Fancy your own private cable car?

Many people had told us that Wellington, the nation's capital city, was worth staying at least 2-3 nights, so we chose 2.  After Tongariro we made the 5 hour drive down to Wellington so we could enjoy the city and stay in a hostel for the first time since Auckland. 

The hostel was a little different than any we've stayed in -- the residents were mostly non-English as a first language (many were French and German), and many of them seemed to be living there longer term while working daily in the city.  Most other hostels are filled with travellers staying a few nights and then moving on -- this place had a bit more of a homey feel -- but very cool none the less.

Since we were in the city by 4pm, we opted to go to a movie -- it felt like we were not camping for once.  We saw the 5pm show of 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', which was actually very good, and then went out for Belgian mussels and Hoegaarden at a Belgian restaurant called Leuven.  They were the biggest mussels I have ever seen! They must grow some crazy shellfish in these NZ waters, because each mussel shell was the length of my palm! Unfortunately, eating mussels that big means you have to really like the texture, and it kind of turned me off mussels now for a good while. ;o(

The next day we took in some of the famous city sights starting with the Wellington cable car. 

You enter the car from a main street down an alley called Cable Car Lane, then you get into an old red car that takes you up the side of Wellington's steep escarpment.  The views of the city and the harbour from up there were just brilliant.

A trip on the car also included entrance to the cable car museum, which detailed the building and 1902 opening of the cable car system and how it increased the livelihood of Wellington residents who wanted to reside in the upper suburbs but work downtown.  There steep commute was now a 3.5 minute cable car ride!  Here's me on the original cable car used from 1902 to 1978.

The museum also had a video describing over 400 residents all over Wellington that had personal small cable car systems built up to their homes so that their lives were made easier.  In fact, there are a few key companies (with engineers) that make a living just on building such systems.  One rich family's cable car was highlighted, and Syd was able to get this pic from the ferry.  This personalized system for so many people makes Wellington a very unique city indeed.

Next to the cable car museum was Wellington Botanical Gardens where we took a walk and a moment to smell the roses in the Lady Norwood Rose Garden, which has over 300 varietals of roses.

Following that, we had a great sushi lunch on the harbour and then went to Mac's Brewery on the harbourfront for a tasting of 6 of their draft beers while overlooking the ships.  Summertime Lager was my favourite and the Golden Ale was Syd's (and also happens to be their most popular seller), though we both loved the White beer they make.

We then went to the New Zealand national museum (by recommendation) - called 'Te Papa' (which I believe in Maori means 'for the people'). 

It was a phenomenal place.  It was very spacious, and there were 7 floors of free exhibits inside.  Since we only had an hour we stuck to the main floor exhibit featuring a colossal squid (dead of course -- the biggest squid ever caught) that was caught in the Antarctic in Feb 2007 and the only one of its size on display in the world.  It was 4m long and 475kg.  Its eye alone was the diameter of a soccer ball!  The only other floor we checked out was about the history of the Maoris, and the history of European migrants (mostly English, Irish & Scots) over the last 150 years.  There was a specific exhibit on Scotland's influence which I found particularly fascinating. ;o)

Now, it's farewell to the North as we sail off to the South island on the Blueridge ferry to start our next adventures!

Astrid.

One Serious Hike

So today (Monday Jan 26) we did the 'Tongariro Crossing Alpine Hike'... a 19 kilometre / 7-8 hour jaunt that all the guide books say is a must-do.  I have to admit, it was pretty awesome.  Prior to this escapade, Astrid & I didn't really do a lot of hikes to qualify as 'hikers', though we certainly did our fare share of sub-3 kilometre portages... which meant a heavier pack, and a canoe on your shoulders... generally limited your views a little... which largely consisted of forest anyway.

Anyhow, it was truly amazing.  The hike has several distinct 'parts', making it quite enjoyable (except for the one section near the end which I will get to in a sec).

You start with a fairly gentle climb following a river up the side of a mountain.  Its mostly barren landscape and very dry, except for a quick stop at a cool waterfall called Soda Springs.

