrounding scenery. It was very cool to be standing in the same place that Frodo (aka Elijah Wood) had been and same with Aragorn (Viggo Mortisen). Wait until you see the pic of me as Legolas (complete with ears). It's hilarious.

I was on the bus for 6 hours this morning and now I'm in the lovely Taupo, which is situated on a huge lake. Its actually a crater filled with water but rumour has it the best fly fishing around. Taupo is known for the cheapest sky dives in the world (just over $200 NZD) and the most popular destination in this part of the world. They do 35,000 jumps every year in just Taupo! My British friends Alex and Nick did it but I won't. Not my cup of tea. Neither is the world-renown Alpine hike. Apparently there is snow up there and its an 8-hour hike...ah, no thanks. I'm not into that stuff. I'm going to explore thermal pools tomorrow, yee-haw! LOL

Anyway, interestingly enough Lake Taupo is 40 km long, 30 km wide and 186 m deep. Its a crystal clear lake and very calm. I wish the weather was better, I'm so cold here.