An unexpected plunge into Mordor

The next week and a half marks the first time in our two month-long adventure that we have truly been on our own. With that in mind, Caroline and I wanted with such fervor to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing that we planned to spend the next two, even three days waiting out the weather. The Crossing, situated above 1000 meters for its entirety, is prone to high winds and nasty rain, kind of like good ol’ Mt. Rainier in motherland Washington. Leaving Rotorua with hopefulness and a little nervousness, we called the DOC office in Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park to check the conditions. Not to our surprise, things were not looking swell. Or rather, quite the swell of weather was coming. We grabbed a soggy camp site near the Village, pitched our tent, and soon after fell asleep to the sound of rain pelting our rainfall (its first major test). Waking up in the morning we were greeted surprisingly by the sun! We quickly ate some oatmeal, hastily packed the car, and raced to the DOC office to get the conditions. We were told that the weather would not be advisable for the crossing. Again, what a killjoy. However as I sat back in the car, a restless sense of needing to at least try the hike delivered the confidence to call a local shuttle company and ask if they would suggest the hike. The kind woman on the line warned us that the Red Crater which is the high point at 1800 meters had 80kmh winds, but if we were keen to go, we could start on the north end and potentially make it to the emerald lakes before the weather set back in. With that the pedal was near the floor and we were racing the clouds in our trusty chunk of metal.

This is when things got good. As I was changing out of my pajamas and racing through the items we would need for our climb, my mind was flying faster than the winds at the crater. Without thinking about it, I locked the car haphazardly. Just before our packs were filled and the boot (what a trunk is called in NZ) it donned on me. “Sh**, Caroline, the keys are still in the ignition…,” I stated, with the panic growing in my stomach. I instantly went into criminal mode. Breaking in to my car is not a novelty to me. The best until this point being the time I locked myself out before school with the car running, the tank on empty, and the spare key with my mother in Idaho. This was worse. We were out of cell reception, potentially a long ways away from any, and trying to get on the mountain before the weather set. After unloading the trunk of all of our belonging, the next 40 minutes were spent trying to get to the latch which folds down the back seat. After physically bending the frame of said seat, and to the crowd of the family that pulled up in their camper, we finally got it! Needless to say, we were on the hill with the key glued and zipped inside my pants pocket. Since that moment I check my pocket every thirty seconds and present the key to Caroline when leaving the car.

The hike was a workout from start to finish. Trying to make up for lost time we climbed 6.4km with close to 1000m of vertical gain in 1:26. This exhausting pace would have had us to the lakes by about two hours had the wind not picked up. With gusts hitting us swiftly in the face, the decision was made to head back down. Those mountains, or I should say volcanoes, were glorious. Still active and steaming from multiple craters, Tongariro is a site to behold. Tussock and other harsh weather plant life covered the landscape in between big blocks of volcanic rock.

Surprisingly got a good view even with all the clouds.

Though we couldn’t tramp the whole crossing, there was absolutely zero regret following us trying to walk on one of the world’s best hikes. The three hours and 13km of hiking with 6000 feet of vertical gain and loss will leave us with a sense of accomplishment and adventure for the rest of our lives.

Oh, and we’re going to get another key cut.

Until then,

Blake

 

P.S. Tongariro National Park is the site of Mordor from Lord of the Rings. Mt. Ngauruhoe being the famed Mount Doom from the films. Any LOTR fan would understand the thrill of walking through Mordor…

It's a thermal wonderland!

This week was very eventful to say the least, so my blog post is about our last few days in Rotorua and Blake will take you through the interesting set of events we experienced yesterday. We got several days of good weather this week and took advantage by going on several hikes after work. Our favorite hike of the week, and one of our favorites so far this trip, was up to the top of Rainbow Mountain. The name is fitting as the mountain contains beautiful red and orange earth, complete with lush greenery all around. Starting out up the steep hill, we were shocked to see a bright turquoise thermal pool on the side of the mountain. After a pretty strenuous uphill, we finally made it to the top where we had a 360 degree view of the valley below. After the hike, we drove a few miles to Kerosene Creek. It looks like a normal river, but it’s geothermally heated so it feels like a hot tub! We planted ourselves underneath a waterfall that empties into a calm pool, perfect for relaxing.

Side view of Rainbow Mountain

Turquoise pool

Blake attempts the waterfall!

I can't stand up in the waterfall!

More Kerosene Creek

 

Blake loves beer and I love pretzels, so when we saw advertisements all over town for the Okere Falls Beerfest, we knew we had to go. It definitely lived up to our expectations. We had brats and beer for dinner and I even found a beer I liked! After the super healthy dinner, we decided to keep it going by ordering a giant soft pretzel with brie for dessert. It was definitely worth it. We stayed for a few hours listening and singing along to the awesome band.

Brats and German beer

I was too excited for the pretzel

 

On Saturday, we drove out back by Okere Falls to visit Hamurana Springs. After a short walk we came to the springs, which bubbles up about 50 meters from underground. Everyone else was throwing $2 coins into the springs and making wishes. We are cheepos and threw twenty cents in, so it’s doubtful our wish will come true. Taranaki (the rugby team was saw play in New Plymouth) was playing in the ITM finals, so we found an Irish pub to watch them play. Surprisingly there were quite a few other Taranaki fans there we were able to cheer with. What looked like a blowout, quickly turned into a close team, but Taranaki pulled out a win! Blake was proud to wear his jersey for a few days after that.

You can't tell from the picture, but it's about fifty meters deep.

Tuesday, we decided to pay for one of the tourist attractions, but we are so glad we did. Waiotapu (meaning Sacred Waters) is a reserve with tons of different kinds of thermal ponds. We followed the map and viewed all 30 thermal attractions, while we learned how the vibrant colors we were seeing were caused by different minerals. Our favorites were the Champagne Pool, Devil’s Bath, and the green pond that we can’t remember the name of.

Champagne Pool

Green Lake

Devil's Bath

 

Rotorua turned out to be a town I fell in love with. I will miss my morning runs through the beautiful Redwood forest, access to so many hikes, chai Lattes at Abracadabra Café, and the friends we made staying at the Funky Green Hostel. We are off to spend most of the next two weeks camping, which means more camping for me than probably my whole life combined. Wish us luck!

 

Mountain Biking Rotorua

I should’ve known today was going to be a good day, because it started out with banana pancakes and peanut butter and only got better from there. For Blake’s birthday, my parents told us they would pay for the two of us to rent mountain bikes for the day and bike through the extensive network of trails in the redwood forest. Today was the one sunny day in the forcast this week, so we decided it would be our best bet. We worked our usual 10 am to 12 at the hostel- me cleaning bathrooms, Blake making beds. As Blake was making a bed he started talking to a newcomer to the hostel named Kevin. Turns out Kevin is the same age as us, just graduated from Stanford and really wanted to bike the redwoods too. As much as I love Blake, we do occasionally need other people to hang out with, so we were overjoyed to meet someone at the hostel who didn’t speak German and was up for an adventure (the hostel owner is German, so they seem to get a ton of German tourists that keep to themselves). After work we walked a few blocks to the Bike Barn where we were each fitted to a bike and a helmet and were given directions on how to bike the 5k to the forest. We started on some easy trails and worked our way up to some intermediate trails, all leading through the beautiful forest. After two hours of biking the lower trails, we took a suggestion from the guy at the bike shop and rode up a really big hill (think Ponderosa in McCall plus some) until we were exhausted and had to walk it. The views at the top were so worth it though! We were able to see the whole city and Lake Rotorua. By this point we had been on the bikes about three hours and were exhausted and hungry, so we decided to head back to return our bikes. The ride home was terrible since for some reason my butt hurt so bad I couldn’t even sit down on the seat anymore. The day was made though when we saw a man selling tons of avocados for only $2 a bag! You know what that means… guac for dinner!!!! Huge thanks to my parents for the awesome experience. Blake wishes dad and Drew were there to ride the switchbacks fast with him.

Our new friend Kevin! View over Lake Rotorua and the rest of the city.

 

Whoooo avocados!

 

Other noteworthy news:

1.       We visited Kuirau Park and saw a bunch of natural thermal pools that were really cool.

It smells like farts here.

Natural thermal hotspots.

 

2.       We found out how to hike to see Pohotu geyser, so we didn’t have to pay for it.

3.       A common thing here is to sell fish and chips at the same shop and eat them together in one meal. I don’t know that I will ever understand this.

4.       We’ve picked up a few Kiwi phrases we really like. “sweet as”- to say something is cool or sweet, “chuck”- used a lot of different ways. Ex: “I will chuck the water over onto the table” or “chuck the stamp onto the letter”

5.       Coffee shops here make really good drinks, like best chai lattés I have ever tasted. Blake gets a flat white (basically a latte) and me a chai, obviously. They are usually served extra foamy with pretty decorations and a marshmallow on the side.

6.       Last but definitely not least, I’m sure you were all wondering what the Catan score is. I currently lead 11-8, although Blake is making a comeback.

That one time I thought we were being taken

We had been itching to finally go backpacking and even more so once we bought the tent. We finished up our workaway and headed out for our trip early Monday morning. A worker at MacPack (where we bought our tent) recommended we try the Rangiwahia track about 1.5 hours from Palmerston. After navigating through several sheep paddocks with the most adorable newborn sheep, we arrived at the track. We spent the first two hours climbing some pretty steep uphills that completely exhausted us. While we were climbing we kept seeing a black helicopter circling the mountains around us, but we had no idea what it was doing. As we reached the highest point of our climb, we noticed the helicopter coming right at us. Of course, I immediately thought worse case scenario, that either we were being evacuated or taken by evil forces. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched Taken 2 a few nights ago. It becomes clear the helicopter wants to land right where we are standing so we started to run backwards out of the way. My nerves settle when I see that it’s an Air Force helicopter filled with friendly looking people. We introduced ourselves to the few workers who got dropped off to set up rat traps around the trail. Needless to say, it was really exciting to have an Air Force chopper land just feet away from us.

 

Look how cute the babies are!

 

See how that could look really scary?

 

 

Camera man Blake.

 

Luckily the people who got dropped off by the helicopter were nice enough to take our picture.

We reached the Rangiwahina hut a few hours later and cooked up some tuna and rice for dinner (anything tastes good after you’ve been hiking all day. New Zealand has a really extensive hut system where you can pay a fee, (around $15 a night, more expensive for popular tracks) to have a mattress, a sink, toilet, and use of the wood burning fireplace. We weren’t sure if camping was allowed (we are now thinking it wasn’t) but we wanted to use our new tent and not pay for the two of us to stay in the hut. No one else was there, so we decided to pitch out tent anyways. I guess I was worrying the whole night because I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that the rats they had mentioned earlier were definitely chewing on my backpack that was outside. Blake thinks I’m crazy and was only hearing the wind, but think, giant rats! That could’ve been bad.

We hiked back down to the car early the next morning and headed off to our next destination: Rotorua. The first thing we noticed when we arrived was that it smelled like fart everywhere. There’s a lot of sulfur and thermal activity which leads to the smell, but Blake appreciates the fact that he can fart and no one will ever know. We are working at the Funky Green Voyager hostel for the next two weeks in exchange for accommodation. Our house for the moment is a cute old campervan with a bed, dresser and mini fridge. We work for 2-3 hours each day, mostly cleaning bathrooms, washing sheets, and making beds. This is a very touristy town, so there are lot’s of things to do like whitewater rafting, skydiving, spas, and cave adventures. Unfortunately, everything costs a ton of money. Luckily, we have found some good free things, like hiking around Blue Lake and running through the extensive redwood forest. The hostel is only a five minute walk from the downtown, which has a ton of shops and restaurants and a really cool market every Thursday night. There’s definitely not a shortage of things to do here, so I’m sure we will stay busy!

Hike around Blue Lake

Redwoods!

 

Hikes, Cricket and Squids

After over a week of being sick and not really leaving the house, I started to feel much better by Thursday. We were a bit stir crazy by this point, so after the morning spent babysitting the kids, we took off for an afternoon adventure. We drove about 45 minutes south to a town called Otaki, because Adrian said there were some good outlet stores. After wearing the same blue fleece everyday I've been here (as you probably noticed in the pictures) I was able to find a cheap fleece at Katmandu (an outdoors store) that should hopefully last me through the trip. After the shopping we drove to a neighboring town, Levin, and finally got a hike in after a week out of commission. We hiked about an hour up the mountain and got some beautiful views of the valley below.

