Day 6: Tongariro Crossing!!!

So, today we were SUPPOSED to set out to do what has been described as the best one day hike in New Zealand.  The tramp traverses a highly volcanic region of the country and is home to the ominous Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.  I'm just dying to tell everyone how amazing and breathtaking the hike was.  However, it was not meant to be.  It started raining torrents overnight and it is crazy windy here.  I laid in bed listening to the wind howl all night, thinking about how badly it would suck if I was blown off the top of the Tongariro Crossing.  It would completely ruin Dave's relationship with his brother Brian, as I'm sure Dave would blame him for losing his wife, regardless of the fact that I quite possibly had been surrounded by gale force winds!

Either way, we woke up to a rainstorm that would have influenced Noah to start work on his next ark.  I was rather disappointed about the thought of spending one of my precious New Zealand days cooped up inside, but then it hit me.  I can do something here, that I can't do at home.  So, I plugged in my headphones, grabbed a book and read ... for HOURS, undisturbed.  No children to attend, no phone to answer, no emails to return, no meals to prepare, no laundry to do.  Seems a rainy day in New Zealand is significantly more relaxing than any sunny day in Georgia!

Despite the rain, we did manage  to get out of the house for a late afternoon hike to a beautiful waterfall.  With all the rain we've had over the last couple of days, the stream was full and the waterfall was raging.  Although it was not what we had in mind for the day, we still managed to make the most of it.

I should take a moment to mention our hosts at the Manuka Lodge, Alan and Susie.  These two have been instrumental to our enjoyment of our unfortunate situation.  They have helped us sort out the question of whether or not we are actually going to be able to do our planned activity each day and coming up with other interesting things to do in the meanwhile (No Tongariro tomorrow either.  It's supposed to frikin' SNOW!).  The room we are staying in is spacious, modern and comfortable.  Plus they have a common area down stairs where were have been holed up for a large portion of the day.

They also pointed us to one of the BEST restaurants I have ever eaten at in my life, the Bearing Point.  In fact, Brian and I have eaten there for the past two nights, spending way too much money on exquisite and divine dinners.  I would recommend coming here just for this restaurant alone!

I should mention that I believe that Brian hit his low point on the trip yesterday while we were driving.  The song "Take My Breath Away" came on the radio.  Took me back to my high school days and memories of Top Gun.  I couldn't help but sing along.  I tried to turn the volume up high enough to drown out my voice, but to no avail.  I was so proud of Brian for putting up with close to 3/4s of the song before he violently punched the "seek" button on the radio.  What a little trooper!

Day 5: Waitomo Cave Tour

We woke up to an overcast drizzly day in NZ.  What a perfect day to spend underground!  We toured with a company called Spellbound.  Our cave tour started with a short drive through NZ country side to their glow worm cave.  Our guide explained that the entire area was dotted with glow worm caves and the farmers who own the land above lease the caves below to the various tour operators.  Our tour first took us on a short walk into the cave where our eyes adjusted to night vision and our guide told us all the details of the life cycle of the little glow worm.  It turns out these little creatures are quite vicious.  They will eat any little insect that crosses their path including their own kind!

As we traversed deeper into the cave, we happened upon a RIVER (which we expected, because it was in the brochure).  We all piled into a raft and and headed down stream.  As we all sat in the raft, gazing at the spectacular show of glow worms above, we moved slowly down stream to the sound of the water rushing over an impending drop off.  I thought this little raft ride was about the get really interesting as we neared the falls, however, it was not to be.  Our guide turned the raft around and headed us back up stream.

If we thought we saw a lot of glow worms when we had done the Arannui Cave walk the night before, we were only seeing a small version of what could be.  The glow worms may venture outside the caves, but the vast majority of these little guys prefer the damp protected interworkings of the caves.  The place was so beautiful.  Of course, glow worms don't really twinkle like stars do, but you get the same sort of feeling you get being under a clear sky at night.

After the glow worm cave, our tour took us to a second cave.  In between caves we had the opportunity to be drenched by the New Zealand rain.  It was a bit cold and definitely wet (as rain always is), but when you're on vacation rain is just plain FUN!  Our tour guide provided warm drinks as biscuits (cookies ... yummy) to get us warmed up before we went into our next cave.

The second cave was a dryer cave with very few glow worms.  This was our chance to get a good look at the limestone formations underground and see exactly how the water chemically erodes away at the rock.  There was also a place in the cave where part of the roof caved in (exciting!) and a few bones of animals gone astray to check out.

All in all the tour was great fun.  We spent the rest of the day driving to Ohakune where we were greeted by our new hosts Alan and Susie.  Their home is just beautiful and very modern, just built a few years ago.  We arrived around 4:30 so we had time for another hike and then a drive up to the top of Ruapahu (which is a ski resort in the winter time) for a good look at our surroundings.  Mind you, the day was still cloudy and over cast giving us a very surreal kind of feel to the landscape.  Our forest walk was just beautiful with a stream running through the area, HUGE ferns and trees and massive amounts of foliage.  Once we arrived at the top of Ruapahu, the landscape change drastically to volcanic rubble and very little plant growth at all.  We also experienced around 40 mph winds when we were up there that really put into perspective the potential for disaster on the Tongariro track that we have planned that we are probably not going to be able to complete because of the weather.

Day 4: Bay of Islands to Waitomo Caves

Day 4 started off with a big hair contest between myself and Brian.  We both have curly hair and the humidity in New Zealand would put Georgia to shame.  My hair has tight little ringlet curls that only come out when I visit Amy on the coast. Here, I look like Shirley Temple!  Back to the big hair comp.  Brian definitely is sporting the bigger fro, however I've got the market cornered on the "Q-tip" factor (i.e. frizz).

The majority of the day was spent in the car driving from point A to point B.  We've gotten a fair amount of our share of countryside viewing.  First of all, NZ doesn't have all the hustling and bustling highways we have at home.  Unless you are right in the middle of a big city, the landscape is totally bucolic.  I've seen more sheep and cows in the last few days than I think I have in the rest of my lifetime put together.

We arrived in Waitomo in the late afternoon.  Our hosts were Janet and Collin who have us a suggestion for a short hike to get our legs stretched before dinner.  The hike was just beautiful.  It was our first time really getting into the heart of the New Zealand bush.  I can not begin to truly describe the beauty of the area we were in.  The land is comprised of limestone outcroppings and we have several tunnels and rock formations to explore.  There was also a river that wove in and out of the rock formations and disappeared into the earth at one point.  The best part of this trail was what happened when the sun went down.

After dinner, we went back to the trail with flashlights (torches) to the swinging bridge (which didn't swing).  When we turned off the flashlights, the whole place lit up with glow worms!  It was sooo amazing.  They lined the walls of the rocks all around us and made the place look like we were surrounded by stars.  And the sky was clear, giving a spectacular view of the stars overhead too.  It was just magical ... one of those moments you wish would never end.  After checking out the glow worms, Brian and I continued on the rest of the trail, finding the night exploration to be very intriguing.  We were accompanied by the local, probably somewhat domesticated possum as we wondered around.  There was one point where we were literally 2 feet from the little guy.  Why we didn't take a picture is beyond me at this point.  Darn it!

Day 3: Cape Reinga Tour

Before I start with a description of our adventures for the day 3, I need to step back a bit to talk about the elusive Kiwi bird.  This wonderful nation of people that are hosting us during this trip have rallied themselves behind a little brown bird, the size a chicken that burrows under the ground for 23 hours of the day and only comes out at dusk for an hour.  Talk about supporting the underdog of the wild kingdom!  So when being told about these little creatures, Robin (from the yacht) said you can hear them "screaming" when they come out at night.  Seriously, "screaming?"  So later that day, we were sitting on the patio with Gary and Paula and there is this annoying squeaky sound, like plastic scraping on plastic ... a squeaky wheel kind of sound.  And then Paula announces that the Kiwis must be out.  Wow.  Now I can see why the sound was described as "screaming."  What I find most entertaining is that we are staying in a protected kiwi area and no one here has ever seen one!  Brian has concluded that the kiwi must be a close relative of the American snipe.  I agree.

So on to Cape Reinga ... Cape Reinga is the further most northern point in New Zealand.  We were booked on a 12 hour motor coach tour to get to that point and back.  When we showed up at the bus and the driver asked us if we were with the backpacker group of the older group.  We didn't know, but we were sure we wanted to be on the backpacker bus.  Nope.  After careful checking, we found ourselves spending the day on the geriatric tour.  Granted, all our bus mates were quite pleasant and up for adventure, but when we looked across the way at the bus with bikini clad coeds, I knew where Brian's heart was.  (Mine, of course, is home with Dave.  I'm looking forward to him bringing it back to me on Monday.)

So, after spending an hour picking up all our bus mates, we headed north on a narrow two lane road at breathtaking speeds.  Needless to say, our driver knew the roads well.  As we drove along, he felt obligated to tell us the story of his life, some of it interesting, some not.  I was quite thankful to have my headphones with me at times.  He also serenaded us several times with traditional Maori songs.  The guy actually has a great voice, so that was pretty cool.

On our way to Cape Reinga, we stopped at this super cool forest where they had these HUGE trees.  They looked like the baby brother to our redwoods. 


We moved on from the forest area, further north, stopping for lunch and souvenirs.  The closer we got to Cape Reinga, the more sparse our surroundings and the landscape took on a more desert quality.  Cape Reinga has a light house that we could walk to and see out to the ocean.  This is the point where the Tasman sea to the west and the Pacific ocean to the east collide.  This was a pretty cool sight, seeing the waves crash against each other in the middle of the ocean.  You could also see a colour differentiation between the two oceans.

