We had another action packed day lined up so we arose early and caught our pick up to our first activity of the day, Quad Biking. After the Quad Bikes we had arranged to do Paintballing, organised by the same guys. None of us have ever done Quad Biking or Paintballing so we didn’t really know what to expect and we were excited about what lay ahead for us. I was especially excited at the prospect of kicking Gary’s ass and letting it loose on him, Rambo style! We arrived at the quad bike centre and got kitted out in our Paintballing camouflage overalls as we would not be returning here and would go straight from the Quads to the Paintballing area. We were introduced to our guide, Malcolm, he brought us through the safety of quad biking and the essentials behind commandeering such a vehicle. We got acquainted with our respective vehicle’s and were ready for road. I christened my Quad Sally, no particular reason just looked like a Sally type of Quad!! Sally and I were going to have a great ride!
The quads were deadly, we had a great time compromising the rough terrain and learning to trust the machine and get the best out of the ride without endangering our lives. They are quite easy to get the hang of but the danger is falling into an air of complacency thinking you have mastered the quad and one sharp turn or unexpected bump later; you could topple causing damage to yourself and the vehicle. I didn’t want anything to happen to Sally! Malcolm was a sound man and we had some good conversations with him about New Zealand, the culture and even the legislation behind the proportion of risk in business especially regarding the customer! The tracks were all well laid out and challenging without being too over bearing as to not enjoy the experience. We drove in single file with a 10 second gap between each vehicle except for Conor who felt obliged to leave a 10 minute gap between him and the rest of us!!! I don’t think he left gear one! But he still managed to crash (if you could call it a crash at that speed) twice, both times he managed to dismount the vehicle he said before impact. Unfortunately such was the gap between him and the rest of us we didn’t have the chance to enjoy these incidents.
Having rode Sally around the track successfully, we pit stopped at the Paintball area. Malcolm gave us another safety brief, provided us with our masks and weapons, situated the flag and let us loose like wild wolfs! Mike and I were together against the twins. This was going to be fun! 100 paintballs each for the 1st game. I think we ran out after approximately 10mins!! We got a bit excited at the prospect of firing at the person you have been living, dining, sleeping and looking at for the past 6 weeks! Mike and I captured the flag and were annihilating the lads, mind you Conor had his safety latch on the gun for most of the game despite been given instructions on how to switch it off! The 2nd game was more of the same with the same outcome, Mike and I won. The paintballs are actually quite sore when they hit you and it left a few marks especially in the buttock area! At the end we left a few paintballs each to unload on each other and do a few old style western draws. I echoed “Feeling lucky, PUNK!”, and let rip on Conor, Mike & Gary let loose on each other. Any frustrations we had with each other over the past few weeks were fired in each paintball. It was painful but great fun and an excellent method of frustration relief. After the paintballing we hoped back on the quads and drove them back to the base camp where we got changed and got a lift back to the hostel.
We were covered in paint so we took quick showers and headed to the bus station. We were leaving Taupo for Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and our last stop on the North Island. The bus journey was 6 hours long but went reasonably quick in fairness with the help of some reading and that miracle device the iPod. The bus journeys allow for a lot of reflection on the journey so far and I can say that New Zealand so far has been really enjoyable. It is completely different to South America and what it may lack in charm and raw beauty compared to the later it makes up for with the friendliness of the people and the range of activities for any traveller. If you have enough money and are willing to try anything, New Zealand is the place for you. It caters for all sorts of adrenaline and thrill seekers. So far on our trip in New Zealand between us we have jumped off a building, rolled down a hill in a giant inflatable balloon, rafted down a waterfall, tubed through caves, quad biked through a forest and skydived from 15,000 feet in less than 2 weeks! It can truly stake claim to the adventure capital of the world.
See ya Bro,
Tom
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