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Published: December 5th 2006
Christchurch
Cathedral and chaliceAfter leaving Queenstown we started heading towards the North Island again. In Christchurch we said goodbye to Stephanie and Michael who we had travelled with and had a great time with the last 3 weeks.
Christchurch
The 2nd largest city of NZ after Auckland but before the capital Wellington. Not much spectacular here. A cute city with some nice 'old' (we Europeans are so spoilt) buildings, a river running trough the centre of town, an interesting arts centre and beautiful botanical gardens.
I finally had time for some reading and to get up to date with my travel notes. Marijke went shopping for Xmas presents.
Kaikoura
Kaikoura is all about sea mammals. Dolphins, seals and whales are the big stars around there. The whale watching is supposed to be very good... but ridiculously expensive (and we both saw whales in South Africa for free). Dolphin swimming is also really popular, so popular that all boats were booked full. Our bus driver had advised us to go swim with seals. He preferred it to swimming with dolphins, as the seals are apparently a lot more curious and as a result more sociable. So we got into some
Kaikoura
Kaikoura bay really thick wetsuits and went snorkelling around a seal island. Marijke was a bit nervous about being in the cold water and snorkelling for the first time but the nerves disappeared as soon as the first seals showed up.
As soon as we came close to the island some seals hopped in the water and came to check us out. At first from some distance but after a few minutes they were swimming right up to us and started showing all their amazing swimming tricks to impress us. It was amazing to have this beautiful silver creatures (they are so much nicer and more elegant under water!) swimming right under, behind and in front of us trying to make eye contact. After about an hour in the water we were dead tired but had an amazing experience.
On our way to the ferry the next day we saw some seal pups at a waterfall. The playfulness of these little ones made for a great show. I made a couple of movies and they are so much fun.
Wellington BIS
After crossing over to the North Island again, we arrived in Wellington again for another short stay.
Kaikoura
Seal swimming We went back to great Te Papa museum and this time we had a look at parts of the 'people and culture' exhibitions. Great stuff again...too much information to pump into our heads in such a short time.
In the afternoon Marijke went to check out the shops. I went over to the 'Tattoo museum' to learn more about those great 'Ta moko' Maori tattoos...and maybe get some inspiration...
Tongariro National Park
The last week before we arrived in Wellington I had been closely watching the weather forecasts. I told you about how we missed the great 'Tongariro crossing' hike because of the bad weather. On our way up north we would be in the neighbourhood and I hoped to be able to give it a shot this time.
The weather was still very volatile but it seemed there was a small window to do the crossing on Wednesday. On the bus to Taupo the bus driver called the park office and they said the track would probably be open the next day (and then close again for a couple of days). The winds were very high however and if they would pick up during the day
ferry
Jetskiing behind the ferry they would still close the track. That evening we checked again and we got assured the track would be open but that conditions would be pretty bad in the morning. It had been snowing (usually it stops snowing half October!) and the winds would still be very strong. Marijke decided she would take a day off in our favourite New Zealand hostel while I decided to go for the walk.
The next day as I started the walk it was very cloudy and raining again. Visibility was a bit better than last time so we got to see a bit of the volcanoes before heading up.
The first part was an easy walk through some barren lava fields. After about an hour we started the climb to the south crater of one of the Tongariro NP volcanoes. This is where the 'fun' started. The path became very steep, we came into a thick mist / clouds and there was a lot of snow. When we reached the first crater pretty exhausted after the quick climb we didn't get a lot of time to catch our breath. The winds were a lot stronger there, it was snowing and it was
Tongariro Crossing
Into the clouds...the fun starts ice cold!!!!! I stopped taking pictures because I thought my hands were going to freeze off.
This is supposed to be the most scenic part of the walk. We saw hardly 10m in front of us and had to do without the views of beautiful Mt Ngauruhoe. As we moved as quick as possible through the crater the winds only picked up. We now had to do another steep climb to get to next crater before we would be able to start our descent. This is where all hell broke loose. The winds were incredible (up to 100 km/h we found out later) and they were right in our face now. It was snowing even harder. A blizzard as they call it. I had never been in one of those and would prefer giving the next one a miss. It felt like I was getting hit in the face with hundreds or thousands of little needles. The howling winds were so loud we couldn't even talk anymore. I was leaning with all my 80 something kilos against the wind and still had trouble not falling over. I saw a girl almost crawling up the slopes not to be blown away.
Tongariro Crossing
Yep it's a live volcanoe and this baby has come back to life the last couple of months. I had heard about a girl who had been wounded 3 days earlier because she got blown of the track.
We really fought our way to the top and over it into the next crater were the winds became less strong. I decided to have a small 'lunch break' while it was possible. And that's when a little wonder occurred.
