New Zealand Middle Earth Epic: The Last Stage

 My last few days in Auckland were spent lazing around.  Well, not quite, but there was a lot of laying around and not doing much.

On New Year's Day, I got up not as late as I would have liked because of that darn summer sun, even with blackout curtains...they just didn't block the sun from shining around the windows.  I booked a ticket on the 10:30 ferry to Rangitoto Island to spend a few hours hiking.

Leaving Auckland on the Ferry.  The red NZ flag is used for non-military maritime.

Rangitoto is a volcanic island in the middle of the gulf just outside of Auckland.  The ferry ride took about 25 minutes from the city center.  It doesn't have any permanent population and is purely a day trip place with 3 ferries a day there, and 3 back.  There is a trail from the ferry dock to the summit of the island, from whence you can see into the crater of the volcano and across the gulf to Auckland and surrounding areas.  The volcano last erupted around 600 years ago and has been dormant since then.  And they don't really expect it to erupt again.  

Lava fields on Rangitoto

As you hiked up, there were jagged lava fields all around you.  At lower elevations there were more lava fields and fewer forests, but as you moved up in elevation you found yourself around a forest.  Signage along the way said that initially mosses and lichens would start growing and as they lived and then died, they would create a soil with nutrients, and then smaller brush would grow, and eventually enough soil was built up that trees would start growing.  Drawings from 200 years ago, show almost no plant-life or trees on the upper part of the cone, but now it is covered in trees, so it is kind of neat to see that sort of evolution of plants on a volcanic island.

Rangitoto volcanic crater

After taking the ferry back, I was shot.  I went back to my hotel and didn't leave again that night.  I had a gourmet supper of FastMac, chocolate, and wine (a New Year's gift from the hotel...probably a pretty cheap wine).  

Auckland Domain

The next morning I got up and wandered over to a couple of parks.  First Auckland Domain, and then to Albert Park.  Auckland Domain is sort of like a Central Park.  It has large, lush grassy areas, some gardens, a duck pond, some sports fields, a cafe restaurant, and a museum.  They were setting up for some sort of tennis tournament set to start on the 5th.  It was right next to the Bowling Club.  So many towns I went through had signs for the Bowling Club and I had no idea what they were talking about.  Turns out it is lawn bowling.  I guess bowling, along with cricket and rugby, is something the US missed out on by declaring independence too soon from Britain.  Cricket and rugby are king in NZ.

Wintergarden at Auckland Domain

I had an amazing breakfast at the cafe in the park before wandering around.  I sat and read some, here and there.  I eventually made it to the Winter garden.  Two glass houses with plants in them (one with a pond), and an outdoor area connecting the two, with a large pond and statues.  Off to one side was a fernery, which was full of ferns and palms.

Wintergarden at Auckland Domain

I made my way back toward the hotel via Albert Park.  I didn't stay long in Albert Park before heading back to the hotel.  It rained off and on in the evening before a super hard rain finally it.  I had the sliding glass door open in my hotel room and listened/watched the rain come down.

Then came the last day.  I made the most of my morning at the hotel before checking out.  I stored my luggage at the hotel and wandered around the viaduct for one last time before collecting my things and heading to the airport.  The rain that had been threatening all morning finally hit just outside the airport.

Anyone looking for a sailboat?

Checking in and everything for my flight seemed fine.  My bag was .2kg over the limit, but she said it was fine.  I'm coming home with honey and hot chocolate mix that I purchased at various places, otherwise I would totally have been in the clear.  Then the time to load our flight came and went.  We wait, and then finally they said that there was a maintenance item still being worked on.  Finally that was taken care of and we got everyone onboard and pushed back about 70 minutes late.  Finally!  And then we sit there and sit there and then they come on over the sound system and say that we are going to have to go back to the terminal due to a medical issue onboard.  NOOOOO!!!  My connection was already tight.  If everything happened as planned, I would have 2h and 40m in LAX before boarding my flight to Denver.  Instead, we didn't get airboard until about 2 hrs after our original departure time.  There's no way you can make up 2 hours.  

With about 3 hours left in our flight, a flight attendant started making his way around talking to people with tight connections or those who had been rebooked on later flights.  I was one of those who was booked on a later flight, which rather screwed things up.  My new flight wasn't going to get to Denver until after 10pm, which meant I definitely wasn't making my 9pm flight to Wichita.  That flight had been booked separately so I had to rebook that one too.

Upon arrival in LA, I got off the plane and headed to Customs, which was easy and smooth and I was through in probably about 5 minutes.  While I was waiting in line, in another zigzag of it, I looked up and recognized the actor Utkarsh Ambudkar.  I know him best from Pitch Perfect and Free Guy, but he is also one of the stars of the TV show Ghost.  After doing the ridiculous pick-up-your-bag-to-drop-it-off 100 yards away rigmarole, I stopped by a special counter to officially do my "interview" for Global Entry.  This "interview" involved me telling them what I did for a job and being fingerprinted.  I had applied for it last fall and got accepted then, but this interview has to happen in person at certain airports across the country or upon arrival at certain airports.  The closest place to Wichita is Kansas City, but it seemed ridiculous to go up there on a day off just to do that, so I waited until I got back to LAX for it.

Not me stalking Utkarsh Ambudkar from across baggage claim.

Then I had the joy of trying to get to my gate.  LAX is the worst airport I have ever been to.  The signage is terrible and moving from one terminal to the next is just as bad.  I was so confused because after being dumped outside security at the international terminal I knew I had to get to Terminal 7, which is the United terminal.  Signs inside the International terminal say "Terminal 4-7 -->", but if you follow them, you end up at a wall.  Turns out, you have to exit the building.  There is literally no way to move between them inside.  And of course it was rainy outside, so that was cool.  I got to walk in the rain down to Terminal 7, where I had to pick up my new boarding pass and figure out what was going to happen to my luggage since it had been checked through, but still had tags for my old flight.  I was told it would probably get put onto the next flight to Denver and likely beat me there (it did and was actually kinda convenient because I didn't have to wait for it at the baggage carousel).  Next I had to wait for my flight.

As I was waiting I was thinking through things, figuring out what I was going to do for sleep.  It seemed ridiculous to pay $120 for a room at a nearby hotel because I figured it would probably be 11pm by the time I got to the hotel, and I would be getting up around 2:30am to head back to the airport for my 5:15am flight.  That meant crashing somewhere at the airport in Denver.  I wandered around for a while looking for a spot.  It was rather unfortunate that I was stuck landside because I know the new portion of the Terminal C has some fantastic areas for sleep.  But because my suitcase was landside and I was switching airlines, I had to go out of the secured area.  After wandering around for a bit, and not finding anywhere comfortable to lay down on a padded chair (they had metal armrest preventing sleeping comfort), I ended up at the carpeted area near Baggage Carousel 4 along the wall (so next time you're there, imagine me being curled up under a blanket against that wall).  Now the floor isn't exactly comfortable and despite the fact that things slow down at Denver late at night, they never actually shutdown.  After midnight there were still bags coming in about every 20-30 minutes.  I rested and came close to losing consciousness, but never actually slept slept.  I did dream once about some baby kiwi that looked more like fuzzy platypus mouthed birds, but I could still hear baggage carousels around me. At 3:15am, my alarm went off.  I reshuffled stuff between suitcase and backpack so I could get my bag under 50lbs and went upstairs to check in (bag came in at 49.7 lbs).  

My flight home went via St. Louis (not my favorite option, but the only direct on Southwest was at 9pm that night and direct flights on United and AA were either late or $700).  There were a whole 28 people on my flight to STL, so that meant I was able to lay down and actually sleep a bit.  From STL, I flew home to Wichita and my friend Diana came to pick me up!  I was home!  I promptly went to sleep and slept for 5 hours before waking up, going to get some food, and then to Dillons for groceries (I was originally going to go on a Walmart run too, but I decided I was too tired for that).  When I got back home it was off to bed.  The good news was after texting my boss from LAX, I had Monday off so I could get settled a bit more, which was a good thing as I slept from about 9:30pm to 1:30am, then 5:30am to 9:30am, and then from 10:30am to 12:30pm.  It was a great trip, and with one last post to come, I'll be wrapping things up!

New Zealand Middle Earth Epic: The Return Journey

And just like that, I turned around headed back towards Auckland and my starting point.  But not without 1 full day, plus one more partial day spent driving in Northland.

Cape Reinga and the location where the Pacific meets the Tasman.

I left my treehouse quite early and made the drive up the skinny peninsula that sticks up the northwestern top of New Zealand.  I made the decision to drive all the way to the end, to Cape Reinga (Ray-ay-guh) first instead of stopping along the way.  And let me tell you how glad I am that I did that.  When I pulled into the parking lot at the Cape, it had maybe 10 cars in it.  Perhaps about 40% full.  I got of my car and headed down the trail to the lighthouse at the end.  As I continued down the trail, the wind was whipping up a bit more.  Then I came around a protected area and WHAM!  WIND!!!  The wind was so great that when I put my arm out with my phone on the end to take a picture, I had trouble steadying it without putting a second hand up (selfies are kinda awkward when you're holding your phone with two hands).  And honestly, at that point it wasn't as bad as it when you stepped out from the windshadow of the lighthouse.  The wind out there was one of those sorts where you have to lean into it.  As Cape Reinga is almost the northernmost point of New Zealand (apparently some other place sticks out like 2km further, but is harder to access and on private land), there was one of those signposts with distances to locations on it.  While I was out there, a family was taking photos holding onto the signpost pretending they were being blown away.  After this visit I can say that I've been to the northernmost point of the North Island and the southernmost point of the South Island!

I did not get a picture of me holding onto the sign for dear life.

Out there at Cape Reinga, it isn't just the northernmost point of the North Island, it is also where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, and it didn't look very happy.  I'm sure the wind had something to do with that.  My weather app said wind was 35mph, and I'm sure gusting to like 45-55mph.

As I left the lighthouse, I there were more people coming down.  I took a side journey partway down a trail to get some other views, which were quite beautiful. The sea was that pretty bright blue color, and then the cliffs were covered in green, with black lava rock underneath.

When I got back to the trailhead roughly an hour after my arrival, the parking lot was jammed full.  There were cars parked in a second lot and all down the roadside for about 100 feet past the lot.  Turns out it pays to get up early!

From Cape Reinga, I headed to the Giantt Sand Dunes.  I honestly had no idea New Zealand had sand dunes like this until my parents visited a few years ago.  The dunes are by far the largest I've ever seen, though I'm limited to sand dunes at a beach.  I haven't been to the National Park in Colorado to see those ones, but maybe I'll have to now, so I can compare them.  The sand dunes rise up a couple of hundred feet and all around are people riding sleds down the dunes.  A lot of kids, but also some adults (they headed for the bigger dunes).  Meanwhile, the sand is whipping past because it wasn't just Cape Reinga that was windy.  Oh no!  The Giant Sand Dunes were as well, which was pleasant.  No one loves anything more than being sandblasted!  The good news, I guess, was that the sand rarely ventured more than 1-2 feet from the ground, so it wasn't getting in your face.  Now, my bare legs on the other hand got the full force of it.  I think the sandblasting job helped make shaving a bit easier that evening since it has already trimmed the hair on the backs of my legs.  

Giant Sand Dunes

After wandering the sand dunes for a bit, I got back in my car and continued south down the peninsula.  Up next was 90 Mile Beach.  Same winds.  I lasted about 5 minutes there, which was a shame.  Then came the long drive to Opononi where I was staying for the night.  I dealt with off and on rain (a theme here recently).  As I was sitting in my room for the night, looking out the window, a rainbow appeared.  And you'll never guess what!  I could see the end of it!  I caught the end of a rainbow for about 15 seconds before it started to fade, and within 60, the whole rainbow was gone.

End of the rainbow!

Then came the last morning.  The last morning I would wake up outside of Auckland.  The last morning of 2025.  The last morning with the car.  I stopped at a overlook point just outside of Omapere.  From there, looking across the inlet, you can see another giant sand dune.  This one a completely different one than the ones I visited the day before.

From there I continued south into the Kauri Forests.  Kauri trees are the largest trees in New Zealand, though not by height.  Instead they have the greatest volume.  They get very round.  Their canopies can be home to hundreds of other species too, which is neat.  They can be comparable in diameter to Giant Sequoias.  They also grow to be thousands of years old.  The oldest Kauri can grow to be 9000-10000 years old, it is believed.  There are two large Kauri found in the forests of the west coast that they allow you to hike to.  One is call Te Matua Ngahere and is 52 feet around.  He is believed to be around 3500 years old and the 2nd largest (by volume) Kauri in New Zealand (still surviving).  Just up the road is Tane Mahuta, which is the largest Kauri by volume, though only 50 feet around.  This was another case of early to rise means beating the crowds.  I was the only person at Te Matua.  I sat there for about 10 minutes just taking in the size of him.  When I got back to the parking lot, a volunteer was stationed there.  He said I was lucky to get time back there alone, because the day before, by about 1pm, the parking lot was too full to move in and there were cars parked along the roadside.  

Te Matua Ngahere

The Kauri trees are in the fight of their life right now.  There is a disease that is killing them.  In just a few days it takes take a healthy tree to a dead tree.  The few places they let you hike to them, there are shoe scrubbing stations because the spore is easy to carry on shoes.

Clean your feet!

I continued my trip south, stopping only once more for a hike up a random tall point.  From up top you could see the wide river to the west and farmland around.

I pulled into Auckland around 3:30 and dropped my bags off at my hotel.  Then I took my car back to the car rental place to return it.  I had that Mitsubishi Cross Eclipse for 38 days.  It is not a car that I would buy.  It was fine.  It did it's job.  But I didn't find it super comfortable and the backup camera was trash.  Horrible clarity.  I did put something like 7500km on it, which is around 4700 miles.  So many miles!  It also meant my estimation on mileage was about 1000 off!  Oops!  Oh well.  I knew it was a rough estimate anyways.

After dropping off the car I headed to my hotel.  I did a load of laundry because there is a washer/dryer in my room!  This means I won't have to do more than like 2 days worth of laundry when I get home.  It also means I know I have clean clothes for the airplane.

Last sunset of 2025!

About 8pm I headed out to see what New Year's Eve had in store for New Zealand.  I knew there would be fireworks from the Sky Tower, so I wandered the wharfs and Viaduct to find where I wanted to settle down.  I found a spot to watch from and sat there for about 2 hours.  I finished the audiobook I was listening to, to bring me to 56 books for the year.  People trickled in and where I was at it never got crowded.  However, about 50 feet to my right it looked pretty packed.

At 11:59 the Sky Tower started counting down and the crowded got louder.  Then at midnight fireworks went off and boats honked their horn.  In comparison to what you see at a lot of other places, it was very tame.  We got 5 minutes of fireworks, but nothing like they do in many other cities.  Still, it was something to say you were in the first major city to welcome 2026!

Happy New Year!

New Zealand Middle Earth Epic: Fire And Water (Minus the Fire)

The last few days have been quick, always on the move.  In hindsight, maybe I could have passed up some of where I went, but you never know!  What if I missed the best thing on the whole trip?

On the 26th, after a Christmas that didn’t really feel like Christmas, I set off for the Coromandel Peninsula.  New Zealand has a lot of peninsulas if you hadn’t noticed so far!  On a map it doesn’t really seem that far from Rotorua, but it was, at least timewise.  I’ve finished a whole audiobook in the past few days!  I’ve actually finished 5 now, since starting this trip!  And 2 e-books.  I probably would have another one finished by now, if I hadn’t decided to pick up Les Miserables as my next e-book (I’m 12% done of a like 1200 page book!).

View from the summit of Mount Paku.

Coromandel day involved a lot of very different things.  The first place I stopped at Tairua to hike up to the Mount Paku summit lookout.  I honestly don’t even remember what made me stop there.  I think I was looking at Google Maps and trying to find somewhere to stop and take a break and noticed the little purple camera that highlights the spot as a tourist/scenic stop so I said, “that sounds good!”  What I hadn’t looked at before hand was how short and steep the trail was.  From the parking lot to the summit is was only .33 miles long, but I ascends 278 feet in that .33 miles!  But the view from up there was worth the effort!  

Archway at Cathedral Cove

From there I continued north to Cathedral Cove, which not to be confused with Cathedral Cave.  Cathedral Cave was where I stopped on the South Island that was the sea cave, only accessible at low tide.  This place, too, involved the sea and holes in rocks though.  Maybe they need to get a bit more creative on the names.  Cathedral Cove is in Hahei.  They actually had a parking lot outside of town and you took a shuttle to the trailhead, which was probably a smart idea.  Way too many cars in town, otherwise.  The trail down to the beach about 300 feet down from the cliff-side to the beach where Cathedral Cove is (though there were multiple ups and downs bringing the total descent to 700 feet).  

At the bottom is a beach, and to your left is a giant archway through which you can walk to another beach.  There are tall rocks in the middle of the the water.  It was a neat beach.  Rather crowded.  There were lots of people playing in the water, but I just let my ankles get wet because I hadn’t come prepared to get in the water and definitely wasn’t hiking back up in soaking wet shorts.  Can’t we say “chaffing!” otherwise?!

One thing was rather crazy, was down at the bottom, if you though, “there is no way I’m hiking back up that!” because I’m sure there were a lot of people not prepared for the hike to get there.  I saw lots of flipflops.  I was at least in my Tevas which were firmly attached to my feet with (gasp!) socks on.  But anyways, at the bottom you could catch a water taxi back to town if you didn’t want to hike back up.  I was imagining a water taxi just being a regular boat, and I totally wasn’t sure how that was going to work.  Turns out they took a page out of SpongeBob’s book and it was a boat that had wheels that lowered down when they got close to land and then could go up once in the water!  It was crazy cool!

From Cathedral Cove I had to figure out where in the world I was staying because I didn’t have anywhere booked.  That turned out to be somewhat tricky and I ended up paying for that, by staying in a more expensive hotel than I really wanted to be in.  But it did have nice gardens!  I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a part-time wedding venue.  Not for any large sort of wedding, but something small.  It was very cute.  The location of the hotel also made the decision for me on whether I was going all the way around the Coromandel Peninsula, or cutting across the middle of it.  I ended up going the whole way because of the hotel’s location.

The next day was the day I was going to cut back through Auckland.  Really it was a day with a bunch of driving.  Boooo!  I stopped at the Auckland Botanic Gardens for a break from driving (they’re free).  I continued north out of Auckland up to Whangarei.  And oh boy, was the traffic insane!  I don’t know what traffic is normally like, but I’m assuming it was way worse than if I had been there 3 weeks ago.  All the kids are off school.  Christmas just happened.  It’s summer.  Everyone is apparently heading to Northland for the summer!

Whangarei Falls

When I got to Whangarei, I had to at least get out and do something, so I “hiked” a trail from Whangarei Falls to Paranui Falls.  I was so impressed by both falls!  So big, right on the edge of town!  There were people swimming at the falls and in the creek between the two falls.

The place I booked to stay that evening was a hostel called The Cell Block.  It is literally a hostel in the old town jail.  My room was a cell with a slightly narrow mattress on a platform.  It was kind of cool and kind of weird at the same time.  But not often that you get to sleep in an old jail.  Oddly this wasn’t the first time though.  We once stayed in a hotel in San Antonio that was an old jail. Though it didn’t maintain really any semblance to a jail, while this one was very much still jail-like.

The Cell Block in Whangarei

I would say I got up early the next morning, but the truth is that most of this trip I’ve been getting up early and going to bed early, so the fact I needed to be up by 6:15 wasn’t really much of a thing.  I had to get going because it was a scuba diving day!  I had been looking forward to this dive outing because Poor Knights Islands is considered the best place to dive in New Zealand.  The day we had before us looked great for diving!  Swells on the water were basically nothing, and while it wasn’t super warm, it wasn’t cold.  Sometimes the sun came out.  

What makes Poor Knights Islands such a great place to dive is the fact that it gets both cold water and tropical fish there.  The location of the Knights is such that the EAC (if you recall your Finding Nemo trivia, you’ll recall the East Australian Current), comes down the coast of Australia and cuts across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand and the Knights.  This means the Knights get a tropical fish that you otherwise wouldn’t find in New Zealand.  And even warmer water sea creatures.  Sweeeeet!

Me at Sugarloaf dive site.  While I didn't have a camera, our divemaster did!

Because there wasn’t much in the name of waves, they took us to Sugarloaf Rock, which is also called one of the Squires of Poor Knights Islands.  I was diving with Dive Tutukaka and they were fantastic!  They split us up into groups of 5-6 people, each with our own divemaster.  Our’s was named Sharon and she was super excited that we were going to be able to do Sugarloaf because that isn’t a site they get to do a lot.  It was going to be a cold water dive, though not as cold as Kaikoura.  But still we were diving in 7mm wetsuits, with an additional vest, so our core was basically covered in about 12mm worth of layers. I was cool, but never got to cold.  

Before we even got in the water we knew it was going to be good because fish were schooling up on the surface.  The birds were in a frenzy with the fish thrashing up top.  We dropped down right near the wall into a world of kelp with some coral after doing some buoyancy checks (10kg worth of weights with all those layers on!  Around 10-14lbs heavier than I normally dive with).  There were schools of fish, some of which were blue with black dots, and some that were black with blue dots.  And there were large schools of other fish swimming all around us.  We had only been down for a few minutes when we saw our first ray; one probably 5-6ft across.  Shortly after we saw a second.  In total, by the end of the dive, we had seen 5, ranging in size from probably 2 feet to 7 feet!!!  I’ve never seen so many rays on a dive before!  By the time we surfaced, I had declared it one of my favorite dives I’ve ever done.  Definitely a solid top 10, maybe even top 5.  

A ray at Sugarloaf dive site.

On our surface interval they served up hot chocolate and tea to help is warm up a bit.  We made our way from the Squires over the the proper Knights.  We reached Riko Riko Cave, which is a huge sea cavern.  We had a pretty large dive boat, and I bet you could have fit at least 6 more of them in this cave.  The cave is actually the largest sea cave by volume in the world!  We moved from there off along Aorangi Island to Tawhiti Rahi Island where Middle Arch is located.  This would be our second dive site.

School of fish, probably at Sugarloaf.

At Middle Arch, there was, as you would expect, and archway.  While the arch makes for a neat formation above water, what you don’t see is that underwater it changes the makeup of the plant life.  Out in the cove near Middle Arch there is loads of seaweed, kelp.  But as you move closer to the arch, due to sunlight and such, the kelp disappears and is replaced by sponges.  The archway itself is almost devoid of kelp.  While the previous dive was all about rays, this one was about eels of different varieties.  I believe I saw 6 of them.  The weird thing is you saw them out and not just their heads sticking out of some hidey hole like is normal.  These eels you could see from nose to tail, just sitting there enjoying life.  Also at this dive site there is an underwater cave you can surface in.  There is an actual airpocket in it.  It was big enough that the 6 of us could all fit in there together.  After leaving the cave we ventured back into the kelp where we did see one ray of probably about 3-4ft in size.  When we surfaced I had decided that dive was probably a Top 5 dive.  

