Our first stop was in Lower Hutt just outside Wellington to visit Fiona's distant relatives Debbie and Rob. We had a great time getting to know them, talking about tramping and going on a walk in the bush near their house. Debbie also cooked us some very tasty meals. From their house we made a couple of day trips into Wellington to visit the botanical gardens, the parliament building and New Zealand's National Museum, Te Papa. This included interesting exhibits on Maori history and culture, earthquakes and a fun temporary exhibition about bugs. The highlight was the spectacular Gallipoli exhibit, which really brought the story of the tragic WWI campaign in Turkey to life with huge, larger than life human figures.
On a bush walk with Debbie and Rob
Before leaving Wellington we picked up Jake and another of our friends, Emily, from the airport and would spend the next week with them. That day we also went on a tour around Weta Studios which is a company that makes film props, models and special effects.They are most famous for their work in making all the props for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but have been involved in many more films including District 9 and the Narnia series. They were also responsible for the dioramas at the air museum we visited in Blenheim and the giant people in the Gallipoli exhibit. It was fascinating to get an insight into how everything is created.
The huge models at Te Papa
Heading north out of Wellington we made a quick stop at the rugby museum in Palmerston North to find out about everything All Black and then continued on to Tongariro National Park. The plan was to hike the famous Tongariro Crossing rated as the best day walk in the country across the spectacular volcanic terrain of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe. However at this point Cyclone Debbie decided to hit New Zealand and dump over a month's worth of rain on the island in just a few days. Visibility on the morning of the hike was less than 100m as we were totally enveloped in cloud and driving rain. We did put on our waterproofs and go for a low level walk to the Tama Lakes, but it was disappointing nonetheless. We would have a second chance to do the walk a week later, but it was particularly sad for Jake and Emily who were only in the country for a short period of time.
The next couple of days consisted of more torrential rain, sheltering inside in cafes, finding indoor activities and playing cards. The rain was so heavy at one point we resorted to eating our sandwiches in the car on top of a multi-storey carpark! Whilst we didn't get to do all the outdoor activities we had originally planned we still saw the Huka Falls, spent a couple of hours sat in geothermal hot pools at Taupo, and visited the geysers, bubbling mud pools and steam vents at Rotorua. The whole area is a hotspot (pun intended) of geothermal activity; the whole town of Rotorua smells of sulphur, steam can be seen rising from cracks in the road and all the electricity is generated fossil fuel free in geothermal power stations.
Northland was our next destination and a trip up the west coast to visit the kauri forests. Kauri are a native tree to New Zealand and are huge. Tane Mahuta, the largest, is 45m tall and 15m in circumference and is estimated to be 3000 years old. Ahipara is a small beachy town at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, and was the furthest north we ventured in New Zealand. We had a relaxing few days exploring the area, sand-boarding down huge dunes and doing some coastal walks. Our hostel here was one of the nicest ones we stayed in all trip - and even had a dishwasher!
Fiona, Jake and Emily at 'The Craters of the Moon' near Taupo
Te Puia Geyser in Rotorua
North of Rotorua on a farm outside the town of Matamata is the village of Hobbiton created for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. It is now a very popular tourist attraction and a highly anticipated part of our visit to NZ. It was lots of fun to see the film set, pose for photos in front of Bilbo's house and have a drink the in Green Dragon pub.
Satisfying our inner nerd at Hobbiton
Our final activity before saying goodbye to Jake and Emily was to visit the caves at Waitomo. Fortunately it had now finally stopped raining and the water levels in the caves has subsided enough for us to enter and go black water rafting. This involved putting on wetsuits, climbing harness and helmets, then abseiling 27m down into a cave before wading upstream with our giant rubber rings. Deep into the cave we turned out our head-torches and gazed in wonder at the glow maggots (not worms). We then hopped into our rings and floated downstream in the dark. We also squeezed through tiny tunnels in the rock, enjoyed a cup of tea underground and climbed back out the way we came in. It was a great experience and so different to anything we'd done before.
Fiona in her rubber ring
The incredible glow maggots
We dropped off Jake and Emily in Hamilton to begin their journeys home and retraced our steps back to Rotorua, Taupo and Tongariro to attempt some of the activities we'd missed out on due to the rain. At Taupo we both did our first ever tandem skydive (fortunately strapped to professionals and not each other!), free falling from 12,000ft over the lake. We were both pretty nervous beforehand, but the staff at Taupo Tandem Skydive were great at giving us confidence and keeping us calm. One had done over 25,000 jumps in his career! It was odd sitting in a small plane facing backwards and it was pretty noisy not being a pressurised cabin. We were both relatively calm until the rear sliding door opened and Fiona screamed that she didn't want to do it anymore. She predicted this would happen beforehand and knew she would be fine once out the door. Fortunately being strapped to someone else means you don't have to actually make the jump as you fall out the door with them. Falling out a plane and seeing it fly away above you is quite a weird experience, but the rush of falling at 200km/h is amazing. After 45seconds of free fall our parachutes opened and we could enjoy the view over the lake and towards the mountains. It was all over too quickly and we were soon back on the ground. We both agreed that it was one of the best things we've done and would love to do it again.
Fiona about to 'jump'
The next day we completed the Tongariro Crossing at our second attempt and the weather was amazing. Clear blue skies allowed us to really appreciate the stunning, other worldly landscape of the volcanoes. On the way up we crossed fields of lava where it had flowed down the slopes of Mount Ngaurahoe and at the top of Mount Tongariro itself we had great views of the Red Crater and the Emerald Lakes.
The Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Crossing
Ben in front of Mount Ngaurahoe (aka Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings!)
Next we headed to Napier on the east coast. This is an interesting town in that it was almost entirely rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1920s and consequently is one of the best collections of Art Deco buildings in the world. Unfortunately our efforts at much sightseeing here were thwarted by torrential rain and 100+ km/hr winds of Cyclone Cook. Over the Easter weekend we stayed in Whitianga on the Coromandel peninsula enjoying great beaches.
Deserted beaches of the Coromandel
Tane Mahuta. Picture doesn't do justice to how big it really is!
At the Waitangi Treaty Grounds we found out more about the nation's founding document, and managed to find James Reddy Clendon's (one of Fiona' distant relatives) signature on it. The Treaty of Waitangi was a document signed by the British and Maori chiefs in 1841 effectively beginning formal British colonial rule. There is still a lot of controversy as the original documents in Maori and English say slightly different things with respect to land ownership. Several Maori tribes are still fighting to be recognised as the rightful owners of their traditional lands. We were also treated to a cultural performance by a local Maori group who sang, danced, played music and intimidated us with their very mobile tongues! Just outside Russell was the site of the first capital of New Zealand, on land which once belonged to James Reddy. Although there are no buildings there anymore we still visited to admire the view before walking into the town for tea and cake. A trip to Clendon house was the final thing to tick off the family history to do list, which was brought to life by a very enthusiastic curator.
Nice tongue!
Finally we headed back to Auckland to catch our flight to Australia. We had an amazing time thoroughly exploring New Zealand and don't regret spending such a long portion of our trip in just one small country. We hope to be back one day. Kia Ora.
No comments:
Post a Comment