From there it gets quite steep as you ascend what is essentially a volcano.  Very cool views on the way up.. the final ascent to the top is especially gruelling.  Once at the top (which is kinda like the midway point, with 9km in (the harder bit) and 11.5km to go) you had a few choices -- you could head straight on (which is what most people do), you could climb up the 600 meter, 35 degree slope of Mt. Doom (aka Mt. Nagauranu), or you could take the gentler ascent up to the Mt. Tongariro Summit... I opted for the later. 

An intense uphill climb after the Mt Doom Summit option had us almost at the halfway point, which is where the option for the Tongariro Summit side-trip was at.  7km's into the walk, with another 11km's to go, what's another 3km side venture? :)

The views from the very top were very cool:

The next bit consisted of a cool crater that was super red (ironically called the Red Crater):

The descent down the red crater was very cool -- it was a steep slope with loose volcanic sand and gravel that made things fairly difficult.  I opted to gently jog down the slope in a criss-cross fashion that was similar to skiing... wow this made it way easier.  I passed several groups on the way down using this technique (it felt kinda similar to the Nordic ski style whose name escapes me), though it meant filling my socks and shoes with heaps of pebbles and sand.

After that we passed a couple of mountain lakes -- named Emerald lake and the bigger Blue lake.  From there the excitement waned a bit as we proceed through several kilometres of boring traversing down the far side slope.  But then it got excellent again as we entered lush forests following a stream which made for a great cool-down on my hot head.

When we finally reached the bottom, a quick phone call is all it took to have our holiday park place come along within 10 minutes with our van to pick us up (sure beat waiting for the shuttle bus like loads of others waiting at the bottom).  We were fairly exhausted, with some sore legs, but were filled with a huge sense of accomplishment after completing one of New Zealand's 'Great Walks'.

Now its off to the hot tub to wind down....

Syd.

Astrid's impression of this same walk.  I was not as excited as Syd to embark on this 8 hour hike - it frankly sounded quite daunting (while beautiful), and  I don't like things that are too hard.  The beginning started out easy enough with the hike across the plains and the chance to not only dip under a waterfall at soda springs and see a rainbow there, but all the while looking  up a my most favourite movie icon -Mount Doom! 

Then we did our first ascent and I must admit, it was quite hard and I took many breaks, but there were makeshift stairs so it was manageable.  At the top we went across some barren land that was used in some parts of the LOTR shooting of the Plains of Gorogoroth.  I did my own movie scene as Samwise with my bag as a makeshift Frodo - to commemorate the feeling (inquire later if you wish to view). I know, I'm such a nerd. 

By the second (or third?) ascent up to the red crater, where there were no steps, all crazy rocks and harsh unforgiving land around me, I did start to wonder what the hell I was doing there. Course, I never said this to Syd who was grinning from ear to ear despite the effort.  Then, at the top I was so winded that I just told Syd to do the summit himself so I could relax and enjoy the views. I then made another ascent to see what was on the other side (which I hoped was the emerald lakes) and to my great pleasure they were - but not after a crazy descent amongst many other trekkers so I couldn't do Syd's alpine move (that he did later with less people) and so had to make way slower downhill, basically in a sideways position.

At Emerald lake I waited for about an hour for Syd, but thought as I looked around - I am sitting next to an amazing jade-coloured sulphurous lake, a volcano and red crater to my right, steaming fumaroles casting sulphurous odours my way, and all the food and water with me - what else could I possibly want?  It was great!  It was also fun to see Syd come barreling down the hill and I caught some of it on video.

