Here is Keith yesterday at about 4:00 PM:
(I see now this is a bad picture because you can't see the extent of the poofiness of his hair)
Five dollars and five minutes later, here he is:
Monday, November 07, 2005
Pretty Boy?
For those faithful readers of this website, you may remember a post about shaving Gracie in the summer time, with a nice before and after shot. Well now I get to do the same for my husband.
Here is Keith yesterday at about 4:00 PM:
(I see now this is a bad picture because you can't see the extent of the poofiness of his hair)
Five dollars and five minutes later, here he is:
Here is Keith yesterday at about 4:00 PM:
(I see now this is a bad picture because you can't see the extent of the poofiness of his hair)
Five dollars and five minutes later, here he is:
On to Christchurch....with Friends!!
Happy with a successful first hike, we recovered with a night in Picton, and met John and Jenn the next morning (November 4th) and headed south down the East coast towards Christchurch - the largest city on the South Island, and freqently a gateway to Antarctica. John and Jenn are good friends of ours from Eugene who recently got married (in Kauai!) and are in NZ for the final stage of their 8-week, round the world, extravaganza honeymoon. We were so excited to hear they would be here the same time as us, so we made sure to spend some time together. With no specific plans in mind we had a nice leisurely drive south through Kaikora, which is described as where the city meets the sea. And this is the truth. We got our first glimpse of what looks like a snow capped mountain spilling into the ocean. Driving down Hwy 1, you look right and see mountains, and look left and see the sea. Pretty cool.
Arriving in Christchurch, we went to check into our vacation rental that John and Jenn so graciously booked and set up for us. A welcome break from the hostel. Not that the hostels are bad, it has just been a nice change. That night after settling into the house, Jenn and I went grocery shopping while John and Keith went to investigate the local pub. The house is located in a suburb of Christchurch called Sumner, so we were really about 30 minutes from downtown. We cooked up a fine dinner, and spent the evening relaxing and visiting.
The next day we were after a hike, and had gotten some recommendations about some hikes close by. So off we went. And the weather was fabulous. Hot and bright blue skies. So off we went. Sumner sits on the beginning of the Banks Peninsula, and the hike we did wrapped around some of the coves making up that peninsula. Beautiful scenery as usual (I need to come up with some more adjectives...), but the heat caught up with us after four hours, and we returned a bit dusty and beat.
Here's a shot of us at the very beginning with John pointing the way:
After cleaning up we treated ourselves to a beer at "Keith and John's Pub". We're sitting there, enjoying a refreshing local brew, and it walks this perky, happy, bubbly, cute, curly haired gal, who locks eyes with John and Keith and says, "Hey guys!", like they were the best of friends, after which both promptly turned beet red. Remember....Keith and John went to this pub while Jenn and I were shopping and cooking for them!! So you can only imagine the amount of ribbing and teasing that took place after that (and continues every once in a while to this day).
After that, Jenn and John introduced us to our first taste of Indian food (delicious)! And then early to bed as we were all beat.
Brings us to Sunday, November 6. John was also meeting up with a good friend of his, Emily, who has relocated to NZ and is a bad ass adventure racer, and entrepreneur now here in NZ. She has started her own company and makes nutritional "cookies". You can check her out at www.powercookies.com
So we headed inland to spend time with her and her family at the small mountain town of Hanmer Springs, where there is lots of hot springs. A pleasant time had by all soaking, visiting and eating, then back to Christchurch on Monday. Through all of the contacts I have made orginating with our neighbors in Lebanon, I stumbled into a meeting with a nurse recruiter who also specializes in immigration stuff. So Jenn and I went on Monday to talk with her for a while and got lots of valuable information about what it takes to work as a nurse here, short term or long. Something we are both interested in and something we will both chew on for the next year or so.
We ended the day with a bottle of wine and more food - we have become quite good at keeping ourselves well hydrated and fed!
Cheers!
Arriving in Christchurch, we went to check into our vacation rental that John and Jenn so graciously booked and set up for us. A welcome break from the hostel. Not that the hostels are bad, it has just been a nice change. That night after settling into the house, Jenn and I went grocery shopping while John and Keith went to investigate the local pub. The house is located in a suburb of Christchurch called Sumner, so we were really about 30 minutes from downtown. We cooked up a fine dinner, and spent the evening relaxing and visiting.
