Welcome to North Island, New Zealand!

No less spectacular than the South Island, it's a completely different shape and has a whole greener look. Plus, towering above all the untouched rainforest, hilly farmland and remote beaches are the massive volcanoes of Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe. These snow-capped tops dominate what is a gurgling, bubbling wilderness of sulphurous volcanic activity running through the centre of the island. The photo above is of a geothermic lake just outside Rotorua.

As well as discovering more nature, we've experienced loads more Maori culture, history... and food! From the haka to the hangi we were shown the very best hospitality.

FREEFALL!!!

Lake Taupo in central North Island is THE place to jump out of a plane. And it had been on my mind to do a skydive for a few months, since talking to Dean & Vikki about theirs in South Africa, and then having heard the stories from Catherine - she did the same jump at Lake Taupo earlier in the year.

Building up to it was very testy though - not sleeping, then dreaming of chutes not opening, planes crashing, the instructor developing acute amnesia just after jumping, etc. By the time I got the call that the weather was fine and they'd be picking me up in ten minutes I was pretty much quaking at the knees with fear.

So it doesn't need a whole lot of introduction, apart from the fact that due to the sheer exhilarating insanity of the whole experience I should apologise in advance for a couple of wee expletives coming out without warning. Oops... But I promise, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Here it comes...

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Discovering Maori

While travelling through much of this country, one could easily be forgiven for thinking New Zealand is the very last outpost of the British empire. We've driven through dozens of towns with English and Scottish names, met loads of cherry-faced (red-bearded) locals getting excited at their 'mother-country' roots, and have had our fair-share of museums and memorials to those 'brave and noble' pioneers who brought 'civility and peace' to the 'warring natives' of Aotearoa.

However, any such pretentions of mono-culturalism soon dissipated when we hit Rotorua, the centre of Maoridom in New Zealand. And what a fascinating place it turned out to be...

What we learnt about Maori history:

*Unlike the Aborigines, the Maori were given an opportunity to avoid total annihilation by the settlers by signing up for Queen Victoria's protection under the Treaty of Waitangi.

*Unfortunately, they failed to read the fine print, and what the treaty actually said was they had to sell the land as and when it was required by settlers.

*The New Zealand government has been a little more repentant than the Australian government, and set up a Waitangi commission which is still today settling land and heritage disputes. Also, unlike the Australian Aborigines, the Maoris represent themselves politically.

What we learnt about Maori culture:

*Maori men and women often have tattoos on their faces depicting status and their roles as warriors, poets, psychics, etc.

*The Maori greeting involves touching noses twice (three times and you're engaged, apparently).

*Dancing with poi's (something we often see at Trance festivals and in Thailand) is traditionally Maori - poi's helped develop fighting skills.

*While doing the HAKA, a Maori warrior's bite IS as fearful as his bark - be very afraid...

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And for some of our American friends...

...or for anyone else who hasn't yet experienced a HAKA, just a brief explanation: the Haka is a war dance traditionally performed by the Maori (and other Polynesian nations) just before battle. It was a terrifying display of thigh and elbow slapping, face contorting and guttural noises intended to intimidate the enemy. Today, the All Blacks and other Polynesian nations do the Haka before each rugby match. If there were one single reason to watch the Rugby World Cup, this is surely it...

Don't the South African boys look a little scared in this?

By the way, there are reports that South Africa will be doing their own "haka" before each match. You heard it here first folks.

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The majestic Kauri

Whilst in the far north of New Zealand, we decided to check out the second largest trees in the world - the Kauri - and man, what a way to feel small!

We visited the biggest of the lot, the "God of the Forest" Tane Mahuta on the edge of Waipoua Forest and we reckon it would probably take at least 20 hippies to give this tree some hugging. Tane has a girth of 13.77m (45.2ft) and a trunk height of 17.68m (58.0ft).

Unfortunately for the Kauri, they became very sought after for timber and most were chopped down during the the latter part of the 1800's and early 1900's. Today they're protected.

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Volcanoes and Tectonics

I guess you don't really get an appreciation of the random instability of the planet until you get close to it - and you certainly do that in New Zealand. Thanks to the violent tectonic upheaval caused by the impact of the Pacific and the Australian plates against one another over the last gazillion years, there are incessant underground earthquakes and other subterranean geothermal nastiness here. Such that at the surface, emanating from the green wilderness, there's just one big steaming, simmering rip down the middle of the country.

Now you'd be forgiven for thinking "yeh, yeh but they're all dormant, and haven't erupted in centuries... I mean it doesn't worry the Kiwis does it..." Well think about this, just take the highest one - Mt Ruapehu, which looked like this as recently as 1995; it has erupted 50 times since 1861. Other major volcanoes here are a lot more frequently volatile, causing lava flows, showers of hot ash and white dust in the region. Because of a recent decrease in major eruptions the smart geologist's money is on a big one coming. Soon...

We got plenty of opportunity to experience volcanic activity first hand when we took in some of the active sites around Rotorua. Once you get over the smell of a million rotting eggs (sulphur belches from the depths), it's a pretty amazing otherworldly experience strolling past places like this:

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Spotted... the prehistoric Tuatara

Imagine seeing a dinosaur...today! That's what seeing the Tuatara was like when we spotted it in the Karori Sanctuary (an awesome predator-free sanctuary for indigenous birds, Tuatara and the Weta). So, some interesting facts about this beastie:

*The Tuatara is one of the least developed critters around today and has remained largely unchanged for 200 million years, probably due to the old addage "if it ain't broke, why fix it". Unfortunately, it's highly endangered at the moment because it couldn't evolve fast enough to survive the impact of humans and their pests in its environment.

*It has a third eye, the subject of much investigation. It's not visible as it is covered by skin but probably helps them suss out when the best time is to hibernate.

*When hibernating, the Tuatara can bring it's heart rate down to only a few beats per minute, and its body tempreture down to only 7 degrees, much lower than other reptiles.

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