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Published: February 11th 2009
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We Must Destroy the Ring!
"Mount Doom" silhouetted! So here we are, back in Rotovegas and another belated update later. It seems that not only is it difficult to find internet in the South Island but it is impossible to find any form of communication past letters on the East Cape!
As such I'll have to try and carry on from where I left off...so lets see...
Now I think you left us in Christchurch all those days ago, and after the disappointment of not seeing Bumley and Meatyard (the former having crashed his car and the latter turning out to be in Dunedin...) we headed north to Kaikoura with our new driver Murray, who was a bit crazy and a bit out there and raced us into the overcast and dull Kaikoura much earlier than we'd expected. Now while it is a nice place (I think) unless you're going whale watching or dolphin swimming there isn't much to do other than walk the cliffs. And when it's pelting down with rain the LAST thing you want to do is venture outside, so we spent the day huddled indoors, first in the hostel, then in the internet caff, then in a bar watching the SuperBowl and playing
Pool with Anton
Our Wellington based best-mate! pool. Nothing inherently wrong with any of these things, it was just a bit of a dull and depressing day based on our weather forecast...
We headed out the next day with better spirits because the weather was gorgeous (typical I guess) and we headed up to Picton for our ferry to Wellington! It was a pretty uneventful trip to be honest, and we chilled out with Gemma in the bar, read a bit and did our journals and then watched as Marlborough Sounds vanished into the haze. Our South Island excursion was over, and it was only north from here on. There was a twinge of sadness to the boat ride - I felt like I was sailing away from a huge part of the trip and I guess that I was - pretty much all the people that we'd met we now heading off somewhere else, to another part of the world or even going home. It was a bit gutting realising that people who'd become like best friends in a matter of days were gone, and I might not even see them again! To get poetic, ahead of me was this massive ocean of opportunity for
Danger
Need I say more?! the rest of the trip, the rest of my gap year, and I was focusing on the mass expanse of land that personified the last month. As that got further away and disappeared into the mist, I was having to come to terms with the fact that most of the relationships I'd forged we now over.
Still, I have a car (or access to at least, if the sister doesn't decimate it...) so the UK lot won't be able to escape a visit from Rob and AJ. We've been telling people as they depart that we're incredibly difficult to get rid of, and we turn up at the best and worst of times - ask Kyle and Joel from Canada who we kept bumping into - so I guess that its pretty true!
We rolled into Wellington in good spirits - we had a date with a Kiwi!
Well perhaps not as good spirits as if it was a Kiwoman, but Anton was waiting to meet us as the Welsh Bar to save our skins for a nights accomodation. With the rugby 7s starting in Welly it was chocka and we couldn't afford the extortionate prices (it
Sunrise
Sunrise on horse-back...s'a hard life! was the end of the month after all) and so the legend had offered to put us up for the night, as well as cook us a curry! (and lovely it was too!)
Rested and refreshed, and maybe a leettle bit worse for wear after the numerous pints we were bought (again, a LEDGE) at the Welsh Bar, we leapt back onto the bus and headed for Taupo.
Now I'll make no secret of the fact that the ONLY TWO PLACES IN ALL OF NEW ZEALAND THAT I HAVE BURNED have been Taupo and Pahia. This was no exception - we'd gone from the icy breeze of the Sounds down South to the BURNING INTENSE HEAT OF TAUPO.
We spent the dregs of the day at the lake, AJ fishing and me annihilating a book about a red paperclip, called One Red Paperclip. Bit preachy. Never mind. It was all mental preperation for our achievements tomorrow...
We were up early to do the Tongariro Crossing, one of the top walks in the WORLD, which took us past the mighty base of the dormant volcano that doubled for Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The desert?
AJ runs across the Central Crater in Tongariro... It was stunning! Through some miracle we made it to the summit of the mountain ranges and covered a good 25km in about 6 hours, which for me was a small miracle...the walk was stunning and though there was a constant pong of eggy-sulphur the views were unbeatable. We went from the set of a fantasy film to the surface of the moon, before climbing a desert mounrtain range and then ending up in the Andes. It was madness and shows just how varied the landscape is!
After a loooong day we collapsed at the hostel, but not before AJ disappeared to play tennis with the best of Taupo. I decided that I'd had enough physical activity for the day, had a pint, read a bit of a new book and went to sleep.
This is where things started to go a little bit awol on our trip. The morning introduced us to 'Sexy Rexy', an 80-year old ex-rally driver who liked driving too quickly in the mini-bus. It was a bit crazy, and we headed out onto the East Cape, which was really more like the Wild West than anything else. Desolate, empty, devoid of life, ATMs,
Beached
Galloping along the beach at Rangitukia phone reception and rain. It was a really surreal couple of days to be honest, and the main highlights were the AMAZING horse trek we did in Rangitukia with Rich, the hook-handed Maori, and the visit we did to a marae, to watch a REAL, FULL ON, MODERN MAORI HAKA! It was intense, and the guys doing it were almost in a trance like-state. Mad, really. Their eyes were bulging and one guy BLED because he was beating his chest with so much fury. We also managed to see both the sunrise and sunset - the former on horse-back and the latter in a hot-pool. Lovely! Such a great day too!
Overall the East Cape (while being VERY MUCH off the beaten track) turned out to be a great laugh, and we rolled into Rotovegas for the last time yesterday. Again, the smell was over-powering.
As I write, we're about to board a bus back to Auckland. Our final stop on our Kiwi Experience. It's all a bit sad really, because New Zealand is an incredible country and if I could I'd happily stay here.
Still, onto pastures new. Next time I update I'll be in Los
Changing Weather
Our path vanished constantly... Angeles and on the other side of the world from Mr Richards. Mad, huh? Just keep thinking about that wide ocean in front, brimming with opportunities....however cheesy that is!
Peace out, take care. For the last time, Kia-Ora!
LTYM
xxxxxx
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