North Island Adventure PART 2!

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Hello Again Everyone,
It is time for Part 2 of the fabulous adventures of Beth and Emily traveling around the North Island of New Zealand. After our lovely "experience" on the bike built for two we got back into Pegasus and found the coffee shop that the woman at Bike D'Vine had recommended to us. I really enjoyed meeting this woman and unfortunately cannot remember her name, I am not actually sure she told us what it was now that I think about it. She was quite tall and obviously a bike enthusiast and had a large pile of curly died redish hair on top of her head. The most hilarious part while renting the tandem bike from her was the fact that she acted like we had been on a tandem a million times and renting this one was something we may do on any given day just for a lovely jaunt around the seaside. I am not sure if she acted like this to avoid the embarressing and obvious truth that not only had beth and I never ridden on a tandem we both couldn't even remember when we had been on a regular bike. It had definately been some years though. While telling us all the different winerys we could stop at ( we made it to one) she informed us that to make it to around the whole loop it should take about 3 hours. "Of course, she laughed, it may be different for you, everyone rides at a different level. It took us 3 hours but we stopped alot, you girls may do it in a much shorter time." It was flattering that she thought we may have a 'level' of tandem bike riding. I for one am not ashamed to admit to having no level. And though it took us 3 hours to make it to one winery and then had to be picked up, we were both very proud of our accomplishment. I think the scariest thing about tandem riding is that if one person messes up somehow, you both are going down and I am certain that untangling yourselves from a tandem bike on the highway is not pleasant in any sense of the word.
When we made it to the coffeeshop, which was really nice, it was totally dark and raining pretty hard. We stopped and stayed awhile in the shop drinking mochachinos and glowing with pride from our tandem adventure. It had been an awesome day, Opossum World, Marineland and the tandem experience. Now we were planning to drive to Taupo which was about 2 1/2 hours away. The greatest thing about New Zealand is that it is nearly impossible to get lost on the highway. There are 4 main highways here which are clearly marked ( 1,2,3,4). The best way I can describe how easy it is to find places here is to say this, Even I don't get lost driving here. So we started off, the driving time was not bad at all because Beth and I spent the whole time talking and listening to music. The rain was pouring now and there were lots of hills which pegasus ambled up. After a while the ipod's battery died so the music was gone because all the stations had static. After that it seemed to get darker and it kept pouring down rain. There was NOTHING between Napier and Taupo. We are talking no lightposts, billboards, gas stations, nothing. After an hour I was wishing I hadn't drank so much water and that mocha, it started to feel like the beginning to a horror film. There were hardly any other cars on the road. We did come across a few trucks which we found slowly going up the hills on the highway, they signalled for us to go around them, what they didn't realize is that it was near impossible to do that with Pegasus. So we ambled along and finally after another hour and 10 mins we came across the ONE establishment between Napier and Taupo. It was a lodge/restaurant/bar. We pulled up and I swear it looked exactly like something you would find in a horror movie. I was suprised I didn't hear the hooting of an ominous owl or the howl of hungry wolf. There were no such sounds, in fact the only horror was the woman who worked behind the counter. On the door to the outside there is a sign clearly and a bit bruskly stating that under no circumstances can a non-customer use the bathroom. I walked in and planned to buy a pack of gum after I used the bathroom. But as it were the woman was giving me the evil eye so I asked her if I could use the bathroom first and then buy something after. Only customers can use the bathroom! She grimaced at me daring me to defy this iron clad rule. Again I asked if I could use the bathroom first. She frowned and nodded her head towards the bathroom and looked as if I was tiring her out with my inane request. There was another note about only customers using the bathroom on the door to the toliet and then in case you missed the first two she had kindly for your convience placed one next to the toilet itself for a little light reading. This notice contained a delightful analogy of the rudeness of some random person barging into your own home and using your toilet without permission. It then stated that if you didn't buy anything then the cost to use the restroom was 50 cents. I understand about water costs, but you don't need to put so many signs up and analogies to help people better understand the henious crime they could be committing by not purchasing something and just using the bathroom. All you need to do is put a sign up, 50 cents if you aren't a customer. That's all. Anyway I bought some gum and a bottle of water from her and it was like night and day, suddenly she was the sweetest old woman in the world.
20 mins later we were in Taupo, and we arrived in time to check into our backpackers. This time we had our own bedroom. The room was clearly meant for sleeping as I have been in bathrooms that were bigger and all that was in the room was a bed and a towelrack. I felt like we were in a cardboard box but the bed was alright and the most important thing, the heater was working. This was not really the case in Stables in Napier. We went out in search of a restaurant which proved hard to find with our budget, we finally found an Indian place and they had good food and we drank some of the wine we had bought at the winery. Getting back to the backpackers we pretty much just crashed out again. We were vaguely aware that a busload of American travelers were staying at the same place as us but did not realize the implications of this until later. The next morning we got up fairly early and went for showers. It was only until after 5 mins of waiting for the water to heat up that I realized there was no more hot water. Literally a busload of people had been through and gotten showers before us. It took me another couple of minutes and a few false starts before I could actually get into the cold shower. It goes against every fiber in my being to take a cold shower, but it had to be done.
