A Wild Ride
Jan 2, 2008
Greetings from Wellington, and Happy New Year. The last few weeks have been a crazy reminder that life's about the journey, not the destination.
Crazy driving in the rain. One night, there was a sudden downpour
that caused flashflooding in the streets. Dave, with his head in his
cell phone texting a message, asked me some simple question. All
I could respond was, "umm, I'm trying to concentrate on keeping
us alive right now." Then he looked up and was like, "Oh my god!"
Nevertheless, driving around in this country is absolutely amazing.
Pictures can't begin to capture the thrill and exhilaration of zipping
around curve after curve of mountainous roads.
It's symbolic, an Englishman expressing peace over tyranny.
The first stop was Taupo where we were planned to meet up with others
from the orchard who were also passing through town. It was my first stay
in a hostel since arriving in Auckland so long ago. For once I didn't have to
make an effort to mingle with other guests because I had a travel partner.
Pool at an Irish bar in town. Dave reunited with Jule once again.
Some guys from Ireland, in town for a wedding, invited us to join them
in a game of darts.
An Irish pub, with Irish people, in a very green country... brought back
some good memories.
Back to Huka Falls to show Dave the wonders of the mini-Niagara falls. That's
me, dwarfed on the left.
This region of New Zealand is famous for its geothermal activity. The Earth's crust
is thinner here than anywhere else in the world, so strange things happen. At the
Craters of the Moon, steam seems to come straight out of the Earth.
It's weird.
Very weird. It reminds me of Star Wars.
Me being weird.
An hour's drive north to Rotorua, we met up with Bas, Billy, and George who'd
been travelling around with them since escaping the orchard. Billy invited us
to stay at her parent's house for the holidays which was very cool.
Chyna is one of their 6 cats. The best way to describe her is that she feels
like a warm peach.
I didn't believe them at first, but after being around Chyna for a week,
I got used to the way she looked.
Satisfying a massive craving for fried chicken.
A rainbow over Lake Rotorua... the only thing ruining the moment is the smell...
the horrible, wretched, rotton egg smell of sulphur that spews from the earth.
The bright side is that you can fart and no-one would notice it.
That's Kat, Bas & Billy's friend. She was fun to hang around with, but
unfortunately couldn't give a free ride on the luge... boo.
Just in case you needed some clarification. Or in case you're stupid.
I look too nice to be a cop.
One night I was laying on the couch staring mindlessly
at the ceiling when suddenly the light fixtures and ornaments
in the tree started swaying. At that very same moment, Billy
was running up the stairs, but there was NO way she couldn't
caused that much vibration. I ran upstairs and asked the others,
"Did you feel that?" Only Dave shared the same uneasy feeling.
"It felt like an earthquake", he said. We found out later on the
internet that it really was an earthquake, a 6.8 (later downgraded
to a 6.8) that hit Gisborne. Lots of damage. Cool.
Dave's first priority when going to a new city... find the skatepark.
His enthusiasm for skateboarding reminds me of myself during the
good ol' wushu days.
Hangin' with George & Bas at the lakes region of Rotorua.
Some kid running through the lake.
Wish I had to climb as a kid.
Night out at the Pig & Whistle.
Sometime during the night, we lost George... long story.
Billy's mom does riding for the disabled and let us ride the horses...
I'm not sure what that says about me.
Woohoo!!! My first time on a horse since I was a youngin'.
Dave and I invented a game called Coke-ball. Though
I made a valiant comeback, he won the inaugural game.
Through an old redwood forest...
...We come upon a spring...
...with water as refreshing as the Earth can offer.
So freakin' clear.
Looks like something out of Jurassic Park.
Along with 6 cats, the family had 2 crazy dogs and a couple lizards with
freaky blue tongues.
Gift opening time on Christmas day.
Billy's parents gave Dave and me New Zealand sports polos. It's the only
present I got this year... one more than last year. Woohoo!
Yummy traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, potatoes, and other side
dishes... like a side chicken. Those colorful things on the tables are "crackers".
It's a Christmas tradition where two people hold either end and pull, it pops
and one gets prize. It's apparently an English thing... I've never heard of it
in America.
Me and Billy's enjoying Pavlova, a super-sweet meringue cake. Finally,
I've been wondering what a Pav was like since I came to NZ.
Chyna's a cool cat, but Cairo was the friendliest, most affectionate
cat I've ever seen. But I wouldn't dare call it the coolest. Marco holds
that title for all eternity.
It was a pleasant surprise to find a batting cage here, since baseball is
not a major sport in NZ. Dave got very excited since he'd never swung
a baseball bat before.
Food!!! After a few more days of eating leftover turkey,
it was time to leave Rotorua and continue our journey.
We went to back south to Taupo where we planned on
doing the Tongariro Crossing the next day. Supposedly
the "Best one day walk in NZ" and "A highlights reel of
NZ's natural beauty". We were sold.
That night, stayed at a hostel where the plan was to have pizza
for dinner. But after coming back from the Pak-n-Save with
all the ingredients, we discovered there wasn't an oven in
the hostel kitchen. Always flexible, our pizza became calzones
in the the toaster-oven... massive calzones.
One of the reasons I wanted to head back to Taupo was
to do either a skydive or a bungy the day after the Tongariro
Crossing. It didn't look too scary.
Dave found his skatepark.
Ducks in Lake Taupo at sunset.
First of many awesome sunsets to behold in the next few days.
Free pool at the Holy Cow. By the end of the night, I somewhat got my
game back.
