Up High, Down Low

Well it's that time again where I fill you in on what I've been doing with my time (and more importantly, my fast-diminishing bank account) over here. To summarise: Another awesome and adventure-packed week!
From Auckland I took a little-travelled coastal route out towards Port Waikato and then onto Raglan to fix up a huge mistake - contrary to my blog title, I did infact forget my jandals in Raglan when I was there last! It was definitely a surprisingly stunning piece of back country (although, I'm not too sure why I'm surprised looking back at the rest of my trip). I guess it's the first time I realised that Autumn had hit.. The look of the landscape all over the country is really starting to get a boost with the green leaves of deciduous trees now turning bright yellow, orange, red and purple.. I found my flip-flops there and also saw a few familiar faces (although some of them didn't see mine.. Rob!) from the last time I was there. We all chowed down on a BBQ feast that night.. Mmmm.
Again taking the long way the next day (you hardly see anything good from the main roads and highways) along some rough - but scenically rewarding - dirt roads, I eventually ended up at a place called Waitomo, about an hour south of Hamilton. The entire Waitomo area is pitted with over 300 caves (which when you think about the fact that in Māori, wai means water and tomo means hole or shaft, it's fairly fitting). I was there for one thing.. caving! I've never done caving before, although I have had some experience rock climbing and abseiling from the indoor gyms so I figured I would give it a go the next day. It was a shame we couldn't take our cameras down into the caves with us, but just as well because there were points where we had to crawl on our stomachs through water in order to fit through some tight tunnels, and also had to abseil down waterfalls. Yaaaa-hoooo! What awesome fun, and the glow worms (Arachnocampa luminosa - check out their life cycle, very interesting!) providing the mood lighting made it all the more beautiful. While I enjoyed checking out this very well known cave, I don't think I'd want to be the one exploring a dark, slippery, seemingly infinitely winding cave for the first time.. Think I'll leave that up to the experts..
Onwards from here, further south past the west coast of lake Taupo to Tongariro National Park. It is here that the active volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu are situated in close proximity to each other. I've wanted to walk the Tongariro Crossing - classed as the finest one-day walk in NZ - ever since I got to chatting with the guys on the Milford Track about their experiences. The weather was looking up for the weekend and I decided to buy a hut pass so I could spend two days exploring the volcanoes. Before I ventured out onto the Crossing, I took in a few shorter walks around the Whakapapa Village, which is situated on the slopes of Ruapehu.
Saturday, the first day of the Crossing, I have to say, was one of the most gratifying and spectacular tramps I've done so far! The first hour and a half I spent climbing up some fairly steep rocky terrain which they call the devil's staircase. I was pretty tired after this but the views from the top were certainly wonderful. I waited at this rest-spot for the French girls to arrive because we had planned to walk the track together. Turns out they had different plans to myself so we ended up parting ways almost straight away. They continued on down the track and I took a side trip up to the summit of the dreaded Ngauruhoe (which is actually the mountain they used as Mt Doom in LOTR - but who takes notice of these things).

I didn't realise what I was getting myself into when I started this climb but soon figured out that I probably should have been more prepared with climbing poles, etc., although I'm not sure if they would have actually helped on this perfectly symmetrical and steep cone.. Most of my time up the mountain was spent on all fours just trying not to tumble backwards as I slipped on the loose scoria that formed the cone's outer surface. I've never been so relieved to reach a destination as I was on that climb! The weather was absolutely pristine (better than forecast - but I've learnt to never trust the weather report in NZ anyway, as it's wrong about 95% of the time) with not a cloud in the sky, so I could see out to the horizon in every direction from the top of this 2287m high volcano. The crater was quite dramatic in itself with red and yellow hues, attributable to different chemicals in the rocks, and steam still venting from certain places. Going down was even more fun than the climb up.. I simply had to slide on my feet all the way down.. for 30 minutes straight! I was surprised my shoes were still in good condition (let alone still intact) after this marathon rock coasting session.

I was understandably well and truly stuffed by this point but had to push on as the day was also doing so. Another slippery climb over the highest point of the track (apart from the Ngauruhoe side-trip of course) and I reached the Emerald lakes - three lakes, bright emerald in colour, which have to be seen to be believed - just as the clouds started rolling in. From here I deviated from the track, through an eerie volcanic landscape, to get to Oturere hut where I was to spend the night playing Uno with a whole bunch of fellow trampers.

I was the first to awake in the morning out of the 20 or so people that spent the night in that hut. The clouds had persisted throughout the night and rain had slowly started to develop (unsurprisingly worse than forecast) so the rest of the 5 hour walk to the end of the track was fairly shitty - no pretty waterfalls or rivers to wade through this time, just rain and lots of it. I'm not complaining though, it was all worth it in the end for those views from Ngauruhoe!
After all this excitement I thought I'd have a relaxed drive on Monday through another day of hilly, green, red, rocky terrain.. and rain, to the large and good-charactered town of Wanganui on the west coast. The next day, moving on again to the Taranaki region, a little further north on the west coast, of which the main feature is the huge dormant volcano Mt. Taranaki. New Plymouth is the place to be on this coast and that's exactly where I stayed. Yesterday I drove up to the Plateau (a popular ski field on the slopes of the mountain) for a brilliant view of the topography of the volcano. I would have walked up to the summit of this one also but I've heard that people have started turning back due to ice on the track, so I thought better not. Also yesterday, I visited the tiny and noneventful town and republic of Whangamomona (the one which Lee noted as having elected a goat as their president, in her comment on one of my previous posts).

I managed to tie off a few loose ends yesterday and this morning, which have been hanging over my head for a while. I feel quite relieved (as you do). And now I am back in Hamilton. Passing through on my way to the Coromandel.


Photos:
1. The Mangapohue natural limestone bridge - on the way to Waitomo
2. Sexytime - Waitomo Caves
3. Taranaki Falls (I got a little wet) - Whakapapa
4. Psyching myself up for the big climb
5. Me and the girls
6. It begins...
7. Peering into the crater at the summit of Ngauruhoe
8. The view over Mt. Tongariro from Ngauruhoe
9. Steam vents...
10. The Emerald lakes.. Beautiful!
11. The next day!
12. Did I say relaxing in Wanganui? - "The Swing"
13. Autumn in the Virginia Lake Scenic Reserve - Wanganui
14. Mt. Taranaki