Catherdral Cove

The highlight of the day is Cathedral Cove. This is a limestone arch on a beach. There also is a massive rock sticking up by here which is cool, the sun is just going down as we reach here so it casts a shadow on the rock. The scenery around here is cool - lots of little islands and the weather is perfect (again). After here we head on to our base in Whitianga which overlooks Mercury Bay

Hot Water Beach

May 30th. I say goodbye to the delightfully fragrant Rotorua and pick up Martin from his relatives in Tauranga - Now we head off to the Coromandel Peninsula which involves lots of twisty roads as we climb over various hills. On the way to our final port of call is the famous 'Hot Water Beach'. This is a beach which has a thermal spring under it, so if you get a spade and dig down, you can create a pool of hot scalding water to sit in. We don't bother to do this though.

Random Animal Pictures #36

OK, so not a real life animal, This is a fibre glass monstrosity outside the Agrodome by Rotorua. This place pays homage to the woolly dudes and other farming activities.

Largest Kiwi in the World

Big sign on the Kiwi 360 exhibit which pays homage to the Kiwi Fruit.

Hell's Gate

Another Geothermal site in Rotorua is Hell's Gate. We wander around seeing more of the usual suspects. There is an amusing sign which is on the left. This site does have the largest thermal waterfall in the southern hemisphere - it was slightly disappointing to find it a mere dribble compared to other waterfalls we have encountered.

There's only One Waiotapu....

Walking along, Singing a song, Walking in a Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. About 28km from Rotorua is the Thermal wonderland which has lots of various Geothermal sights and is the largest one around apparently. The main event is the Lady Knox Geyser which erupts every day at 10:15 - This happens on the dot and the reason it is so precise is that they chuck some soap down the hole. The eruption last for about an hour. After seeing the lady spout we walk around the rest of the wonderland and see lots of other features including the usual geothermal suspects - Artists Pallette, Terraces, Bubbling mud etc. Lots of nice smelly eggy pools as well.

Pictures (Left) - The lady doing her thing, (Right) - A waterfall at the end of the terrace.

Rotorua

May 29th. Smells.

Tongariro - The Final Leg

The final leg is downhill to Ketetahi Car Park, There are some hot springs on private land which smoke nicely and then I wander through some forest for a while before emerging back into the sunshine at the car park. I have made it at 15:15 which is cool - I have to sit and rest my weary legs till the bus comes. Martin gets picked up OK on the way back and he hobbles onto the bus. That has left a bit of a sour note to the day but the walk itself has been absolutely fantastic.

Tongariro - Ketetahi

After climbing over a ridge after the Blue Lake, I round the mountain and this offers spectacular views to the north - As the weather is so clear then I can see all the way across Lake Taupo. As an added bonus, there are some workmen upgrading some of the paths by the hut so a helicopter is busily flying stones and equipment back and for from the valley below.

Tongariro - View Back from the Blue Lake

This is the view back from the Blue Lake - A recent lava flow is the black bit in the foreground, The Red crater is visible on the lower left peak and in the background is Mount Doom. Strange to think that only a few hours ago I was stood atop it.

Tongariro - The Blue Lake

A brilliant blue colour for ''The Blue Lake''. I at least am ahead of shedule now and will make the 16:00 bus OK which is good.

Tongariro - Emerald Lakes

These are a 3 lakes that offer a bizarre contrast to the surrounding region. They stink of sulphur so I didn't venture too close.

Tongariro - Red Crater

After some more steep slopes, I reach the high point of the crossing itself. This offers great views of the odd looking Red Crater. There are a few steam vents around here as well.

Tongariro - South Crater

After getting back onto more solid ground and having lunch, it is time to carry on with the crossing. Martin has twisted his knee on Mount Doom so it is best if he returns to the nearest car park and waits to get picked up. I press on and venture across the Southern Crater. This is a bit boggy and muddy.

Tongariro - Descending Mount Doom

This had me reminiscing about Summit day on Kilimanjaro. The descent is down the scree slope and really hard on the knees and ankles. The only way really to get down is to step down quite quickly and slide your way down. As long as you dig your ankles in and lean towards the mountain then it is OK. Several times it was easier to surf down on hands and feet - also a few large rocks had to be avoided from people descending above. It took about 20 minutes to get down - just a tad quicker than going up.

