NZ Part II - Dry Land Adventures

Once back in Auckland and off the Good Ship Pegasus, we took our Trusty Steed (1995 vintage Toyota Corolla) and headed off into the depths of the North Island to go and explore some volcanoes.

First stop Rotorua, in the heartland of the North Island. Acidic pools, stinking fumaroles and bubbling mud galore. I wasn't too impressed with the geyser that was artificially induced every morning at precisely 10.15 am by the addition of soap into the vent (soap reduces the surface tension, and allows sperheated water to boil at depth).

Next stop Whatakane and hence a tour to White Island, NZ's only active marine volcano. Pretty cool if you ask me - although I was disappointed that none of the tour guides was actually a geologist.
Here's the island from a distance. We were lucky in that it was a flat calm day meaning that the boat ride was smooth and pleasant and the water crystal clear:


We were given attractive and necessary hard hats and gas masks to wear:



This vent was particularly active and stinky. The acidic fumes really made your eyes water and your throat all scratchy - hence the usefulness of the gas mask.


On the way back to the mainland we had a particularly special treat - hundreds of dolphins swimming and jumping, babies in tow. Awesome. They played around us for about 5 mins before continuing on their way to wherever they were headed.


After some full-on volcano action we headed to Te Uwera National Park and Lake Waikeparemoana where we camped by the crystal clear (and very cold) lake. Cloudless days and hot sunshine - beautiful.


From Te Uwera on to Napier/Hastings and a bit of a wine interlude - no pics unfortunately as they all seemed to come out a bit blurry....!!

After all that good food and wine we thought we'd better go and have some excercise so we moved to Tongariro National Park to walk the Tongariro Crossing. 19.4 km for the "easy walk" - not being satisfied with that we had to summit Ngauruhoe and Tongariro too. Ouch.
Here's Felix on the boardwalk at the start of the trail:

Mount Ngauruhoe just beginning to peer out through the mist:


After an hour or so of very hard slog up a 35 degree scoria slope, we made it!!

Safely back in Auckland the next day, we had about 24 hours to unpack, repack and get ready to catch the plane home. Mum and Dad, thanks so much for your hospitality and looking after us so well!

More photos up on F's Picassa page.

New Zealand Adventures by Sea

New Zealand - what a place! We spent 3 weeks there, from Christmas Day until mid Jan. The first 10 days were spent aboard the Good Ship Pegasus sailing around the Hakurangi Gulf, around Auckland. We visited 4 islands - Rangitoto (a volcano that erupted 800 years ago), Waiheke (Auckland 2nd home capital and wine buffs heaven), Great Barrier (about 100km out of the city and pretty much wilderness), and Titiri Mangiri (bird sancturary where all imported predators have been removed). All very beautiful in very different ways.

Here we are on some lava on Rangitoto - not a lot of growth on this patch yet!

Dad creating a stream crossing point by heaving big rocks into the water (didn't really work!)


The first jumping photo of the holiday!


The "Christmas" Tree - flowers with lovely red flowers around Christmas time.


On top of Mount Hobson, the high point of Great Barrier Island. 600+ steps to get up there!!


I love these fern trees - they make such nice shapes against the sky!


We finally found a large kauri tree - Great Barrier had been heavily logged last century and although some trees have been replanted, they are still pretty small. Some large trees like this survived on the unloggable steep slopes.

Pacific Adventures

The moral of this story is never travel at Christmas time. Many American and Canadian airports close due to snow, and aircraft and crew get delayed. You don't get compensation if a flight is delayed due to weather.

My journey from San Fran to Auckland went something like this:

1pm, Dec 23rd. Arrive SF airport. Try to change LA-AKK flight to a later one to fly with Felix. No luck there but the Silver Star Alliance card has power and I get waved through priority security. Yipppee. Flight due to depart at 3.36pm.

2.30 pm. Plane delayed until 4.05 pm - late arrival of aircraft due to snow in Chicago.

3.45 pm. Plane delayed until 5.30 pm - late arrival of crew due to snow somewhere else.

5.30 pm. Get on plane, taxi to runway, taxi back to terminal. "Problem with brakes". Delay is now mechanical - yippee, United have to sort out my travel plans. Have lost all chance of getting to LA on time to get original flight.

7.45 pm. Finally board flight and have a lovely time getting to LA.

9.05 pm. Crazy rush off plane, notice that the United customer services desk is jam packed so decide to go straight to Air New Zealand desk in another terminal. Huge queue for terminal shuttle but jump the queue and leap on the bus anyway as I have no hand luggage and fit in a small space.

9.45 pm. Panicking slightly through security as they do the last call for boarding of the flight but then realise that everyone in the queue with me is also bound for the same flight. Yet they all seem headed for Tonga. Hmmm.

10.07 pm. Run for plane and realise that my water bottle is no longer with me. Drat.

10.09 pm. Board plane, chat to the air hostess and realise that this plane flies to Auckland via Samoa and Tonga. Ooof, this is going to be a long journey. Send a panicky message to Pegasus but get the arrival day wrong - I will actually be arriving on Christmas Day not Boxing Day, albeit 7 hours late...

6.40 am (local time, Christmas Eve), land in Samoa. Smells of greenery and tropical lushness. Eyes are drawn to a perfectly conical volcano just behind the runway. Realise I haven't got my belt on - must have lost it between security in LA and here. Drat.`

8.55 am (local time, Christmas Day), land in Tonga after crossing the international date line. Where did a day go? Lots of palm trees and hot weather.

12.32 pm Christmas Day. Arrive Auckland. No bags, no friendly family to get me (they thought I would be arriving Boxing Day.....)

PS
Family arrived 40 mins later to collect me.... Bags arrived 24 hours later on next flight, so Christmas presents were all saved.