Wellington and the Karori Sanctuary

Zerb to all of you, blog followers. I am in Wellington now. I got a hold of my friend's ex-boyfriend, Roger, who offered to let us stay in his apartment with him. He lives in a prime location– right next to Parliament (a.k.a. the "Bee Hive."), and the rugby stadium. Sarah and I got tickets for the game tonight. I am excited to go to a sporting event of which I know nothing about. Roger has a party to go to so he isn't coming.


On Friday night, after we got settled in and Roger came home from work, we went down to the pub he lives above and had some drinks. They were playing the Virginia Tech vs. North Carolina football game when we first got there, but then they televised rugby. I'm still having trouble figuring out what the teams are, or the rules of the game.

Earlier today we went to the Karori Sancuatry on the west side of Wellington. It was really pretty there. They have a bunch of different plants and birds that you can see.


I took a bunch of pictures of the fern fronds. These two are in the later stages of unraveling where the small leaves are the only things still rolled up.


I got carried away with the "macro" setting on my camera. Here is a flower that I don't know what kind it is. It is still too early in the spring here for there to be a lot of flowers in bloom so I took advantage of the few flower picture opportunities I was presented with.


This is Chris. He is a volunteer at the Sanctuary. He gave a presentation about the tuatara, a reptile that is unique to New Zealand. Apparently there are for kinds of reptiles–alligators and crocodiles, turtles, lizards and snakes, and tuatara. Sixty-five million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct, the tuatara also died out on every land mass except for New Zealand. They were greatly threatened by the land mammals that were introduced by man. The first was a rat that the Maori brought with them and then other things like ferrets, brought by the European settlers, all preyed upon the tuatara. Now they are protected. We didn't actually see any, just learned about them...

What do you think?

View from Tiki Lodge

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I was going to post some photos from the Tiki Lodge balcony. You can see Lake Taupo. The mountains in the background are covered by clouds, but you can see some of them. Enjoy :)

Huka Falls and Taupo

Yesterday– which was Wednesday, October 28th– after spending two nights at Cactus Jack's Hostel in Rotorua, we left for Taupo, which was only about an hour drive. We didn't realize it, but one of our planned destinations of the area, Huka Falls, was on the way so we just popped right off the highway when we saw the sign.

It really isn't a water fall like they make it sound. It is actually just a vicious section of the Waikato River– New Zealand's longest river. It is actually pretty neat in that the rapids are forced down a narrow channel. The river is actually the way it is today due to a serious of hydroelectric dams up the river that control the water level. Apparently, more water roars through the falls between 8am and 8pm due to the electrical needs of the region.

A picture of me in front of Huka Falls.


If you follow the path across the bridge over the falls, there is a nice trail (or as New Zealanders call it, a track) along the Waikato River. It was a really nice day so we decided to give it a try.


This is a picture of an unfurling fern frond, which is unique to New Zealand. For some reason, the ferns in New Zealand, instead of growing outward like normal plants would, unroll as they grow. The stem of the fern is the thick part, and the smaller leaves that grow out the side also unroll themselves. They look like grubs but are actually rolled up leaves.


Here is a scenic shot of the Waikato River at the end of our hike. This is where I sat on a bench to rest and proceeded to get sun burnt on my forehead and nose.


After we got into Taupo, we went for a drive to explore the beauty of the region. Here I am posing in front of a "scenic outlook" stop along the highway. Behind me you can see Lake Taupo, which is New Zealand's largest lake. It is actually a volcanic caldera filled with water. European settlers introduced trout into the lake long ago and consequently turned the lake into the "world's trout fishing capital." The mountains you see behind me from the left to right are Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Pukekaikiore. You had to ask, right?


This is our hostel in Taupo, called the Tiki Lodge. We like it here and are staying a second night.

Okay now DISCUSS!!!!

