Crossings

OK, so I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, dumped cereal all over the car, took 10 minutes alone to find the keys, had to stand outside in the rain to repack the car from our day hike on the glacier yesterday (while Kendra cleaned up the cereal) and then realized that we were heading into town where I was meant to write a blog update. Ohhh the challenges of living and traveling in a van :).


Curbside dinner, living out of a van :)

Nuff of that. Hope everything back home is going well, hope you other travelers are enjoying yourselves and for everybody else, well let the sun shine in. We've heard that the weather has recently been hitting -30°C back home, -40°C wind chill...well, can't say I'm looking forward to that, but maybe it will make you feel better that we've hardly had a day where it hasn't rained on us here in New Zealand. OK, probably not feeling better. From Kendra's last update we've settled into our strange spaceship and toured more of the North Island.

After the Waitomo Cave adventure we drove ourselves to that center of action, Taupo. Taupo is situated next to Lake Taupo, a massive crater lake formed from a volcanic eruption around 26,500 years ago. The Lake and the entire area surrounding Taupo is still active with the most recent eruptions coming in 1996 from Mt. Ruapehu. This was the reason we came. Not of course for volcanic eruptions, even though that would be cool (and probably kill us), but for the volcanoes themselves. The area south of Taupo is a designated World Heritage Site called Tongariro National Park, with no less than 3 active volcanoes and a couple of hikes that are said to take your breath away (literally, the sulphur smells get pretty strong).

I had hoped ever since we knew we were coming to New Zealand that I would get a chance to do the Tongariro Crossing. This is a 17km one day hike that is said to be the best single day hike in all of NZ. The only problem, the same problem that I encountered the first time I came to NZ, is that the weather on the crossing can turn extremely bad in only a few seconds making the experience miserable and dangerous. The hike, therefore, is only recommended when the forecast looks good. Even then you are warned that it can turn to crap on you any minute. Great, so why did we want to do this ... let me tell you. The hike takes a person down through a temperate rain forest, past old lava flows, across blast craters, over sulphur lakes, past hot springs, and basically to scenary that is unique to only a few places in the world. Sounds pretty good eh? If that doesn't convince you, the area around the crossing was used in the Lord of the Rings as Mordor. Mt. Doom is in fact the youngest of the three active volcanoes in the park Mt. Ngauruhoe, of course with added special effects lava (thats right you can't do much in NZ without hearing at least something about THE movies).

As mentioned the weather is a crucial element to doing this hike and because of this we ended up spending a total of 4 days in the surrounding area in the hopes that the windy, rainy, weather would crack and we'd get a chance to do the hike. Our chance came on that fourth day and it was worth it. A definite highlight of the North Island.


Mt. Ngauruhoe otherwise known as Mt. Doom.


One of the highlights on the hike, the Emerald Lakes. It clouded over a bit here I took probably 15 photos of the lakes as they appeared out of the mist to finally get this shot.


Near the end of the hike a view of Lake Rotoaira and the outlying valley.

After the hike we immediately drove straight to the capital, Wellington, to make up some of the time we used up waiting for the hike. We spent a day exploring this picturesque city and on the 22nd of November we boarded our ferry and crossed the Cook Straight on our way to the South Island.

Previously on our trip in the North, Kendra had excitedly and meticulously, spent several hours working on an itinerary for the South Island. I wasn't allowed to comment as she read every page of the New Zealand guidebook until she came up with an action packed schedule that would not only maximize our time on the South Island but make it really hard to keep up with the blog update (thanks a lot Kendra...geez). Here we go.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #1
OK, we got off the ferry in Picton and drove to our first destination, Nelson, the gateway to the Abel Tasman National park. After a couple nights camping next to the ocean (its a hard life) we headed into the national park for a full day sea kayaking trip. What a day it was. First thing in the morning we found that we would get a free upgrade to a better trip than the one we booked (Kendra might have said something to the guy behind the counter...wink)! I love free upgrades!! This new trip would take us to several offshore islands, a seal colony inside the national parks marine reserve, a couple of tidal lagoons, and across bays of turquoise water. Yes, in case your wondering, it was beautiful.


The Sea Kayaking attire modeled by yours truly.


