whizzing by
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:57 pm by mikeSort of how the landscape feels from the car. It’s really incredible, we pass these very green, gently rolling hills, then we turn a corner, and we are hugging the turns through winding mountain roads, surrounded by what looks like rain forest vegetation.
So after Rotorua, we went to the thermal springs of Hell’s Gate, so named by some English writer whose name currently escapes me. He called it that because it loked like the what his theologean friends warned him were awaiting him in the afterlife. Then we drove south to more thermal pools and springs in Orakei Korakou (not sure I spelled that right), also called the hidden valley. We walked through them into the hills, and eventually came to a cave with some of the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. Sarah almost stepped into the water, because there was no visible edgeline. Crazy.
Then it was on to Taupo, on the edge of Lake Taupo, a volcanic crater formed around 26,ooo years ago. We spent two nights in a nice hostel that gave us a three bed dorm just for us, and had a bar with a pool table right down the hall. And a hot tub. We also met a nice young couple, Rich and Em, from the U.K. They were essentially doing the same trip as us, but in revesre: they started out in Australia, then toured the south island of New Zealand. We spent our days in Taupo visiting the falls just up the road, viewing the dam opening to let out the rapids, and doing some short days walks through wooded paths. The last day, we went out on the Barbary, a yacht once owned by Errol Flynn, now used to take people out to some rock carvings on lake Taupo. We lucked out and got a beautiful, sunny day for the trip.
After that, it was south to a town called National Park, which is on the edge of Tongariro National park, home to the volcanic mountains Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu. Ngauruhoe is actually part of Mt Tongariro and was Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. The hostel there was very nice and clean, and both the air and the water were amazingly clear and fresh. We went into the park the next day to skip the 4-5 day mountain hikes in favor of a two hour walk that went to an impressive water fall. The views of the mountains would have been spectacular, had they not been shrouded in clouds.
We then spent the next five hours driving windy roads down to Wellington, and spent the night in a dingy, dirty hostel, occupied by slovenly youths. We found a new place for today, and it is much nicer. We aslo spent the morning getting the brakes fixed (for free at the rental place) for Little Car, our rental. Apparently the right front pads were so worn down, they would have been gone soon had we kept driving.
Tomorrow we take the ferry to Picton, and on to the south island.
November 4th, 2006 at 1:49 am
sounds WONDERFUL !!!!! send pictures….
November 4th, 2006 at 4:16 am
Here’s an updated map for those interested. Looks so cool – I wish the satellite-view pictures were better on googlemaps
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=525008
November 4th, 2006 at 11:06 am
I love watching your path!!! Thanks Sam!
November 4th, 2006 at 11:06 am
OH and HI Mom and Dad.. Glad to see you on here!!!
November 4th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
yay ferry! do new zealanders have their own ferry monsters, like champ? (even though it’s the ocean, not a lake..) I really want to see some pictures!!
November 5th, 2006 at 3:28 am
Sam- I just realized that you were posting a map – a much better map than I have found THANK YOU_KEEP IT UP !! p. s. where did you get it ?
November 5th, 2006 at 8:20 am
The map is generated by http://maps.google.com
Some guy created a website that uses google maps to calculate distances: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
pretty nifty stuff!
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