Nov 25-25: Mt. Ngauruhoe, Tongariro Natl. Park

In the middle of the north island is Tongariro national park, home to a very active thermal area. There are a range of mountains, volcanoes, a ski hill, and lake Taupo nearby, as well as one of the country's "great walks", and a very popular but demanding day hike, the Tongariro crossing. The whole area is a fascinating volcanic wasteland, no trees, very little vegetation, few birds or animals, and it's eerily quiet when there's no people around. No wonder this place was used as a filming location for Mordor.

We decided we would attempt a climb of Mount Ngauruhoe, which starred as "Mt Doom" in the Lord of the Rings. It is around 7500 ft above sea level, and is an active volcano- last eruption was 1975. It can be climbed by people without mountaineering skills because it is symmetrical and mostly 30 degrees all the way up, without cliffs and rock walls.
However it is not to be taken lightly, as there are still dangers; it's loose volcanic rock and climbers further up can loosen rocks and send them flying towards people below. The weather has to be closely watched as well. And of course if it erupts, well, we figured there's not much we can do about that, it would be a cool way to go out!

It takes a bit of fitness to complete a climb, you have to walk a good part of the Tongariro crossing just to get to the foot of the mountain. From the carpark to the summit is about 3800 ft in elevation (thats like 5 Calabogie Peaks!).
We are really not in the best shape being a couple old farts compared to all the young German tourists quickly climbing the mountain, then sliding down.
It was a long, slow, gut-wrenching climb for us- I think the hardest thing either of us have ever done. It feels like 45 degrees when you are up there. We started off saying we would just climb part way and see how we feel, but once we got halfway, why go back! We took our time and went carefully, and eventually made it to the summit. It is a great sense of accomplishment to be above the clouds on a mountain. We did a full circle around the crater which was complete with steaming vents.

All in, it took us 8 hours from leaving our van till we were back at the carpark. We slept well that night. The smartest thing I did that day was to put 2 beers in the fridge for when we got home.

Nov 21: Tongaporutu

This was one of my favorite places in the north island. Tongaporutu is famous for its "three sisters" rocks, one collapsed so now theres only two. Lots of sea arches, tall rugged limestone cliffs, and the most amazing natural boulders north of the river mouth. They are sometimes buried under sand depending on how much gets washed up by the tides so there's no guarantee you will see them- but they were out for us- several perfect spheres in the sand, created by nature somehow.
We could have spent hours here looking at all the amazing sculpted caves and cliffs and tide-pools- but you can't! At high tide the sea smashes up against the cliffs so you have only a couple hours either side of low tide. The weather was hash the day we were there, but so very worth it!

Can you believe the price of kiwifruit?!

I've seen it as low as $1.20/kg at the grocery store, thats around $2 a dozen. We go through bags of it, while we can.

Nov 18-20: The West Coast

After getting back from Great Barrier, we spent a couple days in Auckland to pick up more supplies, then headed straight across the north island to the central west coast.
The west is very different from the eastern beaches, the prevailing wind is from the west, so the seas are always rough, with bigger, more violent waves, rips, and strong winds;  so it's rarely swimmable. However, its what you would call rugged, and very scenic. One big feature is black sand beaches, caused by underwater lava flows off the coast. The sea erodes the lava rocks and washes up iron-rich slate-black sand. It looks like soil from a distance, but up close its fine powdery sand, and sticks to a magnet.

We started in the small friendly town of Kawhia, which is close to a small hot-water beach. There is an underground hot spring, so if you dig a hole in the sand in the right area, it fills in with hot water and you have your own hot tub! Its hard to get it deep enough though.
This beach also had Tuatuas, a type of clam similar to cockles- we grabbed a small bag for dinner. They are excellent, better than mussels.

On the road further south there is a road west of Waitomo that is packed full of natural attractions- on a stretch of about 15 km we found a natural bridge, a cave, and a nice waterfall.

Nov 1-15: Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island (NOT Great Barrier Reef, nothing to do with Australia's reef!) is an island a 4 1/2 hour ferry east of Auckland.

On the ferry over, the captain saw a whale and slowed the ship so we could take a look, but it never resurfaced. There were some dolphins, I got a good video of one playing in front of the ship.

With a population of around 800, it has a very small-town feel where everyone knows everyone else and everyone is very friendly. We wanted an excuse to visit this island, so we did a 2-week workstay at a backpackers lodge at Medlands beach, one of the nicest beaches we've seen. Our hosts were very good to us, giving us a villa at the top of a hill overlooking the whole Medlands area. There is no central power generation on the island, so it was interesting to see how everyone gets on with a combination of solar, wind, generators and rainwater.

Being a little remote and harder to get to than most places, this island was an unspoilt paradise and it was a good decision to visit. Several amazing beaches, there are massive hills and great scenery. We did a day hike to Mt. Hobson, the highest point on the island, snorkelling and diving for paua in the reef at Medlands, and Kaitoke springs- the most natural hot spring we've seen yet. There's nothing man made, its just a stream of hot water in the bush with pools at different temperatures, some very hot, but no concrete tubs. At the top of the stream there is a pool of about 5ft deep, with a little waterfall of warm water running into it. We spent a bit of time there for sure!

For work I helped repair all the windows in the backpackers, and Jill did a bit of gardening and cleaning out rooms. The owners had loads of chickens so lots of fresh eggs. The island has its own birdlife a little different from the mainland, loads of Tui's and wood pigeons, and also lots of Kaka- a kind of wild parrot, but very noisy things. They also took us down to the social/local pub a couple times, we had our first Guy Fawkes celebration, and also watched our first rugby league game- it was really good, the Kiwis beat the Aussies!

Oct 28: Waiorongomai Goldmine Ruins

After Hobbiton we had an afternoon to kill so visited some more goldmine ruins. Waiorongomai has been well restored by the DOC, yet it seems not many people visit. This place still has all the rails, tracks and ore-carts intact.

Nov 1-15: Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island (NOT Great Barrier Reef, nothing to do with Australia's reef!) is an island a 4 1/2 hour ferry east of Auckland.

On the ferry over, the captain saw a whale and slowed the ship so we could take a look, but it never resurfaced. There were some dolphins, I got a good video of one playing in front of the ship.

With a population of around 800, it has a very small-town feel where everyone knows everyone else and everyone is very friendly. We wanted an excuse to visit this island, so we did a 2-week workstay at a backpackers lodge at Medlands beach, one of the nicest beaches we've seen. Our hosts were very good to us, giving us a villa at the top of a hill overlooking the whole Medlands area. There is no central power generation on the island, so it was interesting to see how everyone gets on with a combination of solar, wind, generators and rainwater.

Being a little remote and harder to get to than most places, this island was an unspoilt paradise and it was a good decision to visit. Several amazing beaches, there are massive hills and great scenery. We did a day hike to Mt. Hobson, the highest point on the island, snorkelling and diving for paua in the reef at Medlands, and Kaitoke springs- the most natural hot spring we've seen yet. There's nothing man made, its just a stream of hot water in the bush with pools at different temperatures, some very hot, but no concrete tubs. At the top of the stream there is a pool of about 5ft deep, with a little waterfall of warm water running into it. We spent a bit of time there for sure!

For work I helped repair all the windows in the backpackers, and Jill did a bit of gardening and cleaning out rooms. The owners had loads of chickens so lots of fresh eggs. The island has its own birdlife a little different from the mainland, loads of tui's and wood pigeons, and also lots of Kaka- a kind of wild parrot, but very noisy things.
They also took us down to the social/local pub a couple times, we had our first Guy Fawkes celebration, and also watched our first rugby league game- it was really good, the Kiwis beat the Aussies!