Back Down the North Island

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Day 41 - Rotorua - Waitomo

We got up nice and early and headed for the Zorbing place in Rotorua. Zorbing is the thing where you roll down a hill in a plastic ball but as this is the place that invented it, they charge a small fortune and it only lasts about 6 seconds. A few of our travelling buddies were keen to get involved so we took photos and videos as they rolled down the hill. Then we went to a rather odd little “Theme Park” called Agro-ventures and had some BBQ breakfast.
After all this we finally got on the road to Waitomo a town with very little apart from caves with glow-worms and a rather strange bunny farm. Our driver had told us we were going to see some “Bunny Bondage” and took us to a rabbit sheering place. They had these ludicrously furry rabbits, which the woman then put on a rack, stretched and then sheered. It was all rather bizarre and the woman did look quite evil.
Once the excitement of the rabbit sheering had finished we checked into our hostel and went for a walk near the underground caves where there are loads of little caves above land to explore. Our driver took us up to a dank little cave off the track with some crazy insects called Cave-Wetas, which were really creepy and only exist in New Zealand.
By this time it was 4pm and time for the Black Water Rafting. We had been looking froward to this for ages and found out that it is actually nothing like white water rafting but is actually more of a caving expedition. We were picked up by the company and taken to their HQ where we got kitted out with wet suits, booties, boots, a hard hat and the super-cool shorts. Then we went off to the river and practiced jumping off things as well as floating around on our tyres. Once all this was done we finally headed underground and started to make our way through the caves. We had a wander through for a few minutes which is quite tricky as you can’t see where you are putting your feet so one minute you’re up to your ankle and then after the next step you’re up to your chest. After a while it was really not clear where to go and the guide pointed to the floor where there was a gap about 18 inches between the water and the ceiling to squeeze through backwards on your float. After a short while there was a little waterfall to jump off which is cool as everything is completely pitch black apart from you head torch and from there we continued into the darkness.
One of the best things was sitting in a cavern in which the ceiling had hundreds of glow worms dangling down and then floating for about 15 minutes down the river with only the glow worm light to see by. We had to jump backwards off a second and slightly bigger waterfall and then we played a game called “find the way out of the caves without your head-light”. You had to paddle on in the darkness following the glow worms (occasionally scraping your hands on the walls) until you found daylight. Then we got a lift back for a hot shower and some soup before heading to the local pub for the evening.

Day 42 - Waitomo - Taupo

Our coach was not leaving Waitomo until Midday as there was another Black Water Rafting trip going off in the morning so we used the morning to walk the Waitomo Walkway. This was just a short walk starting from the "town" (more like the 6 buildings that make up Waitomo), through bush and farmland to the underground caves. It was a nice walk and was definitely better than sitting at the cafe waiting for the others to finish their rafting!
It was a short journey to Taupo so we arrived mid-afternoon and in what we thought was plenty of time to go shopping for a hat and gloves for the Tongorio Crossing the day after. We were soon to realize that it was in fact a Sunday and the shops randomly shut at 3.30pm not 4.00pm. I started to stress at the thought of having no gloves/hat but admittedly it was my fault that I had not bought anything as I could not decide which ones to buy! Luckily we found the one remaining open shop that sold hats and gloves and my decision was made easy.
We then went on to buy food supplies for the walk (luckily supermarkets don't close early on Sundays) and after dinner we were in bed by 9.00pm in preparation for the early wake-up.

Day 43 - Taupo (The Tongariro Crossing)