Abel Tasman scenary.


White sand, clear water and a sunny day, what more could you ask for.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #2
Next was a wine tour of the famous Marlborough region. We spent an afternoon sampling wines, tasting tastes, making small talk, and pretending to come up with impressive wine tasting comments such as "This one has a hint of strength, with just a breath of good finish.", or, "Ooo, a very quick but dry taste.", or as the day went on, "This one tastes like crap", "Can we just eat the garlic bread", "What was the name of your winery again?", "Where's that thingy I can spit this into?". Yes a very refined day. In fairness the wine was very good but in the end the only thing we ended up buying was some garlic olive oil and a very good nut dip called Dukka...riiiiiiight.


I'll have another Sauvignon Blanc please.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #3
Go, go...after waking up with a slight headache and taking a short drive to a small town called Kaikoura (for those of you have been, wait for it...) we boarded a state of the art boat that was built for one purpose...thats right, whale watching. Kaikoura is famous for whale's and boasts a unique geological formation right off its coastline. There is a massive underwater gorge over 1 km deep that plays host to all types of marine life including...well pretty much any whale you've ever heard of, as well as seals, sharks, albatross, and several species of dolphins. Basically this place is teeming with wildlife. The star of the show here is the massive (3rd largest) Sperm Whale. On our 3 hour trip we saw 2 of these incredible creatures as well as a pod of over 100 Dusky Dolphins. Awesome.


Sperm whale taking a dive.


The playful dusky dolphins.

Still more (we're getting up to 8)

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #4
After the whales was a drive straight across the island with a stop at Hanmer (yes I spelt that correctly) Springs. There we spent the evening enjoying natural hot springs and relaxing. Ended up having to spend the night as the only gas station for a 100 km's conveniently closes at 6:00 pm every day...what?


Thats a photo for the brochure don't you think.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #5
Bullers Gorge and mining country. A walk across New Zealands longest swinging bridge and an hours stroll through old gold mining country.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #6
The Pancake Rocks. Unique limestone cliffs that look like pancakes stacked on each other. The cliffs are constantly being battered by the heavy waves from the Tasman sea which carve out chambers beneath the surface. At the top of some of these chambers are little holes which, if the waves are big enough, will actually spray water out all over tourists and their cameras (fun for the locals to watch I'm sure). We didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked as a heavy rain storm blew in and completely drenched us. In a way though it made the site that much more impressive.


The pancake rocks.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #7
Hiking in Arthur's Pass. Unfortunately we didn't get to do any hiking as when we arrived, there was heavy rain which turned into heavy snow. This was a proper "dump" of snow, with those huge flakes that silently float to the ground (Kendra loved it just like anything that reminds her of winter...). Most of the hikes in the area require river crossings, and because of 2 days of these heavy rains/snow, most of the trails were closed due to high water levels. Thats OK, we were also there to swap our spaceship (our spaceship had a slight malfunction and they offered to swap us with a new one). This was a nice suprise as now we'd be able to watch movie's on our own portable DVD player at night! The transfer went went smoothly and we headed for activity #8.


Big fat snowflakes in Arthur's pass, a taste of home.

Kendra's South Island Itinerary - Activity #8
Shantytown, a heritage village built to show what life was like in the 1800's in the gold rush along the west coast of the South Island.


The 1877 working steam engine at Shantytown.

I've been asked politely to save both #9 and #10 for Kendra's update later, and so I shall (see the first paragraph...wink).

Once again we've done a lot and are apparently still going strong, New Zealand may be small but there is definetly plenty to do. Kendra's list moves us on.

Mike and Kendra

Orbita: The Next Frontier

How could I ever compete with Mike's last entry?... not that it's a competition ... I guess the news that I'm pregnant would certainly help. Except that it would be an utter lie (Mom(s), it was a joke, please don't call an emergency family meeting)! The engagement euphoria lingered for some time, but eventually we realized that we were still on our whirlwind adventure and wedding planning could wait until we got home (by the way, does anyone know of a beautiful outdoor wedding setting for say next June, not that I'm planning or anything:-).