The next day we were after a hike, and had gotten some recommendations about some hikes close by. So off we went. And the weather was fabulous. Hot and bright blue skies. So off we went. Sumner sits on the beginning of the Banks Peninsula, and the hike we did wrapped around some of the coves making up that peninsula. Beautiful scenery as usual (I need to come up with some more adjectives...), but the heat caught up with us after four hours, and we returned a bit dusty and beat.
Here's a shot of us at the very beginning with John pointing the way:
After cleaning up we treated ourselves to a beer at "Keith and John's Pub". We're sitting there, enjoying a refreshing local brew, and it walks this perky, happy, bubbly, cute, curly haired gal, who locks eyes with John and Keith and says, "Hey guys!", like they were the best of friends, after which both promptly turned beet red. Remember....Keith and John went to this pub while Jenn and I were shopping and cooking for them!! So you can only imagine the amount of ribbing and teasing that took place after that (and continues every once in a while to this day).
After that, Jenn and John introduced us to our first taste of Indian food (delicious)! And then early to bed as we were all beat.
Brings us to Sunday, November 6. John was also meeting up with a good friend of his, Emily, who has relocated to NZ and is a bad ass adventure racer, and entrepreneur now here in NZ. She has started her own company and makes nutritional "cookies". You can check her out at www.powercookies.com
So we headed inland to spend time with her and her family at the small mountain town of Hanmer Springs, where there is lots of hot springs. A pleasant time had by all soaking, visiting and eating, then back to Christchurch on Monday. Through all of the contacts I have made orginating with our neighbors in Lebanon, I stumbled into a meeting with a nurse recruiter who also specializes in immigration stuff. So Jenn and I went on Monday to talk with her for a while and got lots of valuable information about what it takes to work as a nurse here, short term or long. Something we are both interested in and something we will both chew on for the next year or so.
We ended the day with a bottle of wine and more food - we have become quite good at keeping ourselves well hydrated and fed!
Cheers!
The Abel Tasman Coastal Track
We got off the ferry in a charming bay town of Picton. Not many people stay in Picton, but head out to the bigger town of Nelson (west of Picton) which serves as a gateway to the many activities of the area (mostly hiking and kayaking). We did not book a bus ride ahead, and upon getting off the ferry and noting the hoards of people (we had no idea the ferry would be so big), we quickly learned that the main busline to where we wanted to go was full. Normally we'd take this in stride, as we have nothing but time. But this is the one leg of our trip that we were on a time crunch as we were getting picked up by our friends in 4 days time. Regardless we found another smaller busline that had vacancy, but then we realized we didn't have cash, and the bus was leaving in 15 minutes. So we walked to the nearest cash machine, but it was out of order. Then we tried to get info on where banks and other cash machines were and found out it was a public holiday. Long story short, Keith had to sprint to the other end of town to find a working machine, while I made sure the bus didn't leave without us. Minor hang up, but it all worked out, and off we went to Motueka, a smaller town farther east of Nelson, and closer to our tramp (hike).
We checked into another lovely hostel, and got some invaluable information about the trail from the Info center and worked out our transportation for the next few days. We stumbled upon another great deal and were able to get a free rental car for our transport back out of Motueka (after the hike) and to Picton where we were meeting John and Jenn. A pathetic car, really - like a Geo, but free is free (someone ditched a rental in Motueka and the company needed someone to drive it back to Picton).
That was a bunch of nonsense really, I suppose the hike was more interesting than all of that jibber jabber. Adn a lovely hike it was. 51 km total, hiked over 3 days, 2 nights. The weather was great. Sunny and hot the first day, cloudy and cool the second, and somewhere in between on the third. It never did rain however. As the name implies it is a Coastal track, so it follows the coastline af the Abel Tasman National Park which sits on the East side of the northern most peninsula of the north island. The best way I can describe the scenery and climate is to say it is a combination of Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. The scenery looks like Hawaii - white sand pristine beaches and bright blue water, surrounded by subtropical forests; but the temperature of the water and surrounding air is much like that of the NW. Not a bad combo if I do say so myself. I think when the warmer waters arrive in the summer, they become much more swimmable beaches. So as you start the track (which we did from north to south), you see these beautiful beaches, and of course we take pictures of them all and try to walk on as many of them as we can, but then towards the end of day 2, you start to take the beaches for granted and don't worry too much about missing one or two of them.
Here's a look at one of the beaches from afar:
Here is another look at a beach and an interesting granite rock structure. Granite predominates throughout the park.