Poor Knights Island is a place that would be worth doing multiple days worth of diving.  It’s about an hour boat ride out there, so you bring a lunch with you to eat on the boat between dives.  There are plenty more dive sites out there.  Our divemasters said they’ve seen everything from sharks to rays to turtles to whales to dolphins to tropical fish to coldwater fish there.  And on the ride back to shore we found outselves caught up in a pod of common dolphins, having fun.  They are cool looking dolphins.  Their coloring is grey and white.  They’re smaller than bottlenose dolphins, but not as small as the Hector’s Dolphins I had seen down at Curio Bay.

After getting back to shore, I began my drive up to Paihia where I was staying at my last hostel for the trip.  Paihia is located in the part of New Zealand called the Bay of Islands.  The Bay of Islands is very important in New Zealand history because this is where the Maori history is said to have begun, as well as the European history.  The Maori are said to have landed here first upon their journey from Hawaiki.  A couple hundred years later, Captain Cook showed up here.

The Treaty House and lawn where the Waitangi Treaty was signed granting New Zealand independence.

Waitangi, just to the north of Paihia, is a very important historical place in New Zealand.  It is there that New Zealand officially became a country, after the signing of the Waitangi Treaty between the Maori and the British.  I learned all of this after spending a very rainy morning at the Waitangi Treat Grounds where they have a museum, a cultural center, and the house where the Englishman who was sent to help push the treaty along lived.  It is out front of this house that the Waitangi Treaty was signed on February 6, 1840.  The Waitangi Treaty actually followed the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, which was signed in October 1835.  The two are essential to the New Zealand governance and the way the Maori have been treated as an entity in the country.

The ceremonial Waka at Waitangi that is pulled out every February for Waitangi Day festivities.

Following some education, I continued up and around towards my home for the night.  On the way I stopped and did some much needed reorganizing, as I’m nearing the end of my trip and will be dropping my car off in just 2 days.  I needed to get my suitcase ready for more stuff to be added to it.  For the past month, it has sat in the back of my car, while I take my backpack and other small travel bag inside with my things.  That way I didn’t have to haul my large suitcase everywhere.  After getting that taken care of, I stopped at a beach, because it was still rather early.  I enjoyed the waves, walking up and down the beach.  The water feels cool, but that sort of water where you would soon get used to it and be fine, but then like an hour later finally start to feel a bit cold and like you need to get out.  There were plenty of kids playing in it.

My home for the night is a small “treehouse”.  It’s not really in a tree, but more surrounded by trees.  It’s kind of fun.  I sat outside and ate my supper, and then moved inside when the wind got a bit insane.  Now the birds are chatting outside and the sun is setting.

My treehouse!

New Zealand Middle Earth Epic: The Forbidden Pool(s) (And Some Totally Bidden)

We left off in Taupo and the beginning of my geothermal experience in New Zealand.  As I'm sure we all know, New Zealand sits on the Ring of Fire.  The Southern Alps were created by the Australian plate and Pacific plates running into each other.  The fault line runs right through New Zealand.  Because of this the country experiences a bunch of earthquakes each year, has numerous volcanoes, and geothermal hot spots.  The area around Taupo and Rotorua is the site of numerous geothermal parks and experiences.  You see a lot of boiling mudpots, hot pools, and geysers.

Champaign Pool at Waiotapu

While I stayed in Taupo for two nights, on my first day "in" Taupo, I actually headed north to Waiotapu, a geothermal park located between Taupo and Rotorua.  Because my stay in Rotorua coincides with Christmas, I had decided it was important to hit the things that definitely weren't open on Christmas.  

I got to Waiotapu in time to make a quick run-through of the shortest route through the park, and then I got in my car to drive down the road to the Lady Knox Geyser.  This geyser is somewhat interesting.  Typically when you think of geysers, you think of a spring shooting water into the air on a fairly regular schedule.  While this one does do that, they actually induce this geyser to erupt, which is how it was discovered.  A little over a hundred years ago, a chain gang was working in the area and used the hot water spring to clean their clothes.  When one of them dropped their soap in the wrong spot, the geyser erupted.  It shocked them all.  After that, when they came down to wash their clothes, they dropped their bar of soap again to figure out exactly where the geyser was, to avoid it.  So that is what they still do at the park.  At 10:15am someone from the park drops "soap" (I think there is still some soap to it, but I'm not sure exatly what it was) into the geyser, which then breaks the water tension, causing the different water temperatures to mix, leading to an eruption.  An eruption with bubbles!

Lady Knox Geyser

After this, I made my way back to the park where I wandered all three loops of the geothermal park.  It was crowded and chaotic.  It was the first time I've run into that many people in one place since arriving.  I found it almost claustrophobic.  Locals are definitely on summer break now, so you have them on top of the tourists, in an area with lots of things to see and do that will entertain kids (at least somewhat).  

