Travelling Third Week

Monday: I left Kaikourra pretty early in the morning to be sure to arrive on time in Picton to catch the ferry. On the way I stopped at the seaside and within ten minutes I found heaps of Paua shells. A lot of stores sell them for fifteen to twenty dollars, but I heard and Amanda confirmed that you can find them yourself. Actually pretty easily, as I found out. Impressive where the little detours on the road to Picton. Because of the storm which hit the country a few days ago, the road was flushed away on several places and little one-lane bridges made driving up north possible. I arrived in Picton at quarter to twelve and asked the lady in the ferry-check-in box what time I had to be there. She said one hour before departure and that meant quarter to one. So I used the time to drive towards Queen Charlotte Track and here I saw several landslides which covered the road with mud. I was still able to see some of the beautiful scenery. Waiting for the ferry I was listening to my favourite brass band piece on my mp3-player and like this time was flying. Although I was a bit anxious about taking the ferry with the car, I managed to drive onto it without any problems; actually it wasn’t difficult at all. And what a surprise: stepping out the elevator I bumped into a Swiss girl I had met at Nelson English Centre. Talking to her made the rather dreary cook-straight crossing a bit more interesting. And in Wellington I was happy to give her a lift to the YHA. It took me only about ten minutes to find Tak and Juliet’s place, which was very close to town. They live in two garages in Helen Street where all the stuff for living like kitchen, shower, toilets and so on was installed. Tak had to leave for a rehearsal or something so I was all alone with Juliet who grew up in Nelson. We had an interesting conversation, especially because she plays the violin and I already knew some facts from my sister who played string instruments as well. She could still tell me a lot about this kind of music and also about the way she wants to go concerning her profession. She already has a Maths and Philosophy degree but had started to teach the violin. In her opinion it’s not worth doing a violin degree, because a lot of people can’t find a job after finishing studies. So she decided to go into music as a profession step by step, but still wants to be a full-time musician some day. I think she’s definitely capable to do that, because I heard her practicing: she played very beautifully. She was also interesting in Swiss music and so I showed her some Swiss rock bands on YouTube. I couldn’t help showing her my favourite brass band piece and so I listened to it the second time today. When Tak came back we decided to go out for dinner. I was happy to spend an evening out in Wellington with people living there because I had only one night here anyway. After a Cambodian meal we were all so full, that we couldn’t even eat a piece of cake with our coffee respectively hot chocolate for me. Instead we discussed the things I could do in the morning here in Wellington, so I got an idea of what to do.
Tuesday: I had a good night and was surprised, that in the morning when I woke up the garage was warmer than some of the places I had been before here in New Zealand. At nine o’clock I left the house for the bus station. I first went to Mt Victoria lookout, which gives you a splendid view over the capital. The bus driver took me right up to the lookout so I only had to walk the last few hundred meters. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy, but the sight was good and it wasn’t raining. After that I visited Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. It was a happy coincidence that I was at the museum at ten o’clock and that there was a guided tour at quarter past ten. This guided tour made the visit very interesting and I saw all the highlights of the museum within an hour. After that I had time to explore some of the most interesting parts a bit more in detail. When I was fed up with information I walked along the seaside to the cable car, which took me up to the botanical gardens. The way down I walked through the park and then finished my short visit in Wellington with looking at the beehive, New Zealand’s parliament house. I had to wait quite a bit for a bus back to Helen Street and finally left Wellington at three o’clock. Unfortunately neither Juliet nor Tak where at home, so I couldn’t say goodbye to my lovely hosts. I still had quite a long way to drive. It took me a bit less than five hours to get to National Park, and the last two hours I had to drive on a windy road in the darkness. Just about seventy kilometres before the end I had seen two cars standing on the side of the road and asked the people there if they needed help. A woman had bad luck with one of her tyres and she asked me for a torch, because they couldn’t see anything to change the wheel. I parked my car just next to them and light the place with the car light. To be at the hostel only at eight o’clock was pretty bad, because it was already dark and I wasn’t familiar with the environment, which was bad especially for this hostel, because it was spread out and not only one building.