The other interesting part of this track was the tidal crossings. You had to plan your hike and your campsites based on the tides, because there are two or three estuary crosssings that can only be crossed within 2-3 hours of the low tide. The tidal swings in this area are huge. 3 meter tidal changes. Making some at high tide impassible, or requiring a very long high tide walk-around route, potentially adding hours to your day. Here is a shot of Keith crossing the first big one, and the only one that didn't have a high tide route, so you had to time this one right. This ended up being the end of our first day, and you can see the hut ahead of Keith. We didn't stay in the huts, but usually camped very close to them.
What was really fascinating at this camp in particular was watching the time come back in. All of where Keith is standing in that picture eventually became a huge river. We could literally see the tide come in. We'd stand about 3 feet from the water's edge, and within 30 seconds the water would be at our feet. And the bubbling sounds coming from all the clam holes was unreal (the sand we walked on here was littered with steamer clam shells). We should have shot a video of it.
Don't know what else to say about the hike. Pretty nice the whole way. Lots of ups and downs like any coastal hike will be and lots of walks along the beaches as that is where the trail runs. New Zealander's have the tramping thing down. The trails are in excellent condition and the campsites and hut sites are very well equipped with flush toilets at most and filtered water at quite a few. Of course this is one of the most popular hikes so it also heavily regulated - we got checked for our permits each night.
We also learned what we already knew and that is that it has been a LONG time since we have done an overnight hike. We felt it the first day. Either that or we are just getting old. A combo of the two I am sure.
Here is a shot of the suspension bridge we crossed on the second day:
And a look at the beach where we camped the second night. Pretty nice, eh?
Here's a sunrise I stumbled upon when I got up for an early morning trip to the "loo".
And finally at the trails end, waiting for the bus, trying to recover with the infamous cappucino.
We checked into another lovely hostel, and got some invaluable information about the trail from the Info center and worked out our transportation for the next few days. We stumbled upon another great deal and were able to get a free rental car for our transport back out of Motueka (after the hike) and to Picton where we were meeting John and Jenn. A pathetic car, really - like a Geo, but free is free (someone ditched a rental in Motueka and the company needed someone to drive it back to Picton).
That was a bunch of nonsense really, I suppose the hike was more interesting than all of that jibber jabber. Adn a lovely hike it was. 51 km total, hiked over 3 days, 2 nights. The weather was great. Sunny and hot the first day, cloudy and cool the second, and somewhere in between on the third. It never did rain however. As the name implies it is a Coastal track, so it follows the coastline af the Abel Tasman National Park which sits on the East side of the northern most peninsula of the north island. The best way I can describe the scenery and climate is to say it is a combination of Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. The scenery looks like Hawaii - white sand pristine beaches and bright blue water, surrounded by subtropical forests; but the temperature of the water and surrounding air is much like that of the NW. Not a bad combo if I do say so myself. I think when the warmer waters arrive in the summer, they become much more swimmable beaches. So as you start the track (which we did from north to south), you see these beautiful beaches, and of course we take pictures of them all and try to walk on as many of them as we can, but then towards the end of day 2, you start to take the beaches for granted and don't worry too much about missing one or two of them.
Here's a look at one of the beaches from afar:
Here is another look at a beach and an interesting granite rock structure. Granite predominates throughout the park.
The other interesting part of this track was the tidal crossings. You had to plan your hike and your campsites based on the tides, because there are two or three estuary crosssings that can only be crossed within 2-3 hours of the low tide. The tidal swings in this area are huge. 3 meter tidal changes. Making some at high tide impassible, or requiring a very long high tide walk-around route, potentially adding hours to your day. Here is a shot of Keith crossing the first big one, and the only one that didn't have a high tide route, so you had to time this one right. This ended up being the end of our first day, and you can see the hut ahead of Keith. We didn't stay in the huts, but usually camped very close to them.
What was really fascinating at this camp in particular was watching the time come back in. All of where Keith is standing in that picture eventually became a huge river. We could literally see the tide come in. We'd stand about 3 feet from the water's edge, and within 30 seconds the water would be at our feet. And the bubbling sounds coming from all the clam holes was unreal (the sand we walked on here was littered with steamer clam shells). We should have shot a video of it.
Don't know what else to say about the hike. Pretty nice the whole way. Lots of ups and downs like any coastal hike will be and lots of walks along the beaches as that is where the trail runs. New Zealander's have the tramping thing down. The trails are in excellent condition and the campsites and hut sites are very well equipped with flush toilets at most and filtered water at quite a few. Of course this is one of the most popular hikes so it also heavily regulated - we got checked for our permits each night.
We also learned what we already knew and that is that it has been a LONG time since we have done an overnight hike. We felt it the first day. Either that or we are just getting old. A combo of the two I am sure.
Here is a shot of the suspension bridge we crossed on the second day:
And a look at the beach where we camped the second night. Pretty nice, eh?
Here's a sunrise I stumbled upon when I got up for an early morning trip to the "loo".
And finally at the trails end, waiting for the bus, trying to recover with the infamous cappucino.
Pictures of Ferry Ride
Sorry for the hiatus. Back online in a big city, and able to get some pictures up. I'll do the updates piecemeal, so as not to overwhelm with one big entry.
Word of note - you can always assume it is me, Emily, writing these entries until otherwise noted, as I can't seem to get Keith to do an entry. His excuse has to do something with his inability to type as fast as I do. We'll get him on here one of these days, so hope my writing isn't too drab.
Anyway, here is a picture of the ferry we rode on to get to the South Island, and a view from the ferry.
Another Interislander passing us in the narrow channels of the Marlborough Sounds:
And here is the view just after crossing Cook Straight, and coming into the Marlborough Sounds. Quite a narrow entry way into the sounds. There is currently a legal battle between the residents of the Sounds and the Ferry company. The Ferry would like to add another ferry run to their schedule, but are currently prohibited from doing so as they are not allowed to drive the boats above a certain speen through the Sounds. The increased speed causes too much damage to the coastline causing it too erode away quickly.
Word of note - you can always assume it is me, Emily, writing these entries until otherwise noted, as I can't seem to get Keith to do an entry. His excuse has to do something with his inability to type as fast as I do. We'll get him on here one of these days, so hope my writing isn't too drab.
Anyway, here is a picture of the ferry we rode on to get to the South Island, and a view from the ferry.
Another Interislander passing us in the narrow channels of the Marlborough Sounds:
And here is the view just after crossing Cook Straight, and coming into the Marlborough Sounds. Quite a narrow entry way into the sounds. There is currently a legal battle between the residents of the Sounds and the Ferry company. The Ferry would like to add another ferry run to their schedule, but are currently prohibited from doing so as they are not allowed to drive the boats above a certain speen through the Sounds. The increased speed causes too much damage to the coastline causing it too erode away quickly.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Wellington and South
Quick entry as we're hungry. Stayed the last two days in Wellington - capital of NZ, on the very southern tip of the North Island. Went to some lovely free museums, then saw a movie at the Embassy theatre - one of the biggest screens in the southern hemisphere and the place of the LOTR premieres. Quite a theatre. The movie was about the New Zealander who set the land speed record for motorcycles less than 1000cc on the Bonneville salt flats of Utah (The World's Fastest Indian).
Today we took the three hour ferry ride to the south island. Beautiful ride. Will post pics of it later. Actually looks a lot like the Puget Sound.
We're headed out for a three day tramp tomorrow, so there won't be any postings for a while.
Sorry this was so brief. Today was mostly a travel day.
Cheers!
Today we took the three hour ferry ride to the south island. Beautiful ride. Will post pics of it later. Actually looks a lot like the Puget Sound.
We're headed out for a three day tramp tomorrow, so there won't be any postings for a while.
Sorry this was so brief. Today was mostly a travel day.
Cheers!
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Hiking to Middle Earth
Who can identify this mountain and its significance? The answer will be at the end of the blog.
Let's see....it's been a couple days, but we really only did one thing of significance. The Tongariro Crossing in the Tongariro National forest. The day getting to the National Park Village, was a relaxing one. We took the Kiwi Experience to the "village", getting there by 1:00 and spent the rest of the day just reading books, relaxing, playing volleyball, cards, and chatting with other travelers. Here is a shot of the kitchen at this particular hostel. This was a smaller hostel, but quite nice. Our room was much bigger this time, and we even had our own private bath. The town/village of National Park is more of a ski town, so it is pretty sleepy this time of year. Most coming through are here to do the crossing, then are gone. The hostel is cozy and has a very ski lodge sort of feel to it. Here's a look at the inside cooking area:
So the next day we awoke early to take another $25 shuttle to the hike. This is a very popular hike, and I was a fool to think that being early spring there wouldn't be that many people on it. The funny thing is, is that everyone gets there via shuttle because it's a one-way hike (not out and back, or a loop), so you have to shuttle in some way, and its easier even for those with cars to take advantage of the throngs of companies who provide the service. So all the buses show up to the trailhead within an hour of each other, and starting the hike, being the competitive people we are, it feels a bit of a race in the beginning. You know, 'don't let them pass us', 'we can't get stuck behind that group again!'. Until you remind yourself, it doesn't matter if that 80 year old just passed me, I'm here for the scenery. huff puff. "Soooo yeah." (E. Izzard). It was a bit of a freeway on the trail. But well worth it.
