New Zealand Week 2 in Pictures

I’m still alive! Although my credit cards are smoking and my brain and body have been bashed about like never before. I’ve decided for this particular blog entry to go a bit heavier on the pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the kids are saying these days. And I think this week, more so than any other week since I left ol’ Whitestone, deserves to be described in pictures.

Day 8 – Waitomo Caves & Uncle Boy’s Marae – Today we drove to a little town called Waitomo, that’s famous for its caving adventures. I did an introduction to adventure caving tour in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney and really liked it a lot, so I amped it up a bit at Waitomo. I went on a cave tour called Haggas Honking Holes. It involved abseiling 90 feet down into a water filled cavern, abseiling down an underground waterfall, and crawling through lots of holes, all filled with water. We basically followed an underground river. It was an absolute blast! Here’s me abseiling down the waterfall:

And here is me sticking my head through a water-filled hole:

The water was quite nippy, but we got some pretty hardcore wetsuits to protect ourselves. Wetsuit overalls underneath, then sealed up with a jacket. The look was completed with rubber boots and a sexy hardhat with a light. I really like caving, and throwing some icy water into the underground adventure made it all the better!

Dinner/Overnight accommodation was at a Maori marae, run by a guy named Uncle Boy. We slept in the marae on the floor on mattresses, as the Maori do. We also had to follow their rule of no shoes and no drinks or food inside the marae. They gave us dinner, which after eating noodles and bread for most meals was greatly appreciated, and we learned some Maori dances. The girls learned the poi, which is basically swinging around a squishy ball on a string and catching it, in tune with music. The guys had to do the Haka, which is the famous Maori warrior dance. I was glad to be a girl!:

We also had to greet everyone in our group the Maori way, which is touching noses:

It’s sort of funny doing that to a busload of virtual strangers though. Usually you’re not up in someone’s face like that unless you’re kissing them, so it was very odd to do it over and over again to like 35 people in a row.

Day 9 – Rotorua & Taupo – We left Uncle Boy’s in the morning to head to Rotorua, where I fulfilled a lifetime dream of doing this:

Yes, that is me rolling down a hill in a giant inflatable hamster ball. Look how happy I am!

It’s called Zorbing. You can either do it dry, like I did, where they strap you in the giant inflatable ball and push you down the hill where you go upside down about 18 times, or you can do the wet version, where you sit inside the ball in a pool of water and slosh back ad forth inside as the ball rolls down the hill. It’s good stuff. I found the Zorb website years ago, and always told myself that one day, when I am in New Zealand, I will go to Rotorua and I will pay someone to push me down a hill in a giant inflatable ball. And now I’ve accomplished it! Cross another one off the bucket list!

I walked around Rotorua for a bit after, which is a hotbed of thermal activity, so the whole town kind of smells like sulfur. But who doesn’t love boiling, steaming mud puddles in the center of town?

After Rotorua, we drove over to Lake Taupo. A few of us got off the Stray bus, and were picked up in the below vehicle:

That’s right. Judgment day had finally arrived. It was time to face the activity I’d been waiting years to conquer. Here’s me on the plane ride up:

Here I am, just about ready to take the plunge:

And we’re flying!

Good times though. It’s not really all that scary. I even posed for a few pictures while free-falling:

And before you know it, the parachute is opened, and it’s a nice easy flight back to earth:

Kerplunk!

So in case you’re a bit mentally slow, I went skydiving! I always wanted to do it in either Australia or New Zealand, and once I got to this area of the world I decided on New Zealand, partially because it’s cheaper, and partially because New Zealand is an adventure destination, so it seemed right to do it here. I just wasn’t sure where in the country I was going to do it, but a bunch of people were doing it in Taupo, and after I read in my book that Taupo is considered to be the skydiving capital of the world, I decided that it would be an appropriate spot to take the plunge. This decision was reached 2 days before the Stray bus got to Taupo, so I had precisely 2 days to mentally prepare myself that this was actually going to happen. The funny thing is though, that I didn’t get scared. I kept waiting for the panic to set in, and it never came. I even took a light catnap on the plane ride up, I was sort of tired! Two of the jumpers in the plane went from 12,000 feet, so after they went the plane door was shut and then us remaining 3 jumpers were taken 3,000 feet higher to 15,000. I watched the woman in front of me disappear out of the plane once we got up to the jump height, but it still didn’t seem scary. She just looked like she flew away. Then it was my turn, and since the guy that you’re attached to is the one who pushes you out of the plane, by the time you realize that you’ve just been hurled out, it’s like one more second before you hit free-fall and then you don’t feel like you’re falling anymore. It’s just floating, with a lot of really nippy air rushing in your face. Yes, that’s what I was thinking as I was free-falling: I’m cold. All in all, a great, incredibly fun experience which I’ll absolutely do again someday, if I find a good price deal for it down the road. It’s kind of an expensive activity! Needless to say, after we got back to the hostel in Taupo I made a beeline for the nearest convenient store. I think jumping out of a plane warranted a reward of coke and peanut butter cups.

