The Land of the Long White Cloud 2

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So the day after writing my last post I spent the day walking around Lake Rotoura, looking at the vents of steam on the floor and breathing in the eggy smelling air. As the north island of new Zealand is on a tectonic plate there are areas which are exposed to lava and extreme temperatures.

Going a tad stir crazy I took a stroll to the local park and dunked my feet in the hot spring that was free for all to use. Later that day I treated myself to a Polynesian Spar, relaxing in 42 degree water ( which smelt like eggs/sulphur.) Should anyone have walked past me I would have surely smelt of eggyness. In the evening I was quite tired from swimming/lazing as being in the water always makes me sleepy so I had a shower before bedtime. Reaching into my toiletry bag to fetch my shower gel I felt a sharp pain in the fingertip of my third from last digit, it transpired that I had taken a large chunk of my fingertip using my razor. I spent the next half hour stem the flow of blood out of my finger. It was 50/50 whether my injury would require a trip up the hospital (located next door to the hostel)

After spending the night checking my oozing finger I drove an hour south to Taupo. I hadn’t booked any accommodation so I turned up at the YHA in taupo.

En route to the hostel I went to Kerosene Creek a hotwater spring that was cool enough to have a dip in. The water was crystal clear and lovely and warm. Coming back up to the carpark a ‘naturist’ walked past me and passed me the time of day with a hello nod whilst wearing his birthday suit. It was quite surreal.

I got to Taupo around 2pm and being hungry after my journey I made a cheese sandwich in the kitchen when I got chatting to a lad called Chris who had a very familiar accent. After chatting for a while he told me he was from Wednesfield! ( thus again proving it is a small world) After my cheese sandwich I took a walk around Taupo and what was supposed to be a stroll ended up being a seven hour hike to Huka falls via the thermal park.

I had booked in to do the Tongarero crossing in the tongarero national park for the following day , but bad weather meant I had to spend the day indoors reading my book, walking around a thermal park ( see photos) and having a shop/ nap.

The crossing was awesome, well worth the $60 and the 5am start. I had the option of going up mount doom (Mount Ngauruhoe) but time did not permit this.

On Sunday I did a lot of driving, from Lake Taupo to Nelson, taking the ferry across the Cook Straight from wellington to picton. I think I spent about 11 hours in transit all in all. Nelson has been the final point of call and I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Yesterday I walked across the Able Tasman national park and today across Nelson Lakes national park with my new friends from Paradiso Backpackers.

En route to Nelson I picked up a hitch hiker- a polish lady named Helenka. She was very nice to talk to for a while, but suffered terribly from Body Odour.

The walk took about six hours and some spectacular photos were taken. Tomorrow I plan to drive 350k south to Franz Joseph Glazier. In order to spit the petrol I am being accompanied by Dutchman called mick.

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