National Park to Northland
On Thursday morning we headed off across the Tongariro National Park to Turangi. We drove up the road to the ski centre on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu. The little huddle of ski lodges and lifts sits on the vegetation free volcanic rocks half way up the mountain, a strange sight and to think the volcano erupted only 10 years ago and theoretically could again at any time. Infact there are notices telling you what to do if it does. Running not being one of the options.
We then drove on round to the east side of the central volcanoes back to Extreme Backpackers in Turangi at the south end of Lake Taupo. We stayed here a couple of months ago when we did the tongariro crossing. Speaking of the crossing it claimed the life of a 64 year old American only a few days ago. The weather closed in and the pair got lost and confused and were found halfway along the track, both had hypothermia and one died soon after being found. It's a dangerous place and so many people seem to underestimate it.
Turangi really is one of the best trout fishing spots in the world and at this time of year, if you get the rain the fish move up from the lake to spawn in the Tongariro river. Anyway, despite the lack of rain I had a go in the afternoon, I caught a couple of wee ones but the big boys proved elusive, as they did for all the other fishers I met, or so they said.
Next day it was raining all day and while Jamie was in bed all day with his continuing cold I headed off to see the sunset over the volcanoes and what a sight it was. Just as the sun was dropping all the rain clouds cleared and the reds and oranges lit up all the high cloud around and above the mountains. Amazing.
Next day, Saturday, we took the road north to the much derided city of Hamilton, it's the biggest inland city in NZ with a population of around 120,000. It's got no mountains, no lakes, no sea nearby so it's pretty difficult to find things to do. We were there for the Super 14 rugby match between the local Waikato Cheifs and the New South Wales Waratahs from across the water and who we saw beat the ACT Brumbies in Sydney. This time we were supporting the home team and they suprised everyone by crushing the Aussies with some lovely flowing football. A great game and as it was the last home game of the season we were allowed onto the pitch afterwards. Quite a unique experience, nice pitch too.
Incidently the owners of the backpackers were originally from Scotland having moved from Kirkaldy to Hamilton in 1958. It cost them nothing and they had a house and jobs waiting for them when they got here after a 5 week voyage. Some very interesting stories they had.
Next day we drove up to Helensville North of Auckland. We stayed at the amazing Malolo House hostel, a former hospital and done out more like a hotel than a hostel. We both still have our colds hanging on so we bit the bullet and got ourselves anti-biotics to finally kill the things off after 2 weeks it's getting a bit annoying.
After Helensville we headed up the West side of Northland. This area is famous for it's kauri trees. These huge monolythic trees used to grow eveywhere in this part of the world but the early settlers took most of them away and sold them for timber. They were highly prized due to their shear size ( the biggest being 26ft in diameter) and the fact the were straight. They grew straight up and only had branches at the top so huge volumes of wood would come from one tree. The lengths of timber were excellent for boat building and the gum was gathered too for use as varnish and in the making of linoleum.
We popped in at the much renowned Kauri Museum and it is deserving of it's reputation. It has copious exhibits from photographs of the old loggers and their dangerous work to working examples of saw mills and the processes used to mill and transport the timber.
We then drove up the coast past some of the still living kauris left and on to Omapere at the mouth of Hokianga Harbour. On the other side of the mouth are some huge sand dunes which we plan to sledge down later. The hostel, Globetrekkers, is excellent too. Everywhere seems pretty good now that there are so few people here and we can get alot more space to ourselves.
We then drove on round to the east side of the central volcanoes back to Extreme Backpackers in Turangi at the south end of Lake Taupo. We stayed here a couple of months ago when we did the tongariro crossing. Speaking of the crossing it claimed the life of a 64 year old American only a few days ago. The weather closed in and the pair got lost and confused and were found halfway along the track, both had hypothermia and one died soon after being found. It's a dangerous place and so many people seem to underestimate it.
Turangi really is one of the best trout fishing spots in the world and at this time of year, if you get the rain the fish move up from the lake to spawn in the Tongariro river. Anyway, despite the lack of rain I had a go in the afternoon, I caught a couple of wee ones but the big boys proved elusive, as they did for all the other fishers I met, or so they said.
Next day it was raining all day and while Jamie was in bed all day with his continuing cold I headed off to see the sunset over the volcanoes and what a sight it was. Just as the sun was dropping all the rain clouds cleared and the reds and oranges lit up all the high cloud around and above the mountains. Amazing.
Next day, Saturday, we took the road north to the much derided city of Hamilton, it's the biggest inland city in NZ with a population of around 120,000. It's got no mountains, no lakes, no sea nearby so it's pretty difficult to find things to do. We were there for the Super 14 rugby match between the local Waikato Cheifs and the New South Wales Waratahs from across the water and who we saw beat the ACT Brumbies in Sydney. This time we were supporting the home team and they suprised everyone by crushing the Aussies with some lovely flowing football. A great game and as it was the last home game of the season we were allowed onto the pitch afterwards. Quite a unique experience, nice pitch too.
Incidently the owners of the backpackers were originally from Scotland having moved from Kirkaldy to Hamilton in 1958. It cost them nothing and they had a house and jobs waiting for them when they got here after a 5 week voyage. Some very interesting stories they had.
Next day we drove up to Helensville North of Auckland. We stayed at the amazing Malolo House hostel, a former hospital and done out more like a hotel than a hostel. We both still have our colds hanging on so we bit the bullet and got ourselves anti-biotics to finally kill the things off after 2 weeks it's getting a bit annoying.
After Helensville we headed up the West side of Northland. This area is famous for it's kauri trees. These huge monolythic trees used to grow eveywhere in this part of the world but the early settlers took most of them away and sold them for timber. They were highly prized due to their shear size ( the biggest being 26ft in diameter) and the fact the were straight. They grew straight up and only had branches at the top so huge volumes of wood would come from one tree. The lengths of timber were excellent for boat building and the gum was gathered too for use as varnish and in the making of linoleum.
We popped in at the much renowned Kauri Museum and it is deserving of it's reputation. It has copious exhibits from photographs of the old loggers and their dangerous work to working examples of saw mills and the processes used to mill and transport the timber.
We then drove up the coast past some of the still living kauris left and on to Omapere at the mouth of Hokianga Harbour. On the other side of the mouth are some huge sand dunes which we plan to sledge down later. The hostel, Globetrekkers, is excellent too. Everywhere seems pretty good now that there are so few people here and we can get alot more space to ourselves.
posted by PeterZ at 4:15 PM
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