Brief Diary of Clarice’s New Zealand Trip
Here’s the map of my route and I’ve picked out a few of the pictures to illustrate it. After I get home I’ll post more details and pictures.
Note: I used the default picture software on my computer to make these smaller files, with some crappy results – trust me the camera did a much better job! When I get home I’ll get some decent editing software… until then at least the page will load quickly!
The map shows my route each day… notice that Friday is missing – I didn’t leave the hotel grounds all day!! I golfed, lunched, napped, golfed… not a bad day at all!
Day 1 Tuesday 12/30/2003 – arrive in Auckland a little after 7:30 am. It’s a cool and overcast day. Drive south towards my motel in Turangi (south of Lake Taupo). I stayed at the Best Western Parklands Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Took some side roads, although they were very similar in size to the main roads! Almost all were 2 lanes (1 each direction) with occasionally a passing lane. After checking in and getting a settled, took off to drive up the east coast of Lake Taupo and back. Saw very few cars during the whole day of driving, it was like I had the country to myself!
Look – they really did paint some of their planes! There were 3 different ones parked while I was walking through the airport, was able to get pix of 2 of them (the third had a ‘skychef’ truck blocking the mural).
Driving south – lots of rural landscape like this. Small white dots are sheep…
There are a lot of posted pull-outs or rest stops (whatever you want to call them). Some are there for scenic purposes, others just have garbage cans, picnic tables. This is the Waituhi Lookout (on the map look for the town Taumarunui to the left of Lake Taupo – the lookout is the pointed part of the road under the ‘r’ in that word). Very cold and cloudy, can’t tell there’s a huge lake out there…
On the drive up the east coast of the lake, thanks to the weather, got some very cool shots… now if I just hadn’t chopped off the side of that darned tree!
Just a little blustery!
Surprised there weren’t people trying to surf! Was back at this same spot Thursday and it was very calm, big difference.
Day 2 Wednesday 12/31/2003 – got up and drove a loop around Tongariro National Park. Headed South on highway 1 past the east side of the park, then headed west under the park then finally back north/northeast to Whakapapa village and ski fields on Mt Ruapeho. At the ski fields took the chair lift up as high as it went and spent 2 or 3 hours tramping around (hey it’s their word not mine!). The snow is running off, apparently some of it will survive the whole summer.
Got my first peak of Mt Ruapeho
And of Mt Tongariro, which is also in the park. They are neighbors – both are volcanoes that have been active relatively recently.
Arrived at the ‘Top of the Bruce’, the road that heads up from the village to the ski lifts. This is the base of the ski lifts area, according to a sign I saw, elevation here is about 1630 meters. On the map above you can just barely read the elevation for Ruapeho is 2797 meters. I think I read the chair lifts get us up to 2000 meters.
Paid my $17 NZD to take the 2 ski lifts up to the top area – which is still nowhere near the peak. The view looking back down… at this point I’m only on the first of the two lifts – so lots more to go!
Now on the upper lift, approaching the area where they have a restaurant and stuff.
Went into the building and up to the 3rd floor restaurant and looked back down… yikes the car park is very very small (in the center of the picture)!!
It was funny watching people play in the snow – in the middle of summer on a beautiful day! Saw at least two snowmen, and people dragging their kids around on plastic bags. I didn’t venture into this part of the snow – too big a chance of falling! I had fun with a smaller section of snow later on.
Proof that I really went up there… At this point we’re still very far from the top (about 800 meters) but it sure looks like we’re close to it! Perspective is everything…
An area that has no more snow… It makes it easy to see how this was a location for Lord of the Rings (like the scene in Two Towers where Gollum pounces on Frodo and Sam, and many others). If I had a GPS I could have used the book I bought (guide to the filming locations) to go to exactly the right spot… I knew I needed one more electronic toy! Ha ha ha
Finished up on the mountain and headed back towards Turangi. There was another lookout on the way, this one closer to the south end of the lake where the hydro electric project is on the river – plus the day was much clearer than Tuesday. Oh, the dark blue stripe in the middle is the lake, with the far shores the darker part before the clouds & sky.
