north island grand tour

soo riley had been talking about coming up to visit me for quite awhile, and possibly arriving on monday, but when i had not heard from him on sunday i assumed he was not coming. but he and his friend jessie (who i met when we were down there) got last minute tickets and arrived around 10pm on monday night, so i have been gone all week doing as much north island stuff as possible in 4 days.

since we were leaving tuesday morning, sophie had the excellent idea that we should get brian to climb the crane on the construction site next to ih with us (i don't remember if i said this before, but brian and ace and ollie have climbed this crane 4 or 5 times at night now, and i had been wanting to but missed all of their adventures so far). so we found brian but he was watching a movie and said come back in 20 minutes, so sophie and i took riley and jessie on a quick walking tour of downtown. we went down symonds st, showed them the uni campus, down quay st to the viaduct (to see the billboard with the blowing skirt) and then up to the base of the sky tower, up queen st to wakefield, and then back to ih. they were not in love with the city overall, and agreed that all the hills here are ridiculous.

we then went back to brian's room and as our "crane guide" he took us into the construction site and lead us up the crane. i was really not very scared at all, although after climbing 13+ floors worth of ladders my arms were getting a tad tired (which may also have been related to the 2 step/pump classes i went to earlier in the day). the view at the top was absolutely amazing, and we took lots of pictures. it was quite windy up there, and when it started raining we started back down. it was a bit scarier going down all those ladders in the rain, but we all made it safely back, and after booking a hostel for wellington on thursday night (riley and jessie were being cheap and wanted to camp the first and maybe second nights), we went to bed.

tuesday we were supposed to pick up the car at 8 am, but did not leave ih until after 8. riley and jessie insisted on coming with me, and we told sophie we'd pick her and our bags up from ih. as we were driving away from the rental place i noticed the gas was only 2/3 full, so after a u-turn in the considerable traffic of a weekday morning, i went back to the office and the man told me we only needed to return it half full in wellington. so we did another u-turn, got sophie and our bags, and headed for our first destination, the coromandel peninsula, about a 2 hour drive from auckland.

our first visit was to cathedral cove, which is towards the top on the east (pacific) side. it's this big sort of arch formed in the rock, and is apparently in the new narnia movie. the guidebook said it was a 20 minute walk down from the parking lot and a 40 min walk back, so we strolled down, and took a detour to see gemstone bay, which was a really pretty little cove with a lot of big rocks down to the water. we scrambled around on the rocks and gradually moved further along the shore, where we eventually ended up on another beach that we thought should have a path back to the main trail, but we could not find one. luckily, as the tide was coming in (causing the beach to disappear) we saw some people in the woods and discovered that there was in fact a path, which we would have completely missed had the people not been there.

so we found our way back, and continued on to cathedral cove. the path at one point led thru some farmland and there was a bench at a scenic overlook, except the bench was on the other side of an electric fence (well, we didn't test to see if it was actually electric). after going down a lot of stairs in what felt like the jungle, we emerged on a beach and to our left was cathedral cove. we took lots of pictures and played in the sand (it was quite warm in the sun, probably in the high 60s or low 70s, and the christchurch kids did not believe me that it is getting cold here, especially since they had significant snow there right before they left). anyway, after a few hours we headed back (UPhill) to the car, where we had some of the 12 pbjs i had made at ih.

then we drove on to hotwater beach, where you are supposed to be able to dig a hole in the sand and it will form a natural hot tub. however, i guess it only works at low tide, and when riley asked at the visitor center they said low tide was at 6am and 8pm. we were confused because that seems like a very slow tide, so we decided to go around 1 (halfway in the middle). turns out they may have been right because the water was pretty high at that point. we tried digging some random holes which only filled with cold water, and jessie built a sand castle and riley built a very impressive whale.

after that we drove back down the peninsula, and made our way to rotorua, via matamata and tirau, where we saw the obligatory hobbit hole and corrugated metal decorations, although it was getting dark. gas in auckland had been at $2.00/litre since serita and i had last traveled, 3 weeks ago, and i hadn't bothered to fill up there, but by that evening it was either 2.06 or 2.09 most places, so after trying to wait for another 2.00 deal we were nearing empty and ended up paying 2.09. lame as.