So overall, as hard as it was, I never would have seen such diverse scenery in one 8 hour walk (from plains, to waterfalls, to volcanoes, to geothermal areas, to beautiful lakes, to views from 2500 ft up - yes we climbed that high, to end with a cool bushwalk through a rainforest).  I too shared the accomplishment, and was doubly happy for a hot shower and hot tub experience that evening to soothe the aching muscles. ;o)

Astrid

Kerosene Creek & The Craters of the Moon

At or recent campsite, the DOC camp warden recommended that we check our the natural hot springs of Kerosene Creek just south of our location.  We went on a dodgy gravel road and came across it on the right.  A sign mentioned that it was safe to swim, so we put our suits on and walked along the creek to the pool at the end where there was a beautiful waterfall and rocky overhangs.  We had to wait for a naked guy to finish his bath before we ventured in, and then I had to wait for Syd to steel up the nerve to get into the hot water. 

To be fair, the water was probably 100-105F, and Syd has a tough time with hot water at the best of times. He was glad that I coaxed him in eventually as the mineral water was good for his skin and he enjoyed the hot waterfall.   The only annoying thing is that a tour group came by just after we got in and we felt like spectacles - hey look at those people swimming in the hot spring!

After a quick dry off, we were back in the van and heading south to Lake Taupo.  The Taupo region itself is the most geothermically active of all regions in New Zealand and as a result it had many activities.  We checked out a geothermal plant, which from afar looked like a nuclear reactor but Syd said that since they are anti-nuclear here , it must be a geothermal reactor.  So neat how they are able to harness the energy underneath the earth to heat the homes across the region.

The one activity we chose to partake in was to walk on the Craters of the Moon hike - which is essentially a protected geothermal area that had large craters and fissures.  The area still has eruptions due to pressures under the surface, and the last eription was only in 2002!  We enjoyed this walk though it was mad hot - but gave us more incentive to enjoy a picnic and swimming in the clear freshwater Lake Taupo.

Lastly, we checked out a highly voluminous waterfall called Huka Falls.  The water rushes super fast (290 cubic meters per second) down a narrow channel with a 10m set of falls at the end.  Though they are not high the water is blasting over the drop so quickly its pretty amazing.  Kayakers attempt this every often, though they wait until after 8pm when the water flows are lower (since less water is being redirected for hyrdo generation further down stream, since it is no longer peak time for electricity uses).  But I was just pumped about the colour!

Astrid.

A Living Maori Village Among Steaming Fissures & Pools

After much deliberation we decided to forego visiting Hobbiton (Matamata) in favour of spending more time in Rotorua.  Everyone we seemed to meet implied that the tour of the shire was expensive and not very worthwhile, so we gave it a pass.  I knew I would see Mordor in a few days so resolved my guilt (as an LOTR super-fan)with that.

When we entered Rotorua proper we could instantly smell the wafts of sulphur (aka rotten eggs) and saw plumes of steam everywhere we looked. Since we have been in the country for a week by now and still didn't know much about their aboriginal (Maori) culture, we opted to go the to a living Maori village in Rotorua called Whakarewarewa. 

This town was well worth the $41 price as we had a fully guided tour of Maori life, a cultural performance, and their steamed cuisine for lunch called 'hangi'.

The town itself was blazing hot as there were hot fissures (fumaroles) of steam and geothermal activity everywhere amongst the buildings.  Maori people settled there over a hundred years ago because they were drawn to the heat and energy given off from the earth's core and the heat under the homes would keep the homes warm throughout the winter.  They were able to use this energy for their daily lives including using it like an oven to steam cook their 'hangi' and the hot pools were used to boil foods such as corn. 

The main pool (pictured above) had a Maori name which meant murderous rippling water as it is so pretty to look at it but to jump into this bottomless pool would surely be death as temperatures can get upwards of 130C!

The water from the hot pools were also channeled into pools that the community would use for bathing at the end of the day when the water had cooled  down sufficiently.  As you can tell, it wasn't nearly cool enough yet!

We took a very hot walk around the neighbouring geothermal area to see many lakes, fissures and boiling mud pools.  It was neat to see such natural energy constantly brewing.  We were also able to see the Pohutu geyser from one side of the village, which is a continuous natural geyser that can shoot steam/ & water up to 60ft high.

