Been a While

Sorry it has been a while since we've blogged.  I wish we could say we've been crazy busy and haven't had the internet at all, but that just isn't true.  We have been busy though.  After hiking Avalanche Peak, we drove to the east coast, got some fast food and supplies in Christ Church and then drove up the coast all night.  We found a nice spot on the ocean to sleep and woke up to watch the sun rise over the Pacific.  That was sweet.  We were going to swim with dolphins in Kaikora but decided it wasn't worth $165 so we sped up our schedule and caught the ferry to the north island a day earlier than expected.

The difference between the north and south islands is obvious right away.  As the ferry docked, we could see that Wellington (NZ's capital city) has buildings taller than 2 stories.  The south island hardly had any of those.  We drove straight to Tongariro National Park and camped (as always) on the side of the road for the night.  It was a long day of traveling and we were tired, so we slept through the alarm.  When we showed up at the visitor's center, the woman at the desk told us we had missed all of the shuttles to the start of the famous Tongariro Crossing trek and we couldn't do it today.  Naturally we didn't listen to her and found a nice guy to drop us off.  He said we had to make sure we were at the pick up by 5 otherwise we would have no way to get back.  It was 11 and the hike is said to take 6-8 hours.  We started booking it up the trail and before we knew it, we were most of the way up the volcano (Yes, we hiked up a volcano) and it was only 12:30.  We decided to take the side track to the top of Mount Tongariro, where there were some awesome views and we ate lunch at the top.  Then, we continued on the trail, going down the other side of the volcano, seeing some amazing yellows and reds from past eruptions and lots of solidified magma flows.  There were also some awful smelling emerald pools that were heated by the volcano.  They wreaked of sulfur.  All in all it was an awesome hike and we made it down in time for the 4 o'clock shuttle.  The guy giving us the ride called us "legions."

That was Christmas Eve.  That night we drove up to Taupo, found a free campsite and made an awesome stirfry by the river.  We woke up Christmas morning to some eggs, cruissants with jam and a dip in the river to clean some of the stench of.  It had been 6 days since showering.  We spend most of Christmas on the beach next to Lake Taupo, a huge volcanic crater lake.  That night we made a Christmas dinner that was...well, lacking to say the least.  But we washed it down with some Jim Beam and cuban cigars.  All in all not bad.

Side Note: We were throwing a tennis ball around in the campsite and a little girl started playing with us.  After a while she asked which campsite was our and we pointed to Norton and our tent.  She said "You're staying in that gay tent?" ... An 7 year old girl called our tent gay....

The next morning we called up my family friends who live in Taupo.  They immediately came to get us and bring us to their house nearby.  They were a great family, very inviting and fun. Rod took us mountain biking in the hills outside the city and Vivien made us some great Christmas leftovers for dinner.  A home cooked meal and a shower were all we needed to refuel us.

We decided it would be easier to drive a bit the next day rather than spend a second night with them so we set out for Waitomo.  Found a great spot on the side of the road and settled down for the night.  The next morning, we set out on an all day tour of the caves.  It started with a 100m abseil (rappel for you Americans) into the caves, through the  mist.  It looked like something straight out of Jurrasic Park and it was even called the Lost World.  We had lunch in the cave and then did a combination of rock climbing up waterfalls, swimming through underground rivers and seeing thousands of glowworms.  It's all on Planet Earth if you want to look it up.

Now we're in the Bay of Islands and are renting a 20ft sailboat for the day tomorrow....I hope I remember how to sail because I told them we knew how.....  Should be interesting....

P