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Blogs from Whakapapa, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2
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July 15th 2007
A great weekend on the slopes of Ruapehu. A bit more snow would have been nice, but it was still great fun. This blog entry was missing in action for a while, but thanks to the wonders of technology, here it is again!! July 28th - headed up again, this time just for a day on Turoa. I ski-ed like a complete lemon & had the biggest wipe-out of my life. Honestly, it was a good one! Lisa & Alan had their first trip up & got on brilliantly. However I am sad to say that they have also opted for the tray. I was seriously outnumbered 5:1.... read more
The Plains of Gorgoroth...sort of.
Published: December 7th 2005Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Whakapapa
December 7th 2005
Hey all. Thanks for all the comments, I'll get round to replying soon, I promise. This blog simply covers my 4 days of the Tongariro hike, so I'll try not to waffle..too much. Deciding to do the Tongariro Northern Circuit itself was the 1st difficult decision; most just do the famous 1-day 'Tongariro Crossing' and leave satisfied with it ticked off their list. But to do the Northern Circuit, and to do it justice, takes 3 to 4 days. I hadn't done a serious hike since my curtain-hairstyle school days of Iceland and DofE, and not sure if my body was up for it. But what the heck? There's no adventure in not trying (which, I know, at times can be a stupid philosophy). The Tongariro Northern Circuit basically circles round Mount Ngarahoe (which I always ... read more
December 5th 2005
Hello again! Well, we're nearing the end of week 1 of our trip and have, again, realized that planning ahead is very helpful (ie- weather forecasts). First, the highlights of the last few days. From Rotorua we headed south to Waitomo where we enjoyed a lovely ride in freezing cold water in the cave system (in the least sexy wet suits ever!) to see the "Glow-worms". THeir not really glow-worms, they're really moth larvae/maggots whose feces glow in the dark to attract food. Gross yes- but overall very impressive in an almost Disneyland -ride sort of way. From there we spent the night at a "farmstay". Basically, we paid an elderly couple to let us stay in their kid's room and include us in their dinner plans. THey had sheep (no jokes) and deer so we ... read more
November 15th 2005
13.11.05 Got to Whakapapa (remember wh is pronounced f) in the rain, booked into our site and watched a couple of videos. We came to Whakapapa to do the famous Tongariro crossing one of the best walks in New Zealand. We went to the info site to check the weather but rain for the next day and fine on Tue. Fingers crossed we would do it Tuesday. 14.11.05 Rained all day, went for a short drive to National Park Village. Watched videos. Checked weather for tomorrow, looking good so booked on the transport for tomorrow. You have to use the transport because if you leave your car there it would get broken into as they know you are away for so long on the walk. 15.11.05 Up at 5.30am, freezing cold as we are thousands of ... read more
November 9th 2005
8.11. - Prechod narodnym parkom Tongariro Po splave carovnej rieky Whanganui sme sa presunuli cc 50 kilometrov do narodneho parku Tongariro, ubytovali sa v kempe a konecne zmyli zo seba riecne blato :) Dalsi den rano sme vyrazili na "Tongariro crossing" - udajne najpopularnejsiu jedno-dnovu turu na Novom Zealande. Vlastne sme prvy krat zazili riadnu masovku mnozstvom ludi pripominajucu nase tatranske doliny (pocas sezony spravi tuto turu 2000 ludi denne!!!). Scenicky to bol ale krasny zazitok kombinujuci vystup na sopku, pohlad do nespocetnych kraterov, sopecnych jazier a pochod mesacnou krajinou. Prvy usek cesty sme stupali krasnou lavovou krajinou a predbiehali cele roty nemeckych a francuzskych geriatrikov. Potom sme odbocili na krasnu sopku Mt. Ngauruhoe (2287m), ktora bola pouzita pri natacani Pana Prstenov ako znamy Mt. Doom. Stupanie po upati sopky bolo prijemne lebo ... read more
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Learning to Snowboard at Mt Ruapehu
Published: January 12th 2006Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Whakapapa
September 22nd 2005
The title of this blog should really be: "Attempting to snowboard whilst sliding down the mountain on my a$$"!!! As you can see this was my second ever attempt to snowboard and between the bumps, bruises and wet bottom, I did see some improvement since my attempt in Japan in 2000. A group of us booked a batch in Ohakune and spend 2 days on Mt Ruapehu. We went Turoa ski spot and had a ball. Drew aka Dendro Boy at: helped organise the batch through this excellent online booking service at: . This 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home was perfect. There are 8 bunk beds and 2 queen beds, so when it is full, you end up paying $20 a night for your own accommodation. Our house was central to Ohakune town near all the ... read more
May 6th 2005
Rude awakening Koreans can't whisper. Shh! It is 5AM! Wow another day and time to move on. I had a bit of a rude awakening by the two loud Koreans in my room...Shush please! I had my last breakfast with Jasper this morning. He was looking in pretty bad shape because he had a snorer in his room. LOL Can't believe after 12 days of seeing NZ's north island together it is time to move on in our separate directions. I'm curious to see who I'll meet up with on the bus this morning... Well, I waited about 1/2 hour for the Stray bus to come pick me up before giving them a ring to see where they were. Yup, they're still on their way. I found out later that I was on the manifest to ... read more
