avelog

We’ve now been up on the North Island for ten days, but the first few were fairly uneventful, so a quick summary:

We arrived on the ferry in Wellington, New Zealand’s political and cultural capital. After spending so much time on the South Island in the bush or tiny little towns, it was quite a shock to once again be in a big city. Traffic was horrible, as we’d arrived right at rush hour, and we were unable to find a suitable place to camp within or near Wellington, so we eventually drove half an hour out of town to a crowded little hostel called BaseCamp Backpackers.

Back in Wellington the next morning, we finally wandered into Te Papa, the national museum, after spending a good chunk of time looking for parking. Te Papa was quite amazing, with wonderful, informative, and exciting displays of all sorts of different native creatures, invasive species, volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, immigrant history, art, and on and on, made all the better by the fact that it was FREE! We then wandered around the shops downtown for a while, before heading out north to Paekakariki, a little town on the coast, home to a small, friendly, and quite comfortable hostel, as well as very strong winds. A relaxed and enjoyable evening was followed by eight hours of restless sleep spent dreaming that the tent was going to blow down the hill, over a couple of houses and into the ocean below. So we decided to stay another night!

We decided that it would take too long to go west and see Mount Egmont, an apparently amazing volcano, and instead crossed over to the less populated east coast, stopping in Napier. It had been overcast and raining on and off ever since we arrived on the North Island, so we decided to keep going the next day rather than tour the local wineries by bike, and arrived in Gisborne in the darkness and pouring rain to find that our intended destination was closed and apparently abandoned, so that we had to camp at the Flying Nun, a creepy and somewhat rough hostel in an old convent.

It was still raining the next morning, and having had enough of cities of any size, we set out for East Cape, a poorly populated and well-forested bulge halfway up the North Island’s east coast. By the time we arrived at Maraehako Bay Retreat, the sun was out and our spirits were on the rise. The hostel was a multistory affair built into the side of a steep shoreline, with the ocean mere feet away. It was by far the single most beautiful place that we’ve stayed, with the camp spot on a soft patch of grass near a little waterfall and a trickling stream, below a giant tree, with views of the adjacent rocky beach stretching out to the horizon, where the setting sun lit the sky and ocean with yellow, red, and purple. The hostel appeared to have been mostly built and decorated by the father and son who own and run it, with seashells set in the concrete steps and heavy multi-colored ropes as handrails. The warm fire in the outdoor hearth was a pleasant prelude to dinner and a relaxed evening.

When the sun rose the next morning to clear skies, revealing magnificent views from our tent, we decided to stay another night, and spent the day making pancakes, drinking tea, reading, sunbathing, and generally not doing anything productive at all. It was the warmest and sunniest day that we’ve enjoyed thus far in New Zealand, and we weren’t about to let it go to waste by actually doing anything!

Feeling the pressure of our dwindling time in New Zealand, and with so much still to see and do, we set off again the next morning, heading inland and south to Rotorua, considered to be the hotspot for Maori cultural displays as well as the northern tip of the biggest thermally-active area in New Zealand. Although the entire country sits along the intersection of two tectonic plates, evidence of this is more spectacular on the North Island, with active volcanoes and many thermal areas. On the South Island, most evidence is of the older and colder sort, including the entirety of the Southern Alps, as well as numerous volcanic remnants.

It’s hard to miss the fact that Rotorua is smack in the middle of a thermally active area, giving the steam rising from random bits of ground (appropriately surrounded by warning tape and pylons), and a pretty impressive park in the middle of the city, filled with pools of boiling water and mud, with steam rising tens of meters into the air. We set up camp at the local YHA hostel and then attended a Maori concert and hangi (feast). This particular tribe owns a forested piece of land just south of Rotorua, with a rebuilt village, stream, and cold springs. The concert was quite entertaining, with the audience in chairs in front of an outdoor stage with the village behind it. Hangi is a feast cooked underground, in pits heated by glowing embers beneath rocks onto which water is poured to produce steam. The food is then layed on top and covered with damp cloth followed by dirt. The result was some very tasty chicken, lamb and potatoes. Unfortunately, the only traditional food present was the (delicious) kumara (sweet potato).

After swimming and gymming the next morning we set out south once more to Taupo, skydiving capital of New Zealand, and a base for shuttles to Tongariro National Park, which contains New Zealand’s most popular one day walk, the Tongariro Crossing. It is supposed to be incredible in good weather, with volcanoes, multi-coloured mud pools, and all sorts of other thermal treats. Unfortunately the shuttles don’t even run in poor weather, because the crossing can be quite dangerous and it is not uncommon for people to die attempting it (two so far this year).

With a mix of sun and clouds yesterday, and the shuttles cancelled because of a pessimistic forecast, we visited instead and thermally active field called Craters of the Moon. Protected by the Department of Conservation, it consists of a wide field of steaming fumaroles, geysers, and craters in a hot desolate landscape. This particular field has only been really active since 1958, when a geothermal power station was built a few kilometers away and changed the dynamics of the superheated groundwater. Major explosions of steam occur every few years when vents have become blocked with debris, resulting in massive craters and permanent alterations to the boardwalk.

When in Rome… so we went skydiving! In New Zealand, unless you take a multi-month course costing several thousand dollars, you are required to jump tandem, attached to an experienced jump instructor. This obviously makes it a lot easier just to hop in a plane, climb up to a decent altitude, and hop out. Liz and I both opted to jump from 12,000 ft, with 45 seconds of freefall time. Along with eight other skydivers to be and all the tandem instructors, we were suited up in jumpsuits and harnesses and crammed into a small plane. Two benches ran the length of the interior and we slid up on them backwards, pressed in together, with each skydiver-to be jammed in front of an instructor. My knees were trembling a bit as we made the fifteen minute climb up to altitude, with great, sunny views of Lake Taupo and the surrounding countryside. Our instructors, snapped their harnesses into ours, we lowered our goggles, and before we knew it, each of us was slid down to the door and out! A quick roll to catch a glimpse of the plane above, and falling so fast, down through icy cloud (slightly painful, with ice crystals bombarding us), and out into sunny, free air! The feeling was quite incredible, and the freefall was of course much too short in retrospect. After the parachute had opened, we spent another four minutes swooping down over Taupo, to the grassy field below, beside the hangar from which we had started. And all for the same price as it had cost to bungy-jump in Queenstown.

We’re now heading south to Tongariro National Park, in the hopes that it will clear tomorrow or the next day. Otherwise, we won’t be able to waste any more time waiting, and will be force to head north to the sunny Coromandel Peninula and subtropical Northland. Only twelve days left!