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Greetings my beloved blog followers. The adventures continue. These adventures are similar to those carved into the history books by Columbus, Magellan, and the Power Rangers. It is true that these brave men endured dangerous, stormy seas, blood thirsty natives, and fake pyrotechnics of arm-flailing men in alien costumes. But none of these explorers ever experienced the breath-taking sights of the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.


Marvel as the yellow traffic jacket-wearing man pours soap in the Lady Geyser to induce an eruption... right before your very eyes! Old Faithful has nothing on this beauty. Not only does Lady erupt at 10:15, daily, but she is also squeaky clean doing it.


We were so disappointed that the geyser didn't erupt naturally, that we left before it was even done erupting.


These are the bubbling mud pools. The geothermal activity under the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland boils water suspended in the ground, and forces it through vents. In this case, the vents were located under a bunch of mud. I enjoyed the sound of the bubbling mud pools; they reminded me of a delicious spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove top allowing all the flavors and aromas to blend together. In this case, the aroma was sulfurous rotten eggs.


These holes were once caves dug out by the water flowing up from the thermal fissures. Eventually, the cave ceiling fell in leaving this hole. The yellow color comes form the sulfur. People from India do NOT like sulfur smells.


This is the Champagne Pool. The orange color comes from antimony oxide that comes out of the ground for some reason.


Here is more of that orange color. The green comes from colloidal sulfur. The earth must really smell bad deep under ground!!!


All around the wonderland was this moss. It is apparently supposed to be green, but it absorbs the chemicals from the air and surfaces and turns orange. It covers rocks, trees, and shrubs. It was really pretty.


Here we are standing in front of a sulfury water fall. The people who took this picture were from the States and were excited to hear we were too... except Sarah was insulted that they thought she was from the States. She is actually from Canada: America's hat.



After the Thermal Wonderland, it started to rain and rain and rain... so we needed to find something fun to do to stay warm and... wet? So we decided to go to the Hell's Gate and Wai Ora Spa where they let you bathe in mud. This is my impression of Swamp Thing. No wait! This is my impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator when he covers himself in mud and the Predator can't see him. That part was soooooo scary!!!! After the mud bath, you take a FREEZING shower, which was even more fun since it was outside in the rain. The shower was colder than the air!



Then we bathed in the sulfur spa. I'm not sure if I will ever stop smelling like sulfur after this.

Ta ta for now :)

Backpacking hostels and Hahei

Zerb to all of you! The life of a backpacker is unusual, indeed. You never know where your next bed will be or who you will be sharing a room with. We have slept in backpacker-style rooms in every hostel we have stayed. These rooms have bunks in them–usually including four beds, but some have had six. You are forced to share rooms with people you don't know, and sometimes you don't even exchange words with them ever. This happened more often in Auckland. You are rarely on the same schedule with all of your roommates which means someone you haven't met is bound to come back early in the morning after a late-night bender. Then you leave the next morning while they are still asleep.

The hostel we stayed at in Hahei was my favorite so far. It is called Tatahi Lodge and we stayed there the Sunday night, October 25th. The Tatahi Lodge has several buildings with different types of rooms–family-style rooms, twins, doubles, and then a building with four backpacker-style rooms that share a common area and kitchen. This picture shows the grassy yard area we could use. There were two lawn chairs that Sarah and I relaxed in after we arrived, a picnic table were we ate our dinner, and a gas grill that the German people cooked their dinner on. Did I mention that there are a LOT of German travelers in New Zealand for some reason.



Here is Sarah and Nick (who is from Germany) sitting at the picnic table I spoke of. Nick was a very interesting guy. He has traveled all around New Zealand and is a hard-core wilderness backpacker. So hard-core, in fact, that he broke his calcaneus while on a tramp up a mountain in the south island. He was able to hobble to the next hut where he waited until some backpackers came. He sent them to get help while he waited a couple days. He eventually was helicoptered out. He was wearing a cast with his Teva sandal over it.