There are three major mountains around this crossing: Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngaruhoe and Mt Whakapapa. This crossing takes you in between Mt T and Mt N, and then wraps itself around the north side of Mt Tongariro. The total length is 17 km, and in our direction translates to signage that says 7-8 hours. It's all volcanic, and the first half was strikingly so. It had a very desolate, bleak feel to it, yet pretty at the same time. Not a lot of plant life, very dark, lots of craters and lava flows. There was a very hard climb early in the hike, but it got all the elevation gain out of the way at once, and when we reached the highest point, we were rewarded with views of the Emerald Lakes, more craters and steaming rocks that I was able to use to warm my Reynaud's stricken hands on.
Here's a shot of Red Crater:
And here's a look at the Emerald Lakes:
From there as we wound around the mountain and started heading down, we were rewarded with what felt like changing temerate zones. We started in the bleak volcanic wasteland, then entered grassy highlands, then eventually into lush forest. The weather cooperated for the most part. It was cloudy most of the day so views of the mountain tops were limited. We did get one or two clearings while on the higher regions and managed to catch it in a photo. This is Mt Ngaruhoe, the same mountain as seen from far away in the beginning of this entry:
We enjoyed another pleasant evening at the hostel that night, got up this morning had a leisurely breakfast, went on a two hour walk on a local trail, then caught our Kiwi Express transport to Wellington, which is where I sit now typing this blog. Our hostel here is HUGE. With similar amenities but on a larger scale. It's located very centrally, so seeing the highlights of the city tomorrow will be easy. Then we're off to the much anticipated south island, where the hiking will begin in earnest.
So, the mountain above. Did you figure it out. The title to the blog was a hint. It's Mt Doom from LOTR (Lord of the Rings). So we have officially (although accidently) been on part of the LOTR tour. (We've also seen plent of Hobbitons, although not the offical one - everywhere is Hobbiton in this country!).
All right enough for now. We've noticed the emails and comments have been dropping off....is anyone reading these? Ah well, at least we'll have a good record for ourselves.
Cheers.
Paul - yes, there are lots of "dippable" hot springs. We had one at the hostel we stayed in (formed by concrete, but it was the natural water). And there are lots others you can walk into, but without having a car, they are hard to go explore. I imagine there everywhere around here, and you frequently see steaming hillsides.
Let's see....it's been a couple days, but we really only did one thing of significance. The Tongariro Crossing in the Tongariro National forest. The day getting to the National Park Village, was a relaxing one. We took the Kiwi Experience to the "village", getting there by 1:00 and spent the rest of the day just reading books, relaxing, playing volleyball, cards, and chatting with other travelers. Here is a shot of the kitchen at this particular hostel. This was a smaller hostel, but quite nice. Our room was much bigger this time, and we even had our own private bath. The town/village of National Park is more of a ski town, so it is pretty sleepy this time of year. Most coming through are here to do the crossing, then are gone. The hostel is cozy and has a very ski lodge sort of feel to it. Here's a look at the inside cooking area:
So the next day we awoke early to take another $25 shuttle to the hike. This is a very popular hike, and I was a fool to think that being early spring there wouldn't be that many people on it. The funny thing is, is that everyone gets there via shuttle because it's a one-way hike (not out and back, or a loop), so you have to shuttle in some way, and its easier even for those with cars to take advantage of the throngs of companies who provide the service. So all the buses show up to the trailhead within an hour of each other, and starting the hike, being the competitive people we are, it feels a bit of a race in the beginning. You know, 'don't let them pass us', 'we can't get stuck behind that group again!'. Until you remind yourself, it doesn't matter if that 80 year old just passed me, I'm here for the scenery. huff puff. "Soooo yeah." (E. Izzard). It was a bit of a freeway on the trail. But well worth it.
