Tongariro, etc
A much belated long overdue post #2: the Tongariro Crossing and other adventures in the North Island.
After the wedding, we went on a not-honeymoon trip. It was a road trip with my friend Jenya from the US and my sister (who only came along on the North Island component).
Day 1: the Tongariro Crossing
This was AWESOME. It's a long walk - 19.4 km - but for the most part it's not terribly rough terrain. There is a lot of board walk, stairs, and gravel paths. I highly recommend it to anyone. You get awesome sights like this:
The whole place almost feels like an alien landscape. Adding to the sense of adventure is that you walk over active volcanoes, as is highlighted by a friendly sign at the start of the walk:
We took around 7.5 hours to do the walk. We could have gone up Mt. Ngarahoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings) and the Mt. Tongariro summit, but we didn't have time (had to catch a shuttle at 5 pm), and also Mt. Ngarahoe was in a cloud by the time we got there. I hear it's great though, so I definitely want to go up there again and see it. We could have done the whole thing faster, but my sister was a little slow! She made it in the end though :-)
Day 2: Taupo to Whakatane
After spending the night in Taupo (we were totally exhausted and went to bed at 10), we headed towards Rotorua. We stopped at the Aratiatia Dam and watched them release water from it, turning the calm stream below into rapids. After that, we went to Waiotapu "Thermal Wonderland":
It was smelly.
We stopped in Rotorua for lunch. Then Jenya went to check out a Maori tourist attraction, and the rest of us went to Mamaku to check out the place where Tonic grew up. It looks like it's improving now and is not as dodgy as it was when Tonic was growing up!
We then drove to Whakatane and spent the night there.
Day 3: East Cape
I should mention that this was also New Year's Eve. And we drove around the East Cape. Yeah, all around the outside, like this (embedding wasn't working for some reason).
And by "we", I meant I drove the whole time. For 12 hours. To Napier, because Gisborne was full. Google maps totally, totally lied. Average speed was around 60 km/hr due to nearly all of it being very twisty and turny.
However, we did see the Eastern most point of New Zealand:
We also played on the beach:
We finally made it to Napier at around 10:15 pm on NYE. We got stuck at a broken railway crossing in town before getting to our motel. The bar was down, the lights were flashing and the bell was ringing, but no train. I was just about to bail by driving over the median island (we were in a 4 wheel drive, isn't that what they're for?), but then it got fixed and we could go!
New year's was spent on the beach watching the surprisingly good fireworks and having a bit of champagne. We wandered around town a bit afterwards observing all the drunk people, and then got tired and went back to the motel.
Day 4: Napier to Palmerston North
The next day we hung around Napier a little, went to a winery, a beach, and then back to Palmerston North!
The South Island - coming soon!
Also, all the photos are here on my Picasa page.
After the wedding, we went on a not-honeymoon trip. It was a road trip with my friend Jenya from the US and my sister (who only came along on the North Island component).
Day 1: the Tongariro Crossing
This was AWESOME. It's a long walk - 19.4 km - but for the most part it's not terribly rough terrain. There is a lot of board walk, stairs, and gravel paths. I highly recommend it to anyone. You get awesome sights like this:
The whole place almost feels like an alien landscape. Adding to the sense of adventure is that you walk over active volcanoes, as is highlighted by a friendly sign at the start of the walk:
We took around 7.5 hours to do the walk. We could have gone up Mt. Ngarahoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings) and the Mt. Tongariro summit, but we didn't have time (had to catch a shuttle at 5 pm), and also Mt. Ngarahoe was in a cloud by the time we got there. I hear it's great though, so I definitely want to go up there again and see it. We could have done the whole thing faster, but my sister was a little slow! She made it in the end though :-)
Day 2: Taupo to Whakatane
After spending the night in Taupo (we were totally exhausted and went to bed at 10), we headed towards Rotorua. We stopped at the Aratiatia Dam and watched them release water from it, turning the calm stream below into rapids. After that, we went to Waiotapu "Thermal Wonderland":
It was smelly.
We stopped in Rotorua for lunch. Then Jenya went to check out a Maori tourist attraction, and the rest of us went to Mamaku to check out the place where Tonic grew up. It looks like it's improving now and is not as dodgy as it was when Tonic was growing up!
We then drove to Whakatane and spent the night there.
Day 3: East Cape
I should mention that this was also New Year's Eve. And we drove around the East Cape. Yeah, all around the outside, like this (embedding wasn't working for some reason).
And by "we", I meant I drove the whole time. For 12 hours. To Napier, because Gisborne was full. Google maps totally, totally lied. Average speed was around 60 km/hr due to nearly all of it being very twisty and turny.
However, we did see the Eastern most point of New Zealand:
We also played on the beach:
We finally made it to Napier at around 10:15 pm on NYE. We got stuck at a broken railway crossing in town before getting to our motel. The bar was down, the lights were flashing and the bell was ringing, but no train. I was just about to bail by driving over the median island (we were in a 4 wheel drive, isn't that what they're for?), but then it got fixed and we could go!
New year's was spent on the beach watching the surprisingly good fireworks and having a bit of champagne. We wandered around town a bit afterwards observing all the drunk people, and then got tired and went back to the motel.
Day 4: Napier to Palmerston North
The next day we hung around Napier a little, went to a winery, a beach, and then back to Palmerston North!
The South Island - coming soon!
Also, all the photos are here on my Picasa page.