Day 3 Thursday 1/1/04 – After checking out from my hotel, I spent about 1.5 hours hiking on the Tongariro River near my hotel. It’s the ‘trout fishing capital of the world’ (their words, not mine!). After that I had some breakfast then headed North. Took the same route up the east side of the lake, this time going further – as I drove into the town of Taupo, I finally had proof that people live in New Zealand – it was a madhouse, tons of people coming and going. Of course, it was a holiday and a beautiful day. Didn’t bother to stop until I hit a lookout on the north side of town. Craig had recommended a place for geo-thermal siteseeing (which is the big thing in that general area) called Orakei Korako, so I headed that way. Spent 2 or 3 hours there tramping around (ok, I just like saying it). Craig ran the motel I stayed at those first two nights. He also recommended Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel that I booked for Thursday/Friday nights (calling them at 4pm on Thursday with my fingers crossed!). I owe him a thank you note for that one! After I checked in around 6:15 I went to their thermal pool and had a nice soak after all my tramping around. I couldn’t relax completely, what with the bubbles coming up from the bottom and my imagination assuming there was a wild crocodile down there or something J. Then I had a nice dinner in their restaurant and part of a bottle of nice New Zealand red wine.
Morning walk on the river, saw just a few guys trout fly-fishing
After driving north and getting through town, here’s the view from the lookout north of the lake, with big white Ruapeho on the left, skinny Tongariro on the right.
I arrived at Orakei Korako in mid-afternoon. There weren’t too many people around – the unique thing about this thermal spot is that you have to cross a lake to get to the site. While walking around (lots and lots of walking up and down the hill) I saw the same couple many times. After we got back to the other side of the lake we chatted – turns out she is from the same area of Tasmania I am visiting! She won’t be home until late in my trip, but gave me her card anyway.
There’s lots to see (and smell – eeeww!) here’s one of the vents, well, venting!
The amazing contrast between the blue hot spring and the surrounding rocks…
Day 4 Friday 1/2/2004 – Originally planned to spend this day driving over to Matamata where they have a Hobbiton tour, but after waking up early and having a nice walk and my free breakfast (yummy) somehow the day slipped away. I watched people teeing off at the 9 hole course at the hotel and walked a couple holes and decided I should play – put in 9 holes by myself until the last couple holes when another single played thru and we finished together. It was nice playing by myself! It was about noon and starting to warm up, so got back to the deck and had a cold beer and a sandwich from the Irish bartender Kieran (spelled wrong I’m sure!) that used to work in San Francisco and Los Gatos. Went back to my room and promptly took a nap, then read my book on the porch for awhile. In the mid-afternoon heat the course was practically empty so I played another 9. It was $10 NZD for the whole day, and $10 for the ‘club hire’. Not a bad deal! This time it was so hot I finished the 3rd hole and took a 45 minute break sitting in the shade watching the magpies squawk at each other and the cows mosey around. The rest of the 9 went much better after that break, the long hole was a par 5 and I actually got a 7!! Finished up the day by taking a shower, working a little bit (in the hotel lobby, everyone who went by had a comment for me!). Then had dinner on the deck with my new friends – Bill and Julie from the Tauranga area and Kieran who just got off shift. It was Bill’s birthday and Kieran and Julie kept buying rounds of shots but after 2 I politely declined! No need to ruin a perfectly relaxing day by puking all over everyone! We were joined by a couple from Scotland who have lived in the Auckland area for 37 years – but they still sound Scottish! The Irishman worked very hard to be polite to the Scots. Even bought them some shots. After all that I was still asleep by 10.
There’s two things about this picture that made it worth taking… I’m on the golf course and so is… a Baby! And take a closer look at the golf pull-cart – why don’t ours have seats on them??!!!
At first I thought it was just our ‘hire’ clubs that were on this funny stick-in-the-ground holder thingie, but then I realized some of the people with them were locals!
Day 5 Saturday 1/3/2004 – Packed up and took off without my free breakfast – wanted to head by Matamata to check out the tour before heading back to the airport. Got there around 8:45 and the signs said the first bus to the Hobbiton set was at 9:30, and to allow at least 2 hours. This was starting to bump into the time I need to get to the airport (about a 2.5 hr drive away) so when I saw it was $50 NZD for the tour I decided to skip it. I’m sure it will still be around next time! So instead I took a leisurely route north and got to the airport by 12. Basically hung around there until it was time to fly out to Melbourne and on to Tasmania!
Since I wasn’t taking the tour, thought I’d check my email at a place across the street from the visitor’s center – posted hours open at 9am, but by 9:20 they hadn’t shown up yet so I left… In case it’s too small to read, the middle window says ‘the hobbit hole internet café’.
