Author: sigormley

Lady Knox is a geyser!

Today has been an action packed day, it must have been as we’ve all broken our daily photo taking record: Cat with 227, Caroline on 238, and me on a whopping 308, bringing my total to over 12,000. I pity the fool who contemplates a slide show of our trip!
We’d camped at the thermal pools of Waikite, lots of outdoor pools fed from the “boiling river”, although we didn’t think that was literal, a short walk put us straight. The spa is fed from a massive pool about 4 metres across of fiercely boiling water, at some points it boiled so hard it looked like it was going to erupt into a geyser, not something to stand near! Testimony to the fact that the earth’s crust is very thin round these parts.
That only whet our apetites for the thermal wonderland that is Wai-o-Tapo, and first treat was the Lady Knox geyser, promising to erupt at 10.15am. As we’d read our guide book, we knew that the ranger triggers the geyser, but I swear some people were standing with camera ready, checking their watches… The wait also gave me the time to come up with that gem of a blog title, ah, simple things!
The ranger dropped soap powder into the mouth of the geyser, and within seconds foam was billowing from the top. A few seconds later and water was spurting out, giving us our second shower of the day. The rest of the park was as a wonderland as advertised, craters, pools and rocks in a kaleidoscope of colours, all bubbling away and steaming. The champagne pool fizzed as it boiled, and the rim of the pool was bright orange, before dropping off deep to the bottom of the extinct volcano. The final pool was an odd luminescent yellow-green, like some big vat of lime shower gel. Suplhur is very smelly, but can make some crazy colours! At the exit, the mud pools plopped away merrily, occasionally a mini mud eruption would occur in the middle of the lake, and hats off to Caroline who snapped one of the bigger plops mid flow.
With all the thermal pools we’ve visited, it was time for a change to plain old water, and so we stopped for lunch at Aratiatia dam. Now, as you’ve come to expect, this is not an ordinary dam, at 2pm the sirens wailed and the floodgates opened, literally. 80,000 litres of water a second gushed out, and gradually the river level rose. The Aratiatia rapids downstream changed from a trickle to a raging torrent. Even more bizzarre is that the river is turned on just for the spectators to see what the rapids are like in full flow, no other reason. Compare that to Australia, or most other countries for that matter, I can’t imagine they’d use water quite like that! After half an hour the river is turned off again, until the next time.
Further upstream is the Huka Falls, a paltry 10 metre drop, but impressive due to the sheer amount of water flowing, varying depending on the amount of rain, but on the order of 1 tonne per second. It’s easy to see why they can turn the Aratiatia rapids on, the dam would probably overflow if they didn’t!
As dusk was fast approaching there was just enough time to fit in one more visit, this time to Craters of the Moon. The whole landscape was covered in steam rising from various vents, from impossibly small holes to ponds, all billowing white vapour. In many ways similar to what we’ve been looking at for the past two days, but concentrated into one area without trees, and the low light levels added to the atmospheric feeling.
All together it’s been a fine day, and we’ve managed to squeeze quite a lot in, no wonder so many photos were taken!

Rotorua, or is it Queenstown?

The rain was lashing down, but we stuck to the schedule and went to the thermal reserve of Te Puia. Mud pools were happily plopping, and geysers gushing (probably, there was a lot of steam obscuring the view but there were a lot of whooshing noises), and the ever present eggy smell was more than abundant. In fact the whole hill, and indeed the rest of Rotorua was gently puffing steam, a quite surreal view! The ticket also included a cultural show from the Maoris, the highlight being the Haka, where warriors slap their chests, recite some scary words, stick out their tongues and bulge their eyes in a uniquely Maori way. It’s meant to scare any opponents before a battle, and I reckon it probably would’ve worked a few times.
The sun was starting to peek through the clouds, just in time as we were off to the luge, as recommended by Pete. Seeing there was some other ride called the Skyswing at the top of the hill as well, we eagerly bought tickets, and were up the gondola in no time. The Skyswing looked so innocent, a nice little cage suspended by cables that would somehow do a swing. Laughing off the suggestion the ride was scarier than bungies and skydives, we climbed in and were strapped in, twice. That’s when the little seed of doubt was sown, the cage winched the three of us up, tilting so we were face down and we had no option but to trust the harness. At the top there was one thing left to do, come down, and I had control over that with a release cord. With a couple of screaming girls next to me, I gave the cord a tug and we were off, 150km in 2 seconds.
The ride was definitely scarier than it looked, helped by the cage pushing you down the free fall, and swinging out over nothing but a long drop down to Rotorua. At least I know my adrenalin glands still work.
That wasn’t even the reason we were up the hill, the luge beckoned, and true to Pete’s word it was great fun. Sitting on a little black tray with wheels we careered down a concrete track, screeching around corners on two wheels (me!) and over kerbs (Caroline!), although some of us took it a bit too easy (Cat!).
We caught the gondola back down the hill with Caroline renewing her vow to retire from these danger sports, we’ve all heard that one before! 😉