Here is a picture of our room. The beds weren't that comfortable, but we had a lot of linens and blankets at our disposal. I just liked the feel of the wooden walls and ceiling. The people working there and the other backpackers were super nice. It has also been the only hostel so far where the bathroom has been located really close to the room (just across the hall). For some reason I have had to get up and use the bathroom early in the morning several times during this trip and it sucks to have to put on shoes. Not the case at this humble hostel :)

Hot Water Beach

That evening, we headed to Hot Water Beach. This beach is really interesting because it has hot springs right underneath it so that when the tide is low, hot water flows up out of the sand. You can actually dig into the sand and your hole fills up with hot water, which you can use to build your own home-made hot tub.

The hot springs are located right next to that dark mountain. That area of the beach is shaded from the sun by that time so it is even colder than normal there; the air temperature is still brisk this time of year.



We headed to the beach later in the evening because the tide went out around 7:30. That's when the water level on the beach is low enough that it won't smother the not water.


We had trouble finding it at first because we miss-read the map. Once we found the hot spring part of the beach, we were late and a hoard of people had already dug themselves hot tubs. It was an interesting sight. There were the happy groups of people who had already successfully dug themselves hot tubs and were relaxing contently. Then there were dozens of people intently digging hoping to discover an untapped spring. I should mention that many water-filled holes sat unoccupied and were the remains of unfruitful digging. Then there were sad-looking people sitting further up the hill, freezing, wrapped in towels, looking down on the hot tubbers with envy. These were undoubtedly the ones who had created the cold-water pools. I tried some digging, but realized pretty quickly that I didn't have enough patience to find a new spring, especially as the chilly water sucked away all my body heat. I eventually just stuck my foot in an already-made hot tub (making sure not to break the sand wall around it) to feel its temperature. I was surprised to find that it was really really hot. In fact, some people had to mix their pools with sea water to bring the temperature down to a tolerable level. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't sit in a tub, but was happy that I was, at least, able to feel the hot water of Hot Water Beach.

Fin

Coromandel and New Chum's Beach

Hola fellow blog readers. I am still a few days behind; this blog time happened on Saturday, October 24th while we drove from Auckland to Coromandel. The drive was so beautiful so we stopped a bunch of times to take pictures.

As you drive along the coast, the road kept weaving towards and away from the mainland and each time it did that, we would get an awesome view like this.


The road also did a lot of up and down action and there were some beautiful lookouts like this one.


This is the town of Coromandel. We stopped at this place and I got a lamb burger and Sarah got a Hawaiian burger. I was immediately disappointed in myself for not getting fish since we were so close to the ocean (it was right across the street).


We decided to go on a hike into a beautiful, secluded beach called New Chum's Beach. It was really difficult to figure out the way to the trail head. We stopped and asked for directions several times, and everyone we asked said that we should just follow the signs and that everything would be well-marked, but there was never a sign EVER!! This is a picture from the beach from which you start your hike.


More from that beach.


Once we got to the beach, it was late enough in the afternoon that the sun wasn't even on it anymore. In fact, we passed a lot of people on their way back from the beach. One German man asked us why we were still going there. "Do you like the cold?" he asked us. He was right. Once we got there, it was too cold to swim. :(


Here is a picture I took on the way back from the beach. The camera Andrea gave me takes great pictures! :)

Auckland Harbor

Hey All, I'm going to try a different format for my blog this time. Since I am having trouble keeping up with my traveling, I thought I might save some time and post more pictures and less words. I hope you don't mind.

So my friend, Sarah, and I decided to take a walk down to Auckland's harbor. These are some of the pictures I took along the way.

Here I am sitting on some logs and tires that make up the dock on Auckland's harbor. You can't see it from here, but I am actually about 60ft off the water. Climbing onto this spot to pose was near pants soilingly scary. Nonetheless, I was able to shield my utter fear of heights with this pose.


This is a similar pose, but with a boat behind me. You would think that I sat like this all day with hundreds of boats passing behind me, but this boat was actually just really fast.



