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Published: January 30th 2007
This is the last time I will file a travel blog from the north island of New Zealand. I am due to cross over to the south island tomorrow morning to finish off what I didn't do before! I have been packing it in since my last blog and have been to no less than 6 different places in a month. So it's a pretty full blog this time...! NB: I HAVE ADDED TONS OF PICTURES. TO VIEW THEM ALL, YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE "NEXT" BUTTON THAT APPEARS AT THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE MAIN BLOCK OF PHOTOS.
Rotorua After finishing off in Dunedin on the south island I flew up to Rotorua on the north island where I met up with my best friend Vanessa and James, her boyfriend. They are also doing a round the world trip and of course, have come to NZ! It was very bizarre to meet up and be half way round the world. It felt just like being at home though, which proved that home is not your house, your country or your job. It's the people who make it home. That's why sometimes I get homesick even when I
The Hangi cooking
Chicken, lamb, kumura, potatoes, veggies all cooked slowly over hot rocks in the ground. Fantastic! am having a great time - because I miss you all! 😊 Anyway...we spent about a week together in Rotorua having a marvellous time. They had a car which was a great luxury for me, and it meant we could travel out to all kinds of places around Rotorua that I wouldn't have managed to get to without them. Rotorua is the geothermal part of NZ, so it is jammed FULL to bursting with all kinds of amazing hot mud pools, mineral spas and steaming lakes. It also STINKS of a combo of rotton eggs and popcorn. You get used to it after a while, but sometimes you get a strong whiff and it is almost enough to make you throw up! Some of the things we did in Rotorua:
Vanessa and I went to an amazing Maori cultural evening done by a local tribe of Maoris. They have a staff of 98, and 95 of them were from the same family!!! They started off by taking us down to their sacred stream, where we watched the warriors arrive on their waka (canoe), chanting. It was sooo amazing, it made the hairs rise up on the back of your
The canoe (waka) arriving!
This made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. They were so genuine! neck. Then we went to watch what they call a "cultural" show, which is much better than it sounds. They do a pretty scary welcome ceremony with lots of threatening moves and shouting before they "welcome" you! Then you get to watch them perform lots of traditional Maori dances, which are done to train them to fight and improve their agility and technical skill. They really get into it though and it can sometimes be quite aggressive. They also did an UNBELIEVABLE
haka (this is what the NZ All Black's do before they play in a rugby match). It was incredible. They get sooooo mad when they do it that it real feels like they are going to jump right out and stab you. And by the end they were covered in sweat and had huge bruised red patches on their legs and chests from where they slap themselves as part of the "dance". It was so amazing!!! After the show, we then went and had a traditional Maori "hangi" which is a divine meal of chicken, lamb, kumara (sweet potato), potatoes and other veggies all slow cooked in the ground over hot stones. It tastes fantastic and we ate
The "cultural" show
It's a tacky term for something that was AWESOME. Their performances were so intense. moving and powerful. until we nearly popped and there was still enough to feed and army!
Vanessa and I also spent a day at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua, which is a very posh place! They had 4 wonderful hot mineral pools to sit in. We also splashed out on some "treatments". I had the most gorgeous manuka honey wet body scrub which was blissful! Then followed this with a hot rotorua mud wrap and massage. It was pretty amazing and sooooo relaxing. I need to do that every week I think.
We visited a place called Wai-o-Tapu, which is a park with loads of the geothermal "things" in. So you get to walk past holes in the ground that are belching boiling hot steam, or have boiling bubbling mud in them, and alongside huge boiling hot lakes that are amazing colours from the minerals dissolved in them. It is pretty amazing and really makes you appreciate the power of the ground beneath your feet. They have named all the sights funny names like The Devils Inkpots or Hells Tavern. It does feel slightly like you are looking at a vision of the underworld! The sounds are weird too. You can
hear all the hissing and cracking and popping and bubbling and breaking of the land around you, so it feels alive! There was also a fantastic geyser there that they set off by dropping soap into it!! It takes about 2 minutes and they suddenly just goes ballistic and shoots 10 feet into the air.
