We moved slightly down South after Taupo, staying in the “Discovery Lodge”. We wanted to do the Tongariro alpine crossing, which crosses through some high volcanoes and is, arguably, New Zealand’s best day-walk. The Discovery Lodge was arguably located closest to the Tongariro-track. A fact that we don’t need to argue ab out however, is that their kitchen consisted of 5 hotplates of which perhaps 2 were working every now and then, and 1 spoon. Seriously, 1 spoon. Everyone was always fighting over that spoon to spoon tomato sauce into a cold pan or spoon muesli into their mouth.
Anyway, the weather suddenly turned pretty bad so we swapped some things around and did the Wanganui river jetboat-bridge to nowhere – canoeing trip first.
The Wanganui river is very pretty. The region was “given” to men returning from WW1 to farm, but it didn’t really work out and by the time they had put in a road and a bridge, most farmers had left and everything went back to bush. Hence the bridge to nowhere. We were on the 11 am tour, but had to sit about listening to an old man’s rant for 45 minutes first. The old man was really annoying. The jetboat tour was alright, but it was never quite clear what was going to happen. At some point we were told to “walk to the bridge”, so we did, all the while wondering when and where and where to we would canoe.
This is where I can tell you a little bit about some of the more negative aspects of NZ. This river valley was wonderfully beautiful. BECAUSE it was not fit for farming and went back to natural forest. After driving through sheep and dairy paddocks for hours and hours, days and days on end, from one little beautiful spot to another little beautiful spot, it was refreshing to see some pure forest. And we wondered, would more of the North Island look like this if they (both Maori and Europeans) hadn’t cleared so much land. At the same time, the tour operators were clearly struggling to make ends meet and the way they handled their business I can see it end in failure pretty soon.
Finally we were put into a canoe and managed to paddle for a good hour going through some wild water. It was fun, but not as fun as kayaking.
The next day was the Tongariro crossing, in beautiful weather. We left early and had a relatively quiet start, but after we’d made a little detour to the top, we caught up with 12500 other tourists and that was a bit annoying. Still, the volcanic landscape was magnificent. It was also exhausting, very steep uphill, very steep downhill.
On to Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. Another beautiful volcano.
We stayed at the arguably best surf-beach in NZ, but met an Aussie surfer who hadn’t yet caught the perfect wave. Taranaki was begging to be climbed as well, but after a day exploration at its base we decided that given we still had strained muscles from the Tongariro we would only do the smaller side peak, Fantham’s peak.
That was a wise choice. To make things easier, they have put up stairs on most of the track. Although it was nowhere mentioned, we are sure that unarguably these are the longest stairs IN THE UNIVERSE. We climbed stairs for HOURS. And when they finally ended, it was all loose gravels and approximately 90 degree slope, so walking became more trying not to slide too much down. More than exhausting, excruciating, agonizing. I swore I was never going to climb a hill no more.
But we made it, and the view … was nice but no it wasn’t worth it. It was hell to climb up there. But you can see exactly where the national park ends, and that it was designed using a circle drawing instrument.
Down was better. You can more or less ski on the loose gravel and get down without damaging your knee joints too much.
Before catching the ferry back in Wellington, we stayed one night in Paraparaumu (we learned how to say it real quick) in a real nice backpackers run by a real friendly Dutch guy.
We visited the bird sanctuary Kapiti Island the next day. They removed all pests (rats, cats, possums) from the island and introduced some native birds that were almost extinct, and now there are very many. Indeed, I heard more birds there then I have ever heard in any NZ forest before. NZ forests are eerily silent mostly, because the introduced rats and mice and possums eat all the eggs and destroy the habitats. We also saw many birds ad climbed to the top of the hill (easy after all the big volcanoes).
Then back to Welly, dinner in a trendy place and to bed early. Next morning the ferry, the 5.5 hour drive back to Chch with some stops for seal viewings and coffee, and back home …
To summarize I’ll write some more observations and discussions later. All readers seem very impressed by the photos and are threatening to come here (please do!), but as I said, these are from mere specks on the map. Everything in between wasn’t all that pretty.
Anyway, the weather suddenly turned pretty bad so we swapped some things around and did the Wanganui river jetboat-bridge to nowhere – canoeing trip first.
The Wanganui river is very pretty. The region was “given” to men returning from WW1 to farm, but it didn’t really work out and by the time they had put in a road and a bridge, most farmers had left and everything went back to bush. Hence the bridge to nowhere. We were on the 11 am tour, but had to sit about listening to an old man’s rant for 45 minutes first. The old man was really annoying. The jetboat tour was alright, but it was never quite clear what was going to happen. At some point we were told to “walk to the bridge”, so we did, all the while wondering when and where and where to we would canoe.
This is where I can tell you a little bit about some of the more negative aspects of NZ. This river valley was wonderfully beautiful. BECAUSE it was not fit for farming and went back to natural forest. After driving through sheep and dairy paddocks for hours and hours, days and days on end, from one little beautiful spot to another little beautiful spot, it was refreshing to see some pure forest. And we wondered, would more of the North Island look like this if they (both Maori and Europeans) hadn’t cleared so much land. At the same time, the tour operators were clearly struggling to make ends meet and the way they handled their business I can see it end in failure pretty soon.
Finally we were put into a canoe and managed to paddle for a good hour going through some wild water. It was fun, but not as fun as kayaking.
The next day was the Tongariro crossing, in beautiful weather. We left early and had a relatively quiet start, but after we’d made a little detour to the top, we caught up with 12500 other tourists and that was a bit annoying. Still, the volcanic landscape was magnificent. It was also exhausting, very steep uphill, very steep downhill.
On to Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. Another beautiful volcano.
We stayed at the arguably best surf-beach in NZ, but met an Aussie surfer who hadn’t yet caught the perfect wave. Taranaki was begging to be climbed as well, but after a day exploration at its base we decided that given we still had strained muscles from the Tongariro we would only do the smaller side peak, Fantham’s peak.That was a wise choice. To make things easier, they have put up stairs on most of the track. Although it was nowhere mentioned, we are sure that unarguably these are the longest stairs IN THE UNIVERSE. We climbed stairs for HOURS. And when they finally ended, it was all loose gravels and approximately 90 degree slope, so walking became more trying not to slide too much down. More than exhausting, excruciating, agonizing. I swore I was never going to climb a hill no more.
But we made it, and the view … was nice but no it wasn’t worth it. It was hell to climb up there. But you can see exactly where the national park ends, and that it was designed using a circle drawing instrument.
Down was better. You can more or less ski on the loose gravel and get down without damaging your knee joints too much.
Before catching the ferry back in Wellington, we stayed one night in Paraparaumu (we learned how to say it real quick) in a real nice backpackers run by a real friendly Dutch guy.
We visited the bird sanctuary Kapiti Island the next day. They removed all pests (rats, cats, possums) from the island and introduced some native birds that were almost extinct, and now there are very many. Indeed, I heard more birds there then I have ever heard in any NZ forest before. NZ forests are eerily silent mostly, because the introduced rats and mice and possums eat all the eggs and destroy the habitats. We also saw many birds ad climbed to the top of the hill (easy after all the big volcanoes).
Then back to Welly, dinner in a trendy place and to bed early. Next morning the ferry, the 5.5 hour drive back to Chch with some stops for seal viewings and coffee, and back home …
To summarize I’ll write some more observations and discussions later. All readers seem very impressed by the photos and are threatening to come here (please do!), but as I said, these are from mere specks on the map. Everything in between wasn’t all that pretty.