Volcano!

It was tempting to have another dip in the hot volcanic water this morning, but there was no time, we had a boat to catch! The Peejay IV cruised us out of Whakatane and to White Island, New Zealand’s most active volcano. As we got closer, we could see the cone like shape of a volcano with one side of the crater missing (it had collapsed some years ago) which meant we could step ashore right into the crater of the volcano. As soon as we did the eggy, sulphurous smells assaulted our noses.
Before we could get up close and personal to the sulphur, our guide informed us that there had been a 5.4 earthquake a mere 140 km offshore the previous night. Nevermind any possible aftershocks, what we really had to worry about was a possible eruption from this volcano that we were standing on. You may, like me, imagine torrents of lava streaming towards you which would be scary enough, but no, this particular volcano emits boulders the size of cars flying towards you at the speed of bullets! She then told us that IF we were to survive, we would then come up with an escape plan!
With just a little trepidation we then followed her past the bellowing yellow vents, a good point to use the supplied gas masks! The magma chamber was only 3.5km below our feet, which would explain all the bubbling pools. 3.5km was less than the length of the island and so a little too close for comfort! Along with the multi-coloured rocks there was also a crater lake, with a pH of -1.5 – the most acidic lake in the world, and also at a temperature of 50C, not something to take a dip in!
On our way off the island we had a quick look at the remains of the sulphur factory, being rapidly eroded by the sulphur! Feeling very relieved to have made it back to the boat, having avoided an eruption we enjoyed our lunch and began to wonder just how close to danger we had come. A book on the boat told us about a violent eruption in 2000 and how the boat trips were operating up to just two days before! We felt more at home with the sight of common dolphins swimming and frolicking alongside the boat on the way home.

Seeing the sun first

Thanks to Cat’s little knock at 6am, we were up before the crack of dawn, and wandering across boggy fields, confusing cattle in search of the beach to watch the sunrise. As we are as far east as you can go, our aim was to be the first to see the sun come up. We weren’t disappointed either, with the rising sun’s orange rays radiating out from behind the cloud, just like the Japanese rising sun, or a childs drawing.
After a couple more hours extra kip we hit the road again for the final section of the East Cape road. Driving past Maori meeting houses (Marae) with their ornate wood carvings, cows giving us odd looks as they were herded past, and a little church with picket fence next to a beach. At the end of the day, what could be better than relaxing in a hot bath? Fortunately we’ve made it to volcano country, so the campsite had a nice hot spa to relax in!

East Cape

The remote East Cape beckoned, and along with the nicest sunny weather for a few days, and some lush green hillocks, the drive was a pleasant one. The countryside is littered with hills with what appear to be steps carved into the side, too small to be terraces for growing plants, too uniform to be sheep paths, and too abundant to be created by man. Google and Wikipedia have not answered our questions, so if anyone out there knows what they are for, let us know!
Tolaga Bay gave us the rare treat of the longest concrete pier in the southern hemisphere, which is being eroded away from the inside as the sand used for the concrete was from a beach so the salt is eating away at the steel supports.
We made it to East Cape, the most Easterly point in New Zealand, and according to the GPS only 1.5 degrees from the western hemisphere, so this is pretty much as far as we can get from home, I reckon if you drilled straight down you’d hit France on the other side. The campsite was probably the most easterly campsite in the world. Also onsite was the most easterly chippy (in the world, according to me as it makes it more interesting), which we made full use of, as if we needed any excuse.