The alarm going off at 5.00am was a bit of a shock to the system but I was really excited about the Tongariro Crossing as this was at the top of my list of things that I wanted to do in New Zealand.
The coach picked us up at 5.40am and we arrived at the beginning of the crossing at about 7.15am. With our competitiveness there was no way that we were hanging around so Rob and I jumped off the coach and lead from the front. Rob was adamant that no-one was getting in front of us as "it would ruin the pictures"! Of course this meant that my idea of a nice walk for the day turned into me having to run every few steps to catch up with Rob. This did not ruin the day though, it was the most incredible scenery I have ever seen and it almost felt as though you were not on earth during some sections of the walk. As always the pictures do not do it justice but they give you a good idea of what it was like.
I was very pleased that I had my gloves and hat, it was pretty cold in the morning (with frost on the floor) and as we got higher it got windy and cold, especially when you stopped to take in the views which allowed the sweat to freeze! There were two horrible climbs during the first half of the walk. The first was the "Devil's Staircase" which is exactly what it says on the tin except that it has the added feature of uphill slopes between every set of stairs which just makes it a whole lot worse. The second was the final steep climb up to the highest point on the crossing and although this was not as long it was much harder as with every step you took you had to stop yourself slipping backwards due to the scree. The view at the top was amazing, I have never seen anything like it. I think I can safely say it the most striking scenery I have ever seen.
From then onwards there was only one more climb and the rest of the walk was mainly down-hill. Rob mastered sliding down the scree during the steep decline at the top but I was rubbish and could not trust myself to put all my weight on my heels to slide down the scree so it took me a while to get down!
The last quarter of the walk was fairly unexciting compared to the first three quarters as you descended into forest before arriving at the other end. We managed to do the 7-8 hour walk in under 5 hours and in hind-sight we should have climbed Mount Doom as well but there is always a next time. We realized that walking that quickly was not very clever when we had 3 hours to wait in the cold, as the clouds had now taken over the sky, before the coach was coming to pick us up. We were so lucky with the weather, we had clear skies for the majority of the time we were walking and this topped off an amazing day.
After seizing up on the coach journey back to Taupo we arrived back late afternoon and in the evening went out to meet some other people on the Kiwi Experience coach. We ended up going to a Pub Quiz where we didn't do too well (we had no hope as it had an Irish theme) but managed to claim a healthy mid-table position. We also had to partake in some very embarrassing side games to earn free beer but the specifics can wait for another day!

Day 44 - Taupo - Wellington

I think today may have been the dullest day of our travels so far. It just involved a 7 hour bus journey from Taupo to Wellington but it was nice to know that we were driving away from the rain in Taupo to sunny Wellington and that we had St. Patrick’s day to celebrate in the evening.
We were also very excited about getting the best burgers ever again for dinner and they did not disappoint. To top it all off it was a Tuesday evening so again we could get involved with the buy one burger get the second burger half price deal. After dinner and a cheeky pint in Mac's Brewery (Rob claims that Mac's pilsner is the best he has ever had) and we met our friends in the Basement Bar to celebrate Paddy's day for the evening. We had no hope of getting in one of the Irish pubs in the City, with huge queues to get into any of them from about 7.00pm so we ended up staying in the Basement Bar for the evening.

Day 45 - Wellington

We awoke this morning not feeling 100%!b(MISSING)ut for some reason our room was boiling hot so we got up quite early to start the long list of things we wanted to achieve. First we headed out to see a few more of the sites in Wellington (The Parliament Buildings, The Cathedral etc.) before taking the Wellington cable car. From the top of the cable car we walked back down to the city centre through the botanical gardens.
Our next stop was the walk to the top of Mount Victoria where you get really good 360 degree views of the whole bay.
I then went and got a hair cut (at last!) and we spent the rest of the afternoon at Te Papa which is the famous museum in Wellington. It is really good and covers a bit of everything including Ancient New Zealand, The Mouris, Art, Natural History etc. plus a giant squid in a tank and a giant satellite map of New Zealand which you can walk over.
Off back to the South Island early tomorrow - first stop is Nelson.

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Photos

Waitomo
Sarah with a fluffy bunny rabbit.

Waitomo - Black Water Rafting
Our group before going underground.

Waitomo
During our morning walk along the Waitomo track.

Tongariro Crossing
Me in the cold of the early morning at the start of the trail.

Tongariro Crossing
Me and Sarah on top of the Red Crater looking over to Mount Doom.

Tongariro Crossing
Me and Sarah in front of Blue Lake.

Tongariro Crossing
Me in front of where we walked.

Wellington
Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a few of our fellow Kiwi E peeps.

Wellington
The view from the top of Mount Victoria.

Waitomo
Crazy bunny sheering woman.

Tongariro Crossing
Mount Doom

Tongariro Crossing
Me in the south crater.

Tongariro Crossing
Sarah at the top of the Red Crater.

Tongariro Crossing
Sarah at the top of the Red Crater looking down to the Emerald Lakes.

Tongariro Crossing
Sarah looking down to the north.

Wellington
Me with the best burger and lager in the world!

Wellington
The view from the top of the cable car.

Wellington
Our crazy wall we made in the Te Papa museum.

Comments

[kim]

1. That rabit is crazily huge 2. The view from the red crator are very cool!