the original plan had been to go to the secret spot and then burger fuel in rotorua, but we were all starving as we entered rotoroua, so we went to burger fuel first, and it was delicious, although i was the only one who got kumara fries. we then changed into our bathing suits in the burger fuel bathroom (and some guy walked in on my changing ha ha), and then drove to the secret spot. when we arrived we were the only ones there, and it was dark and muddy and smelled like sulfur and i warned them not to put their heads in the water, and they accused me of taking them swimming in sewage ha ha. it was amazing and warm as always, and while we were there a local couple joined us and left, and a whole bunch of what i think were local high school kids came. they were quite loud and drunk but fairly entertaining, and we talked to them for awhile. one of them told us several times how 'this is just our local swimming pool' and they said in the morning we should go see the boiling mud pools at the other end of the road.

after several hours we were VERY pruney (sophie was scared it was going to be permanent) we dragged ourselves out and changed quickly in the middle of the road. then we drove back towards town and found a pull-off picnic area place that riley and jessie said should be good for camping. i asked if they wanted me to 'back up for easy access' (to the trunk with their camping stuff!) and everyone absolutely died laughing. anyway, they pitched their tent and sophie and i prepared to sleep in the car, at which point i discovered i had forgotten my sleeping bag. i did have my blankie and pillow, as well as every jacket i own here, so i didn't think it would be too cold. i was wrong, it was very cold. there was frost in the morning, as well as some roosters that were awake and crowing LONG before the sun was up. overall, not the most restful night ever, but it was free.

wednesday morning we took sophie to town to catch her bus back to auckland (she had tests this week, and had done most of the other stuff we were doing). we got groceries (we were flying thru the pbjs, so we got bread, pb, j, pasta, pancake mix, timtams and some fruit), and i used my $25 kathmandu voucher to get a warm hat since i sent mine home with serita. then we headed towards taupo, stopping at the recommended mud pools, which were pretty cool, but very smelly. we also stopped at puzzle world and played for awhile, although riley got very frustrated because he does not like puzzles.

after that we stopped at huka falls, saw the falls, and did the 2 hour return walking path along the waikato river towards taupo. again, it was quite warm in the sun and a bit sweaty, but it was really pretty. there was a hotwater stream that other people were swimming in but we did not. after returning to the car we continued on into taupo and parked by the lake and had some pbj. we walked around town a little, and riley tried the 'taupo hole in 1 competition' where you try to hit a golf ball from the shore into a hole on a raft floating out in the lake. his first shot was not even close, and the second one, the head of the golf club went flying into the lake ha ha.

after wandering around town for awhile we got more gas and drove on to turangi, the nearest town to tongariro national park, where we would be doing the tongariro crossing hike the next day. i slept most of the ride (while riley drove, don't worry ha ha) and awoke at the isite where we stopped get info about the hike, and figure out where to stay (i had convinced them that a warm, comfortable bed before and after hiking would be worth the 20ish bucks). the lady told us that the shuttles to and from the crossing are $35, and there was only a tiny bit of snow at the top so we didn't need to get crampons, and that we could rent anything else we needed (i needed hiking boots, and we might want waterproof pants) from a shop in town, but when we went there they said to go to the hostel across the street, or else some of the shuttles had gear for hire. we decided to stay at the hostel right there, which turned out to be really nice, probably in my top 3 i've been to here. the kitchen and bathroom were super nice and clean, and they even had their own rock climbing wall!

i'm pretty sure the lady who checked us in was the owner, she was very friendly and kind of reminded me of ms garrahan. after finding our room (8 person dorm) we turned on the heater because it was freezing, and made dinner. we made pasta with this red sauce with "spicy peppers" in it. i'm not sure how we ended up purchasing that because riley generally cannot handle spicy food, but it was yummy and we at the entire 500g package of pasta, and a lot of cookies afterward. we ate and hung out after in the lounge area, which included a fireplace and a tv, which was first playing some chick flickish movie i'd never seen before, and then we watched the panic room after and i attempted to study a little linguistics. after that we played cards for a little bit, and then went to bed in our room, which was quite warm and toasty by then (and sophie had left me her sleeping bag which was good because bedding cost extra).