Speaking of fast boats, this boast looks really fast. I took a picture of this boat because I thought it looked like something Batman might drive while in hot pursuit of... trying to find Robin's lost contact lens. I would like to know more about this boat. If anyone can find anything about it, please post a comment.


Along the dock, Sarah and I found a small cafe that was serving glasses of wine for $5. We tried the cabernet sauvignon which was fantastic. Sarah decided to take a picture of the wine bottle so she would remember it, but when she asked the bar tender to show her the bottle, she showed her a cabernet merlot, which Sarah took a picture of even though we knew it wasn't what we were drinking... polite tourists don't create a stir.


This picture is for my dad. I was hoping he could tell me something cool about these boats like that they are owned by the New Zealand sailing team that travels to Lake Michigan to compete against the Sheboygan yacht club.

That's all for now. Happy trails to you. Until we meet again.

Mission Bay Beach BBQ

Zerb to all you blog frogs! I waited an entire day to post this blog so I will find myself straining to remember the gritty details.

Every Thursday at noon a hostel, called Nomads Fusion, organizes a bbq at Mission Bay Beach. Around the time I heard of the function, I met two girls, Sarah and Kristen (who goes by Teddy) who where going and invited me to come along. They seemed to be the first genuinely nice backpackers I met so far, so I decided to put my job searching on hold for a fun social function. We left at 11:30 so that we could be at the hostel in time. It took about 15 minutes to walk there. At noon, they took roll call and we separated into two groups for two separate buses. Teddy, who is super outgoing, had signed up for the event early and so she ended up on the first bus. Sarah and I were on the second and, for some reason, that bus didn't show up until 30 minutes after the first. As we waited for the bus to arrive, we met a German guy, named Chrstian, who enjoyed the opportunity to practice his English. Teddy and Sarah said that they were planning on walking back to the city instead of taking the bus back and I thought it sounded like a good opportunity for exercise and also see some of the city we hadn't seen yet. I should note that pretty much our entire experience in Auckland thus far had been walking up and down either Queen Street or Victoria Street, the intersection at which the ACB and IEP are located. I didn't want to lug my heavy backpack with me so I decided to try to run back and leave it at the ACB before our bus arrived. This ended up being a stressful endeavor and I found myself running both directions to make sure I didn't get left behind.
Once we arrived at the beach, we got off the bus and paid our NZ$2 to a guy in a yellow Spaceship shirt. The first group was wondering where the hell we were (I also was wondering why it took the second bus so long), and the organizers of the first group had already started grilling burgers, veggieburgers, sausages, and onions (the onions smelled particularly good). They also invited people to play a game of touch rugby while the food was cooking. I wasn't in the mood do play a game of which I had no idea what the rules are, so I passed. Teddy, Sarah, Christian, and I just chatted instead.


We did get a chance to take this picture. The food was really good, but there were some interesting things to note. First of all, instead of serving the hamburgers on a bun, they were served on two slices of white bread. Due to rationing purposes (and to my dismay), everyone was served a teaspoon of onions. I was, on the other hand delighted to find that the burgers at least partly consisted of lamb. Sarah was saddened by this because she doesn't like it, but she was so hungry by that time that she ended up eating almost all of it anyway. Once we were done eating, we swiftly began our walk back to the city. I later found out that the reason we left so quickly was because Teddy was meeting someone in an hour and a half.

I think she set the walking pace too, which was just shy of a all-out sprint. Sarah was able to keep up just fine, but Christian and I were lagging behind. This picture shows how far ahead the girls would get every time I would stop to take a picture of something. You can see Teddy turning around and mocking us for being so slow.

I think I recall Teddy telling me that the walk would take about 45 minutes. I think it ended up taking twice that. It was great exercise though and I got some great pictures of the city skyline.


Here is a picture of a sign I thought was funny. Apparently "Getting on with upgrading this wharf" is the New Zealand way of saying "Under Construction." How adorable is that?














And this is what it looks like when a bus is mostly eaten by a shark.