Day 10 – Blue Duck Station – We left Taupo the next morning and headed to a place called Blue Duck Station, which is out in the middle of the rainforest. We hit a bit of a traffic jam at one point through on the way there, which was sort of funny:

Blue Duck is sort of a working cattle & sheep farm/tourist lodge/conservation center. It was amazingly beautiful, and it was fun being on a farm again, minus all the flies this time! I went on a 4WD safari out into the bush, where we did some driving around, hiking, and kayaking. The scenery really was absolutely stunning:

We kayaked through a canyon, which was also quite pretty:

I really liked Blue Duck, it’s been one of my favorite stops thus far. Didn’t actually get to see any infamous blue ducks though. We found their tracks in the mud when we went through the bush, but the ducks must have heard us coming, because they were nowhere to be found!

Day 11 – Tongarira Alpine Crossing – This day has gone down as one of the most memorable of my life thus far. The Tongarira Alpine Crossing is considered to be not only one of the best 1-day hikes in New Zealand, but one of the best 1-day hikes in the world. It’s not easy though, and my body faced its greatest test of endurance I’ve ever thrown at it. I learned the hard way that cardio wise, I am not in very good shape. Anyway, I was super pumped about the hike, not only because it was supposed to be beautiful, but because Tongarira National Park is Mordor. The first part of the hike takes you around the base of Mt. Ngauruhoe as well, also known as Mt. Doom. Yes, I got up on day 11 of New Zealand to hike to Mt. Doom through Mordor. Literally. How f*cking awesome is THAT???

Confused? In one sentence, the whole plot of the Lord of the Rings is that a short guy with big furry feet needs to carry a powerful ring with the potential to rule and destroy the world back through an evil land to throw it into the volcano from which it was originally forged, so that it can be destroyed. That’s pretty much the basics. It takes 3 books and about 11 hours of movie to get little Frodo to the top of that volcano, but that’s the main plot of the story. All of the Mordor (the evil land) scenes were filled in Tongarira National Park. Mt Doom, the volcano that Frodo needs to toss the ring into, is Mt. Ngauruhoe, which is an actual active volcano (last erupted in 1975 I believe) that you walk around for the first 3 hours or so of the hike. As a Lord of the Rings fan, this is like heart pounding stuff right here. It doesn’t really get much more exciting.

I hired some gear for the walk, as I didn’t bring a waterproof jacket or hiking pants, and doing it in jeans isn’t recommended. Once that was all sorted, I was off! We started the walk as a group at 9:50 am, and the bus was going to pick us up at 5 pm at the other end, Ketetahi Roadend:

That gave me 7 hours and 10 minutes to walk 19.4 km, or in American speak, 12 miles. Here I am at the beginning, with Mt. Doom:

Some Mordor Landscape:

The first hour and a half of the hike is relatively easy, it’s mostly flat(ish), just lots of uneven volcanic terrain. After that though, you start your ascent into the alpine region. The sign is a bit intimidating…

The ascent was tough for me. For one thing, I’m not in great endurance shape. I was also sick, AGAIN. I had a teeny tiny light cold when I left Australia, just a slight nuisance really, and it stayed that way through New Zealand until the morning of the Alpine Crossing, when it decided to come out full blown and play. I had also gotten very little sleep the night before, so I was sick, tired, out of shape, schlepping up hundreds of feet up the side of a volcano, and the higher up the altitude the more my nose ran and ran like a renegade faucet.

But the views from up high were amazing.

It was all part of the experience though! I did the walk myself, at my own pace, with my Lord of the Rings soundtrack playing on loop. We climbed up so high, I even found some of that white stuff!

After the initial ascent there was a long plateau, and then another climb, this time much more challenging, up to the highest point of the hike. Mt. Doom looked pretty snazzy from all the way up the top!