We quite enjoyed the cultural show of singing and dancing with sticks and small round beanbags to show the flight of their native birds and butterflies.  The warriors also came forward and performed the haka, which is a traditional warrior dance meant to scare the enemy as they use a lot of exaggerated eye and mouth movements.  We knew of this from watching the NZ rugby team - the All Blacks - perform this before each match when we watched in the UK.

Our last experience of this unique culture was to try their Hangi. IT was basically root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, kumara/sweet potato), corn, cabbage, corn beef and chicken.  The flavours were very natural, and the gravy they used on the fall-off-the-bone chicken was fantastic. 

We ended this day by stopping at Zorb Rotorua, to have a go at this NZ invention - zorbing!  Essentially you get into an 11ft ball with a bit of water, and the ball rolls down the hill while you roll around inside.  Syd and I both chose to do the zorb zydro coarse, which basically goes down the hill in a zigzag pattern so its quite disorienting - you don't know when you are up or down!  It took about 2 minutes to get down the hill and it was soooo fun!  Syd was dubious at first whether it would be worth the $40 price tag- and later admitted that it totally was!

Astrid.

The Yeti Within

So my sister-in-law Nyla began calling me 'Yeti-Syd' before I had even left for our Down Under Adventure.  In response to this, I wanted Nyla to know that I haven't shaved since Calgary -- quite an accomplishment (well not really, since being lazy is pretty easy :)).  But Astrid has had enough, at least of the complete non-shaving thing so alas I must give it a trim.

Anyhow, here's a shot thus far -- Nyla, i'll keep you updated with the progress :)

It seems growing a beard is taking forever... I'm going to give it another few weeks but I'm thinkin' the whole facial hair thing will have to go before we hit Australia...

Syd.

Blundering Through Black Caves

Today was a day we have been looking forward to for quite some time.  We had been told by many to visit the Waitomo glowworm caves to do blackwater rafting.

On the way we stopped to do a quick bush walk to visit some famous falls called Bridal Veil falls.  I could see why they called them that, because there was just a small volume of water cascading over a 55m (170ft) high cliff, such that it did look like a veil.  It was very pretty and majestic.

We did our rafting with a company called the Blackwater Rafting Co. and chose the cheaper option of the Black Labyrinth 3 hr tour.  This was a slick run operation.  We were with a group of 10 (two families whose parents were friends since uni), and were all suited up together in 5 ml wetsuits, shorts, boots and helmets.  We looked (and felt) like a bunch of ducks. It was great!

We all piled into a van with two guides and drove to Ruakiri cave - which in Maori stands for the 'den of two dogs' and is a major cave with a series of underground walkways and rivers.  Thankfully we all had lights on our helmets to manoeuvre through the dark caves.  It was eerie when you looked around to think that you are underground and all you hear is the rush of water and the sounds of those in your group.  We had individual inner tubes that we used during certain parts of the tour where there was lots of water.  The best part was jumping backwards in our tubes from small waterfalls and landing in the frigid water below. 

At one point in the tour they had us form an eel, where we basically formed a line and held onto the feet (boots) of someone behind us.

Then they asked us to turn off our lights as we waded down the dark river and looked at the line of glowworms in the cave ceiling well above our head.  It was so neat!  The guide explained that they actually aren't worms at all but fly larvae with glowing excrement that they emit for 9 months in order to attract bugs up to them that they then eat.  They are also carnivorous as they not only eat their prey, but also their less fit siblings.  Then they sleep for 3 weeks in cocoons, and then spend last 3 months of their lives producing for the next generation.  The guide says he wouldn't mind the life of that fly - you're born, you eat your siblings, you fish for 9 months, sleep for 2 weeks, then shag yourself to death!  ;o)

Following that, they took us on another walk where it got too shallow and then as we got back into the water they told us yet again to turn off our lights and find our own way out of the tunnel by following the trail of the glowworms. 

It ended up being a much tamer trip than we thought (there weren't rapids or anything and it was more like a lazy river), but it was definitely unique and interesting, and not something we could do at home.   

