Tongariro, Rotorua and Northward Bound!

Well, after the high of skydiving, my stay in Taupo continued to be fantastic! I was up at 5a.m. last Sunday, to undertake New Zealand's finest one-day hike, the Tongariro Crossing! It was dark when I awoke, and still quite dim, when we boarded the shuttle bus as 6am, due to the clocks going back here in the early hours of that morning. By the time we reached the start of the Crossing, the sun was up, and despite being really quite cold, the weather was glorious and looked very promising for the day. However, I kept it in mind that the weather there is notoriously changeable, so I was well prepared with waterproofs, several layers of clothing, a hat, scarf and gloves!

I set off with two girls from my hostel, but after a few minutes of climbing the first sets of steps on the trail, I got left behind a bit while I removed some layers! By the time I'd reorganised myself, they were about 20 metres ahead of me. that's not a lot I know, but I was out of breath already and the steps were killing my calves, so I just let them carry on ahead without me! I then met up with some people who I'd been skydiving with the day before, so once again I had some company! I reached Mount Doom in good time, (sorry, I really can't remember the real Maori name for this volcano, so you will just have to settle for the Lord of The Rings one!), but it was obvious that it would have been way too challenging for me. Especially as I had to be back for the shuttle bus at 3.30pm and the recommended 20-30 minutes required to make the descent back down again would quite likely have turned into several hours for me. Well, I'm scared of heights and slippy slopes, and apparently, the path down is all loose gravel and very steep!

Anyway, the next section up to the highest point of the crossing was enough for me, and I scaled it like Gollum - i.e. on all fours so I didn't fall over! I was rewarded with an amazing view though, of the Red Crater and Emerald Lakes. I was also confronted with an extremely steep path down again that was all loose gravel. So, I decided to go down on my bum! I was the only person doing this, and after several hundred metres, I decided that it was dusty, slow and I looked like an idiot. I managed to summon the courage to stand up eventually and it wasn't that bad to walk down the gravel after all, you just had to really dig your heels in! Once down, I enjoyed a spot of lunch by the lakes.

Mount Ngauruhoe, Red Crater & THAT path down...

The remainder of the Crossing was mostly downhill and passed through more incredible scenery AND I did the Quintuple! The weather stayed glorious all day long and I completed my 5 out of 5!!! I've been ridiculously lucky in NZ with the weather, I genuinely don't know how I managed it!

On Monday, it was still fine so I had a wander around Taupo and took it a bit easier! On Tuesday, I arrived in Rotorua. I took things a lot easier here, again wandering around town and doing a spot of geocaching. It was quite amusing to be walking around a park and then to come across a pool of bubbling hot mud and steam in the middle of it! On Wednesday night, I went to the Mitai Cultural show and it was really great. We saw a traditional haka and more Maori singing and dancing. Dinner was included, a traditional hangi where food is cooked underground on hot stones. I knew that there would be plenty of food that evening, so I'd tried to eat as little as possible throughout the day. It was still a struggle though to fit in two helpings of lamb, chicken, potatoes, kumara, sweetcorn, rice, salad and garlic bread, plus a thick slice of chocolate log!

Champagne Pools at Wai-O-Tapu

On Thursday, I went to Wai-O-Tapu to see Lady Knox Geyser and the amazing Champagne Pools. The scenery there is very unusual and I've enjoyed all the volcanic landscapes of the North Island, in some respects more than the mountains and lakes of the South. Friday was another lazy day in Rotorua, although I did pack in a fair few miles of walking before the bus arrived at 1.45pm, off to Mount Maunganui. I'd tried to book a hostel there on Tuesday, but due to the Easter weekend, I was only guaranteed Friday night. So, at that point, I had no idea where I would be staying on Saturday. When we arrived, the hostel was still unable to confirm a room for me and could only tell me on Saturday morning - which was useless as by that point, I'd need to be on the bus to Auckland or be homeless! The hostel was very nice and we were given free tea and cakes on arrival. However, we were also then lectured upon being quiet, washing the dishes etc and that if we required bed linen, it was an extra $2 to hire it.

Now, it's true that many backpackers are messy and are obviously away from Mummy for the first time, but after 6 months on the road at the age of 28, I don't appreciate being lectured on how to behave appropriately. I also don't appreciate being charged $28 for a dorm room (which is expensive for NZ) and not even having sheets included! So, that made my decision quite easy - I was glad I only had a bed for one night as I was quite happy to get right out of town the following morning! I did however walk around the mount with Dani and Johanna (Sweden) and I introduced them to geocaching! Even though I only had a few hours in Mount Maunganui, I wasn't going to let that spoil my perfect run of at least one cache per town!

So, yesterday I arrived in Auckland, and I'm really bored! Many things are closed due to Easter, the free city tour won't be running again until after I've left on Monday evening, and I won't have chance to do it next weekend as I will only be back on Friday lunchtime. It's a bit unfortunate that I've got four nights in total here, and nearly five whole days, but I'll be in Northland this week with only two full days to explore Whangarei and Paihia. Oh well, at least I never have to get on a Magic Bus ever again in my life, woohoo! I went to use the free Internet they advertise for their customers at their head office. I didn't realise dial-up still existed! It was slow, the PC was ancient and Facebook was a banned site. I'm not quite sure, therefore, how it was able to provide any useful service to a backpacker whatsoever, but there you go! Hopefully, my next blog entry will be a bit more exciting after I dive in the Poor Knights Islands this Tuesday! I hope it doesn't disappoint as it's one of Jacques Cousteau's top ten dive sites in the world!