A delay in Sydney, attributed to a fight with a pole in a parking lot that ripped off the ABBA van's driver side mirror, resulting in an unexpected visit to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney as we waited for a new part. The mountains were picturesque, with a blue haze surrounding the area due to evaporating eucalyptic oils. After a relaxing, and cost-free weekend, we returned to my favourite city in the world and the scene of the crime, aka the Opera House for a scrumptious breakfast overlooking the harbour with our good friends Karl and Petra. This would be the last time we would see the Austrian couple on this journey, which resulted in heart-felt goodbyes.


Engagement photo!

After a week's stay in Sydney, we were on our way back up the coast to spend the remainder of our time surfing in Byron Bay. We settled for a week in a campervan situated right off the main beach. It was heaven with only a 2 min walk to the sand and surf. I took a second lesson to learn how to paddle, read the waves, and get up without a "push". After some serious nose dives into the white water, I mastered the surf... on my 9 foot board that is. Mike and I rented boards for the rest of the week - I was upgraded to a 8 foot, semi-hard board, while Mike had the 7'10" hard fin board. With the assistance of Mr. Andy Wu (a good friend from uni days who was visiting Australia and a decent surfer), Mike ventured out into the bigger waves while I still trained on the rushing white water. The ocean was a cool 25 Deg C, so for the first couple of chilly, rainy days, our sessions were only for an hour before we were purple and shivering. At one point, I had to feel my toes with my hands because I was certain they weren't there any more. But did we pay the extra $5/day for a wetsuit, heck no! We're intrepid travelers, we hiked Mt. Kailash, so we could definatley handle the cold. Actually, the next day the weather improved dramatically and was blue skies and hot sun for the rest of the time. Sessions became twice a day with beach time inbetween. Mike and I improved quite a bit and know that future trips will now have to involve diving and surfing.


Mike and I on the beach at "The Wreck". Just our rashies, boards and the ocean.

Suddenly, it was November 8. We said goodbye to Byron Bay and then drove up the Gold Coast, with a quick stop in Surfer's Paradise, before returning to Brisbane for a fourth and final time. Debbie and Dom once again where the essence of hospitality and with champagne filled flutes, Mike's Uncle Ron offered us a toast on our engagement and welcomed me to the family. The next morning, we dropped off the ABBA van and as we walked away from Wicked Rentals, it felt like we were in mourning. The van had been our home for over 2.5 months. We had traveled 17,077 km with her and had learned every ABBA song (just ask Andy!). We had seen the center, the north, and all of the eastern coast of Australia and the van never failed us. Australia was an amazing country and a wonderful journey into the heart of indigenous people, a walk into their national parks, a sail through their reef and a beginning to a marriage. Australia will forever be in our heart and memories.

On Novemeber 10, after a 3 hour delay due to mechanical problems, our plane touched down in our 10th country of our trip, New Zealand. It was 4am and as the pilot welcomed us to the Northern Island and a city called Hamiliton, he stated the weather outside was a balmy 7 Deg. C and I commented "Mike, I don't think we're in Oz any more". We staggered into our dorm room at a cozy little house called J's Backpackers and slept for the next 10 hrs. The next day we took a bus to Auckland and settled into another hostel as we tried to organize our 6 week stint in New Zealand. We quickly realized that we missed the luxury of our own mode of transportation and looked into campervans. Unfortunatley Wicked had no rental vans available. Instead we found an outfit called "Spaceship" that had orange coloured vans that were "out of this world". ENTER ORBITA. This montrosity would be our home for the next 40 days. With a dvd player, 2 gas burner stove that swiveled out of the van, an extendable back with awning for more room, the van had potential. It wasn't ABBA, but the price was right. With transportation and accomodation arranged, we were finally able to relax and enjoy the wonder of New Zealand.


Our new home... Orbita


Mike loves NZ and no wonder, 1 day after stepping off the plane he got to see his first Rugby game in 10 months!

First of all, NZ is like no other country I have ever seen. The north island is covered in lucious green rolling hills, dotted with sheep. There are remenents of volcanos everywhere. The scenery is absolutely breath taking. Although the country is much smaller than Oz, the roads are narrow and winding, making for longer drives than excepted. Not to mention that we're stopping all the time for pictures!

One of the many view points of rolling hills on the North Island.