As I was munching away my sandwich the winds disappeared. All of a sudden we felt the sun and within 30 seconds all the clouds around us cleared. We first started to see the contours
of the craters, the slopes with steaming vents, a view into the valley and al of a sudden we noticed we were standing right above the gorgeous 'emerald lakes'. If it hadn't cleared we would have missed these even though we were only 20 m away. Visibility went literally from about 10m to several kilometres in 30 seconds. . This is the kind of stuff that makes people decide to become prophets or priests, I guess. None of that for me. An amazing experience though that really made my day.
After about 15 minutes the clouds came back, the curtains closed again and
Tongariro Crossing
In the first crater. the show was over. We walked out of the crater and started our descent into the valley. The walk offered some more nice views but nothing could compete with the views from up there. In the evening my face seemed sun burned, a result of those cold winds.
The next morning the whole park was covered in low clouds again. It seemed we would not get to see those damned volcanoes again. However while we were sitting in a cafe waiting for our bus, all of sudden we saw Mt Ruapehu (one of the three volcanoes) appear. On the bus to Auckland/'Orcland ' we even got a glimpse of the great and so far elusive Mt Ngauruhoe as it appeared from the clouds for a couple of seconds. Both mountains have figured in Lord Of The Rings as Mt Doom.
Bay of Islands
We stayed the night in 'Orcland' and hopped on an early bus the next morning to the far north of NZ. It still feels strange for us to head north for warmer weather.
It maybe got warmer but it also got very wet. It was pouring down the whole day and so we had
Tongariro Crossing
climbing to the next crater. This is where the blizzard was at its worst. I took this picture from behind a rock where we were sheltering to catch our breath. Have a look at the ice on the poles in the background. to do without the snorkelling at Goat island...grrrh NZ weather...almost as bad as Belgium. In stead we went to a 'bird life recovery' centre. The family who runs the place has been taking care of wounded birds for several decades. We got to see (and touch) a Kiwi which lost a leg in a trap and they were not able to release into nature anymore.
We were hoping the weather would clear up as we wanted to try swimming with dolphins. The weather forecasts didn't look too good though. But in NZ everything is possible.
The next day I woke up at 6 am and the sun was shining. I got Marijke out of bed and we went over to the harbour to catch a boat into the bay.
After about 1.5 hrs on the water we finally spotted some dolphins. Swimming with dolphins is strongly regulated in NZ. There can't be any young around, they can't be feeding, resting or travelling. Moreover the dolphins have to invite you into the water by showing interest. The crew was observing their behaviour for a while before deciding. At first the dolphins seemed not enthusiastic and went down a couple
Tongariro Crossing
And this is 15 minutes later... of times. After a couple of minutes however they came swimming up to and around the boat and so we got the green light to jump into the water. We were told to make as much noise as possible under water to attract their attention.
The water was freezing but we didn't care too much. As soon as I was in the water the skipper was screaming ''look down!". I did and one of these huge creatures was swimming right under me. The bottlenose dolphins (Flipper) here are really big; up to 6m long and weighing 400 kg. A couple of minutes later I had another close encounter with one of them.
The next 20 minutes I was busy swimming around while singing in my snorkel. Just before we were called out of the water, I was able to swim along with two of them that were swimming right under me. Only for a couple of meters before I had to let them go.
I don't know if they appreciated my... ahum ...singing but I seemed to be one of the few people that had the dolphins swim up to him so close, so often.
It was
an awesome experience but I still prefer the seals though. They were way more playful and interested in contact than the dolphins. Marijke was a bit disappointed she didn't get to ride with one of the dolphins or being thrown in the air or something. These are wild animals and the tricks they perform during shows are not really their natural behaviour.
Just when we got back to the harbour it started pouring down again and it would do so for the rest of the day. In the evening we managed to do a little walk in the hills just before sunset.
On our last day in the bay we visited the Waitangi treaty grounds. the Waitangi treaty was the treaty that was signed between the settlers and the Maori in the 19th century. It is still a living treaty and land claims are still being decided on according to this treaty. Although at first the Maori got cheated a lot, it was a pretty unique case in the history of colonisation. It may explain partly why relations between the 2 people are so much better here than in Australia.
We got to see a little movie on
Tongariro Crossing
the descent. Lake Taupo in the background. the whole thing and also saw a huge war canoe and another Maori meetinghouse with some awesome carvings.
Orcland
Before leaving Nz we spent our last 2 days in Auckland. Auckland seems to be not so popular with most Kiwis all over the country, hence the nick name.
For us it was time to relax a bit do some shopping and send some stuff home before we moved on. And I got to eat my 'hell' pizza, ( check out www.hell.co.nz)....
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andy & lena
non-member comment
australasia new zealand
Hoi Jan, Ongelooflijk wat je daar weer allemaal uitspookt ... Dolfijnen aaien, baby-kiwi's koesteren, bergen & vulkanen trotseren ... We beginnen stilletjes aan te vermoeden dat we je nooit meer terugzien. Eén dezer dagen neem je ongetwijfeld d e beslissing om, samen met Marijke daar ergens te blijven 'plakken'. Zoals steeds foto's die een streling zijn voor het oog. Tot schrijvens, Astrid, Lena & Andy