Whale Riding in Gisbourne

Thought that title might grab your attention, but beyond a respect for the great mammals, and more than a few laws preventing you from even attempting it, we did no such thing as riding whales.
Our journey to the remote East Cape of the north island took us past swan filled lakes to Gisbourne, the last civilization for a few hundred kilometres. It’s also the site of Cook’s landing at New Zealand, with a couple of statues marking the fact, even though it’s now obscured by a small container port.
The area is also the setting to a Maori story recently told in the film Whale Rider, where a girl from a tribe fights against adversity to prove that she is the successor to the chief of the tribe whose ancestor arrived in New Zealand on the back of a whale. A good film, and a little unusual from the norm, along with teaching a bit about the Maori culture – watch it if you can!

Art Deco Napier

If there’s anything good that could come of an earthquake, it’s what happened in Napier. Hit by a 7.8 Richter scale earthquake in 1931, the centre of town was flattened. The town planners had a field day (and we’re not talking Milton Keynes or Livingston) and the town was rebuilt in an Art Deco style. Now I wasn’t too sure what Art Deco was, but think straight lines, modern, the New York city skyline and images like the rising sun. All quite nice, but if nothing else it brought home the awesome destructive power of an earthquake.
On a lighter note, our campsite had luxury of luxuries, a covered walkway to the toilet!

Learning about New Zealand

Important job for the day was applying for our Indian visas, which involved handing our passports over to a preoccupied receptionist along with cash and an envelope. All going well we’ll see them again in a couple of weeks, or we might be staying here a bit longer than intended!
Top Wellington attraction in our guide books was Te Papa, the relatively new museum on the waterfront. But this is no ordinary museum, you get the chance to be shaken in an earth quake, jump on stuff, touch lots of screens, wind things up, and feel how heavy rocks from the centre of the earth are. Essentially what all museums should be like, and we left there knowing a lot more about New Zealand, its geology, wildlife, Maori and immigrants.
After that lot we were museumed out, and our legs didn’t fancy seeing more sights, so we hit the road again. We spent the twilight hours in search of the poorly/not signposted DoC campsite, and in true DoC style it was just a field with a toilet. The heavens opened as we pulled up, so to be on the safe side we parked on the road, just so we don’t get washed away in the middle of the night.

Goodbye South Island!

Our time on the South Island has come to an end, and so we boarded the less-than-glamourous ferry (the two trucks full of sheep and associated smell did not help), and were soon weaving our way through the Marlbourgh Sounds and out into the open seas. As the ferry left the Tory Channel and we waved goodbye to our home for the past few weeks, there were clear skies to the south and omnious grey clouds to the north, hopefully not an omen of things to come! Wellington greeted us (well me, Caroline was inside hiding from the sheep smell) with low flying clouds zooming overhead and a matching wind. The ferry dropped us off in the middle of the city, and there was the unusual sensation of other cars on the road, something not experienced on the South Island back roads! We also found that camping doesn’t suit city visits, with our campsite being more like an overpriced carpark with showers, still it does have the advantage of having a bar onsite!

The Nydia Track Day 2 – The return

Waking up to a wet morning in New Zealand should not really be a surprise, but we’ve managed to avoid pretty much any rain until this point. Worse thing is that we have to walk the 5 or so hours back to the vans. Wasting no time in getting going, and hoping that the new shoes really are waterproof, we start back up the track. Not really stopping at all, just plodding on we get to the saddle, by which point I’m in shorts and t-shirt, figuring that the waterproof jacket is not really going to stop all the rain, so I might as well get as few clothes wet as possible. At least my feet are still dry! All downhill from that point, but it was still a mighty trek, especially when you run out of brunch bars!
The viewpoints over the Marlborough Sounds, when not completely covered in cloud show thin whisps of rain cloud floating over – even when the heavens open, this country still has a charm to it!
Campsite for the night was Smiths Farm, a favourite from the last time we were in Picton, even though they still gave us the fresh banana muffins. With the rain not showing any sign of stopping we got the log fire going and planted ourselves in front of that for the night. At least we’ve got our tramping done!