thursday morning we were up bright and early (and much better rested than the previous night) for the crossing. now i was a bit apprehensive about doing the crossing, since people who had gone several weeks ago had needed crampons, and had warned me how cold it was. in addition, riley and jessie are quite the experienced trampers. they go for hikes that last several days most weekends. riley told me i was acting like we were scaling everest, and to calm down. the fact that the weather was good and snow-less did make me feel better. we packed everything we would need (a bajillion layers, an entire loaf of bread made into pbj, lots of water, and some granola bars) into jessie's big backpack, which riley carried for basically the whole day (i guess hers is more comfortable than his). the lady from the hostel took us in the bus at 7:30 to the mountain, and we were there by 8. she told us her husband would be waiting to pick us up in the car park at the other end at 3:30, and he would wait for us until 4:30, so to be sure we were there by then.

there was a little fog but it was supposed to burn off pretty quickly. it was pretty chilly outside, so to start off i was wearing a tanktop, courtney's under armor-ish t shirt she loaned me, my polypro, and my northface on top, and my polypro leggings and ur sweat pants (as well as 2 pairs of warm socks with my rented hiking boots), and my snowboarding gloves and new hat from kathmandu. the beginning hour or 2 was actually pretty flat, although i had forgotten what it's like walking at riley's speed, and i requested several stops, to stretch my shins and apply bandaids to my heels. the rented hiking boots were actually pretty comfortable though, i was expecting much worse.

after a potty stop at soda springs, we started up the so-called "devil's staircase" which is about 1000 stairs in a row winding up the mountain. we were definitely not cold anymore by the top! we eventually emerged in the south crater, at the base of mt. ngauruhoe, aka mt. doom from the lord of the rings. we had been told by several people that in the winter there isn't enough daylight to have time to do the 2 hour side tracks to the summits of the mountains, but riley said he "needed to summit something" and although he tried to convince me to as well i declined and told them i'd meet them at the hut further on. we fashioned a make-shift pack for me out of my waterproof pants and scarf to hold my warm layers, water, and some granola bars, and they set off to scramble up very steep gravel skree and i took a much more leisurely pace (both because it was more enjoyable that way and so i wouldn't be waiting for them for hours to catch up).

in the process of dawdling i met 2 guys, serge from toronto and gui from brazil, who were also going quite slowly. i ended up walking with them the rest of the way and we stopped to take lots of pictures and somehow i was the fast one in that group ha ha. after crossing the flat south crater, we continued on upward. this was the hardest part, because it was a combination of gravel skree and slippery ice, and we did most of it on all 4s. at the top we were rewarded with an amazing view of both mountains and the red crater, and a lot of wind. we were above the clouds, although the fog seemed to be rising up the side of mt. ngauruhoe, and i could not see riley and jessie which concerned me a little.

after one more much gentler climb we were at the highest point in the walk (except the summits), at 1900 meters. in front of us were the emerald lakes, which SO pretty. my canadian friend wanted to know if it was possible to swim in them in summer, but i'm pretty sure it's sulfuric acid or something else nasty that makes the nice colors ha ha. the way down the other side was fun, sort of sliding down the gravel skree (it's much more fun going down than up, surprise surprise). we stopped partway down for lunch, and my new friends offered me all kinds of food since my sandwiches were with riley. i had half a ham sandwich which was delicious, and some dried apricots. after more pictures we continued on down, past the emerald lakes, over to the blue lake, which was also pretty from a distance, but not too exciting up close. i took a potty stop behind some bushes.

after another small incline we started the final descent which the sign said took 3-4 hours, and since it was after 1 they got a little worried, but even at our slow speed we were making better time than the signs suggested so i wasn't too concerned. the path down was nice and gentle, although i nearly lost my pants-sack over the side of a cliff at one point. the entire walk from the beginning had been above the tree line, so the plants were just kind of scrubby lichen stuff, but they were pretty patchworkey looking colors, and there were random steam vents here and there. eventually we saw the hut that's only 1-2 hours from the end where i was planning to meet riley and jessie, and after winding down the hill some more we arrived! there were a bunch of other people there, including some american guys whose friends had also decided to summit ngauruhoe. luckily riley and jessie were not far behind us, probably less than 15 minutes, and when they arrived we inhaled some pbjs and rested for awhile. they said it was very icy at the top and they had fun but i probably wouldn't have. so it's good i was stubborn and didn't go. the other kids' friends still hadn't shown up so they went on without them, and my slow friends took off, and then we eventually left around 3 (the lady had said to try to leave the hut by 2:30, but we're speedy). after some more walking some trees gradually appeared, until we were walking through the jungle. after what felt like forever we emerged in the car park around 4:15 (after catching up with my slow friends again, who had left the hut like half an hour before us).

the ride back to the hostel was pretty quick, and we happily removed our boots and went to the bathroom, and then took off for the 4.5 hour drive to wellington. i had planned on being exhausted so riley drove and i navigated and was the dj, but i actually didn't sleep the whole time. we didn't stop at all until we got off SH 1 in wellington around 8. after locating our hostel (nomad's capital flashpackers) on the map, it took us 3 loops around to get to it. the streets in wellington are incredibly confusing, nothing is at right angles and there are random pedestrian-only sections.

we checked in, and found out that the free dinner (the reason we had paid $2 more for this hostel) was only from 6-7 and we had missed it. we took one load of stuff up to our room, which contained 3 single and 1 double bed, and had an ensuite bathroom. i was dying to shower (i hadn't since monday evening), but we had to either return the car or find a parking spot for the night. riley said parking couldn't be that expensive and none of us felt like walking all the way back from the rental place, so while i showered he and jessie went to find a parking lot or garage. however they returned with the rest of our belongings and said it was $38 for the night. so we then drove back past the ferry terminal to the car rental depot, which it turns out was VERY far from downtown. after walking a ways in the cold (we were all quite miserable at that point) we found a bus stop and for $1.50 got a ride back to town. finding our hostel turned out to be a bit of a mission again, even on foot, but once we got back i went to work making dinner (pancakes, where all you do is add water to the container and shake!) while the other 2 showered.

the kitchen was not nearly as nice as the previous one, but it worked, and jessie came down and we made the entire batch of pancakes, and then inhaled them, as well as some more cookies riley had gotten to cheer us up. we played cards and talked to some of the other kids at the hostel (who all seemed to know each other?) and played cards and watched part of the lion king, and finally went to bed, having missed out on the free drink from the adjoining bar as well as our free dinner because we were too exhausted to go out.

after discovering our heater did not work, i went down to the desk and the man tried to find us another one, but returned to say all he could offer us was extra blankets. we declined since we all had sleeping bags, and riley took the double bed and the blanket off the extra bed. luckily no one else turned up to stay in our room that night.

saturday morning we got up at 9 and repacked all our stuff into our bags, and checked out. since the hostel wanted to charge us $3 to keep our bags while we walked around all day we decided our first mission was to find another hostel for riley and jessie for that night where we could leave our stuff. i found the cambridge hotel, our other top choice on the map, and we walked over there and i waited outside while they went in (and took my stuff with them) and got their room (which ended up costing only $19 instead of $25 at nomad's). i had forgotten, but wellington is called the windy city for a reason! there was a sign on the door that said "caution, extreme wind conditions" ha ha.

our only activity planned for the day was te papa, the new zealand national museum, which was supposed to be really cool, and free, so we walked over to that. riley wanted mcdonalds for breakfast, but when we got there it was like 10:38 so they didn't have breakfast anymore, so he got 2 cheeseburgers instead. and i saw that they had soft ice cream for 50 cents, which i'm pretty sure is even cheaper than home!

te papa was indeed pretty cool. we started at the natural disaster exhibit, and learned all about volcanoes, earth quakes, flash floods, and all kinds of other things that happen here. there was an earthquake simulator like the volcano one in auckland, which wasn't quite as cool, but there was lots of other hands on stuff to play with. we also looked at a lot of marine life exhibits, and maori and pacific artifacts. by the time we reached the third floor we were getting a bit museum-ed out, and still had 3 floors to go! we did a speed tour of the 4th floor, and played in the children's section with some pacific drums and stuff, and decided we had seen enough and were very hungry (it was after 1). so we went back to the hostel and got some more pbj, which we ate on a bench on courtenay place under a weird robot sculpture. while there we noticed that the cables running along above most of the streets did not have any corresponding tracks in the street for a cable car, and then that a lot of the city buses were actually attached to the cables, while in other respects they looked just like the normal auckland buses. i'm guessing they are electric powered via the cables, but i wonder what happens if the bus driver forgets to turn when the cable turns or something. anyway, after lunch i still had soft ice cream on my mind so we went and got some, although riley thought it tasted weird, i enjoyed it.