There are three major mountains around this crossing: Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngaruhoe and Mt Whakapapa. This crossing takes you in between Mt T and Mt N, and then wraps itself around the north side of Mt Tongariro. The total length is 17 km, and in our direction translates to signage that says 7-8 hours. It's all volcanic, and the first half was strikingly so. It had a very desolate, bleak feel to it, yet pretty at the same time. Not a lot of plant life, very dark, lots of craters and lava flows. There was a very hard climb early in the hike, but it got all the elevation gain out of the way at once, and when we reached the highest point, we were rewarded with views of the Emerald Lakes, more craters and steaming rocks that I was able to use to warm my Reynaud's stricken hands on.
Here's a shot of Red Crater:
And here's a look at the Emerald Lakes:
From there as we wound around the mountain and started heading down, we were rewarded with what felt like changing temerate zones. We started in the bleak volcanic wasteland, then entered grassy highlands, then eventually into lush forest. The weather cooperated for the most part. It was cloudy most of the day so views of the mountain tops were limited. We did get one or two clearings while on the higher regions and managed to catch it in a photo. This is Mt Ngaruhoe, the same mountain as seen from far away in the beginning of this entry:
We enjoyed another pleasant evening at the hostel that night, got up this morning had a leisurely breakfast, went on a two hour walk on a local trail, then caught our Kiwi Express transport to Wellington, which is where I sit now typing this blog. Our hostel here is HUGE. With similar amenities but on a larger scale. It's located very centrally, so seeing the highlights of the city tomorrow will be easy. Then we're off to the much anticipated south island, where the hiking will begin in earnest.
So, the mountain above. Did you figure it out. The title to the blog was a hint. It's Mt Doom from LOTR (Lord of the Rings). So we have officially (although accidently) been on part of the LOTR tour. (We've also seen plent of Hobbitons, although not the offical one - everywhere is Hobbiton in this country!).
All right enough for now. We've noticed the emails and comments have been dropping off....is anyone reading these? Ah well, at least we'll have a good record for ourselves.
Cheers.
Paul - yes, there are lots of "dippable" hot springs. We had one at the hostel we stayed in (formed by concrete, but it was the natural water). And there are lots others you can walk into, but without having a car, they are hard to go explore. I imagine there everywhere around here, and you frequently see steaming hillsides.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Geothermal Activity of Rotorua
25 October 2005:
I think I left off the last post, we were in limbo for plans for the rest of our day. We ended up taking a city bus outside of town along Lake Rotorua, and did a short hike up to some falls. It is a class V river where one of the tourist events is to take rafting trips down this stretch of river and over several waterfalls. We saw one of these trips about to head down the river and spoke with the chaps for a while and were assured we had plenty of time to get to the falls before they did. So we hustled no down the trail, but the signage was poor and we were confused as to which set of falls and ended up missing the raft. Lovely hike though, and on the way back we did see a bunch of kaykers take the tumble. Then we got caught in a huge thunderstorm while waiting for the bus. It was gone within half an hour.
26 October 2005:
Today was geothermal day. We went through two different parks, both magnificent. Lots of activity, steaming pools, bubbling mud, spurting water, 74 degree Celsius lakes, amazing colors from all the different minerals, and the lovely smell of sulfur. The first park was called Wai-tapu, and was a bit crowded as everyone heads here after the 10:15 showing of the big geyser (that they coax to life with a bag of soap dumped down the hatch). The walk along this park was shorter, but it had the more dramatic colors. Here's me in front of Champagne Lake:
The second park was called Waiamungu (probably not spelling that right), and it was a much larger park with a much longer walk through more greenery and with more panaromic view of the entire park and the volcano that caused all these pools to form. The eruption was in 1886 and they tout the area as the largest geothermal activity in the world to occur within a known/written history. The most dramatic in this park was coming up on the Inferno Crater Lake. Amazing color and contrast with the rocks. Looks inviting for a swim, but the temp of this lake is 80 Celsius (176 F)
Such a pretty and unique area to be able to walk around in. Beautiful lush forests, interesting streams, lakes and rocks and steam rising from everywhere - not just from the lakes, but from right out the side of cliffs, coming up through the trees. This picture was trying to capture that view.