The start of the climb down was tough, since it was down steep loose rock and gravel for a few hundred feet. The initial descent overlooked the Emerald Lakes though, which were quite pretty:

We also got a great view of a view peaks together:

And even had to cross over a little snow bridge at one point:

With about 2 and a half hours left to go though, I was starting to get tired. My feet hurt, my legs and thigh muscles were starting to ache, and one of my knees was very much trying to tell me that it did not want to go on anymore. I stopped to capture my mood:

But you don’t have a choice really, you have to keep going, Have to get to the end by 5! But my feet throbbed with every step, and I still had to walk down all this windy crap and through the forest below:

Luckily though, there were 2 other girls from the Stray bus behind me, and I made it my goal to finish ahead of them. So for the last 2 hours, I kept my pace up as best I could to keep a healthy distance between us. It was good for me, if I hadn’t had someone “chasing” me, I don’t think I could have walked as fast as I did. My body was not happy, but I sort of went into auto-pilot mode. It got to the point where everything hurt so much that I almost got used to it, so in a semi-numb state I hobbled on, until I reached the most beautiful parking lot on the face of the earth! The end!

If you look super closely, the bottom of the sign says that the Mangatepopo carpark is 19.4 km/ 8 hours 30 min away. That’s where we started from. I did it! I got to the parking lot, 4 seconds ahead of the two girls behind me, at about 4:40 pm. I did it in 6 hours and 50 minutes, stopping for only 3 “official” breaks, lasting about 10 minutes each. Otherwise I just stopped to catch my breath, have a drink, and move on. The tour company had cold beverages waiting for us at the end, which was nice. At least I thought so until the lady opened the cooler. Choice of beer or diet coke. Um….really? 7 hours of hiking through volcanic terrain in alpine conditions, on 4 hours of sleep and a nose that would NOT stop running, and you want to give me beer or diet coke?????????? That was most disappointing. Even a wheatgrass shot or something would have been more appealing than those two choices.

Day 12 – Wellington – Fortunately enough, we stayed in a very nice place Tongariro night, so I slept in a nice bed with only one other girl in the room, and no friggin top bunk. I woke up in the morning and could barely move my lower body, but that was OK since it was primarily a travel day. Lots of sitting on the bus, which is exactly what I wanted to do. We drove to Wellington, and then checked into the hostel. I did some laundry, had a delicious instant soup, finalized the remainder of my itinerary for New Zealand, re-organized my bag and went to sleep. I did not see Wellington. I’m sure it’s quite lovely though.

Day 13 – Bluebridge Ferry & the top of the South Island – This was a travel day as well. After getting up early, I took my German roommate to McDonalds for her very first McDonald’s breakfast. Haha, kind of a cliché, the American girl taking the European chick to McDonald’s for her first Sausage McMuffin. We then all got on the ferry to the South Island of New Zealand, which takes about 3 hours. It’s more of a cargo ship than a “ferry” though. The whole bottom level of the boat is filled with giant Mack trucks and cargo vehicles. Once on the South Island the rest of the day was mostly driving, with a few stops to pick people up and drop others off. We did stop to do a wine tasting though, and the driver bought muscles to cook up once we got to our destination, which was Abel Tasman National Park. On the bus I had signed myself up for an all day sailing/kayaking/walking tour of the area, but because the weather forecast for the next day was quite poor, the driver informed us that they cancelled all the sailing tours. I decided that since the weather was supposed to be crappy for our full day at the park, I’d not schedule any activities for myself, and save my money for nicer days. No point in doing outdoor stuff if you’re just going to be miserable all the time. If the weather cleared, I could always go for a short hike myself. Short though. Not 19.4 km. My body was still recovering from Tongarira.

Day 14 – Abel Tasman National Park – Sure enough, it was pouring in the morning. It had rained all night, and showed no signs of slowing down. I attempted to sleep in for the first time in a VERY long time, but my stupid body is so used to waking up early that I was up by 8 anyway. Today was very much a lazy day. It’s a huge shame that I didn’t get to see any of the park, but that’s the way it goes sometimes, can’t control the weather. We organized our own yoga/stretch class in the morning, and I did some writing after that. Then I took a nap, played some cards, took a shower, wrote out some emails to send, had some instant noodles, and that was that. A lazy day. I did not leave the hostel, but the hostel was actually quite lovely. It had a warm, cozy feeling to it, sort of like being in a barn/loft type thing. We had a fire going, and people passed the day reading or playing games. The rain did not stop. Our driver said it was like once in a hundred years rain. We got well over a foot in 24 hours. So I’m sure Abel Tasman National Park is quite lovely, but I shan’t get to see it.

So that’s been week 2! Hope you’ve enjoyed all the pictures. I had so many that I wanted to stick in the blog, so I just went a little crazy this time. After Abel Tasman we have a couple of mostly travel days scheduled, and then it’s off to Franz Josef Glacier! I’ve never been to a glacier before, should be exciting!!