This was a travel day. Before we left, we had spoken to many of our friends who had been to New Zealand, and almost none of them made it to the top of the North Island. We were deter­mined to get there, and that meant driving. We compro­mised though, and drove up from Rotorua to the Coromandel, another park/wilderness area.

We saw a bunch of water­falls along the way:

…but it took most of the day to get there, so we camped for the night in another almost empty field at Cook’s Beach. The next morning, we found a spot called Cathedral Cove, so named for the natural bridge and other formations.

As you can see it was kind of a dismal grey day. So on we went, stopping for the occa­sional waterfall along the way…

By the end of the day, we had made it to our camping site, and were treated to a beau­tiful sunset:

A long day, but we are now north of Auckland, ready to tackle the northlands.

…Mike

We spent two nights and one day in Rotorua, where we were lucky enough to stay with one of my Dad’s univeristy buddies, Brian and his family.

It was such a treat to spend time with someone who my Dad talks so much about! Kind of like a glimpse into his youth. They fed us and watered us and generally were excep­tionally gracious, and in the middle of a trip far from home, made us feel like family. Thanks, guys. I hope Tane and the child TBA make their way to this side of the world, so that we can repay the hospitality.

We had done the hot spring thing in Orakei Korako already, so instead we took the gondola ride up the hill for a view, and another round of street luge riding! We did this in Queenstown too…basically, you get on a prim­itive ground-level go cart of dubious safety and no speed control, and rip your way down one of three tracks that wind down the side of the hill. Wicked fun!

Following this, we tried the giant swing ride…we were strapped into a cage, hoisted up, and dropped, swinging out over the side of the hill! Fun! Here’s a shot of some other suckers doing it:

Later that afternoon, Brian took us for a sail on his sailboat. We got to a hot beach, acces­sible only from the water. A hot beach is one where geot­her­mally heated water mixes with the lake water, creating a strange set of sensations…standing on the sandy beach is fine, but if you sink in at all, it gets really hot, really fast. The strangest part though was to lie in the water…the top layer was just under scalding hot, and the lower layer felt in comparison like ice…the trick is to slowly rotate! Our poor bodies didn’t know quite what to do.

That’s the hot water hitting the lake water

Tomorrow we head north to the Coromandel. We’re sorry to leave, but there’s still so much to see, and we are beginning to feel the pressure of time.

…Mike

Today we went to the glow worm caves in Waitomo. Since we spent most of the time in the dark, climbing under­ground water­falls and tubing down super-cold rivers, there are no photos. So let me try to paint a picture with words.

Imagine being lowered by harness into a hole in the ground tight enough that you have to wriggle your way through. Once free of the narrow spot, it’s a free fall until you are about 100′ down. It’s very dark, but there is still light coming in from the hole above. You then scramble down deeper into the cave, over slick rocks. After about 5 minutes, it’s much cooler, and almost totally pitch black.

You are hooked up to a zipline, and without so much as a warning, you are flying through the cave in total darkness! After a big swing at the end, you are unclipped from the zipline, given an inner tube, and pretty much pushed off the edge of a 15′ drop to land in the frigid water below. You drift along in total darkness, and because by now you have been under­ground for 1/2 hour or so, your eyes have adjusted to the pitch blackness, and you can start to see little blue threads on the roof.

These are the glow worms. They glow to attract the various bugs that find their way into the cave into their webs. There are thou­sands of them; they look like blue stars. The guide bangs his inner tube on the water every once in a while, as the sound makes the worms glow brighter.

After listening to an expla­nation of why the worms glow (which I wont repeat, so as not to ruin it for you should you decide to do this yourself one day), we leave the inner tubes behind. After warming up with chocolate and hot juice, you begin your under­ground hike, splashing through the under­ground river, lit only by your head­lamps. You jump into pools, crawl your way through tight and twisty tunnels, climb under­ground water­falls, and generally have a blast.

When you finally emerge, you are greeted by the warm sunshine, which feels great after 3 hours of being under­ground and, frankly, cold.

How’d I do?

In case that wasn’t enough, here are a few scenics taken along the way

…Mike

This was undoubtedly the high­light of the trip for us. It was long, difficult, and cold, but absolutely amazing: a 7 hour hike across three volcanic craters. This is known as one of the best day hikes in the world. How could we not go?

It started off cold…this is us wearing basi­cally every­thing that we had brought.

It was very windy…just under the wind speed at which they close the trail for safety reasons. We went anyway because, you know, we’re dumb. We only got almost blown off the mountain twice, so it was cool.

The first part of the hike was through a volcanic wasteland. That mountain in the back­ground is? named Mt Ngauruhoe, but is better known as Mount Doom, the evil mountain in LoTR.

Once we had scaled the lava rock cliff (after 2 hours) we crossed our first crater:

You can see the path we walked on to cross the crater. Next up was the coolest part of the trip: cusping the top of the ridge, and looking down into the red crater.

From this point, it was downhill all the way. Here is a shot of the emerald pools, as seen from the edge of the red crater. A photo of this scene was the initial reason I wanted to go on this hike

Another shot of Mount Doom, from across the third crater.

The rest of the trip was downhill, winding through tussocks of grassland.

Fantastic tramp, very worth it. We were even treated to a Mt Ruapehu lit up by the setting sun

We slept well that night! :

…Mike

This was a big day. We had driven up to our cabin in Ohakune the previous night, with plans to tramp the Tongariro Crossing. The crossing was closed though, due to high winds. So instead we went looking for the thermal spring called Orakei Korako, to the north. Along the way, we stopped at…you guessed it, water­falls!

This was supposed to be a waterfall, but it was dry due to the drought that has gripped the area for months. This is also why many of the scenic shots are a lot browner than we were expecting.

This was also a filming spot for LoTR. Like I said in earlier posts, the islands are loaded with loca­tions for these movies. The base of this waterfall? was use for the scene where Boromir nabs Gollum.

Here are a few more scenic photos from along the way, including the requisite sheep shot.

And then we arrived at the thermal springs. All I will say is that, if you are in the area, you have to go here. The photos don’t come close to doing it justice. The Lonely Planet calls this one of the worlds top five thermal areas, for good reason. Keep in mind while you look at these photos that the water is about 110? and all the colours are hot-water algae and stuff. Amazing stuff.

You get to the spot by boat, and this was our first glimpse:

See the steam coming from the geyser at the top?

This one looks like a waterfall eh?? It’s actually made up of crystals of some kind.

Bubbling mud

This is a cave, the waters of which are warm too!

After cruising around here for a few hours, we left to find another hot spring…but this one was for us to sit in!

The hot water comes right out of the side of the mountain, and they mix it with colder water to make it tolerable We’ll liking the hot sprints

…Mike