Laurie is next to me reading. She is reading something funny because she keeps laughing. The book is by Bill Bryson. He is known for A Walk in the Woods. She is reading Neither Here Nor There--Travels in Europe. Well, I hope our travels are as funny.
April 10, 2003
The show last night was great. Laurie ended up treating me for my birthday. After the show we went back to the hostel. It was nice and quiet in the hostel, but when we went to bed I realized that there was a bar beneath us and people were drinking and making lots of noise. I was able to get some sleep, but it probably wasn't until 3:00.
In the morning Laurie brought me a muffin with a candle on it. It is my birthday today. She gave me a book and it was a book on the areas in New Zealand where Lord of the Rings was filmed. Now I can watch the movie again and see the places I have seen.
Laurie and I walked to the information building where we were going to do a walking tour on the Art Deco of Napier. Since they basically had to rebuild the city, most of the buildings are of an Art Deco style. It was quite interesting and now I can look at buildings with a new eye and appreciation. Art Deco is a decorative style that is characterised by three important ideas--the development of science, technology, and the machine, the increasing independence of women and the overthrow of old ideas. These ideas were shown in their motifs by using geometric patterns, lightning flashes to symbolize speed and power and symbols for freedom with dancing women and the rising sun. Also, the buildings had Maori, Egyptian, and Mayan influences.
After the walk we drove to the top of Bluff Hill to see the view of the bay. From there we drove to Taupo and stopped for lunch, then on to Turangi where we are spending the night. Another great hostel. I know you are probably sick of hearing me say that they are great, but I am just amazed at all these great places to stay and so cheap.
This hostel has a rock climbing wall in it. That is the first I have seen in a hostel.
We saw a couple here that we met on the Abel Tasman hike in the South Island. We talked to them for awhile. They are German and live close to the France border. They gave me their address in case we are in the area while we are traveling through there.
I met someone from the US--Washington State. He has residency here and has lived here for about 15 months. Talked to him about how be got residency. I think one qualification is a Bachelor's Degree. I guess that rules me out. Laurie has gone to bed and I am in the dining halls. My eyes are tired, I guess I am too, but I don't want to go to bed yet. Maybe I'll go see what people are watching on TV.
April 11, 2003
Had a great day tramping. We caught our bus at 7:30 and started hiking about 8:45. We did the Tongario Crossing. It is suppose to be the best one day hike. One can do a 4-5 day backpack trip if one wanted to. We opted for the day since our time is running out. I was grateful to the blue sky when we started because 90% of the 17 K is exposed. This is a volcanic area and we walked through lava beds to a steep climb that brought us to South Crater, which was very flat, void of plant life, and very few rocks. I then climbed up to Red Crater. On the way up, the trail had ice covered by mud which was not a good combination. Got to the top and I was very impressed with the red colors in the side of the craters. I got to one point when I couldn't see steam coming up the mountain, but I couldn't see from where. When I touched the ground it was hot from the steam coming from thermal spring. Also, at the top I saw beautful turquoise green lakes. They are appropriately called Emerald Lakes. It was very chilly and windy and I had to put glove liners on. I am grateful that the sun was out. I couldn't imagine doing this in the rain. Besides being wet you wouldn't get the views. The smell of the sulfur was very strong and as beautiful as it was I was happy to move on.
From the top we had a climb down and I expected it to be tough to go down because of the loose rock. It wasn't bad because there was enough ash and dirt to grip into. We got down and got to Blue Lakes where we ate lunch.
We got to the car park about 3:00 and waited for the bus to take us to the hostel.
I have to add something---I went to the desk because I needed some change. The man looked at me a few seconds and said, "are you the one that went around the round about the wrong way?" I have been caught. Luckily, he didn't report me as the crazy American that can't get the hang of driving in NZ. Only three more days of driving here left.
April 12, 2003
We treated ourselves to a real breakfast this morning of eggs, bacon (which looks like ham), and toast. We drove to Taupo and did a few hikes. One was to Huka Falls. It was along a river. The falls weren't large, but they were pretty because of the colors of the water. The next walk we did was called Craters of the Moon. It was really neat. It has a board walk through an active dynamic thermal area. You could see large areas of steam coming out of the ground. It looked like little fires were set on the ground. There were craters, mud pools, and steam vents. Sometimes you could hear the steam because it was so loud. It sounded like someone was sand blasting. You could even hear the mud gurgling and boiling before you even saw it. Seeing all of this made me wish I paid more attention in Earth Science--not that I would still understand it.
After the walk we drove to Roturua. That is where we are staying in the Funky Green Voyager hostel. Our room is nice because we have our own refrigerator, kitchen table, and storage area. We will be here for two nights. So we have room to spread out our stuff so we can pack our things up easily before we fly out of New Zealand.
