I've moved back down to the South Island, back on the Stray backpacker bus. Today I went hiking on a glacier, you get to wear super cool spikies on your feet called crampons...
Enjoy the photos from the last two weeksish and tune in again!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing Epic Adventure
New pictures here!
Hello again faithful readers! I write to you no longer as merely Mara, but Mountaineer Mara. I have traversed the Tongariro National Park, braving freezing cold, 60 km/hour winds, steep climbs up volcanic rock and really goofy looking over-trousers.
To back-track, the last time I wrote I was in Rotorua. I loved Rotorua, obviously we went to the main museum, it used to be a popular spa vacation place in the 1800's. Rotorua was also the home of the Pink and White Terraces, known as the "8th wonder of the world" at the time. They were limestone and silica natural terraces that held hot springs and Victorians came all the way to New Zealand to visit them. They were destroyed in the 1880's though by a massive volcanic eruption. Apparently New Zealand lies right on top of a fault line, the same one that goes through LA. It's a hotbed of volcanic and geothermal activity. Which has become somewhat of a joke, cause I don't fully undertand geothermal activity--the answer to any question I don't know the answer to is "um, geothermal activity?" I did learn how a geyser works though. We saw one at this place Te Puia, a Maori culture center that is also a home to a craft school that teaches Maori carving and weaving techniques, in the hopes that the traditions won't be lost. For nerds who are into museums and learning centers, it was an awesome place. they also have a house to breed kiwis so I got my first glimpse at New Zealand's national animal. Anyways, Rotorua was very cool, there are hot springs all around town, in the hostels, there are even little pools you can put your feet into while you're waiting for the bus. On the way out of town, we stopped at an energy plant that uses the heat from deep in the ground. It's very cool.
Anyways, from Rotorua we went on to Taupo, which is known for having one of the cheapest skydives in the world. I was going to do it with our bus group, but it was raining and then the next day I was just totally mentally unprepared. So I haven't yet taken the plunge but I may do it in the South Island, just to say I did. Even though I might wet myself on the way down. So basically the only memorable thing I did in Taupo was nap and buy some new underwear...but that's important, right?
So the Tongariro National Park is located in the middle of the North Island, just below the southern end of Lake Taupo, which is by the way the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere. The Tongariro Crossing is known as the best one day walk in New Zealand, and is rated in the top 10 walks in the world...by whoever it is that rates these things. The weather has been iffy lately so we couldn't go for a few days; because the weather in New Zealand can change dramatically and very quickly, even when it is allowed to do the walk one has to go very prepared. The crossing is roughly 19 km and it takes somewhere between 6 and 8 hours to complete. We started out at 8 am with all the other hikers in a cold, misty drizzle. For about an hour the walk was nice and easy, only mildy uphill and with beautiful grassy hills that English Lauren said looked like Scotland. It started getting steeper about 2 hours in and the terrain changed to more volcanic rocks, and we could see the snow-capped Mount Tongariro through the fog. Eventually we were climbing steep rocky ground covered in volcanic ash and it was starting to get really cold. They warn you before leaving that you must bring wind- and waterproof gear; it's easy to think it's just overcaution until you start to reach higher altitudes and it gets really cold and really blustery. I rented some waterproof pants to wear over my pants and I don't think I could have made it without them. If you are wearing cotton clothing and it gets damp, combined with the wind hypothermia becomes a real risk.
The going got easier for a while as we walked through the South Crater. The relatively flat ground and intense fog made it seem like we were walking on the moon. If you're ever so lucky, you might see a video Lauren made of me doing a horrible Michael Jackson moonwalk. Eventually we uphill again, along the side of Mount Tongariro and it was COLD. The wind was blowing so hard, if I stopped walking it felt like I might blow over the side of the mountain. Which apparently has happened before.... We all had to wear socks over our hands to keep warm, and I was actually getting kind of scared for a while. But we made it and were rewarded with the clouds blowing over to reveal a spectacular view of the Red Crater and the Emerald Lakes, three sulphur ponds in a gorgeous shade of turquoise. The lakes were quite possibly the most amazing view I've seen yet--it was the combination of volcanic terrain and brilliant color of the lakes, I've never seen anything like it before. The amazing thing about the park is that there are so many different terrains in such a small area. On the way down the hills were covered in sandy colored grasses and occasional little streams, and the final hour was through thick forest with a babbling river running through. By the end I was absolutely exhausted and my legs felt like jello, but it was amazing. Fortunately the hostel has a free hot tub!