The park had craters where the hot gases underground had eventually caused the surface to collapse in.  Inside these craters you could see yellows, greens, oranges, and purples caused by different chemicals.  The walls had some cavities where birds will make their nests because it keeps them warm and makes egg incubation easier.  Apparently the gases coming off of them don't bother the birds.  Some of the craters have bubbling water or mud down at the bottom of them.  I had truly believed that I was done visiting Lord of the Rings sites, but it turns out that one of the craters there at Waiotapu was used for Foley work for LOTR Mordor scenes.

This pool matched the lighter green of my backpack!

There is a big rainbow hot pool that they call Champagne Pool because of the carbon dioxide bubbles that come to the surface.  There as another pool that was lime green.  Like fluorescent.  I didn't really believe that color existed in nature!

When I finished at the park my body was shot.  I've done so much and it has been so long since I took a break that I just went back to the hostel and read and watched YouTube videos and stuff for a while, before heading out to find ice cream.

Huka Falls

In the morning I packed up for my move to Rotorua.  Just outside of Taupo I stopped at Huka Falls.  The Huka River runs through a small canyon that speeds that river right up until it falls out the other end at a blistering pace of 200,000L/s (that is liters per second), which it turns out, is enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool in 12 seconds (and they claim that Americans will use any form of measurement other than metric as units! Kiwis are guilty of it too!)

Huka Falls

I sort of passed through the edge of town on the way to a hiking trail around a small lake.  When I finished that, my feet said "NO MORE!!!" so I headed into town and checked into my hotel.  I booked a nice place for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  It had a pool and even two mineral hot pools.  Seeing as my feet and body were exhausted, I threw on my swimsuit and went to the mineral pools.  

Geyser + Lights = Cool Light Show!

Then before heading to bed I went to Te Puia Geothermal Valley for Marama, a nighttime lights and geysers spectacle.  Using lights and lasers and the steam drifting off the geothermal spots, they lit up the park.  My parents had suggested doing it and it was really neat to see!  

Walking through a lit up forest at Te Puia.

On Christmas morning, I videochatted with my parents who are currently in Madeira.  There it was still Christmas Eve.  After our Christmas chat, I headed to Te Puia for my daytime tour.  Te Puia is not just geysers and such, but also a Maori cultural center.  They have an area that is a school for Maori trades such as carving and weaving.  The guides are all of Maori descent and not only talk about the geothermal stuff, but also about Maori culture.  It was neat to see the geothermal stuff I saw in the dark, during daylight.  They had some mudpots that reminded me of the jumping water fountains at Disney World that I enjoyed when I was little.  

Geyser erupting!

Craftsmen working on Maori carvings.

After our tour I attended a display of Maori music, culture, and the Haka.  Sitting there listening to it all reminded me so much of Whale Rider (one of my favorite movies! which is set in a Maori village).

Maori Culture Presentation doing a Haka.

With my visit to Te Puia over, I headed back to the hotel for some food and relaxing (more pool time!).  After a bit, I wandered over to Kuirau Park.  This is literally just a city park with geothermal sites running through it.  Like there's the basketball courts, but don't overshoot the basket too far or your ball will end up in a 100C pond!  There was one place in the park where there were footbaths you could rest your feet in.  They were hot!  I'm going to say probably somewhere in the 110-120F range.  Like, I had to ease my feet in there and only stuck around for about 5-10 minutes before I started sweating, and felt a bit like a roasting pig.

Footbaths in Kuirau Park.

Tomorrow I leave Rotorua for the Coromandel Peninsula.  I'm on the road for just 6 more days before I turn in my car and spend the last few in Auckland.

New Zealand Middle Earth Epic: The Shadow of the (Mountains) Past

I got up early on the morning of the 21st (the one month point of my travels) and I headed to the ferry terminal.  My ferry was set to leave at 7:45, but I had to be there no later than 1 hour earlier.  My alarm was set for 6, but I was up before that (the classic fear of oversleeping meant I underslept).  I had showered the night before so literally all I would need to do was put on my clothes and pack away my PJs.  I was at my spot in the holding line by 6:20.  The ferry back to the North Island wasn't even close to as busy as the one I took on the was down.  I'm sure that probably had more to do with time than anything.  The good news was my car was on a lower deck and protected, so I didn't have a brine covered car when I got back to it after arrival.  

Heading into the passenger area after parking my car.

I had decided that I had already hit everything in Wellington before I headed to the South Island, so I headed straight out of town.  My plan for the day was to hit a number of LOTR filming spots on my way north, and see how far I got.

The first stop was a river that played the role of both the River Anduin and the Rohan River in the films.  Now that I'm back here on the North Island, I've noticed the difference in rivers, as in the ones up here are not glacier fed, and don't have that milky quality to them that a lot of the rivers on the South Island have.  I'll have to be looking for that on my next LOTR viewing.  

Harcourt Park LOTR filming a location.