We went on a couple of gorgeous walks through beautiful redwood forests and alongside Blue and Green Lakes which are probably blue and green on good days, but it was kind of cloudy when we went, so they were just nice lakes. We also went for a walk in a place called the Tarawera Reserve. There is an amazing waterfall there that comes from an underground river. You can walk along the river and see where it suddenly disappears underground.
Waitomo After a week, V&J went off to Taupo (south of Rotorua) and I went off to a place called Waitomo which is to the west. Waitomo is famous for having really beautiful caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites. I spent 2 days there and had a great time! The first day I went on an advanture caving trip called The Black Abyss.
I am still in shock that I actually did this!!! It was a 5 hour trip, involving abseiling 35 metres into a black hole, jumping off ledges into black water 10 feet below, flying on a wire through the pitch dark and then opening your eyes to see millions of glowworms above you, illuminating the cave, clambering through miles of caves and underground rivers, plus clibning up 2 underground waterfalls. I loved it!!! It was soooo much fun. I got completely wet of course (but had a wet suit on) and was pretty terrified at a few points, but it was so exciting and amazing to be 65 feet underground. We couldn't take our cameras down there which was a shame. But one of the people on the trip is supposed to be sending me a copy of the CD that the guides made of pictures they took with a waterproof camera. There is just one photo of us before we left. The next day I did a dry cave trip, which was to an amazing caves filled with ancient stalactites and stalagmites and glowworms. It was breathtaking. I took sooo many photos. Not sure they will do it justice
One of the hot pools
The yellow is probably from sulphas I guess? though.
White Island After Waitomo, I went for a day trip to a place called White Island which is a live volcano. It was an amazing amazing day. One of the most exciting things I have ever seen. They issue gas masks before you get on to the island because of the gases and you really need them! Everyone was coughing and spluttering within seconds and it was so hard to breath without them. We got to walk around the crater of the valcano, right up to the very very edge of the crater lake. It is utterly desolate and nothing grows there. The colours of the rocks and the ground are incredible. Violent green, acid yellow, rusty red, black. It is like another world. There are huge steam vents everywhere and they have earhtquakes practically every day (not while I was there though, thank god!). I was so fascinated. It was really, really incredible and like nothing else on earth that I can imagine or have ever seen.
Taupo After White Island I went down to Taupo, which is a town by Lake Taupo, which is a huge lake the size of Singapore!!! So pretty big. I
spent about 3/4 days there, but actually didn't really like it hugely. It was slightly too touristy and unfriendly. Vanessa and James were there the first day which was really the best day of the three. We went for a beautiful walk along the Waikato River which is this stunning deep blue colour and runs through a deep gorge. About an hour along the river you come to the Huka Falls. This is not a very tall waterfall, but it is extremely impressive. The river goes from being 100 metres wide to 15 metres wide and so the water crashes through and gets totally churned up and furious through the narrow part. It was very pretty. Apart from that, Taupo was not that great. But maybe I just wasn't really in the mood.
Natty Napier I travelled from Taupo to Napier after I had been to White Island. Napier is right on the east coast of the north island, and it is so far, my favourite town in NZ. I just fell in love with it and if I move back here, this is where I want to live. Napier was flattened by an earthquake in 1931. But they
Vanessa in the steam!
Pretty amazing steam swirling all around. It would be easy to get lost, step off the path and into a mud pool!!! rebuilt the town completely within 2 years, and they decided it would be an art deco extravaganza. So almost all the buildings are stunningly preserved aer deco style, which I completely love. It is definitely the prettiest town I have been to in NZ. Plus, there was just something about it. It was so...refined and sophisticated and tasteful. All the shops were really lovely gift shops, or antiques shops. There were loads of great bookshops (which I always think is a sign of an intelligent reading public!), tons of art galleries, fancy clothes shops, gorgeous cafes and restaurants. But it wasn't pretentious. It was just nice. Plus it has a beautiful, peaceful cathedral, and the whole town just had such a great atmosphere. It was buzzing, happy, friendly and I loved it. I could have happily stopped there forever. I only had 2 days though!