Astrid.

Last of the Kauri

Kauri trees are a massive variety of pine trees native to New Zealand.  They are slow growers, and hence often die out as saplings to other faster growing fauna, though they succeed very well at growing in tough areas such as steep mountain slopes that are damp and dark.  For this reason, the areas where Kauri trees were limited.  When the European loggers found these trees, they were like a dream:  huge amounts of timber, knot free, and not prone to warping.  This lead to the vast majority of giant Kauri being logged, leaving the country with only a scarce few remaining.  The oldest in the country is around 600 years old and to give you an idea of size:  these things are 8-10 meters in diameter, and some 16 meters before the first branch.  My guess is that there is likely only about 50 big Kauri left on the North Island, though its hard to say how many i don't know about.  I do know that they have special walking paths just to go see a single Kauri tree.  We went to the Kauri 'grove', which consisted of about 8 or 10 trees.

We also checked out the Siamese Kauri... this was 2 separate Kauri who grew together as one base when they ran out of room in their younger years.  Very cool to see.

We also visited Hamilton's Botanical Gardens (yes, this Hamilton has gardens too!) - which used a serious amount of effort and gardening to create 6 paradise gardens modelled after different countries (Japan, England, China, US, Italy and India).  Each was separated by gates to give each on an individualised experience.  I think we were most impressed by the Italian renaissance one, but liked the maze that the Chinese Scholar Garden was..

We ended the night at Raglan, NZ's largest and most famous surf beach - know for the longest left handed waves (breaks) in the world!  We wished he had a boogie board to take in the sweet waves, but were content jumping in them instead and being pulled by the undertow.  The beach itself was called Ocean beach and the sand was so soft it was like silk under the toes! 

Hangin' with the Jellies

After diving and playing with the water slides, we headed for the Coramandel Peninsula, home of the hot water beaches and big Kauri trees.  We had to make a pit stop in Auckland at the Apollo place we rented our campavan since our fridge wasn't working and we weren't keen on buying ice the whole trip (actually,the fridge was a big differentiater to why we chose the Hippie Camper over say Wicked Van, Back Packer, Spaceships, or Juicy (yes, there is a huge market for campervans here so lots of companies are in the game!) -- less money on ice means more money for the stuff the ice is keeping cool -- aka, beer :) ).  Anyhow, we were sorted out in Apollo within an hour or so, and headed on for the big drive.

By the time we got up the peninsula, we decided to leave the trees for the next morning and book it straight for the beach -- we didn't know the tide times but were up for some chill time anyhow.  2 hours on either side of low tide you can dig a hole on the beach and it will fill with hot water that seeps up through the ground, making your own dirty hot tub :)  However, tide was at 10:30pm that day, and we didn't have a shovel so we checked out the beach nonetheless but opted out of the self-made-mud-tub.

When we were walking along the hot water beach (btw, the water isn't hot -- its called that due to the digging your own hole/tub thing) we saw the coolest things right near shore:  huge magenta coloured jelly fish.  These things were so big and perfectly made they almost looked like plastic toys... except there were tonnes of them.  It actually made us a bit scarred to go swimming, even though we were told that they're stingers weren't that dangerous.  I managed to snag one that floated up close to shore and captured the pic below. 

This was a good sized jelly, but there were certainly larger ones ... with the largest probably being about 18" in diameter.  And these things are _thick_.  I always thought jellys didn't have a shape of their own and needed water to maintain their shape... but not this variety... these things were solid goo.  Another dead one washed up so we were able to poke and prod it.  If you walked along the beach for a couple of minutes, you'd likely see 5 or so jellys on average.  I think all told, Astrid and I saw about 30 of these bad boys in the couple hours we spent on the beach... very cool hanging out with them indeed.

That night we "free-camped" (basically where you just pull into a field that has little-to-no facilities and sleep the night, for free of course :)) on the coast with a fantastic view.  We even had a little fire pit which was a nice reminder of camping back home.

Syd.