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Published: March 1st 2008
NOTE: Hi everyone, I am publishing this again for my own records as I accidentally deleted it! Whoops. So don't worry, it's not another one you have to read (yet...)
Stray'd part 2
Wellington I have officially experienced my shortest flight ever! We boarded a plane in Christchurch and minus all the taking off and landing, I think it lasted about 30 minutes! The taxing took up a further 10minutes in itself- crazy! So we had arrived in Wellington, a little friendless and after a huge week of socialising and doing loads of activities. First port of call was getting a private room! The socialising had been great but I needed a bit of space, especially after the people from the dorm in Queenstown who had been ridiculously rude.
So private room! It was great to have some space, although the hostel was obviously disued halls which gave it a slightly eerie feel. Next port of call- finding something to do in Wellington. I don't mean to offend the place too much but inside the city, even the guidebook seemed a little confused about where to direct us. LOTR's tour were obviously the biggest pull there and
I am an elf now!
We were on the Lord of the Rings tour, you have to join in...we had a look at the cinema where 2 of the movies had previewed. All interesting of course and the scenery around Wellington was obviously beautiful.
So we went on an aimless walk by the water and through the streets, finding ourselves at the Te Papa museum where we passed a few hours. Later we cooked ourselves some dinner, which certainly made a change! It always tastes so much better now! The next day we did the obvious thing and went on a Lord of the Rings tour. There were only 4 of us there and the enthusiastic guide was very knowledgable (and had watched LOTRs perhaps a few too many times with commentary) and also very willing to share his life story with us.
The tour was good fun. We were taken to various spots and shown photographs of the actual scenes. In some we had some funny re-enactments and it was interesting hearing about how the digital and reality were combined to make some scenes. Also we heard fun facts such as Peter Jackson made the sound of the Orcs getting ready for war by getting the audience at a cricket match to stamp their feet,
Does Joe look a little high?
Recreating a part of the Lord of the Rings films where Frodo looks suspiciously happy holding his pipe... beat their chests and cheer.
Our guide Rendell was a complex fellow... He had a lot of strange interests, one being analysing handwriting! When we heard this, we all of course wrote some things down for him and he took a shot at analysing our personalities. I won't tell you what he said about Joe, as he might want to tell you in his blog but I will tell you that he was 80%-90% correct! He only said about three or four things about each of us but he seemed pretty spot on. He told me that I was giving and open but also kind of aloof or standoff-ish. Although I don't really like being described as aloof, I think it's pretty accurate. Joe seemed to agree anyway so it was an interesting encounter!
Whilst in Wellington, we also indulged in a bit of cinema. We watched Sweeny Todd, with the usual Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton combo. My first impression was huh?! I had no idea they would sing throughout! Yet it was a musical so I suppose it makes sense. Overall, it was a good watch and the black humour was great as ever.
It's kind of fun watching films about old London and Jonny Depp sang an amusing song about London being full of s**t and the people there being full of s**t also!
Taupo In Wellington we decided the Tongariro Crossing was a 'must' whilst we were in NZ. So although our ticket didn't cover it, we paid slightly more to catch a Stray bus from Taupo so we could do it. Taupo in a sense seemed a bit of a stopover point for the crossing but when we got there, it was actually quite nice and we wished we had longer to look around.
Unfortunately, we also had a bit of bad luck whilst we were there which dampened it a little. We left our camera case (with memory cards inside) in Wellington and had to try and arrange either the hostel posting it to Auckland (but it wouldn't make it as we couldn't get to the post office for 2 days once we realised and it wouldn't leave enough time), by courier (yet they wouldn't accept non-NZ credit cards) and finally, getting the next Stray driver to pick it up and bring it to Auckland. Who would've
thought it would be so hard?!
Anyway back to the good stuff for now... We had no idea what to do in Taupo so luckily the guy in our room suggested the hot springs. So after buying all our food for the long walk the next day, we took a LONG walk to the springs! We passed the bungy and watched a few people jump off and had a long chat as we made our way all the way across town and far into the suburbs.
We finally arrived and found the springs. It was VERY busy! It was the weekend so there were lots of families but this was our only chance so we found one of the hot pools and jumped in. I'd expected these pools to be tepid at best but as we jumped in, I was shocked to find them like a very hot bath! It was almost TOO hot and if a few degrees hotter, might've been able to scold. It was crazy! We were sitting in the park on a medium warmth day in a very hot pool. I have no idea how it all works but it was amazing. What was
crazy too was that just out of the rock pools and into the start of the river, the water gets slightly cooler then freezing! The water from the river completely clashes with the warm water and the drastic change is shocking. I kept well in the warm bit and let Joe test out the freezing water alone!
Back at the hostel, another girl called Oonagh had joined our room. We had a good chat and realised she was doing the crossing tomorrow too. So we all got our bags prepared and headed to bed at a resonable hour. Boring old farts...
The Tongariro Crossing In the morning, we were all but ready to go at 7.15am so I went to retrieve our cooler bag with all our supplies. Yet it wasn't there! I searched the whole fridge but it wasn't there at all. Then I heard another girl telling the staff about hers being stolen, to which the staff member replied 'That's not my problem'. Feeling rahter unsettled and annoyed by this point, I waited around to assess the situation. Apparently quite a few peoples food had been stolen and the staff were clearly not bothered. I
couldn't believe that people could be so nasty, especially when it was obvious people were preparing for a huge 7-8 hour walk!
All of the sandwiches/museli bars/fruit/nuts and goodies we had spent hours choosing the day before were gone! All this food we had managed to buy for $20 we then had to spend double that buying some food from the Shell garage across the road. It put us in a bit of a bad mood but unlike one of the girls who decided not to go because of it, we jumped on the bus and decided that we wouldn't let it get us down too much. We had a mountain to climb!
Yet bad luck seemed to be following us. We drove an hour out of Taupo when the driver told us he had to go all the way back to pick up 2 people the office hadn't told him about! So we drove back, getting a little more irritated and when we got there, the 2 girls decided they didn't want to come anymore! Patience was wearing a little thin here and when we finally arrived at the beginning of the crossing, the guide informing us
we were late and had to walk extra quickly certainly could've been the last straw had we let it.
But nevermind... We had to concentrate our energies. We had a long walk and we were also getting to know Oonagh a bit more who was very friendly. Anyway, we were left at the start of the crossing and so it began. Some people zoomed ahead of us but we kept to a steady pace. The first part was pretty flat with paths, some wooden platforms and some rocks to climb. It looked very LOTR's style and we were creeping closer and closer to the mountain that is the famous Mount Doom (or whatever it's called).
Mistaking where we were on the map for a little while, we assumed we had climbed the dreaded Devil's Staircase but alas, we realised our error when we approached a massive mountain that had winding paths all the way up it's reasonably steep face. Bugger... So the climb began. I have never felt so unfit in the life! I couldn't help but gasp my way up there, stopping many times and wondering if I could ever possibly make it to the top. On
the way up, we picked up another friend called Sarah. I think she found our pace a bit more suited to hers!
After a million huge steps, jagged rocks and torturous moments where we believed we might actually have reached the top but in fact hadn't, later, we arrived at the top. And then the mountain led us down into a huge crater. Looking like the setting for a movie set in space, the crater was massive and just beyond it lay the huge mountain we had all come to see. The enormity of everything was fantastic and the scenery just kept coming.
We made our way up another huge hill, where we finally stopped to recharge with some lunch. Over the side, we could see amazing coloured hills that looked exactly like the map from the Lord of the Rings! If I hadn't seen the films, it seems a lot of references would've been really lost so it's good Joe made me watch them! Looking up there was another climb facing us so we soldiered on. Apart from realising I am disgustingly unfit, I had some nice blisters forming (as ever) and had them rubbing against the
back of my shoes for most of thr 7 hours we were walking.