Wednesday: I slept in today, because the weather seemed to be too bad to do anything else. From the three others in my room I only talked to one of them. I saw the third person when I left the room at about ten o’clock for the first time, which was a bit strange. On my way to Taupo I went to the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing, apparently one of the most beautiful one day hiking tracks in New Zealand. I first intended to do this trekking, but because it was winter I’d have needed winter equipment like ice axe, crampons and gaiters. Because it was all cloudy with a little bit of rain I didn’t even do parts of it. I drove to the other end of the walkway but there was nothing exciting either. Fortunately the weather turned much better on the way to Taupo and in this town there were only clouds on the horizon. After going to the I-site to get a map and find my hostel I checked in at one o’clock. It was all a bit strange; the girl at the check-in seemed to be unconfident. When I asked her why I had to write down my passport number her reaction was confused and I thought she might think that I was a strange guy. But apart from that the Tiki Lodge seemed to be very nice. I was so tired that I had to have a nap before I explored Taupo. After this refreshment I went to the Huka-Falls, a well known waterfall. I walked the track to the falls and back, which took me about two hours. Just next to the car park, there were some people in a little river taking a bath and I asked myself if it wasn’t a bit cold, but after considering my map I found out that this was a thermal spring. I held my hand into the water and found out that it was about forty degrees warm. I didn’t feel like taking a bath, especially because I’d have had to go to the car park to get my swimsuit, and after two hours walking I was too lazy for that. And I also felt a little bit sick today and realized that it had been a long time since eating vegetables or fruits, so I went to the supermarket to buy some healthy food. Back at my backpackers I cooked a broccoli and ate the whole thing at once. That was more or less my dinner; I just had some bread with it. And I felt better immediately. Now I talked to a Kiwi-girl and an English guy and watched TV for the evening.
Thursday: I left the hostel when all three others in my room were still sleeping. On my way to Rotorua I first went to a volcanic region where steam came out of wholes in the ground and learned about these natural effects. Then I went to a maori-place where there were silicon-platforms and a lot of information about Maori culture. In this park there was a carving workshop and I talked to one of the woodcarvers who explained me different aspects of these carvings and that he was carving a sculpture for the Taupo city council at the moment. Arriving in Rotorua I smelled what everybody had warned me against: rotten eggs. I checked in my five-star backpackers, what means extraordinary good, and then went exploring the city. I went to the I-Site, booked a mud-bath for tomorrow and asked what I could do in the afternoon. When I entered the government gardens I felt very lonely for the first time. Probably because I didn’t talk much to other travellers the last few days, or just had shallow conversations with them and also because I never stayed longer than one night at the same place since my stay in Christchurch. Nothing seemed to be a pleasure any more; even the most exciting things and I even thought it was time I went home now. But fortunately this feeling didn’t last very long or became less intense at least. After a collection of cultural stuff in these gardens I went to the lake and saw the thermal areas around Lake Rotorua. I walked along the lakeside until I got to a Maori Village. Unfortunately I couldn’t go into any of the houses, so I finished my Rotorua visit with going to a park next to my hostel. There was thermal activity as well and it was even made for taking a bath, at least for a footbath. I didn’t do that because I had no towel with me. Back in the lodge I watched TV and waited to be picked up at quarter past six for my Maori-culture experience. Our bus driver was a fun guy and he entertained us the whole way to the Maori-Village about fifteen kilometres from Rotorua, so it wasn’t boring at all but part of the experience. Our bus should represent one tribe visiting the village and therefore our driver Ngata chose a leader. In the Maori-Village we had a traditional welcome from four warriors of the tribe, representing four Maori-Gods. They came close to the leaders of the six visitor-tribes, made a kind of war-dance in front of them and yelled at them, which was quite scaring. Then we entered the village and were led to some of the important houses and Maori-People explained their function. The main cultural event was the following dancing- and singing-show in a big Maori-house. First the Maori-Women showed their dances and after a couple of dances together with the men, they showed us their Haka, the most well-known Maori war dance which many New Zealand sportsmen show before an international competition like a rugby-game or the Olympic Games. Now it was time we had dinner. I expected something quite different from our western food, but in fact it was very similar. Carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken and beef, as well as salad. Only the sauce was quite different and they said they had prepared the food in the complex, traditional Maori way, which they explained after the dessert. Now it was already time to go back, to enjoy Ngata’s entertainment one last time. It was incredible how he could remember all names in our tribe, there were about 30 people in the bus and he knew every name and where the person is from.