So now I'm just relaxing and massaging my poor muscles, and sharing stories of the day with other climbers. Enjoy the photos and laugh at me looking either dorky in my alpine outfit or absolutely miserable in the cold! Tomorrow we should be heading back to Wellington and making a game plan for the South Island. LOVE!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Live from Rotorua
Hello family and all! I know you must all be thinking...where the hey is Mara? She never writes anymore! Well, I'm still here. In New Zealand. Not cyberspace. Right now I'm in Rotorua, about in the northern middle of the North Island. Since the last time I wrote, Lauren and I have started our bus passes, we travelled from the South to the north, spent two days in Wellington seeing my old co-counselor and buddy Caitlin and exploring Te Papa Tongarewa, the awesome national museum. If you're into that kind of thing. Which I am. From there we powered up to Auckland and managed to see nothing, and went up for one day to the Bay of Islands. It's on the northern tip of New Zealand, and very beautiful. It's also the home to the Waitangi Treaty grounds, where (duh) the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. Basically it was a treaty signed between the Maori and the English to prevent the French from taking control of New Zealand. The Maori thought they were just getting protection from England and the English kind of thought they got to take Maori land; it caused a lot of problems and is still very controversial today. Forgive the history lesson, but it's important!
We came back to Auckland for one night and left the next morning for Hahei, on the Coromandel Peninsula. When we got there it was pouring rain and the whole bus group tried to trek out to Cathedral Cove, the famous beach in Hahei. At one point we lost a girl and then the group split up on the trail and encountered a huge man in a poncho in the pouring rain....I kind of thought it was the start of like a backpacker horror movie...but alas, nothing so interesting. The next day, most of the bus continued (its a hop-on, hop-off bus so you constantly meet new groups of people...It's both really cool and really sad to get to like people quickly and then leave them) but a few of us stayed behind to see the Coromandel on a good day. it was definitely worth it. We went down to Hot Water Beach, which is known for a geothermal phenomenon that allows one to dig into the sand near low tide and get hot water from underneath. Sometimes it works, we were mostly sitting in scorching hot sand while the cold waves came in. It's pretty cool though. I did a kayak trip in the afternoon to get out to Cathedral Cove and explore some of the bays around it. There are pictures on facebook.
Let's see, from there we went on to Raglan, New Zealand's best surf spot. I didn't surf but the hostel was kind of awesome, they had a free ropes course and zip line that gets increasingly more fun after a few beers. From Raglan we went on to Waitomo, which is known for its caves, and its glowworms. Glowworms are actually the larvae stage of a kind of fly that has glowing kidneys to attract other bugs to eat, which is kind of gross but they look beautiful in a dark cave, like looking up at a night sky. Later that day we drove on to Maketu, supposedly the first place that Maori ancestors landed some 1000 years ago. They do like a cultural night in a Maori marae (meeting house) and you sleep over there. Like most things that attempt to teach you about other cultures through tourist attractions, it feels kind of weird. All the people were super nice and we all learned some songs and dances together, but I don't know how much I learned. It is significant though, to compare how New Zealand and Australia treat their indigenous cultures. There is much more respect and integration of Maori culture in NZ than Aboriginal culture in Australia.
Anyways, I realize this blog post is extremely boring, but I had to catch up! Today we're in Rotorua, famed for its volcanic hotsprings and mudbaths. It smells like sulfur everywhere here. So I'll leave it at that, enjoy the photos, and keep on keepin on? LOVE, Mara.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
It's all fun and games till someone vomits on the dolphin spotting boat...
Hello! So apparently I've been wandering away my time on the internet and now I have five minutes left, so the longer explanation of what I've been doing will have to wait till tomorrow. I did manage to get a few pictures up though, you can see them here. Yes, I got seasick today, and I puked on the boat taking us out to swim with dolphins. Was it embarrasing? Yes. But did I manage to make it in the bucket! Of course! Though I felt like crap all day, I did get to do a bit of swimming with the dusky dolphins; it was amazing. There were so many of them everywhere, and they were totally wild, not trained to come to humans. You can see a gallery of what the swimming looks like here. We even saw a few orca (killer) whales on the ride back, which doesn't usually happen. Lauren cried again. I was moved, but also preoccupied with not losing more contents of my fragile stomach. Tomorrow we're heading north and taking the ferry from the South Island to Wellington, from there we'll explore the North Island. Christchurch was an adorable city, very English (or that's what they say). I'll write more tomorrow when I get a chance! Lots of love....
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