After a day and a half in Auckland, picking up a rental car, somehow managing not to crash said rental car while learning to drive on the left in NZ's biggest city, and picking up a few other provisions, I've finally made it out into the country! I'm in the small lakeside city of Taupo now. It's mostly been rainy, but the sun came out for a few hours late in the day. One benefit of the rain though has been getting to record in what are normally noisy and crowded places, with no one around.

So today I got the chance to record Huka Falls (WOW! I've never seen rapids like that!). I set up in a few different spots, but found a great roaring and ominous rumble mixed with the sound of the birds and rain about twenty meters away from the falls.

After the falls I found my way to a great little tourist hole full of llamas, peacocks and chickens. There was a great little walk that wound through a bunch of thermal vents. I went around twice recording, and by the second time around the rain had really picked up and really added to the feel of the place.

I'm beginning to understand that nature recording in NZ means getting very wet... Luckily I've worked out a pretty good system to dry my gear off in the car!

After the day's explorations I finished off down by the river. There's a thermal waterfall near my hostel and the water is nearly 40 degrees C! It's turned out to be a great place to meet people and the conversation is always good.

The weather is looking good for the next few days which is good, because I start my four day hike through the Tongariro volcanic range tomorrow. Hoping for good pictures and even better audio. I'll try to post again when I get into my next hostel after that. =D

NEW ZEALAND!