Tongariro - Mount Doom Summit Views

Here are some views from the summit of Mount Doom. On the left, the South Crater, The path winds its way across that to the right and then up the ridge. You can see the blue lake in the distance and Mount Tongariro on the left. On the right hand picture, A couple of brilliant blue lakes as I look towards Mount Ruapehu. The wind was so strong at this point that I had to sit down - standing up was impossible.

Tongariro - Top of Mount Doom

After about an hour of hard slog, I reach the gully at the top of Mount Doom. There are 2 rims at the top, an inner and outer one - I climb up the outer rim so I can check out the views of the surrounding area. It is totally exposed on the outer rim so there are the occasional gusts of wind that you have to be careful of your balance - It would be a long roll back down. Also there are numerous vents bellowing steam which are nice to see - good that the volcano is still active and could blow whenever it wanted to!!. Pictures (Left) - One of the smoking vents, (Right) - Me with the view across the crossing.

Tongariro - Mount Doom Random Pics

Some random pictures on the way up to the top of Mount Doom. An icicle sits happily on a rock out of the blazing sun and some Alpine daisys (I think) growing happily on the slopes of this barren environment.

Tongariro - Climbing Mount Doom

The side of the mountain is basically a scree slope - This is little bits of gravel so you end up sliding back down a little with each step. Really quite tricky to do this and uses up a lot of energy. The only saving grace is the fact that there is a rocky ridge that leads up to the area with red rocks - You can clamber up over those rocks and make some progress. It is quite scary and whenever I stopped to take some photos the view straight back down was a bit worrying, the wind had picked up so there were some strong gusts to contend with as well. Picture - The Rocky ridge is on the left hand side leading up to the red rocks. The rest of it is scree.

Tongariro - The Devils Staircase

The devils staircase is really steep and involves clambering over rocks - this was used in Lord of the rings as Frodo, Sam and Gollem climb up towards Mount doom. The view is pretty good from the top of here and you can see how far you have ascended by looking back down the valley. Pictures (Left) - Back down the valley - you can make out the track we have come on - Soda Springs is on the right, (Right) - View back across the Park, You can see Mount Taranaki in the distance which is on the far west coast.

Tongariro - Soda Springs

A 10 minute diversion is to have a look at Soda Springs - I have to say it wasn't worth the effort. There is a frost on the ground and lots of frozen pools of water.

Tongariro - Car Park to Soda Springs

We start walking at 7.45 - This should give us enough time to do everything we want to today and get back for the bus at 16:00. The sun is still rising in the sky so we walk through the shadows from the Mangatepopo Car Park towards Soda Springs. The landscape is pretty flat so far but is going steadily uphill. The worst is yet to come. Pictures (Left) - Mt Pukeraikiore bathed in sunlight, (Right) - Mount Doom (Ngauruhoe) awaits.

Tongariro Crossing

May 28th. I checked the weather forecast late the previous night and it looks good for the day. Upon getting up at 6:15 it is still dark but there isn't a cloud in the sky. There might be some strong winds as we get higher but it is finally all systems go to do the Tongariro crossing - An optional side walk is to summit Mt Ngauruhoe which is rated as extremely challenging. This is Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings so it would be rude not to.
Left is a map of the crossing itself. The total walk is 17km, The high point is Red Crater (1886metres) and Mount Doom is 2287 metres

Duck and Cover

This is what to do if a volcano erupts near you. I shall be doing this tomorrow if one of the bad boys decides to erupt.

Taranaki Falls

After lunch we decide to do something, so we head to the Wharakappa Village and do a walk there. It will be a nice warm up for the main event tomorrow. We wander through the track and reach Taranaki falls - Quite a nice 20metre waterfall. You could get quite close to it without getting wet and the sun was directly behind the spray of water.

Mount Doom Strikes Back

May 27th. Today is the day we are due to trek through the Tongariro Crossing trek - I get up at 6:15 and the skies are cloudy and it is raining. The weather forecast is for high winds - 80kph at 2000metres. This means that the trip is cancelled for today - better luck for tomorrow. The cloud and rain does clear up by mid morning (I had a nice lie in thanks). It does look ideal from the photo but the winds were pretty stong - you don't want to be on top of a mountain, thats for sure. The forecast is better for tomorrow though.

Otorohanga Bird Park

A slight detour on our journey to National Park was to visit Otorohanga Bird Park, It featured the usual suspects and a manic Kiwi bird that wouldn't sit still in its enclosure. There were some Kaka's and a lonely Kea (Alpine Parrot). It was all on its own in the enclosure so I took it on myself to befriend it and it came right up to the bars so I could talk to it and give its head a scratch. It did actually look sad and all it had was a mirror to amuse itself. The ducks were amusing, They were fighting and diving down for food and one duck started preening as soon as I had my camera out. There were apparernly a few geckos but I think they just shoved a couple of bushes in a glass cage and said there is a gecko in there.

Around Waitamo

May 26th. We leave our hostel at Waitamo and head west for a little while to check out some of the local features of the landscape. First off we see the Aranui Caves which is a huge natural limestone bridge about 20 metres high, Then we head to PiriPiri cave (named after my favourite chicken sauce) - It was a bit wet and slippery so we didn't venture too far inside it, the highlight though was the spectacular Marokopa Falls.

Pictures (Left) - The Aranui Cave bridge, (Right) The Marokopa Falls.

Random Animal Pictures #35

A quite strange bird hanging around the entrance to the hostel at Waitamo Caves. It looked like it was asleep and wouldn't move no matter how close you got.

Black Water Rafting

May 25th. After getting up and having a quick look at the glow worm caves here as a starter, it was time for the main course. A day of Black water rafting. This involved donning a couple of layers of wet suits, helmet and abseiling stuff and heading off to the main cave in Waitamo - Ruakuri. We get some abseil training and then do a 37 metre abseil down into the cave itself - it is quite tricky to remember your training as things are a little different when you have all your weight acting downwards unlike when we were practising. It was cool though and I landed OK in one piece. Then we walked through the cave till we got to the Death Slide which was a zip line into a glow worm grotto - we turned out all our lights and it was pretty magical (and a little scary) as you have no idea when you are going to stop - My words were "Whooa, Fuuuuuuuuuuu*k". After a cup of tea it was time to do a bit of tubing - we jumped off a couple of metres edge with the tractor inner tube on our backs and landed on the water. Then we paddled along for a while and saw lots of cool features and glow worms and formed a train of people. We went down a waterfall slide backwards and walked along - there is a fossilised whale bone down here as well as some eels. We crawl around in some caves and passageways and then have some hot orange and chocolates then some more caveing till we get to some waterfalls where we rock climb up them and finally exit. We had been underground for about 3 hours and it was sweet. Definitely one of the best things we have done in New Zealand and highly recommended if you are in this neck of the woods.

Pictures (Left) - Me mid abseil, (Right) - Me in the water.

Dual Citizenship

At the hotel in the Republic of Whangamomona, I joined the republic. Here is me with my new passport. It will come in handy for when I enter the USA - I shall try using it and see if the US Customs people have recently developed a sense of humour.

Random Animal Pictures #34

One for the insomniacs - Sheep penned in on the Lost Highway

The Republic of Whangamomona

The Republic of Whangamomona lies on the Lost World Highway. We cross the border control (A toilet) and venture in. The locals are glad to greet us and welcome us to their tiny independant republic. Click Here for the story and a list of presidents. Every year they celebrate their independance day where thousands of people flock to the town to partake in events like Sheep racing and Gumboot throwing. Must be some party.

Pictures (Left) - The Sign at the border, (Right) - The Border Control post - Yes it is a toilet!

The Lost World Highway

Driving east from the small berg of Stratford (All the street names are Shakesperian characters), we drive down the Lost World Highway. This runs for about 100km and passes through gorges, mountain ranges and farmland. The drive is good fun - some good Colin McRae rally moments including a slight skid on a gravel road (expertly controlled I might add) and also we see the North Islands tallest waterfall (Mt Damper Falls). This involves walking through a muddy field with some Bulls looking slightly menacing on the other side of a creek. Martin has bull-a-phobia so turns back. We encounter a few cow jams along the way as well as some Goats having a nosh on the side of the road.