The next spot wasn't too much further up the road.  Here at Harcourt Park they filmed the Isengard Garden scenes.  The ones where Gandalf and Saruman are walking together, talking about The Ring.  It is also where they filmed the scenes with the Uruk-hai pulling down trees.  They didn't actually pull down real trees in the park, but they did dig giant holes and pull down uprooted dying trees from elsewhere with painted leaves on them.  My guidebook actually has the coordinates for where the trees were and it was sort of like looking for a geocache.  There were two other non-LOTR things about this park that were unique.  1) They had multiple orienteering course there, so if you had a compass, you could have some fun.  2) They had a child's bike/scooter course that was like a city with stop and yield signs, and exit ramps and such.  There was a kid with a scooter having fun there.

See, isn't that fun?

From Harcourt Park, I went up the road like 15 minutes to Kaitoke Regional Park.  It was in this park that they filmed Rivendell scenes.  They had pieces they brought in, though the wide fantastical shots were done with a miniature and so they weren't actually shot there.  But it is the location for where they shot the scenes between Bilbo and Frodo, and others that took place outdoors on the walkways (not the council scenes).  There is an archway there now that is Elvish in nature, but wasn't actually in the films.  It was put there after as a tribute to the film.  This was actually the first filming location outside of Hobbiton that advertises that it was a filming location as there were signs pointing to "Rivendell" in the park.  After I visited the Rivendell site at the park, I walked a trail through the woods and across a swinging bridge to get some steps under my belt for the day.

That tree in the middle can be seen in Rivendell scenes (obviously the others around can be too, but that one is obvious because of its size).

After that, I drove and drove.  I had been aiming for a hiking trail at Manuwatu Gorge outside of Palmerston North, but realized that I wasn't going to get there until about 5:15 and it was going to be a 3 or so hour hike and I really wasn't up for hiking that late after getting up early and not sleeping great.  So instead I went into Palmerston North, got a hotel, and got up the following morning to go hike the Manuwatu Gorge Trail.  

As I was traveling north I also had a decision to make.  Do I take the turn to Napier or continue north and head past the back side of Tongariro National Park.  I stopped at Tongariro like 3 days into my trip, but due to poor weather, I left early and headed to Wellington.  Well, now the weather looked like it was going to be good and going by there meant seeing Mount Doom!  On the other hand, there is a well known National Aquarium at Napier (have you ever seen the posts about the Good Penguin of the Week and the Naughty Penguin of the Week...that's that aquarium).  I had the morning while I hiked to think about what direction I wanted to head.

Manuwatu Trail

The Manuwatu Trail was honestly a lot more forest and less gorge than I had been expecting, but I liked the trail.  As I head further north though, the humidity is increasing.  It really makes you miss the cool hikes of Mount Cook.  On this trail, partway in was a giant statue representing an important Maori figure and adventurer from the early days of the Maori.  Upon finishing the hike I got some amazing passionfruit-honey ice cream at an ice cream hut down in the parking lot.  Definitely will be searching for more of that!  Also, I feel that all hiking trails need an ice cream hut.  Shaved ice hut would work too (I used shaved ice as an incentive for finishing a trail in Hawaii years ago).

A northern rata tree.  The northern rata grows from the top down.  Their seeds usually germinate in the canopy of other trees and then they start dropping roots down, which eventually wrap up the tree host tree (which is usually already dying anyways).

After leaving the Manuwatu Trail, I made the decision to head north instead of east to Napier.  This meant stopping at one more LOTR site that I otherwise would have not passed (honestly I have missed many, either due to them not being reachable by normal means, or not being near the route I'm taking).  This one was another river gorge used for the River Anduin (there were actually 4 rivers used for the one river and I think I've hit them all).  I was not expecting the gorge at all.  I hit the bridge (one of the many 1 lane bridges in this country) and shocked as I drove over it.  I parked at the far side and walked onto the bridge to look down probably 70 feet to the water below, with straight walls up the sides.

With what was likely the last LOTR spot visited, I headed north towards the backside of Tongariro.  This side of Mount Ruapehu is used as an Army training ground so there aren't any trails or roads through that area.  One pulloff I took, said do not leave the road as there may be unexploded ordinances in the area.  OK!  But I did pull off to get some pictures of Mount Ruapehu, when I could actually see all of it.  And of Mount Ngauruhoe which was used as Mount Doom in LOTR.  The mountain is a very classic cone volcano.  100% would not be surprised to see lava spewing out of the top of it.  Mount Ngauruhoe was the most active New Zealand volcano of the 20th century, erupting 45 times.  It has lay dormant though, since 1977.

Mount Ruapehu

Just to the north of Tongariro National Park is Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand.  The town of Taupo is also my home for the next two nights before I move onto Rotorua for Christmas.

Mount Ngauruhoe