Blogs from Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

Day 1: Friday we literally just climbed the mountain of death. If hell freezes over, that is what I hiked. Yet this is quoted to be “the best day hike in the world.” We ascended a distance of 19K straight up a cliff in 5 hours. With increasing elevation, wind speeds got up to 35 km/hr. That’s 20 mi/hr wind in the middle of blizzarding snow, fog, and clouds. My backpack strap kept slapping me in the face from the wind but I didn’t do anything about it because that involved moving my hands which was impossible to do at the time since they were immobile from the below freezing temperatures. So I continually let myself get wacked. I grew light headed and needed food and water badly. I kept ignoring it because my hands were ... read more

Right, I've left it quite a while now to catch up on this blog (having too much fun) and although I've taken notes to make it easier, my memory isn't great. We arrived back onto the North Island after nearly missing the ferry due to Mark being so bad at getting out of bed, and we headed to Nomads backpackers hostel in Wellington to meet Sanni and Sonny. Immediately we had a problem. We tried for ages to find a car parking space for the camper and eventually found one that was rather tight, squished in between an expensive looking shiny new BMW X5 and another van. Mark hit it, not the van, the BMW. He managed to catch the side of the camper on the front bumper of the Beemer, scuffing the lovely black bodywork. ... read more

After a sad departure from the hut at Fay's we drove all the way over to Hastings to drop off Niko at the farm he was to work at, before starting the drive all the way back over to Tongariro NP. After driving for several hours away from Hastings we managed to find a nice clearing to park the car in and go to sleep for the night, despite Caro's fear of axe murderers in the forest park. A fairly cold night in the car but we survived anyone trying to kill us so we headed off towards the volcanoes, arriving around lunch time at the holiday park in Whakapapa where Caro promptly reversed Niko's car into a stone wall. Inquiring at the Doc Site as to whether we would need crampons and ice axes for ... read more

22. Oktober 2012 – Rotorua und Waiotapu Wir nehmen’s mit dem Aufstehen gemütlich. Rotorua ist nicht sehr weit entfernt – gut erreichbar. Die Fahrt führt über die schon einmal befahrene Strasse, Highway 1, in Richtung Rotorua. Das Wetter ist gut. Die Regenfront von gestern hat sich schneller verzogen als befürchtet. Wir fahren wieder vorbei an weiten Weiden, Buschland, Nutzwäldern, abgeholzten Landschaften. Am Horizont zeigt sich ein mächtiger Kühlturm – ein AKW – hier - unmöglich. Neuseeland und Atomkraft – ein no go. Die Wunden der versenkten *Rainbow Warrior* sind immer noch nicht verheilt. Das geht soweit, dass kein Schiff (Kriegsschiff) mit atomarem Antrieb in einem Hafen Neuseelands anlegen darf. Die Amerikaner sind deshalb sehr sauer – kein Kriegsschiff der neuseeländischen Flotte darf im Gegenzug amerikanische Häfen ansteuern. Seit ein paar Wochen scheint sich diese verfahre... read more

23rd April ’12 From Waitomo to Okahune and the Tongariro National Park Reluctantly we left the caves area, still wondering if we should do the Blackwater Rafting Caving and set off to the Tongariro National Park – home of Mount Doom no less!! Aka Mt. Ngauruhoe. On the way we stopped off to see the Raurimu Spiral which was an engineering feat completed back in 1908 after 10 years work! . It is a railway line which spirals up through the countryside to get up the hills – Howard was very excited at the prospect of seeing this, so we walked up to the viewing platform – I even let him go first to get the first glimpse and saw…….nothing but the countryside!! Ha ha we did see the wire model dangling in front of the ... read more