Advertisement
Published: July 31st 2008
Edit Blog Post
Heya everyone,
I know, two blog entries waiting for you on waking up! But don't get to excited, as you can see, today's entry isn't gonna be a barrel of laughs. After the Thermal Village, we both went to bed early-ish to get up at five to hopefully get a full day's hiking up at Mount Ngauruhoe, which was used by Peter Jackson as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. We're both pretty psyched about this, me for the hike and Jason for the location. Plus the walk back takes us through the areas they filmed Mordor... brilliant.
But the weather was not to be on ourside today. We got up at five as planned and managed to leave the Rotorua camp site by seven, an impressive feat we felt. But the weather was as bad as it was in the storm we mentioned previousily when we arrived at Rotorua. The wind keeps hitting the Merc with unexpected broadsides, and I doubt if it weren't for Jason's constantly vigilance and driving skills it would have been so much worse. We continue south on State Highway One, arriving at Taupo and Lake Taupo, which puts Lake Rotorua to shame
with its size. Jason was incredolous when I told him it was a lake, as it easily could be confused for a sea. We carry on down the road along Taupo's eastern bay, with the wind whipping up a frenzy of spray off of the waves. Some of the corners we have to take are straight out of a hollywood film, rain and wind, us halfway up a cliff, only a flimsy metal barrier between us and the deadly water below...
We continue past the lake without incident and Jason soon spots snow capped mountains on the horizon. There are three mountains close together, Mt. Tangariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt Tama, the tallest being 2297 metres, the shortest 1608 metres. The drive to them shows the outside temperature dropping from 11.5 to 6 degrees in a matter of moments. The weather hasn't let up at all, and as we turn on the 48 up to Whakapaka, where we plan on staying, a sign by the road states its all shut. I breathe a little easier. I had been willing to go out had Jason pushed the matter, but the storm outside is worse then anything I ever walked back
on Dartmoor.
We stop in a layby and plan a route to Waganui, which gets us closer to Wellington. Guess I don't have to worry anymore about not making the ferry on time...
However, the day wasn't ready to give us a break, and the road to Waganui is closed as well, so the sign states. We decide not to risk it and take a detour which adds an easy two hours to the trip. Along the way the weather continues to hound us, and we see branches torn from trees, and even whole trees lifted up out of the ground by the wind alone. At one point the police have to guide us around a lorry that has lost it's load, blown over completely.
We finally arrive at Waganui around two, completely shattered, having been on the road in horrid conditions since seven. We later find out today that there are places still without power in New Zealand from the storm. We find a top ten place in Waganui on the outskirts (we've decided to use Top Ten places, as we can gaurantee that they will have paved spots for the Merc) and book in for
a night. And that's it. That was our day, with the plans and hopes shattered.
We carried on the next day to Wellington, which is where I am writing from now. We've set ourselves up in the nearest mobile home camp, and Jason's worked some magic in getting us some snow chains for the Merc. Tomorrow we'll hopefully pop into the city centre to let me drag Jason around museums and the parliament buildings, before heading to the quarry where they filmed Helms Deep (though I am agreeing with Jason, whenever we plan to see Lord of the Rings stuff, New Zealand plans otherwise). And then saturday we head to the South Island.
We're both fine and dandy, slightly smug at surviving the storm in our Merc yesterday. Jason continues to abuse his thumb, so we're off to find him a bandage now (sorta like putting a cone around a dog, stop him from hurting himself more). And then we need to get food, as muggins here accidently picked up some stuff that contains almonds, bugger it all. Guess we're just getting a bit sloppy in our old age...
Right, I'm off. Jason's beside me and says
caio as well. Take care, we look forward to the comments :D
Elliott and Jason
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0611s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Paul Flenley
non-member comment
Love the new hat!
Sounds like you both went thro the wringer with that drive south, and you should be proud of yourselves for getting through the storm, it's no mean feat. The white water rafting and Thermal village blogs were excellent. I was at work (lunchtime) when I read the white water rafting blog, and switched to slide show mode to view the pictures. Within the minute I had an audience of five asking about what you were doing. Then I showed them the blog which they thought was brilliant. Enjoy the museums and the trip to the South Island, which on my map looks bigger than the island you're leaving.