the other possible activity i had for us was a free tour of parliament (we had seen the famous beehive building on our way back the night before), but they didn't want to do that, so we just wandered around for awhile. we walked down by the waterfront and there was this little park area with very flat grass, which riley said would be perfect for bocce. so we found some rocks approximately the right size, and played bocce ha ha. we were a little scared when a semi-official looking man walked by, but he was doing something to the lights and didn't seem to care what we were doing. i had one miss-throw where i nearly broke the sundial sculpture ha ha.

after that we saw a fun looking playground with a lighthouse so we climbed that and played on the slides and swings for awhile. and we saw this weird sculpture thing at the edge of the water called the 'water whirler' with a sign that said there would be a 'performance' at 6. it was just after 5, so we walked further down the waterfront and were wasting time until 6. we wandered into the bose store where they had just finished setting up this theatre demo room and they offered to give us the show. it was pretty cool, very good marketing. after wandering back to the water whistler just before 6 we waited for like 20 minutes and nothing happened. there were a few other people looking like they were waiting too, but they gradually left. we were very confused. so we went back to the hostel and i made the rest of the bread into pbj for my overnight bus ride, and we played cards for a little bit, and then i had to say goodbye a little after 7.

i caught a $1 city bus to the train station where my overnight bus left from, and successfully found the (double decker!) intercity bus and told the driver my name and got on (i had booked online). i had my completely stuffed backpack and pillow with various things stuffed in it, so i took up 2 full seats, but there did not seem to be a shortage of seats. it's a 12 hour ride, so i was planning on reading linguistics until i got car sick and then sleeping the rest of the way, but i never got to the reading ha ha. we stopped twice at gas stations to use the bathroom and get food. i took out my contacts and put on comfy pants at the first one, and slept thru the second one. we arrived in auckland just before 7 am (it was still dark), and i walked back to ih as the sun rose.

i went to step class and studied saturday, and then that night was the all blacks rugby game against england. ej, sophie, danielle, courtney, kendall, and kendall's sister kelsey and i all had seats together and we took the bus (public transport to rugby games is free if you show them your ticket) and after walking almost all the way around the stadium we found our seats, which were pretty close to the field. there was some sort of sword fight with fireworks and stuff that was somehow related to england, and then the all blacks did the haka, which was really what i was most excited for and was a little anticlimactic. the game was exciting, england scored first, but we ended up winning like 37 to 20 or something like that. it seems like rugby games go so much faster than football, probably because they're not constantly stopping the clock. there was this really friendly lady behind us who asked us where we were from and had been to every one of our states (ny, connecticut, arizona, and wisconsin). she and her husband have a used book selling business so she goes to conferences in the states all the time for that. she told us how a long time ago she had fallen in love with a mexican guy in arizona and it was cute. there was also this really drunk guy on the other side behind us who was really funny. there was this girl a few rows in front with this brightly colored knitted hat, and at one point he yelled "sit down woman! f-ing tea cozy" (referring to her hat) and we all died laughing. and he liked asked the lady if she was in charge of us and called her mum and she was playing along and he offered us beer and she was like 'can mum have a beer?' and suggested that he buy us all some nice wine instead ha ha. the crowd also did the wave for a long time, i think it went all the way around like 8 times, which i have never seen before. very impressive. i guess the terraces, where we sat at the blues game, is the rowdy section, and the wave would be almost dead and get to there and they would restart it again. by the end everyone was flinging beer bottles and assorted other things up in the air. but it was all in good fun.

after the game we took the bus back, and the ih kids were celebrating ollie's birthday (which is on monday) but i had not studied so i came back and did a little of that and went to bed. today i have been good and other than going to step class and doing this i have studied lots of linguistics for my final tomorrow. then computer science is on wednesday, which i am much more worried for, so i should probably get on that.