After touring the city of Auckland for a few days, we started to make our way south. We visited Coromandel Penisula and attempted to dig a spa at Hot Water Beach, but to no avail. Next up was a cultural trip to Rotorua, where we participated in a traditional Hangi meal and Maori concert. Although quite commercialized, it was a real treat. In accord with the Maori people tradition, a "chief" was chosen from our group and then was approached by a maori member who was dressed in tribal wear with wooden weapons, war paint and a tounge flicking, eye rolling expression. In order to be allowed access to their village, our chief had to respond appropriately, or our "tribe" would have been attacked and destroyed (if it was 100 years ago). Of course everything went smoothly and we entered the village and learned about how their skirts were made from blades of grass, stick games were played to strengthen eye-hand coordination, and weapons were used in battle. There was an hour long concert performance where the Haka was done (a challenge to opposing sides performed prior to a battle), and a love story was sang about Hinemoa and Tutanekai. Then there was the Hangi (meal cooked in the ground). An amazing feast of food. For $92 per entry, I wanted to make sure I got my food worth, so I filled my plate full with potatos, carrots, fish, chicken, lamb, buns, salad and then had dessert. A meal that would normally equal 3 days worth of suppers, I was stuffed for the entire next day, but completely satisfied.


View of the city line of Auckland.


Mike testing the supposedly hot spa like water at "hot water Beach". It wasn't!


The Maori warrior challenge at the start of our cultural visit.


The Hangi Feast.

In Roturua, the next morning was spent observing the thermal activity of the region. The sulphur smell was a little overwhelming, but the view of the bubbling mud baths, steaming rocks and spewing Pohutu geyser - an active geyser that erupts 10 times a day up to 20 m high of steaming water, was worth the rotten egg oder. We were fortunate enough to see another Maori concert before leaving Roturua.

On our way to Waitomo Caves for some "Extreme Junky" activities, we came across a bus with a sign saying "Hobbiton" on it. Intruiged we decided to follow it to a town called Matamata. At the visitors center we learned that 10 km away was the only remaining set from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. When in Rome... right? We signed up for the tour that took us to the 1200 acre sheep farm of the Alexander family where Peter Jackson directed the first 20 minutes of the film. As the set was being demolished, heavy rains prevented the complete destruction and after a 2 year battle, the family won the rights to show the remaining set to tourists. Of the 40 hobbit holes built into the green hills, 16 remained, including the home of Bilbo Baggins. Enough of the set remains coupled with pictures of the film, to give you an incredible idea of what the complete set looked like at the time of filming. The anecdotes from our tour guide also made the tour fun. Not to mention that Mike and I were the only ones on the last tour of the day, so it felt like a private tour for us.


View looking out of Biblo's home onto the Party Tree.

Now on to the extreme, Kiwi tried and true, adventure. Waitomo caves are an impressive underground water system that is known for their glow worms; or the larvae of the gungus gnat. In the dark caverns, the glow from the luminescent bugs looks like a canopy of stars. Our day adventure started with abseiling 30 m down the shaft of the cavern, into a undergroud river. Except for the guide having to push me off the cliff - seriously, who wants to leave the firm footing ground to have 30 m into the abyss supported only by a harness and ropes that may or may not slip - the decent was successful. Then our group of 6 people waded into the cool, strong current river, hopped into our tubes and raced down the river. This activity is also known as black water rafting. Very cool. We entered a large chamber, turned off our headlamps and were silenced with the beauty of the glow worms. After some more tubing, then some cave exploration, our 5 hour adventure ended with rock climbing up a steep, wet cliff to return us from our subterrainian haven. It was my first time rock climbing and with a very insulated wetsuit, I think it went really well. Not very graceful, but I got up. Mike of course was stellar!


Me dangling into nothingness, before abseiling down into the cavern.


View from the bottom of the cave.


Mike and I caving at Waitoma Caves.

So in a country where rugby is life, where places are named "Whakatane" and pronouced "Fuk-a-tan-e", where bungy jumping, abseiling, and zorbing are a mantra of sorts, where Middle Earth is not just a nickname but a ideology, Mike and I will journey on and discover the Kiwi life.

Kia ora,

Kendra & Mike