We were able to book a horse riding trek in Taupo for 11am so we had time to get breakfast and visit the Super Loo! the million dollar public toliet that Taupo built in their downtown area. It costs 40 cents to visit the Super Loo! but curiousity got the best of us so we splurged. The horse trek was really fun and the scenery was gorgeous. It was situated a little bit away from Taupo and there was a great view of the lake and mountains. No incidents happened aside from in the beginning when we were waiting to get on our horses we were standing by the horse fence next to another pasture. Another horse with a blue blanket ambled up to me, and I thought was interested in getting a pat from me. And before I could feel too much like I had a Snow White-esk power over animals the horse attempted to eat my gloves off. He had obviously mistaken my orange gloves for carrots and seemed to be getting irrated that I was just teasing him with promise of carrot but he didn't seem to be able to eat the carrots off my hands. So I decided it was best to back away because I have no idea what to do in a carrot crazed enraged horse rampage. He stood there staring at me ( or my gloves) for a while and then walked away. While we waited beth took a picture of a nest in a tree which seemed to mostly be comprised of white horse hair from a horse's mane. Then it was time to get on the horses. Thank God they had a stepping stool up to the horse because I have short legs and no upper body strength and that does not bode for a graceful mounting into a horse saddle. I took some On-the-Horse-Cam video and was genuinely glad we went on a horse trek. Beth noticed on her horse ( named Blue) that on his white mane there was a bald patch, she put two and two together and thus the building material for the bird's nest had been revealed. We rode for an hour, and set off towards Rotorua.
On the way to Rotorua is a place called Waikite Springs. It is New Zealands largest natural boiling water spring and river. There are two big pools to soak around in and lots of private pools as well. They are all hot water which is fed from the boiling water river, they of course cool it down and filter it before it flows into the pools. It was nice after the tandem and horse riding to soak in hot water. After hanging out there lounging in the hot water we headed onto Rotorua. It was starting to get a bit dark by the time we got into Rotorua and so we quickly headed onto Hell's Gate which is a natural thermal pool a little outside Rotorua. You walk on a path alongside the pools of bubbling mud and acidic and hotter then boiling steaming water. These pools are nestled in what can only be described as what looks like the face of the moon. Large white rocks with craters of boiling mud nestled inside. It was obvious that one mis-step off the path and there was no return. The path was only marked by logs in the ground which became more and more distressing the further we followed it around, and the darker it became. When we reached the furthest point of the trail we were speed walking, Beth was rattling off helpful facts about whatever pool we were looking at, such as the names of the pools like Devil's Throat, or Witches Cauldron. As it got darker and darker and it was apparent that there were no lights hidden on the path to give patrons a helpful hint as to where the acid boiling water began and the path ended I kept expecting to hear Beth say, Ok this next pool is called Beth and Emily's Demise. Some of the pools were way hotter then boiling, so acidic the fumes could dissolve a cow in 3 seconds and 54 ft deep. We were the only people on the path and we quickened our pace to a slight jog, after we passed the Mud Volcano which was said to erupt ( USUALLY at night) with boiling mud up to 4 feet in the air we basically were running back to the entrance. We found it helpful and comforting to yell while we ran through the darkest areas. I brought out my flashlight on my cell phone but it's light power proved to only be able to illuminate what you were already standing on so it was no help.
I am happy to say that we arrived a bit flushed but all in one piece back to the entrance. We then drove into Rotorua and got some more Hell's Pizza which we took back to Linda Downey's house. Linda is a wonderful woman who my mom became good friends with when she studied to be a Montesorri teacher in Italy. Linda is a native New Zealander who lives in Rotorua and kindly let us stay at her place for the night. Unfortunately Linda was not there at the time we were in Rotorua because she was on holiday but we had a great time staying there. By the time we had gotten the pizza and were going to Linda's we were both starving. As I stood there unlocking the door beth asked " Does she have cats?" ( because beth is allergic to some cats) I said No and opened the door, the first thing I saw was a little bowl with cat food in it and I said Um, well... the second thing I saw was a tiny ball of orange fluff running towards me. I let out an Emily squeal and immediatly picked up the tiny mewing kitten. I didn't know Linda had a kitten but I was very glad she did. It was the cutest tiniest kitten ever! I simply couldn't put it down. It of course was attracted to Beth right away because it has that instinct that all cats have which draws them to the most allergic person in the room. We ate pizza and watched some tv, I put the kitten under my zip up hoodie under my neck and it fell asleep there. I went to bed without the kitten because beth would have died if it was sleeping in the same room as us. Linda also has a flatmate Mary who was nice as well and I talked to that night and before we left in the morning. We left and went in search of breakfast, which we found at an awesome Paris cafe. We both got crepes, the couple who ran the the cafe were french and really cool. They had the best accents and it made me want to learn french. The crepes were so good I wanted to eat them for the rest of my life, but there was no time for more crepes because we were on a mission. A mission to ZORB!
Part 3 ( with the tale of the ZORB and many ZORB photos comes tomorrow!)

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Photos

Tandem Break
One of our many pit stops on the tandem, time to ask directions

Waikite Springs
Waikite Hot Springs

Waikite Springs 2
Waikite Hot Springs home of the largest boiling river

Waikite Springs 3
Jurassic Park, I mean Waikite Springs

Waikite Springs 4
Our own private hot pool

Pre-ZORB
Beth before our Zorb ride!!

Comments

[Marian Mom]

hilarious
Emily, you are missing your calling: You should write comedy! We all love your blog. Libby read it at the office and laughed until she cried. Love, Mom

[Beth]

omission
You left out the part where I popped a squat on the rain-soaked hill on the way to Taupo. A memory I will cherish forever. Thank you for writing all this down! I love it! I have been laughing/ mostalgically crying remembering all the details of our trip. It was sooooo fun, and I don't want to forget any of it! (Except perhaps the van picture...)