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Published: March 4th 2007
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Masa and Tongariro Sign and Mt. Doom
This was taken just outside our hostel in National Park, NZ. We arrived in Wellington around 9am to an absolutely gorgeous day. The best day we’d had in New Zealand, weather-wise. We had no idea what we were going to do, all we knew was that we were expected at our home-stay near Raglan the next day. We missed the shuttle to the bus station, my fault, because the shuttle driver announced that it was going to the train station and even though I knew in the back of my head that the bus and train stations were the same, I didn’t think. So I said no, he left, and we were stuck walking to the bus station. Even on a beautiful day, the walk was a bit of a nightmare since we were carrying very full bags. We finally made it to the bus/train station and were completely unable to figure out where to get tickets. First a bus driver I asked freaked out on me getting totally worked up telling me his bus was full and there wasn’t another one and that any of them were probably full and nothing left for Raglan till tomorrow and onandon. So I went inside to figure out what he was talking about. After
Great place to eat!
well worth the cash you will have to lay down... especially because there really isn't much in the way of real food at the "grocery store" in town - actually a gas station convenience store. circling the station (which not only includes the bus and train but also Wellington’s mass transit stops.) a few times we found an open window with a sign above it claiming it was the ticket office for the bus companies. Yay! Well when someone finally came to the window, she closed the blinds. Then we went to another window and she said we had to go back to the first window. We walked around some more with no luck. Soon, the first window opened again, we waited for a while, and eventually the woman behind it decided to talk to us. We told her what we needed and she, the woman at the window marked ticket sales, told us to go across the street to a backpacker hostel to get tickets. What? So ok whatever we went across the street and lo and behold, the bus driver was right, no more busses that day, next one was 10 the next morning, expensive, and didn’t arrive till late that night. So after much internet research, talking, deliberating etc. we concluded that renting a car would be the way to go and that’s what we did. Thank goodness too for reasons that
Masa on the Tongariro
the landscape was nearly lifeless but very cool. will become apparent.
We departed Wellington heading north for Raglan via the center of the island. First we stopped for lunch at Wisconsin Burger which is freaking AWESOME. The drive was extremely beautiful and the weather was unbeatable. Before too long we got to a town called National Park where you can base yourself to do the Tongariro crossing, another famous New Zealand hike between some volcanoes, one of which is Lord of the Rings’ Mt. Doom. Since the weather is notoriously tricky for this hike, and since the forecast was so sunny for the next day, we called the people we were supposed to be staying with to see if it was ok for us to arrive late so we could take advantage of the good weather and go ahead and do the hike the next day. They were fine with that so we got ourselves a room at the YHA there in National Park, and got ourselves on the bus to and from the hike (it’s not a loop so you have to arrange transportation).
The Tongariro Crossing is unreal. It wasn’t a particularly difficult hike, though the track goes over a lot of ragged lava
Jen on the Tongariro
with my trusty dodger cap... sadly, I left it on the bus that took us back to the hostel... never to be seen again. :( that is only definable by the snow poles sticking out. It was very rough. The terrain was completely barren and you could see the different lava flows that came down the sides of the volcanoes during different eruptions. The levels of vegetation that had grown back were clear markers of the older flows, as opposed to the newer ones which were indicated by tracts of vast lifeless moonscape. It was certainly otherworldly. We passed green pools which are sacred to the Maori people, steaming vents, rocks covered in bright red algae, warm streams and hotsprings. The only down side of the hike was that it was extremely crowded. We moved pretty quickly though so it kept us out of the main pack of walkers I think - at least toward the end that is - but during the first part we were hiking with lots and lots of people. But that didn’t keep us from really enjoying the trip. The weather held and we finished in time to kick back in the shade and wait for the early bus to come get us and take us back to the hostel.
We left immediately after for our home-stay near Raglan,
Jen on the Tongariro ... again
looking out over some old lava flows. found it with no problem and spent the evening hanging out with our host, Keith. Sue and their son Tom were in Raglan Town at her parents’ house as Tom was feeling a bit sick and not up to the 20 minute drive out to where they live. We spent a week out there, exchanging four hours per day of yard work for room and board. The family that we stayed with was super cool and they took good care of us, giving us great food, wine, beer, cheese, more beer, more wine, and lots of laughs and conversations. Their dog, Jessie, was awesome. She’d come up to our room over the garage and beg to be let in every morning. We’d let her in and she’d bee-line to the bed and snuggle in with us till we got up. Keith loaned Masa his surfboard so Masa could catch the world-famous in New Zealand left at Raglan. We also used their house as a base from which we visited the glow worm caves at Waitomo, some waterfalls, and other various attractions in the area. After a week we left them and moved on to Rotorua.
We found Rotorua to
be the most overrated place we visited in New Zealand. It was pretty much a stinky tourist trap town. As much as we liked to talk about soaking in the hot springs for which Rotorua is so famous, once we got there, the idea of stewing in warm, smelly water with a bunch of strangers whose bathing habits we don’t know, just didn’t seem that appealing. Add to that that Masa was feeling terrible the whole time we were there and Rotorua turned out to be the only bust we had in New Zealand. The hostel we stayed in was institutional at best but had great common facilities and a nice big kitchen with plenty of room and lots of utensils and pans and stuff. I ate pretty well in Rotorua, though Masa hardly ate at all, poor guy.
We wound up leaving after two night and heading for the Coromandel Peninsula. That’s up next.
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