View from the top of our hike to the town of Levin.

Many people recommended we do the Manawatu Gorge hike here, so we set out early Friday morning for yet another hike. It was about a two hour round trip hike with some excellent views of the gorge below and a collection of wind turbines on the neighboring hills. The landscapes here are so varied, going from alpine to jungle in one hike. We couldn't resist a few Tarzan moments on the jungle vines.

The Gorge with the windmills on the hill.

 

Blake snacking at the top.

I can never be Tarzan.

We spent Saturday morning babysitting the kids while Sara was busy sewing at her shop. Minnie (the 9 mo old) is even starting to like me and not scream bloody murder when Blake is around her. Progress! At this point we have watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman at least ten times with Giacomo and have it completely memorized. We have set up a few more workaways on the south island starting mid November, but we have about two weeks before that we will be on our own. We decided we needed to get a tent, so we could spend a good portion of those two weeks camping around the northern part of the south island. It sucks to buy one, because Blake has a perfectly good one at home and a good tent here is going to cost way more than a comparable one back home. We decided to buy a pretty good quality tent that will last us this trip and we can either sell it before we come home, or bring it back with us and use it for years to come. Pictures of the tent to follow!

We stopped at a park for a picnic lunch and watched cricket. We don't understand the game at all...

Saturday night was Adrian's sister, Rebecca's birthday. The whole family lives close by, so we drove out to Foxton beach to celebrate at the grandparent's beach house with 18 other friends and family members. We had by far the best meal since we've been here. Calamari green salad, grilled pork belly and grilled veggies with halloum cheese, and a collection of mini desserts. We had a blast talking with the family on the porch and singing to Earth, Wind, and Fire songs through the night.

I was really excited to see an elephant cloud on the way to the beach.

The river in Foxton leading to the ocean.
 

Beach house party!

We are off tomorrow to spend the next two weeks doing a work exchange at a hostel in Rotorua. I've made a map below so you can see roughly where we have been so far on the north island.


Sorry, really small! We are currently at #4 (Palmerston North) and are heading to #5 tomorrow or Tuesday.

Rest, Recoup, Recover

Things have slowed down a bit from the busyness of the farm as we have traveled from Opunake to a dot on the map known as Opiki. We are living on another farm but this time they grow mainly corn and wheat. The family we are staying with is the first workaway host we have stayed with in the month we have been here. Sara, Adrian, their little boy Giacomo, and their foster child Mini have been incredibly kind and welcoming. Giacomo is obsessed with tractors, and for good reason as his dad has plenty of them. The little guy can be well-entertained for hours by helping Adrian drive the tractors, or watching an assortment of educational movies on tractors, diggers, combine harvesters and so on.

View from this farm.

 Since last Wednesday when we arrived, Caroline has not been feeling well, and after two different trips to the doctor, a lack of diagnosis, a random inquiry into whether we were Mormon missionaries, (boyfriend and girlfriend cannot be a missionary pairing in the LDS church. Maybe it was Caroline's last name?) and then an educated guess that she had picked up a bacterial infection on the dairy farm recently sent us back home with pedialyte and antibiotics. Needless to say, Caroline has had a bad few days, but is finally looking better. Bland food, Catan, and plenty of water have been the necessities while we have done some yardwork and babysitting while Sara and Adrian worked. Yesterday was my birthday, and we quickly but reservedly gave up our plans of going backpacking and then having a nice dinner out on the town in nearby Palmerston North. Instead, after resting for most of the afternoon, we went to the cinema to see Gone Girl (a fantastic, thrilling, and frustrating movie) followed by a light dinner at a great café called the Barista café. I can happily say that I had a wonderful birthday abroad! Thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy day. Today (Tuesday) another workawayer,Daniella, has come to stay with us in the house for the rest of the week. She is from Germany and will be in the country until May!

Had to post one last picture of Mt. Taranaki

Birthday Cake!