DOOMED ADVENTURE
When we booked the steep $45 return trip to Tongariro National Park,
we were told the weather would be cloudy and drizzly in the morning
with clearing and fine weather in the afternoon. At least they got half
the prediction correct.
8 hours of challenging tramping, here we come. (tramping is what New Zealanders
call hikings, or great walks... it doesn't mean whoring yourself)
Some exotic plants in high altitudes.
So the promise of breathtaking scenery didn't live up to the promise... masked in
the veil of fog.
A couple hours into the hike, the gentle slope turned into a strenuous climb
up what's appropriately called "the Devil's Staircase". Colder, wetter, windier.
On the brightside, we didn't have to imagine what it would feel like walking
on an alien planet.
Cold, desolate, barren landscape.
The real travesty of traversing the Tongariro Crossing that day
was all the missed photo opportunities. The night before we were
looking at a poster at the hostel, and I commented, "We're really
going to see THAT tomorrow???"; Awed and inspired by the beauty
of the picture of the Emeral Lakes before me. Well, I guess technically
I saw them.
Another sad thing was not being able to climb to the summit
of the mountain because or the conditions.
Ohhh... look at all the fun everyone's having.
Actually, the greatest disaster of all was this... my camera succumbed
to the moisture and died. Though it WAS my messed up one, it was
a part of me, ready to go anywhere I go. Now I have to carry around
ginger princess camera and hope it doesn't suffer the same fate.
After a wet and miserable bus ride back into town, Dave and I had to book a hostel for
the night. The nice one in town was booked out, and we were about to drive around
to other hostels in town when I made a suggestion... "How about we don't stay in Taupo?"
The only reason we were going to stay was so that I could do the skydive or bungy the
next day anyway, and neither was going to happen because I aggravated an old hamstring
injury during the climb (another factor that added to the day's frustrations). So without
much more thought, we left town. No distination, just a direction, West. We wanted to
be in Wellington for New Year, but had a couple days before that was coming up, and
neither of us had been to the west coast yet. Mind you it was seven in the evening
when we made this brash decision and didn't have any accomodations lined up. Anyway,
off we went... west. Drove through a few towns, filled up on petrol (lesson learned from my
LONGEST PLACE NAME IN THE WORLD adventure). Eventually, we entered a highway
called...
...The Forgotton World Highway. Night had set in long ago and eventually, we
discovered why this highway was called the the Forgotton World Highway.
There's bugger all on that long stretch of road. It was like a truly forgotton
part of the country; maybe an occasional farm or homestead. During the
entire night, we only encountered one other vehicle in the area. A single truck
with one headlight that eerily stopped and reversed when we passed it at an
intersection. Something like that you wouldn't think twice about, but on a road
as deserted as this, your mind imagination can run wild. But we didn't have to
leave it only to the imagination. The night's drive was full of strangeness... like
seeing sheep wondering on the road... or when the highway suddenly turned to
an unsealed dirt road for about 20km... or driving by a falling rock zone sign,
which can usually be ignored because there are never falling rocks, and seeing not
just a few rocks, but so many rocks on the road that they blocked the entire
lane for a few meters, leaving me driving on the other side of the road. Though
it didn't matter because we knew there was no one else on the road to worry
about... except a couple men who suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the side
of the road. What were they doing there? What were they doing standing there
so still, staring at us? My heart jumped out of my throat when they appeared.
And on we drove in the darkness... a dark abyss on either side of the road until
I got tired... we stopped at a picnic spot, made sure the door was locked, and slept.
Morning in the middle of nowhere.
In the daylight, we we finally able to see what we've been driving in all
night. The first thing we noticed... a wrecked car deep in the ravine.
And finally, some other people on the road.
A TALE OF TOWERS
A few hours later, we finally arrived back in civilization.
The first town was Stratford, the gateway to Taranaki.
Taranaki is a magnificent mountain that dominates the
entire western region. Our plan for the day, drive all along
the coastline and enjoy it's grandeur.
The town itself sucked, but it did have an interesting clock tower. We
later found in a tourist brochure a mention of Stratford and the picture
was of the top of the clock tower and Taranaki looming in the background.
It's funny how it gave no impression of how sucky the town was.
Continuing the drive around the peninsula, we came upon
New Plymouth. This city was actually nice and we spent
a couple hours there.
The peak of Mt. Taranaki in the distance... this was the best picture of the
mountain I could take. During the 6 hour drive around the peninsula, we
were blessed with beautiful blue skies everwhere we went. But amazingly,
the mountain was under constant cloud cover as well. Extremely disappointing.
An old building facade with juxtaposed with modern
architecture.
A cool tall modern sculpture thing on the waterfront.
Continuing around the peninsula, there were a lot of signs for surfing beaches.
I can't surf, but I can still enjoy the awesome waves.
Wavecrash + photoshop gradient filter = Lavacrash
The region is also known for its dairy production and it nicknamed,
the Udder of New Zealand. Moo.
Another Tower. This time a watertower in Manaia.
And for some reason they give props to Connecticut here.
Bread capital? Bread capital of what? Some town in France
should be outraged by this outrageous claim.
At around 6 in the evening, we arrived at Wanganui, another
major city. This tower we were allowed to climb up (much to
the dismay of my leg).
Wanganui was boring, and we were only about 2 hours from Wellington,
so we embarked on the final stretch south toward the city. But before that,
we wanted to stop at one of the Lord of the Rings filming locations. We
couldn't really find it, but we did find a really nice beach.
With a really nice sunset.
And as we stood there, watching the sun slowly melt into the horizon,
Dave and I pondered how strange and adventurous the past few weeks
have been, and what strange adventures are in store for us in Wellington.