The trip started before I even left by waking up early, semi-consciously noting the abnormally cold bathroom floor, groggily jumping in the shower to defrost, and then looking out the window to discover the winter wonderland that was going to make the drive to the airport an adventure. Once ready I walked out front and snapped some photos, admiring the lack of cars and relative quiet, when I started chatting to a neighbor who told me to look up the road where several crashed cars lined and filled the streets. Most cars that drove past slipped and skidded at least to some extent, while some had tires spinning disproportionately to their rate of travel. My fearless stunt driver Giulia picked me up and off we went to the airport at parade speed. Destruction and chaos were in the air. It felt a bit like driving in a war zone (or so I imagine). We passed no fewer than 40 wrecked, damaged, guttered or abandoned cars on our drive- some in the middle of the road. I think the route we took was the only possible way we could have made it to the airport successfully with other routes blocked by jack-knifed tanker trucks. We played soothing music on the CD player, but you could still feel the tension in the air as we drove. In short, I was on one of two flights that left the airport before it was completely closed for the day! It was a beautiful flight over the South Island with (surprise, surprise!) the worst weather centered on Dunedin.
Coromandel Peninsula: Once landing in Auckland and sorting out the siblings, we drove for the Coromandel. The most notable thing about the drive was a sign in a farmer's field of a baby seal holding a sign that said "Save the Human Babies" (maybe you had to be there). The next day we did a couple short hikes including a beach, a waterfall, a kauri forest and a steep route up Castle Rock for 360 degree views of islands, beaches, forestry and bush. We ended the day hiking in the dark up to the Pinnacles Hut, New Zealand's largest. The hut sleeps 80 but there were only a cosy 6 present at the hut when we finally arrived. The following day we went up the stairways and ladders to the top of the Pinnacles for more panoramic views. This area has an interesting history of mining and logging.
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| Photo taken by Michael |
White Island: We toured White Island, New Zealand's most active volcano and some of the most spectacular volcanic landscape I have ever seen. From Whakatane, a hour plus boat found us at the island where the boat anchored just offshore and we were ferried to shore in a small Zodiac. The water at the landing site was all sorts of beautiful tropical milky blues from the mixing of the murky ash-colored crater rivulets with the dark blue sea. We landed at the remnants of old sulfur mining ventures from the 1920s and before, thoroughly rusted and corroded from the aggressive volcanic atmosphere. My brother made the appropriate (but hard-to-explain) comment that the island and the whole trip had a very Wes Anderson/Life Aquatic feel to it. The landscape within the crater was very cool- mounds and ridges emitting steam, sulfur, and boiling mud surrounded by snaking streams of various acidity, color and horrible taste. Colors abounded with sulfur yellow, ash white and rust red dominating the scene. We got to see gaping holes with violently boiling liquid- one of which was less than a week old! The crater lake (pH of -0.1!) was only visible briefly between bursts of steam. The gas masks provided were not just a tourist amusement- in this area the air irritated the back of your throat and made you cough constantly. One area normally visited by the tours was appreciated at a distance since it was sporadically shooting a several meter high explosion of boiling water with significant steam accompaniment.
Rotorua and Taupo: After staying in Rotorua long enough to convince my brother and sister it was too touristy (about an hour), we drove on to visit three world-class hot springs, each progressively hotter and more satisfying. Kerosene Creek has several large pools with hot waterfalls and is a well-known classic. The second, which I will not name here, consisted of a lovely pool sheltered by overhanging cliffs and trees and has a 2.5m hot waterfall plunging into it. The hot vents seeping through the sand at the bottom of the pool, the lack of people, and the massaging power of the waterfall were welcome charms. Lastly, we relaxed in Otumuheke Stream, another well-known soak near the Waikato River at Taupo. Perfect temperature and steam from a nearby waterfall acted as a sauna. We also checked out the always amusing mud pots (exploding bubbling mud and rude slurping sounds) and went for a two hour mountain bike ride.
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| World-class hot spring |
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| Mt Ruapehu (New Zealand's tallest volcano) from Desert Road |
Whanganui River: If I had to pick a highlight it would probably be the 3-day, 92km canoe/kayak trip down the Whanganui River. In summer the trip is very popular with 20+ bunk huts and large campsites filling to capacity. Despite the cold, I found the trip thoroughly enjoyable in that we did not see another person for 2.5 days and thus had the huts and scenery all to ourselves. The scenery was spectacular with tree ferns lining the bush-river interface, interesting mudstone cliffs covered with ferns and mosses, countless waterfalls, the odd large rata or totara tree sticking commandingly above the rest of the bush, and many dark tributaries to explore. The small rapids and other obstacles (logs, rocks) were taken seriously to avoid flipping in the very cold water. We went on the side-hike to the Bridge to Nowhere, a huge concrete bridge built in 1936 spanning a deep gorge to open up land to pioneering farmers. By 1942 the valley was abandoned. Today the bush has reclaimed the land and the bridge really does feel dramatically out of place. The last day was foggy which gave a completely different persona to the valley. My favorite stretch of the trip was Te Wahi Pari, "The Place of Cliffs," where still water reflected the steepest and tallest vertical cliffs. We also stopped to check out Puraroto Caves, interesting mudstone stream passage caves. The scenery, history, solitude and adventure of being the only people around really made the trip.
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| The Bridge to Nowhere |
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| Photo taken by Lauren |
Waitomo Caves: I got the celebrity treatment at Waitomo Caves, which admittedly felt quite nice. A mate gave us free private VIP custom tours of the famous Waitomo Glow Worm Caves, a black water rafting trip in lower Ruakuri Cave (good clean/cold fun), and a tour of the upper levels of Ruakuri Cave on which >$4million was spent to develop as a tourist cave. Walking through the Ruakuri Cave gate, we found ourselves at the top of a huge futuristically-lighted spiral staircase. At the bottom of this circular shaft is a ritualistically-lighted chunk of naturally-sculpted limestone with water dripping on it from the ceiling far above. It was like finding an ancient altar of sacrifice inside a space station. I also revisited the Ruakuri Walkway which I still think is a work of art as far as trails go.
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| Black water rafting (photo by Brad) |
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| Weirdest cave entrance I know of! |
Auckland: I really don't like cities- they bring out the worst in me (and everyone else I reckon). To grasp for positive things to say, I still ran into many friendly, helpful people and the Auckland Museum was a good visit as always. I can't get over how cool it is that the Maori gave a specific name to everything from swords to instruments to a sharpening stone and they all had a history. Some Maori war clubs made of pounamu (jade) are given the name of a distinguished ancestor and treated with the same respect as that ancestor.
Thanks to Giulia, Travis and my brother and sister.
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| Inside the Auckland Museum marae (traditional Maori meeting house) |
1 comment:
Hey I just realized I can comment on here!!!!! I slept in a marae. It was awesome.
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