Friday: In the morning I drove to Hell’s gate, the thermal active area, where you could have a mud-bath. I first wanted to visit the park and because the lady at the office told me there was a guided tour I waited for half an hour. Unfortunately this guided tour wasn’t very good, because the guide was a student-guide. The older guide had to correct him often and that was a bit confusing. And it started raining as well, which it didn’t half an hour before. After that I enjoyed twenty minutes in the warm mud, the same mud I had seen on my tour in the park. You should only bath in the mud for twenty minutes because of its chemical activity. After that I naturally had to take a shower first and then took a bath in the sulphur-pools. The two pools were about 38 and 41 degrees warm, which became quite hot after a time. I had to cool down and took a foot-mud-bath. When I got cold, I popped into the hot pools again for a couple of minutes. After having a thorough shower, I went on my way to Mt Maunganui. The weather got better from kilometre to kilometre and I even had sunshine when I climbed up a hill to a lookout-point. I tried to be as much faster than the 45 minutes indicated on the information-panel as possible. I run uphill and reached the top after fifteen minutes. Unfortunately a wind started blowing quite heavily and dark showers moved into the area pretty fast. On the last kilometres to Mt Maunganui I even had some raindrops. I checked in at half past two and after a short break it wandered to the beach, heading to the hill which gave the town its name. I had a few raindrops again but then it eased up and was very enjoyable. Unfortunately there were many clouds in the west, so I couldn’t see a proper sunset. Back at the hostel at about quarter past six I watched TV and a movie. After having something to eat I watched TV again and hoped to see the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Unfortunately they were announced to be on TV at midnight, and though I intended to wait I got too tired and went to bed. At least I knew something about famous New Zealand sports-people now, because they showed former Olympic Games and their New Zealand winners on TV.
Saturday: The weather was once again not the best, but on my way to Waitomo Caves it got a little bit better. I arrived at the Kiwi-Paka Youth Hostel at half past eleven and eventually had time to update my blog. At quarter past one I got picked up for the black water rafting in one of the caves. Equipped with neoprene suits we drove to one of the caves. We picked up a big tube and walked down a walking track. The entrance was an unremarkable little hole near the track, just big enough to get into the cave system. The water was still pretty cold, even with the neoprene suits. It was good fun to experience the caves this way, a bit more exciting than just walking I thought. On our one-hour tour through the cave we jumped off a waterfall and swam with our tubes through the narrow gaps in the limestone. Once we turned off our headlamps and could see hundreds of glow-worms above our heads. Because we were only two on this tour, we had enough time to experience some more parts of the caves and climbed up the walkway to go to one of the most beautiful parts of the caves. On the way out, I fell down into the cold water, but our guide could fortunately pick me up and pull me out of the water. My hands were so freezing cold that I had to expose them to hot water for about ten minutes until I could straighten them again. After a warm shower we could warm up the inside of our bodies with a hot tomato-soup. On the way back to the hostel I saw a walking track and couldn’t resist to climb it up to a historical Maori-site, where I also had a great view of the surrounding hills. Back at the Youth Hostel I remembered that I had forgotten my towel and swimsuit at the black water rafting company, so I took the car to get them. After that I had a quiet evening: I first ate something and then played pool with Alessandro, the Brazil guy from my room. I ended up watching the Olympic Games on TV again. I went to bed early, because I had a long drive the next day.
Sunday: I left the Youth Hostel at eight o’clock and just had to wait for the frost on my car to thaw, so that I could see something. Then I drove for a long time and at one point I couldn’t find the road out of a little town and then found out, that I missed a turnoff and was in Raglan, a little surfer village. The only way out was where I had been coming from. This detour really annoyed me, not only because I made more than sixty extra kilometres but also because it cost me about one hour. All my efforts to be in Paihia as early as possible were for nothing. Shortly before Auckland I filled up my tank which was the first real stop. Then I drove through this biggest city of New Zealand and over the big bridge up north. I felt tired and stopped at a car park to walk up the path in the native forest to a lookout. On the way up I could also get rid of the anger I still had in me because of my detour and convert this energy into movement. After that I felt better and kept on driving until Paihia. I arrived at my Hostel at ten to four and my mileage showed 543.3 kilometres, so that was the longest of my journeys. After checking in I borrowed a bike from the hostel and explored Paihia and the surrounding region. I cycled up a little mountain, a lookout point which the guy at the reception had recommended. Coming back down I saw a sign about a forest park just next to this mountain and spontaneously decided to bike along this road. Unfortunately it took longer than I expected and seemed to be like a labyrinth. After the sunset I had to hurry to get back before darkness. There was one intersection where I wasn’t sure which way to go. Fortunately I saw two guys with a pick-up somewhere after that and asked them about the way. Darwin’s law seemed to be true once again because I had decided for the wrong way. One of them asked me if I was able to get back to Paihia before darkness. I was a bit sceptical and so he offered to give me a ride. I was really lucky to have met these two guys, Colin and Steve, because Steve said the track I was going down would continue for about ten kilometres until the next signs of civilization. Eventually I was back at my hostel at half past six, after having bought some food in the supermarket. Now it was time to eat something and I watched the Olympic Games on TV again. Updating my diary and finally post it on my blog took me very long, so I finally went to bed at half past one.