My second day in Raglan was pretty packed... I woke up at about 10, laid in the hammock until about 3, sleeping and reading. Then made my way down to the beach for a couple more hours of surfing. Later it was dinner and hanging out with friends. Raglan is so great - the attitude is just so calm and laid back. Picturesque views and relaxed people combine for a great atmosphere. Since leaving Raglan, I've met several people who want to go back and spend a lot more time there. I can definitely sympathize - if I had been to Raglan before Queenstown, there's a good possibility I would have spent 5 months there. Definitely a place I'd like to make my way back to sometime. Sunset on a Raglan beach:
The next day we continued onto Rotorua, one STIIIIINKY city. Rotorua is situated in a location where there's a lot of geothermal activity...steam rising out of the ground in lots of places, hot ground all day and night, etc... However, this brings with it a sulfurous rotten egg smell. I know pretty much nothing about geology so I have no idea why this happens, but the smell pervades the whole town. We rode in on the bus with the windows closed so only got subtle whiffs now and again until the door was opened and we piled out of the bus. The smell assaulted my nostrils and I literally felt sick to my stomach. Didn't help that we were supposed to be shopping for food - I ended up buying almost nothing because eating was one of the most unappealing activites I could think of at that moment.
After a night in a trashy hostel we visited the Maori village of Whakarewarewa. I figured that in among all of the crazy adrenaline activities and everything else I've been doing, might not hurt to learn a little bit about the native culture and such. Anyways, the village of Whakarewarewa is referred to as "The Thermal Village" because they use the geothermal energy created in their everyday lives. The village is like any other village, except that homes generally don't have kitchens or bathrooms. For bathing, they let the geothermally heated pools fill their tubs, used by everybody in the village. They also use the water to cook meals such as corn, and have set up stations over some of the steam vents that act as slow cookers. Really a cool setup and great idea. Check out more about the city here.
We bade forwell to Rotorua and bussed on to Taupo. Along the way we stopped at what our driver referred to as "the secret spot," a place that you can't find in guidebooks. A geothermally heated river merges with a regular runoff river, so by sitting in the spot where the two rivers combine, you can find the perfect mix of hot and cold. Very nice...and I might have been tempted to stay longer if not for the fact that we were told not to put our heads underwater because if some organism in the water got into our nasal passages we might end up with meningitis. eep!
Taupo is relatively close to Rotorua (about 50 miles) so it was a short bus ride, which ended at an airfield, where I participated in the classic Taupo activity...suspending the belief that I'm sane...and jumping out of a plane! That's right - skydiving. Taupo is a great place to skydive for a few reasons. For one, it's one of the cheapest places in New Zealand (always an important consideration). But what really interested me is that on a clear day, from 15,000 feet up, one can see both coasts of the North Island. I wasn't able to identify them, but that was probably because for the 15 seconds I was screaming my head off as I watched the airplane rapidly disappear into the distance. I'm guessing that a full 30 seconds passed before I actually realized that I should be enjoying the scenery - too late to try to pick out the coasts. 30 seconds later, the guy strapped to my back (who estimated that he had done over 10,000 jumps over the course of his career) pulled the chute and we had a relatively uneventful (but scenic) glide back onto the airfield.
Back in Taupo, it was the Saturday before Easter, so the town was packed chock full of tourists and kiwis alike. Since we were late getting into town because of the skydiving, the hostel where we had planned to stay was already booked solid. Our driver found us another hostel not too far down the road... and let's just say that I'm glad that I was only there for a few hours. The place was dingy and dirty - one of my friend's rooms didn't even have electricity.
But that made me appreciate the next day all that much better, when we drove to the Tongariro national park and stayed the nicest hostel I've been in so far. Less than a year old, the place had a barracks-like look from the outside. But inside, it felt like a four star hotel. Clean, with art on the walls, nice wooden furniture, comfortable mattresses, several fireplaces, and a kitchen with full sets of pots, pans (AND Lids!!), I could have stayed there for days. Unfortunately, my time was limited and was only able to stay there two nights. But that meant that I was able to do the Tongariro crossing, one of the most famous one-day walks in the world. Generally accepted as the best one-day walk in New Zealand, it makes almost every top 10 list of one-day walks in the world. And with good reason. At about 11 miles long, it's about 4200 feet up to the top and then down the other side. It passes between the craters of the active volcano, Mt. Tongariro. It also affords access to Mt. Ngauruhoe, better known to those who have seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy as Mt. Doom, or Mordor. The crossing is like walking through a series of different worlds. Every hour to half hour, the landscape changes completely...you certainly don't get bored.
We did the walk "backwards," but it's really the same thing...since either direction covers the same terrain. It starts out with a steady climb through a wooded, covered forest area. This has some steep steps, but it's a pretty well defined track and easy to walk. After emerging from the canopied area into the sun, none of the plants grow above waist high and the trail continues upwards. The trail in this area is well maintained, and hexagonal ground pieces have been placed in the ground to prevent erosion. Steam billows out of vents, the rivers run black with minerals and the smell of sulfur fills the air, reminding you that you're walking on the slopes of an active volcano.
As you make your way up the side of the volcano, you emerge over a pass and are greeted one side by a beautiful blue lake and by a sprawling crater on the other, flat and with black lava flow that has long since solidified. After crossing the crater, there's an absurdly steep ascent up a black gravel path that seems to give way beneath your feet. After struggling up this path, one is finally rewarded with a view atop of the red crater, aptly named. This is the peak of the Tongariro crossing, although there are other walks on the side that go to the summits of the volcanoes.
Down the other side the terrain changes again. Although not quite as steep as the black gravel ascent, the descent travels through large rock formations and boulders that seem to have grown without thought or reason. Past this is another flat, long crater. The wind whips through, chillingly...you feel like you could be on Mars. "Mt. Doom" rises up menacingly on one side, and it's easy to see why this place was chosen for filming. After the crater comes "The Devil's Staircase," a steep descent through broken bits of volcanic rock. There's no actual trail here...just a sequence of posts marking the general direction in which you should be going. The going is slow, and you finally realize why you previously saw people walking in the other direction with bloody scrapes up and down their legs.
Making it past the staircase without incident, the rest of the walk is pretty easy, even including raised platform at certain points so you don't have to walk on the undulating terrain. It's an amusing afterthough after all the terrain that had no real trail - just general markings of where to go. All in all, the walk took us 7 hours, including stops for rests and eating and picture taking. Hands down, it was one of the best things I've done during my whole trip and would love to do again someday. Returning to the hostel, I was especially grateful for that hot tub :)
The drive from the National Park to Wellington was relatively uneventful, although we DID stop in Taihape, the "Gumboot Capital of the World." Gumboots are basically rainboots and we had a stop at their competition gumboot throwing grounds and did a little throwing of our own. My time in Wellington was short - just one night, but I did manage to watch "300" on the largest movie screen in the southern hemisphere. What a movie. 11 hours on the bus the next day brought me back to Auckland. Tomorrow it's off to Australia to see the East coast and go diving on the Great Barrier Reef!