Following Cape Reinga, we headed south down 90 Mile Beach (which isn't 90 miles, BTW).  The first thing we got to do was go sand boarding down these HUGE (bigger than the trees) sand dunes.  When we first stopped, I was kind of concerned that the geriatric tour bus wouldn't be stopping, however our little group of grandparents were more than up for the challenge.  Yipee for them!  We get to play!!! 

So the hike up these sand dunes was excruciating.  Our calves were on fire and I can say my heart was POUNDING!!!  In fact, I was very worried that our trip may be side tracked by a heart attack from one of our trip mates.  Luckily, everyone on board had good, solid tickers still.  The ride down that hill was exhilarating and rather sandy too.  This one woman, totally wiped out face first.  Talk about covered in sand.  The best part about it was that she got right up, dusted herself off and was about to go back for more, but we had to go by that point.

On the last part of the trip, we headed down 90 Mile Beach.  There is no read on 90 Mile Beach.  You actually drive on the sand (think Daytona), but you can only access it at low tide.  While on that part of the trip, we saw wild horses trying to get away from us as fast as they could.  We also stopped for a short while to dig for clams  (which Brian and I had for dinner ... YUMMY!  Great job cooking Brian!)  And then we drove through the rain all the way home!  It was a great day and tomorrow we head south!

Day 2: Sailing in the Bay of Islands

We took off at 10am this morning aboard the Phantom with a wonderful couple named Robin and Rick.  The Phantom is a 50 foot yacht with enough room to hold 10 guests along with our hosts.  The weather was just ideal. 

Sun, great wind and DOLPHINS!!!  We were accompanied by bunchs of these amazing creatures.  They were swimming along side of our boat for quite a while this morning.  And when I say "along side," I mean they were right there.  I think I could have touched them if my arms were just a little bit longer.  These guys were so close, that one of them even spit on Brian in a swim by spitting.  It was just so cool getting such an up close look at them.  And no, we didn't swim with them.  The reason we got to spend so much time with the dolphins is because they were running away from the group that was trying to harass them in the water!

Around lunch time, we anchored just off one of the many, many little islands that are sprinkled all over the bay.  Rick offered to anyone who wanted to swim the opportunity to swim to shore.  Sounds like fun to me, and I thought it would be good exercise after being in sloth mode for 2 days.  So Brian jumps in ... "is it cold?"  He says it's not too bad.  So I take the plunge.  I don't know what Brian thinks is warm or hot, but that water was beyond a shadow of a doubt COLD.  Let me rephrase ... FREEZING COLD.  Brian is sitting here defending his judgement of the water temperature, describing it as "tepid."  Yep.  I'm not buying it.

So Robin served a gourmet lunch on board the phantom.  Let me tell you guys, these people have some good cheese.  Oh, and Rick collected fresh mussels that they served along with a fish they had smoked. 

Everything was SO fresh that I was wondering where they keep their cow to make their own cheese. 

After lunch was a wonderful, relaxing ride back to Russell.  Who knows what the evening holds for us.  We are off to hunt down another beach and find a look out point.

Day 1: Auckland to Bay of Island

So, day 1 was an easy day ... sort of.  We have a car rented to get around while we are here and these people all drive on the wrong side of the road!  And they put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car too!  I'm quite thankful that Brian stepped up to take on the burden of NOT crashing the car before we left the city of Auckland.  It was trial by fire navigating through a city with a traffic circle at every street crossing.

We managed to get out of Auckland in one piece, and in less than a full hour which was a small miracle considering we didn't really know where we were going.  We drove 3 hours north to the Bay of Islands area where we took a ferry over to a quaint town called Okiato.  The scenery was everything I thought it would be and more.  We saw sheep, cows and ponies grazing on the hillsides as we passed through town after town.

We are staying in the home of a couple named Gary and Paula who are very hospitable.  The view from our apartment is just stunning.  We are overlooking a small inlet.  Paula has put together a beautiful hillside garden which we explored when we go there.  We also took a short hike through an area that looked almost junglesque.  Dinner was at a bayside restaurant in Russell called "The Duke."  Speaking of dinner, we paid a small fortune for our meal.  I think my three week stay here is going to make me seriously appreciate the cost of living at home.  These guys had a $23 hamburger on the menue.  That's right, I just wrote "hamburger."  This may well be the first vacation where I come home weighing less than when I left! 

So, no pictures for the next couple of days as the computers at the place I'm at can't handle an SD card!  Sorry!

The View From the Otherside of the World

Well, I'm actually here now!  I left my house 26 hours ago, flew over the Pacific ocean and have landed in a most amazing country.  I expected the 13 hour plane ride to be something to endure, however, Air New Zealand put us on a brand new plane with all the latest and greatest features.  I actually slept for a solid 6 or 7 hours, despite being flung around like a rubber ball in the hands of a 9 year old boy! (The turbulance was impressive!)  I just kept thinking that the water would make a nice, soft landing if something were to go wrong.  (That's called positive thinking.)  Hopefully Brian (my brother-in-law) will be here soon and we can get started on our journey!