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Published: August 7th 2007
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I finally have time to catch you all up on my last month in New Zealand. In Maori legend the north island of New Zealand was formed when Maui, a demi-god, and his brothers pulled the island up from the ocean while fishing with Maui's magic fishing hook. This land is called Te Ika a Maui, the Fish of Maui, in Maori. This is where I spent my last month while in New Zealand.
I headed over to Wellington on the north island from Picton on the south island at the beginning of February. I spent a few days checking out Wellington and really enjoyed the city as a whole. I walked around the public library, some of the galleries and museums and spent 6 hours walking around the expansive Te Papa Tongarewa which is the Museum of New Zealand. They had some great Maori artifacts and several other exhibits covering the natural history of the islands, the people, and some great art.
From Wellington I headed up to the towns of Hastings and Napier. These two towns are unique in that they both were hit by a larger earthquake in 1931 that destroyed about 90% of Napier and a good
bit of Hastings. Most of the buildings that replaced those that were destroyed were designed in the Art Deco style. This style has been preserved very well in both of these towns. So, as the son of an architect I felt it was my duty to check these two places out. Actually both towns were really cool and the preserved art deco look of the towns made it a great place to hang out.
After spending a day checking out the towns I headed up the coast in search of some surf. I drove up the east coast to Gisborne. Unfortunately my luck with surf in NZ wasn’t the best and there were no waves to be had. After two days of fruitless wave searches I drove across to Rotorua. I though the road that I was taking from Gisborne to Rotorua was somewhat of a short cut but it ended up being 200 or so km of gravel roads that were maybe 2 lanes wide and wound around the hills of several parks. It took me forever but I finally made it to Rotorua.
Rotorua is considered to be the center of Maori culture of New Zealand. The area
surrounding the town is also very geologically active and so it smells like rotten eggs all throughout the town from the sulfur leaching out of the ground. I spent several days here checking out the sights and trying my hand at Zorbing. Picture a human-sized version of the little plastic ball you used to put your gerbil in, put some water in it, put you and some people you met at the hostel in it, and then push it down a hill and you have Zorbing. It was a blast to say the least. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me as it was a spur of the moment things, but if you get a chance go check out the website www.zorb.co.nz to see for yourself what it is all about. I also checked out the AgroDome which is everything to do with agriculture in New Zealand. This equates to mostly everything having to do with sheep. I watched a guy sheer a sheep while I was there and I have to say that I don’t think the sheep liked the experience very much.
Outside of Zorbing and the AgroDome I joined a small contingent of people from the
states to watch the Superbowl at a local restaurant and pub. Sorry the Bears lost Jay. I also visited some the Maori things around the town and spent several hours at Te Puia Maori cultural center. I saw some Maori dancing and went on a tour of the area where they explained their culture and the significance of some of the surrounding geological features one of which was a great geyser.
From Rotorua I headed just down the road to Lake Taupo. This is the largest lake in the southern hemisphere and formed where a volcano erupted with more force than Krakatoa and Mt. St. Helens combined. The lake is huge and the area was beautiful so I figured there was no better place to try out skydiving. What an experience! I did a tandem jump at 15,000 ft which gave us about 40-50 seconds of freefall. The feeling of freefall is amazing and then the view you get of the lake and it surrounding areas as you drift down with the chute open is amazing.
My next stop was to the Tongariro Crossing which is a great 17km hike through Tongariro Park. The walk crosses part of the park
and goes by some of the 6 different volcanic cone areas in the park. After a grueling climb up an area called the devil’s staircase you come to the base of both Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe. This area was the area Peter Jackson used for Mordor and Mt. Mgauruhoe was used at Mount Doom. When you are up at the top you can see the resemblance. From here it was a long walk past the Emerald Lakes and on to Blue Lake. From here it was a long decent into a forest and out to the end of the track. The walk made for a long day but it was really amazing to see all of the different areas from volcanic wasteland to grassy hillsides to forest. You can see why this walk is rated as one of the best in the world.
After the Crossing I headed down to Wonganui on the south west shore. I had come here hoping to get some surf but strong onshore winds and rain made sure that this didn’t happen around Wonganui. So with this in mind I headed over to New Plymouth where the weather was great. I found some great
surf at Back Beach and enjoyed the best surf I had in NZ to date in nice warm water. After my surf I again hit the road and headed up to one of my final destinations, Raglan.
Raglan is a great little town on the west coast just a couple hours southwest of Auckland and home to one of the best if not the best left break in the world. I got myself set up at a great hostel in the area called Solscape and enjoyed spending a week surfing the different breaks and beaches of the area. The group of people that I met at the hostel really made the experience even better. While the surf wasn’t the best while I was there I still got chance to surf Manu Bay, Wainui Beach, and the favorite of the week- Ruapuke Beach. I got some good head high to a little bigger surf at Ruapuke and some chest high waves at Manu. At the end of my week there I really didn’t want to leave but I needed to get up to Auckland so that I could sell my car so I headed out and
up to my final destination.
I spent a good bit of my time in Auckland running around putting fliers out so I could sell my car and taking care of different odds and ends, but I did still get a chance to see some of the city. I headed out to One Tree Hill (from U2 fame). There isn’t a tree there anymore after a Maori activist cut it down, but there is still a monument and the hill provides a great view of the city. I also walked around the museum and saw more great Maori artifacts as well as exhibit on the origins of the different South Pacific peoples. On one of my last days I headed over to the Auckland Aquarium which was small but fun. I finally got the car sold and enjoyed hanging out with some new friends and walking around the city some on my last few days. After two and half months I finally left New Zealand and headed over to Melbourne Australia where the next step in my adventures started. I hope to have something up for Australia soon.
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