27 October 2005:
So now we're back at the visitor's center waiting for our bus. We're heading to National Park (yes that's the name of the city) in the central part of the North Island. Can't remember the name of the park and don't want to waste precious internet time searching. Will give details later, but we're set to do what is touted as the "Best Day Hike in NZ" tomorrow. A long and gruelling one, but supposedly worth it. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate as well.
Wanted to end with some random thoughts/observations about our traveling in general and specific discoveries about traveling in Kiwi land:
* Coffee. Can't find a cheap cup of Jo anywhere. It's a cappachino or nothing, and that is usually $4. Sometimes it's a decent size cup, but usually not. Can't find a regular drip here. It's about the experience not the beverage apparently.
*Emily is much better at asking questions of anyone she comes across rather than speculating, and Keith is much better at reading maps, and getting a sense of direction about the town.
*I"m tired of wearing the same clothes all the time!! (and it's only been a week!)
*Distances of trails are expressed in minutes rather than km or miles.
*They don't refrigerate their eggs here.
*Spending money is hard when you're not making any.
*NZ is not a very dog friendly place - at least if you want to take them anywhere outside of your home.
*They raise deer on farms (and they don't look very healthy...scraggley hair)
*Hostelling is a very commercialized industry - we've been shocked at the prices, but pleased with the facilities - quite a range of folks use them.
I think I left off the last post, we were in limbo for plans for the rest of our day. We ended up taking a city bus outside of town along Lake Rotorua, and did a short hike up to some falls. It is a class V river where one of the tourist events is to take rafting trips down this stretch of river and over several waterfalls. We saw one of these trips about to head down the river and spoke with the chaps for a while and were assured we had plenty of time to get to the falls before they did. So we hustled no down the trail, but the signage was poor and we were confused as to which set of falls and ended up missing the raft. Lovely hike though, and on the way back we did see a bunch of kaykers take the tumble. Then we got caught in a huge thunderstorm while waiting for the bus. It was gone within half an hour.
26 October 2005:
Today was geothermal day. We went through two different parks, both magnificent. Lots of activity, steaming pools, bubbling mud, spurting water, 74 degree Celsius lakes, amazing colors from all the different minerals, and the lovely smell of sulfur. The first park was called Wai-tapu, and was a bit crowded as everyone heads here after the 10:15 showing of the big geyser (that they coax to life with a bag of soap dumped down the hatch). The walk along this park was shorter, but it had the more dramatic colors. Here's me in front of Champagne Lake:
The second park was called Waiamungu (probably not spelling that right), and it was a much larger park with a much longer walk through more greenery and with more panaromic view of the entire park and the volcano that caused all these pools to form. The eruption was in 1886 and they tout the area as the largest geothermal activity in the world to occur within a known/written history. The most dramatic in this park was coming up on the Inferno Crater Lake. Amazing color and contrast with the rocks. Looks inviting for a swim, but the temp of this lake is 80 Celsius (176 F)
Such a pretty and unique area to be able to walk around in. Beautiful lush forests, interesting streams, lakes and rocks and steam rising from everywhere - not just from the lakes, but from right out the side of cliffs, coming up through the trees. This picture was trying to capture that view.
27 October 2005:
So now we're back at the visitor's center waiting for our bus. We're heading to National Park (yes that's the name of the city) in the central part of the North Island. Can't remember the name of the park and don't want to waste precious internet time searching. Will give details later, but we're set to do what is touted as the "Best Day Hike in NZ" tomorrow. A long and gruelling one, but supposedly worth it. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate as well.
Wanted to end with some random thoughts/observations about our traveling in general and specific discoveries about traveling in Kiwi land:
* Coffee. Can't find a cheap cup of Jo anywhere. It's a cappachino or nothing, and that is usually $4. Sometimes it's a decent size cup, but usually not. Can't find a regular drip here. It's about the experience not the beverage apparently.
*Emily is much better at asking questions of anyone she comes across rather than speculating, and Keith is much better at reading maps, and getting a sense of direction about the town.
*I"m tired of wearing the same clothes all the time!! (and it's only been a week!)
*Distances of trails are expressed in minutes rather than km or miles.
*They don't refrigerate their eggs here.
*Spending money is hard when you're not making any.
*NZ is not a very dog friendly place - at least if you want to take them anywhere outside of your home.
*They raise deer on farms (and they don't look very healthy...scraggley hair)
*Hostelling is a very commercialized industry - we've been shocked at the prices, but pleased with the facilities - quite a range of folks use them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)