The walkways were partly marked but there was a bit of freedom in the path too. They stones and gravel were VERY slippery at points and we all kept watching out for each other, especially on the way up! After a long trek uphill, we reached the top. We couldn't quite believe it but we had! All around us was the most beautiful and impressive scenery- emerald lakes which were such a vivid colour, a red crater which was a fiery red, hills and greenery stretching for miles, Mount Doom and steam rising off the rocks. It was one of those times when going to the top really was worth the effort.
Now the fun part... Everyone knows the rule 'what goes up, must come down' and that sums up the next part of our story. After spending time on the top, we set to the task of trying to walk down the mountain. This wasn't easy as the gravel was again slippery and the gradient was steep at the same time so we just had to dig our feet in and try not to
fall over (though I did once!). Joe steamed off ahead but we met him a the bottom, where there was some flatter ground again. So another snack later and we made our way up the last hilly climb and found ourselves in a greener part with winding man made paths that made things a bit easier.
Lots more winding paths and some stairs, a stop off at a look out point and we were apparently and hour or 2 hours from the end! It seemed strange there should be so long left after we'd walked for SO long and the biggest climb had long since passed. However, onwards we went. A strange oriental woman was following us and singing her heart out which was pretty funny and nice at the same time. Bascially the end part of the walk was huge stairs. Ironically these were one of the hardest bits as the constant huge steps and our feet banging against the flat floor just aggravated the tiredness!
Joe's optimism got our hopes up a few times when he thought we were definitely at the end so when the end did come quite abruptly, we almost couldn't believe we
had actually finished the walk! Once we sat down it was hard to get up again but I didn't take off my shoes until we got to the hostel, which was pure heaven when I did!
We'd heard from the people who recommended Stray to us that the Tongariro crossing hostel was lovely and worth paying for a double in. So Joe and I got a double and took our weary feet towards the room. On the outside, it looked nice but pretty normal but inside the room, it was clean and fresh! The bed was lovely and clean, the bathroom nice and big with complimentary soap and the general vibe was of good taste. Even the discount backpacker meal was great quality. Unfortunately, we were so tired that we all went to bed around 10am and so all we got to enjoy was sleeping there!
Auckland Our last stop in NZ was Auckland. We headed up there after our crossing, being rudely awoken at 8am and rushing about as the driver hadn't told everyone the proper departure time and we'd all thought it was 9am! Anyway, we ended up at the Base in Auckland because the
Joe and I at the end
I think we deserved a rest! YHA was full and therefore had the pleasures of an 8 person dorm. There was an Arsenal fan there but the rest of the guys in there were either unfriendly or incredibly rude eg: one night Joe and I were quietly reading in bed when suddenly we were plunged into darkness as one guy had decided he wanted to sleep and didn't bother asking anyone else what they thought. Fair enough then!
I think fatigue had set in a little by the time we reached Auckland and coupled with the still lost camera case and trying to plan Fiji (after we discovered there had been a cyclone very recently), Auckland was a bit lost on us unfortunately. At the same time however, like Wellington, it didn't seem to be a 'great' city. We did get a bit of a personalised tour from a local who knew our friend Mona. He took us to a great look out point and told us a bit about the city so that was a nice experience.
The best thing we did in Auckland was meet Mona again! It was great to see a friendly face and have a chat about the times after we'd split up and the other passengers on the bus she'd spent more time with. We've told her to look us up when she comes to London perhaps in the summer so that'll be good fun.
After days of trying to sort it out, our faithful driver Bagginz came through and brought us our camera case! Unfortunately as we were leaving, Joe left his bank card in a shop and so we felt a bitten by the bad luck once again. Yet we went onto Fiji, despite the cyclone and hoped for some fun in the sun...
Thanks for reading again and see you next time, Nikki x
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