Back North

After leaving Christchurch, I headed north along the coast to Kaikoura. It's a pretty little town where the primary tourist activities are whale watching and dolphin swimming. However, I did neither. I just walked along the beach and enjoyed the veiw. I still saw seals jumping around. And I've seen dolphins almost everytime I've been on a boat here.

The next morning, it was off to the ferry from Picton to Wellington. The road continued to follow the coast and was just beutiful. Beside the road, there was a whole ton of seals just lying around on some rocks. Pretty cool. The ferry ride was fine, the weather was good. Mom's cousin Geoff met me at the ferry terminal and took me to their place in Seatoun, a suburb of Wellington. Their house is part of a housing development quite unlike those in North America. The houses were all different and interesting looking, although still in the same modernist style. I arrived Saturday evening, but in time for a yummy home cooked dinner. Anna, Geoff's wife, kept apologizing that it was so casual, but it was much nicer than anything I had eaten for a while, or at least that I had cooked. It's hard being creative with cooking when you have no spices and have to carry everything around! On Sunday, I went to the fundraising fair at the local kindergarten, which one of their sons attends. Mmmm... The baked goods in NZ are good! I collected a few more recipes from Anna... We went for a walk near their house, which is right at the entrance to Wellington harbour, so that was nice. On Monday, I went into Wellington and figured out what I was doing on the North Island. I also checked out the Harbour Museum and some shops, although I haven't bought myself anything yet, since I don't want to carry it all around. In the evening, I met up with Caroline, Rein and Hazel's daughter, for a little while. She wasn't feeling well unfortunately, so it was a short visit. (Rein and Hazel flew out the day I arrived, heading for Estonia.)

Tuesday I spent on a bus from Wellington to Turangi, near Tongariro National Park. Turangi wasn't too exciting. I made my bookings for the next day. I made dinner, and breakfast, lunch and dinner for Wednesday as well. I went to bed at 8pm in my freezing cold room. I didn't fall asleep until about 9:30 though. And a siren went off at 1:30am, which was quite strange. But it wasn't all bad, because I had paid very little and got a twin room to myself. In the morning, I got picked up at 7am and was off to do the Tongariro Crossing!

The Tongariro Crossing is supposed to be one of the best day hikes in the world, and I cannot argue with that. I was expecting it to be more challenging, from what everyone says. Also, because the first climb is called The Devil's Staircase. Including stops, it took me just over six and a half hours to do the whole hike. The landscape and views were breathtaking! It was like Mars, the Moon or Middle Earth, which is appropriate, since I got great views of "Mt. Doom" (Mt Ngauruhoe). Parts of it smelled slightly sulphurous, since it is an active volcanic area. I really don't know how to describe it except spectacular, amazing, out of this world... And the weather was great! Leaving Toronto, it was one thing EVERYBODY (I literally mean everyone who has ever been in NZ) told me I just had to do. It was also the one thing I really didn't think I would be able to. The walk goes up to a fairly high elevation, and many areas are very exposed, so after the beginning of April, it can become quite dangerous because of rapidly changing conditions and snow. I thought for sure it would require spikes for my boots, ice axes and probably guide to do it, in the freezing cold, so I was going to pass. Also because they recommend you don't do it with alpine experience. Does skiing count...? Anyway, a few days earlier, I went to the Deptartment of Conservation (DOC) office in Wellington, looking for info about other walks I could do. The guy there said of course I could still do it! Lucky me! The weather turned out to be quite warm, with a very slight breeze and hardly a cloud in the sky (except below in the valley when I started). So, I'll add myself to the list of people and say, do the Tongariro Crossing!!!

Immediately after getting back to Turangi, I changed and headed over to the info centre to wait for my bus to Rotorua. A couple of hours later, I was sitting in a hot, spa pool at my hostel there. Rotorua definitly smells like an active geothermal area. The next day, I went to Te Puia, for a Maori cultural show, tour and to see the geothermal park there. It was very cool. I was expecting very little, especially of the Maori part, because I usually find those sorts of cultural shows cheesy and very touristy. But the show was quite interesting and the guide was very informative. He told us about the significance of the carvings in the meeting house and about some Maori history and trdaitions. He showed us how they used flax for all sorts of things. And he was funny. The geysers were neat too, as were the bubbling mud pools, hot pools and steaming vents. I took a lot of pictures in Rotorua... Also, they had a kiwi house, so I saw a kiwi's bum, as it was trying to burrow. Te Puia is also a Maori arts and crafts centre/school, so you can actually watch people making traditional carvings and weavings. Later on, I walked around one of the city parks that had all sorts of mud pools and hot springs. I have to say, I have never seen a park where they fence off areas with that orange plastic fencing because the hot pools have expanded.

The next day, I headed for the Waitomo Caves, famous for the glow worms that live in them. I did blackwater rafting, which is tubing in a cave. It was really cold! Luckily, we had wet suits. It was cool. The glow worms look like little LEDs strung across the ceiling. With a light on, they are just little maggots that eventually turn into flies. The tubing was fun, although the word rafting is definitly misleading, it was pretty relaxed. I enjoyed it. From there, I headed to Auckland. There, I went to Susan's house for the night and am now at Piha once again. There was a power outage for 3 hours last night, which meant we had no running water. But we had planty of candles, so it was actually quite nice. This afternoon, we're going back to Auckland. In a couple of days, it's off to Rarotonga and warm, sandy beaches! And then home via Vancouver! I only have 10 days left. It's going by really quickly!

(Pictures to follow...soon)