Tongariro National Park to Auckland (12 - 16 March 2008)
We left Wellington quite early and drove all the way up to the centre of the North Island to Tongariro National Park. This park hosts some spectacular volcanoes, some of which is still active. For the Lord of the Ring fanatics, this is also the site where Mordor’s Mount Doom was filmed.
We had our hearts set on hiking the famous Tongariro Crossing, also known as the best one day hike in New Zealand. The lady at the Whakapapa (pronounced Fakapapa - I kid you not!) Information Centre warned us that there might be gale force winds the following day and we had to check the weather before starting the trek. We camped at a DOC site nearby and went to bed early so that we could get up early the next morning - quite a difficult task if you are used to sleeping in for the last couple of months 
We were up at 5:30 am, not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but at least we managed to rise before the sun. It was overcast, but the shuttle driver assured us that it will be a beautiful day. But as far a weather predictions go, we have learnt not to put all our trust in it. So we grabbed our raincoats, lots of water, some sandwiches for lunch, and of course, all the camera gear.
We started the 18,5 km trek at around 7:30. This trek traverses spectacular volcanic geography, with steaming vents, active craters and beautiful emerald green lakes. So you could imagine our excitement. About an hour into the trek (please note that there was still no blue skies in sight) we started ascending the “Devil’s stairway”. This is a gazillion steps winding up the mountain to the Red Crater. When we reached the Red Crater, the wind started blowing like nothing Cape Town has ever experienced! And it was freezing as the clouds had now descended and caused a light drizzle straight into our faces. I just wanted to keep going, hoping that the wind would subside once we have walked across the crater. Unfortunately for us, the wind just got worse. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if a heroic ranger wasn’t approaching to instruct us to go back. Surely walking on sky-high cliffs with wind so strong that I can hardly stay upright is a life threatening hazard?
Eon seized the opportunity and got some pretty impressive video footage of the spectacle. Thank goodness I decided to take my raincoat! By the time we reached the emerald lakes, we could hardly see them amongst the mist and wind. We literally slid down the hill to the bottom of the lakes, had a very quick lunch and took some pictures at every opportunity of a clear view (believe me, there were only a couple of these).
Now we started to descend. And would you believe, when we reached the bottom of the crater, the sky opened up, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day - just when I thought of giving that weather predicting shuttle driver a piece of my mind
So we might not have had the best weather or the best views, but at least we had a hiking experience like never before! We jumped into our van and hit the road towards Matamata.
Matamata is a quaint little town between Auckland and Rotorua. We were meeting up with an acquaintance, Sakkie and Angela, and spending the night. We rocked up at their place, had a good dinner and after a couple of beers and wine, we were off to bed.
Matamata is very centrally located, so our plan was to sleep here and venture out to Rotorua to see (and smell) the volcanic thermal area. So the next morning we set of to reeking, rotting Rotorua! On entering the town, you already notice the steaming hot springs, vents and mud pools as the steam floats up from the bare earth. The sulphur rich air is also a shock to the system, but it adds to the eeriness of the scenery.
We stopped at a park and walked around looking at these huge lakes with steaming water. Some of the rocks looked as if they were smoking as the steam vaporised from them. The highlight for me was the boiling mud pools - it looked like something from a children’s adventure movie.
From here we drove to Te Puia, a local village and artist workshop that also hosts the famous Pohutu geyser. They charged $50 per person to walk through the village and view the geyser exploding. We asked the security guard if there is anyway of viewing the geyser without going through the village and he told us about a view point behind a hotel. Well, I do not think this is absolutely legal as we had to park behind the hotel, stand on top of our van and peak at the erupting geyser through the fence But at least we got to see the whole show for free!
Very impressed with our money-saving skills, we drove to Kerosene Creek where we saw some more bubbling mud pools and swam (or rather bathed) in a very hot stream flowing through the forest.
By the time we got back to Matamata, we smelled like we had rubbed boiled egg all over our bodies - proof of our visit to Rotorua.
So our final destination for New Zealand arrived as we drove to Auckland the next day. Just was just more proof that we do not prefer the big cities - remind me again why I am living in Pretoria? We hit the Friday afternoon traffic as we headed into town centre - we had to go to Cathay Pacific due to a major mix up with our flights. We paid $20 for parking (jip, that is R128 for two hours!), but at least we now had flights out of the country again. After driving around for about three hours, looking for a vacancy at a camping area, we found a spot about 20km from town.
The next morning we washed our van and then said a sad goodbye as we handed her back to Wicked Van’s Auckland branch. So we were back on foot again and we caught a bus into town to do some sight seeing. It was only sheer luck that we met this couple on the bus who told us that there is a big parade in town for St Patrick’s Day. We followed them to the hub and got some nice snaps of the happenings. From here we took a walk to the Sky Tower to get a proper view of the city from 328m above the ground. It is quite a surreal feeling standing with your full weight onto a glass floor at that height.
We spent our last night in New Zealand at a lodge close to the airport so that we could easily and punctually catch our flight to Santiago, Chile the next day.
Click on the image below to view gallery of Tongariro National Park to Auckland: