we left Auckland and now we’re very busy . . .
Ok, I haven’t written in a few days because we’ve been busy doing stuff about which to write, right? We rented a car, a tiny little toyota hatchback with a 1.3 litre engine, on Wednesday and left Auckland for good. We had planned on visiting the Coromandel peninsula, which isn’t far from Auckland, stopping in particular at a place called Cathedral Cove, and then we figured we’d make it down to Taupo for the night, which is about 200 km south of the Cove. As we learned, you can’t always judge travel time by distance, because sometimes the road goes through mountains and is super twisty and trecherous. We were also dealing with the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing, which made the drive up to Cathedral Cove nerve-wracking. If it hadn’t been so scary, the drive would have been absolutely beautiful, as it wound through mountains covered in thick rainforest type vegetation.
We saw the cove, which was well worth the trip, and ended up driving until 9pm that night. We tried to stop at a campgroud around 8, but the park had closed at 7:30. We were about 10 mins late. When we arrived at the place we spent the night, it was around 9 and we were 1/2 hour too late there as well; their office closed at 8:30. Fortunately, the operator was still around and rented us a cheap room for the night.
So. Thursday.
We didn’t have anything else to do, so we decided to stop at anything we saw that looked cool and check it out, as long as it was cheap. We found this volcanic valley, a place that had been decimated about 115 years ago by a huge volcanic eruption, and then recovered. There are still hot springs and steam vents all over the place and we took a wander through them. They wanted us to pay $28 each just for the walk, but they didn’t have anyone taking tickets by the start of the walk, so we just went. It wasn’t worth $60, I can tell you that, but it was still pretty cool. We saw a lake that was the brightest blue, kind of like alpine lakes can be sometimes, but brighter and bluer. It looked like an enormous neon sign. It was amazing.
When we were in Fiji, one of the guys staying with us on Mana Island had just come from NZ and he recommended a particular guide for a river canoe trip, which he said was amazing. He didn’t know the guy’s company’s name and he didn’t know where he was located, only that his name was probably Mark and that he was a firefighter. We’ve been trying to track this guy down since we got into Auckland, without any luck.
Last night, though, there was an older couple staying next to us and after we got to talking, they mentioned that they’d done this same trip, that it was wonderful and that they could recommend us a good guide. His name is Mark and he is a fire fighter . . .
So today we set up a 3 day canoe trip for tomorrow with this guy. We’re really looking forward to it. It’s pretty expensive, but our budget’s shot to hell anyway, so no worries, right?
Because we ae doing this 3 day trip and because we want to get to the south island as soon as possible, that left us with today to do the Tongariro Crossing, a hike that winds between two active volcanos and summits another. One of the volcanos was used as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings. We decided at 10 last night tha we were gong to do this trek, which is a full day of hiking. It was also about an hour and a half away from where we stayed last night, and the shuttles we needed to catch left at 8 in the morning. We got up at 5 so we could make it down there in time and managed to get on a bus.
Big mistake. It rained last night, so when we woke up at 5, we had about 10 mins of indecision: should we go back to sleep and just give up on this hike because the weather’s probably nasty, or should we try to head down there and see what we see. We decided to go, and when we got there, we were told that it was supposed to clear in the morning. We hoped for the best.
Which of course didn’t happen. It was cloudy, windy, rainy and foggy the whold damn way. The worst section, a part called Devil’s Staircase, was almost vertical, with wind whipping rain into our faces and 40 mph or more. We climbed this huge volcano, known for its great views of the area, and when we got to the top, we could hardly see the ground under our feet, much less anything else. It did not clear off. It sucked.
It’s a shame, too, because the Tongariro Crossing is supposed to be the best day-hike in the country. Not today, I can assure you of that.
Tags: New Zealand, Tongariro Crossing, Travel
awrichner
that’s a bummer that the hike was too foggy for the views. that happened to us when we were in CO last year and payed for a guided snowmobile trip up over the continental divide to the top of some mountain for “spectacular views”. We had the similar problem that we had white-out snow conditions and could barely see ten feet much less enjoy the views. I will say though, that it was somewhat cool in the fact that you felt absolutly isolated in this desolate white world. Any silver-lining like that for you and your fog? or was it shitty and that’s it?
not much of a silver lining. there were a few times when the sun peeked through just a bit and we could see a bit more around us, but for the most part it was a long hard hike with very little reward.
As you say, the atmosphere was pretty cool, there were tons of people on the trail, but it didn’t take long to feel like you were the only people in the world. When we summited the crater, it was miserable, wind driven rain and all that, but in all directions, everything was white and the ground sloped away all around us. It felt like we were standing on top of the world. That was pretty cool . . .