While I was there I went on a brilliant vineyard wine tasting tour. Napier is in Hawke's Bay which you may have heard of. It is a pretty famous wine producing region. We went to 4 vineyards and tasted about 30 wines, which were all delicious. It's the first time I have ever done
The amazing Champagne Pool
One of the coolest sights of Wai-o-Tapu. The edge is just a myriad of mineral colours and the whole lake is steaming hot. anything like that, and it was cool to be taught all about how to taste wine properly and what all the sniffing and slurping and swishing and spitting is about. I prefer just to drink mine, personally!!! At one of the vineyards we sat down and had the most divine gourmet platter of cheeses, meats, roasted veggies, olives and other nice things, which really added to the experience!!
Windy Wellington From Napier I had a LONG bus trip down to the capital of NZ - Wellington, which is at the very bottom of the north island. The guidebooks all mention the fact that Wellington is a "windy city" and boy were they right! It's soooo exhilirating! The wind just blows all the time and yesterday it was so strong you could barely walk and I nearly got blown over once or twice! I am sure it would count as a gale if this was the UK! The city is nice. It's not massive, considering it is the capital. But it is busy and has loads of great shops. They have a brilliant museum called Te Papa which I spent a whole day in. They have a really beautoful Maori
meeting house inside the museum which is really unusual. And you can also take a cute cable car up the hill to the botanical gardens above the city which were very pretty. There were tons of amazing trees and flowers there and it was also very windy! 😊 I probably could have spent a little longer here in Wellington really. But I am too keen to move on to the south island now.
I seem to have developed a bit of a restless spirit from all the travelling and changing places. I seem to be moving on a lot faster from places and don't feel the same need to see EVERYTHING. I remember when I first left I wrote that I hoped I would get faster at "settling into" places when I first arrived. I certainly have learnt to do this. I have developed a little routine, where I make my bed, immediately, in the hostel. Then unpack a few essential bits, and go and have a cup of tea. And once I have done that, I feel completely at home like I have been there for years. It only takes me a few hours to get into the
Standing in front of the Lady Knox Geyser
This is the one they set off by chucking soap into it! rhythm of a new place now, which is interesting, as it would take a day or two at least when I first left.
I have been generally having a pretty great time. However, even when you are having a great time, you can still get homesick and tired of not having your own space, noisy dorms, messy kitchens, having everyting packed into a backpack, having almost the same conversations with everyone you meet (where are you from, where have you been, where are you going). It gets draining sometimes and I find I miss just chatting to an old friend who really knows me well so the conversation is broad and deep rather than basic and simple. But I can't really complain can I?! 😊. I just hope you all know how much I miss you and that I think of you all very often. So, here's goodbye to the north island and all it's wonders...I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the south island though, and am planning all kinds of exciting things while I am there, such as taking one of the most beautoful train journeys in the world (reputedly), walking the Queen Charlotte Track,
A baby redwood
Tiny but still mighty. Like me!! going glacier climbing, seeing whales and swimming with dolphins. Next blog sometime soon(ish)...
Lots of love
Elanor ox
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mumsie
non-member comment
what blog!!!!!
well sweetheart, it just gets more amazing by each blog, this lot are spectacular, all those colours in the sulphur bits are just surreal , how I gasped! It must have been fab to see Vanessa and have some real conversations. We wont be able to stop for months after you get home. Am just wishing I was there, cabin fever prevails here today........ a good sign. MISS YOU , HOPE THEsouth ISLAND IS GOING TO BE FAB AS WELL. [whoops! sorry for capitols, lack of concentration as allways ] heaps of love n hugs from me and little sis who will write her bit later xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx