Rotorua to The Coromandel

Even though things coordinated by the travel agent for this North Island journey didn't get off to the best start in Auckland, she has definitely made up with for it with the accommodations she's put me in over the past few days.  Great rooms in great locations.  The room in Rotorua was no exception.  She got me into a suite in the corner on the top floor, overlooking the lake, a block from restaurants and shops and two blocks from the Government Gardens.  Nice view, eh?

If it wasn't for the faint but persistent smell of hydrogen sulphide hanging inside the hotel and over the city, I'd think about staying another day.  Yes, Rotorua is definitely a city that you can smell before you see it, thanks to all of the geothermal activity in and around the city.  According to Maori legend, Rotorua owes its thermal attractions to an early spiritual leader from the Te Arawa tribe, Ngatoroirangi.  In Maori mythology, when the great waka Te Awara arrived in Rotorua, Ngatoroirangi had to stand on the summit of Mt. Tongariro in order to claim the surrounding land for his tribe.  As he reached the top of the mountain, he almost died from the icy wind and the cold.  To save himself from the cold, he sent a prayer to his sisters in Hawaiki (where, according to Maori folklore, the Maori people originated from).  They responded, sending fire demons to his aid.  These demons cut across the ocean, surfacing at White Island, Rotorua and Taupo before reaching Ngatoroirangi and freeing him from the lethal cold, leaving a geothermal trail where they had travelled and giving these places the thermal activity that can still be seen today.  I didn't go exploring these places on this visit, but here's one example just from walking around the city:

I spent a good chunk of time today taking advantage of being in Roto-Vegas and finishing off my souvenir shopping, especially since I'm not anticipating many souvenir shops in the quiet beach towns of The Coromandel, my next and final destination of the trip.  I also took a stroll through the Government Gardens.  Bath house:

Prince's Gate:

Maori carvings:

While I was out walking around, I saw one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.   I was standing on a street corner, getting ready to cross at the crosswalk.  On the other side of the street and crosswalk was a seagull, standing on the curb facing me.  Once traffic cleared, I started to cross the street, and so did he.  Walking across, one little webbed foot in front of the other.  I figured at some point he'd flap his wings and start flying, but nope.  He kept on walking until he got to the island in the middle where I was now standing too.  He then paused, eyed me up, and took a few tentative steps past me.  Then the most amazing thing happened - he actually looked both ways, waited for an oncoming car to pass, and then continued on in the crosswalk until he had completely walked across the street.  Can't you just picture that?  I was cracking up!  How in the world did he learn that?

My wallet significantly lighter, it was finally time to leave Rotorua and its rotten egg smell behind.  So I set out for Pauanui and my beach vacation, about 2.5 hours away.  Along the way I drove through the western portion of the Bay of Plenty.  This area was incredibly beautiful, especially as I neared the coast.  Sooooo much lush green trees, palms and ferns, with rolling hills and then jagged peaks spiking up.  It reminded me very much of Hawaii, particularly Kauai.  Also the road was a very windy two lane road, so I have no pics (too busy trying to keep the car on the pavement!).

One of the towns I passed through on my way was Whangamata.  (Can you guess how that is pronounced?  Hint: the "wh" in Maori  is like an "f" or "ph" sound.  Try it...it's fun-guh-muh-TAH.  Bet you didn't guess that!).   Normally Whangamata is the surfing capital of NZ, but today they were having their annual Beach Hop.  This is a 5 day festival celebrating the 50s and 60s and ranks as one of the biggest celebrations of nostalgia in the world, with more than 70,000 people attending.  The streets are jam-packed with classic cars, restaurants are transformed into American-style diners, bars are filled with people wearing their favorite threads from the 50s and 60s and the sweet sound of music from that era is blaring everywhere.  It's just one non-stop party.  Since I was not aware of this little festival until I rolled through town, I unwittingly became a part of the classic car show cruising up and down the main drag as I drove through.  Some of these cars were pretty cool, then there was me in my red Hyundai.  I think I heard some boos (although to be fair, this car is tricked out - keyless entry, keyless start, backup camera with display in the review mirror - it's pretty slick).

I made it to Pauanui right after sunset.  After spending the past several days entertaining myself and carting my own ass from town to town, I'm definitely missing the group environment from the South Island trip right about now.  It's amazing how the mere presence of others can inspire you to do things you wouldn't otherwise do on your own.

Hawke’s Bay to Rotorua (via Taupo)

Today I’m headed to Rotorua, the epicenter of NZ’s geothermal activity and a major center of NZ’s native Maori culture.  It’s also the North Island’s most popular tourist destination, sometimes referred to as Roto-Vegas.  Here I plan to get a good dose of Maori cultural immersion and about as much of the typical tourist bullshit as I can handle.  But before rolling into Rotorua, and after consulting my guide book, I've decided I want to make a detour on my way to Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park.  The Tongariro Northern Circuit, one of NZ’s nine Great Walks, is located here, as well as NZ's best day hike, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  After several days of rain I'm starting to crave a good hike. It’s a long drive from Hawke’s Bay to Rotorua to begin with, and this park is out of my way by about an hour, so unfortunately I knew the visit may not be long.  It got even shorter when I learned that the portion of the hike I intended to do was closed due to the threat of volcanic activity.  The closer I got to the park, the more I could understand why.  Those aren’t clouds, those are gases coming from what appears to be the Emerald Lakes area: 

As a result I had to drive further around the park than I wanted to in order to get to the trail, so I only managed to get in about 2.5 km on Tongariro's Alpine Crossing before I had to turn around.  The scenery was fantastic, however, and I would have loved to do more. Unlike the walks we've had so far on this trip that have been primarily bush walks, this one is a volcanic landscape:

Unfortunately I had to leave in order to make it to Rotorua and the Maori cultural evening I'd already booked.  As it was I checked into my hotel with only 15 mins to spare before the bus from Tamaki Maori Village picked us up.  Here we were greeted with an enthusiastic “Kia Ora!” and learned briefly about the Maori migration to New Zealand.  Before entering the village, however, we first had to experience the traditional Te Wero (“the Challenge”).  No one is permitted to enter the Moari tribal grounds until the Powhiri, a formal welcome ceremony, has been performed.  Haka challenges are performed by a series of warriors from the village, each more intimidating than the last.  Eventually, a peace offering (teka) is laid at the feet of the chiefs of the visitors.  The visitors signal their peaceful intent by accepting this token.  The Karanga, or welcome call, then echoes across the forest as the women sing to announce the guests’ arrival to the villagers.  The powhiri (welcome dance) follows, and visitors are welcomed into the fold.  Here’s the video of the full Powhiri ceremony:

We were then shuffled around a makeshift Maori village and learned about Maori traditions and ways of life.  Next we visited the earth ovens where our evening feast (the “hangi”) was prepared and the lamb, chicken and potatoes unearthed and lifted from the sunken ovens.  Following that we entered the Wharenui (sacred meeting house) for some traditional song and dance, including the haka (a traditional war dance/challenge).  You might have seen the haka performed by the All Blacks, NZ’s national rugby team, before their matches, but here it is performed by Maori descendants:

We then enjoyed our buffet-style hangi, followed by the closing ceremony and bus ride back to our hotel.

Overall I had mixed reactions to this thing.  The cultural side of it was informative, and I was very interested to see certain parts, like the Powhiri and the song & dance performances.  But I generally despise these high-volume, impersonal tourist traps, and this was definitely one of them.  Our “visitor group” was around 130 people total by my calculations, and they had a second visitor group come through that same night, staggered about an hour after us.  That's at least 250 people they marshal through every night, and to me makes it all feel kinda staged and disingenuous.  I also got a pretty shitty draw for a table assignment at dinner.  With all the Kiwis, Aussies, Americans, English and Canadians in the room, I somehow got assigned to the table where no one spoke any English.  So that really sucked as a solo traveller.  I was pretty happy to get back on the bus and back to my hotel room at the end of the night.

Today was a long and exhausting day.  I’m looking forward to getting to The Coromandel tomorrow and relaxing.

Hawke’s Bay

I’m not much of a morning person, so it’s no surprise that I don’t often see a sunrise.  But somehow this morning the stars all aligned – an internal clock which woke me up at 7:15a, a late summer sunrise time, and an east facing hotel room overlooking the South Pacific.  Here was the view that greeted me first thing this morning:

Ahhhhh!  This was all the incentive I needed to crawl back in bed and enjoy the view out my window for a while.  :-)  Eventually I decided that the view would better be enjoyed with a walk along the beach.  There is a great paved path along the beach here, but once I got out there I found out the beach itself is not so “beachy”.  Mostly rocks and pebbles.  Way to rain on my feel-good parade, Napier.  Then, as if on cue, it actually started to rain.  Are you serious with this?  It hasn’t rained here in six months!  It can’t possibly rain on my wine country visit!

Oh, but yes it could, and it did.  It was rainy and cold all day.  F#@%&!!!!

At least the rain did one thing – it kept the tasting rooms pretty darn empty.  At Te Mata and Black Barn, I was the only person there.  Black Barn’s fig tree lined entrance:

Then I headed out to the coast to Clearview and Elephant Hill for lunch.  Almost all of these vineyards had crush going on while I was there.  Filling the barrels at Elephant Hill: 

Lunch view at Elephant Hill (somewhere beyond those soggy palm trees is the coast):

The two styles of netting here in NZ, to keep the birds away from the almost-ripe fruit.  I’ve never seen this in CA before – I wonder why.  Full canopy netting, which could cover several rows at a time:

And netting covering the fruit clusters only:

Hmmm – I’ll have to ask about this when I get a chance.

The Hawke’s Bay region is not just one of NZ’s top wine producing regions, it’s a big agricultural area.  There were more apple trees in this area than grapevines.  As I was driving around from winery to winery, the apple orchards were just laden with fruit, the weight of the apples bending the branches.  It was clearly picking time too – lots of crates at the end of the rows, ladders stacked against them, and tarps spread between the trees to catch the dropped and discarded fruit.

With four wineries under my belt and well over the 0.04 BAC limit, it was time to go find my B&B.  Tonight I'm staying at Ash Ridge, a working vineyard and winery, just down the street from a slew of other wineries including Trinity Hill.  The place is really nice, and I booked it thinking I’d have a private patio overlooking the vineyards where I could sit outside, relax, sip wine and read a book for a few hours. 

Instead, I’m cold and brewing myself a cup of coffee while I watch the rain fall outside.  It’s totally putting a damper on what I hoped would be a warm, leisurely and relaxing stay in wine country.  Grrr!  I guess all of the good weather karma we had in the South Island had to wear off sometime.  

With this being my last day in wine country, I have to admit that I’m not loving it as much as I’d hoped to.  I'm blaming it on the crappy weather.  But at least I am getting to do some tasting, and because of that I am learning more about NZ wines which is what I really wanted to do.  The true bright spot here has been the food. It has been absolutely spectacular, including my dinner at the Vidal Winery restaurant tonight.  Meals in this area have been pricey, yes, but by FAR the best meals of the trip.  Yum, yum.

Auckland to Hawke’s Bay

Monday morning in Auckland, and of course it is raining again.  I was really hoping to get an early start and squeeze in a trip to the top of the Sky Tower this morning before my flight to Hawke’s Bay, but with the low clouds and poor visibility it just isn’t worth it.  I can barely see across the harbor from my hotel room!  With no time left in this city, it looks like Auckland is going to remain on my list of places to explore and give me a reason to return to NZ someday.

Things were a bit different when my delayed flight finally landed in Hawke’s Bay – sunny, hot and humid.  Hello, summer!  This is more like what I was expecting on this part of the trip.  Perfect weather for sipping some NZ wines from this region for the next two days.  My first stop was Mission Estate Winery, New Zealand’s oldest winery. 

Mission Estate was started by French missionaries in 1851, for sacramental and table wines.  Today they produce some pretty tasty wines, and also have a fabulous restaurant on site where I grabbed lunch.  I like this about the NZ wineries I’ve visited – a large number of them have really yummy restaurants or some kind of food service available on site.  More CA wineries could take a page out of this book.  It’s been so convenient to be able to combine both lunch and a tasting in one stop as I’m planning which wineries to visit, and so far the food has been superb!  Also, in case you were looking for yet another excuse to visit NZ, Mission Estate hosts a big concert each year drawing some pretty famous names over the years, including Sting, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Barry Gibb, and Carole King.

My next stop was just down the street at Church Road Winery.  This place had the vibe of a smaller, boutique winery.  When I pulled in they were in the middle of crush, and I had to maneuver my car around a truck delivering freshly picked grapes and avoid the forklift moving the bins off the truck.  

Hand-picked Chardonnay grapes, ready to be crushed and destemmed:

I really liked this winery.  One of the benefits of travelling solo is that people are pretty good about chatting you up, and the friendly Kiwis have been particularly good at it, and as the only person in the tasting room I got to ask a ton of questions and learn a lot from the guy who was doing the pouring here.   Plus, they did some off-the-beaten track varietals, which are always fun to taste:

Conscious of my blood-alcohol content and NZ’s ridiculously low 0.04 BAC limit, I decided my next best move would be to go check in to my hotel in Napier and do a walking tour around this Art Deco town.  Napier was pretty much destroyed in 1931 by a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake and a resulting fire which tore through the city.  At the height of the Depression, the city was rebuilt in a 2-year period in the then-fashionable Art Deco style, and there is an Art Deco Weekend here every February celebrating the style and times.  T&G Building:

Tom Parker Fountain:

Soundshell:

Daily Telegraph Building:

Emerson St:

And then I saw this in the sidewalk in front of me.  Say wha’?????:

That’s right, this city has enacted a permanent liquor ban prohibiting the consumption, bringing in or being in possession of any intoxicating liquor in public places from 8pm to 6am, every day of the year.  Obviously I’m not intending to stay here very long!  I did find it strangely ironic that this building was right across the street, however:

So maybe I just don’t get this whole Art Deco thing (or maybe the liquor ban just doesn’t register with me), but this city just looked tired and run down.  Kinda like that beautiful woman who was really fashionable 80 years ago, but now is in dire need of some updating and a face lift.  I was doing my walking tour at around 5pm and you’ll notice in the pictures – the city center was deserted and the area seemed rather down on its luck.  All the stores close at 5 pm, and it was like they'd rolled up the sidewalks.  No one other than tourists were out at this time of day.  Also, all of the Art Deco architecture is on the second story of these buildings.  The street level mostly looks like storefronts you would find in any other pedestrian mall.  So to really get that Art Deco appreciation, you have to be sure you are constantly looking up, plus you then have to look past the wear to these buildings that come with 80 years of age and inconsistent upkeep.  Maybe this place feels different during Art Deco weekend, but frankly it wasn't for me.  Good thing I had a bottle of wine and an ocean front view to enjoy in my hotel room, because nothing was happening in this town.  

The Speight’s "Southern Man"

So before we get too far away from the beauty and rugged wilderness of NZ’s South Island, in one of my earlier posts I promised more to come on the concept of the Speight’s “Southern Man.”  This was something that caught my eye in a restaurant/pub we went to for dinner in Franz Josef because of this pose struck by Aaron, which he did without knowing about the poster over his head:

That poster is a beer advertising poster from Speight’s, a popular brand of beer brewed in Dunedin on NZ’s South Island.  Here's an image of the full poster:

They’ve had an ad campaign for quite some time that plays on the stereotype of a southern man.  So what are some of the characteristics of a true southern man? He:

•         rides a horse, but never rides a scooter or a moped
•         wears a Swanndri, preferably with a hoodie
•         can control a pack of dogs
•         is an expert at the game of rugby union
•         respects Laurie Mains
•         carries a whistle at all times
•         owns a pair of R.M. Williams boots, which he wears when going to town
•         does not eat quiche
•         never holds hands with his woman in public
•         makes bread in a camp oven
•         tells good farm animal jokes
•         appreciates a quality meat pie
•         owns at least two pairs of Red Band Gumboots
•         respects a woman who drinks Speight’s out of a jug

Are you picturing a rugged, outdoorsy man riding a horse in the vast rolling hills of a farm or in mountainous terrain, or sitting around a campfire discussing rugby with his mates?  There you go. 

The poster and the whole campaign seem pretty awesome – funny, full of local references and lingo I had to keep asking about, and just a tiny bit cheeky.  Was really hoping we would run into more of these posters, particularly in the Queenstown area, but apparently we didn’t hit enough bars (either that, or we weren’t sober enough in the ones we were in to notice).

Speight’s latest campaign is a search for the “perfect woman.”  So who is the perfect woman?  “The perfect woman is an all-rounder who demonstrates her personality, knowledge & strength by getting involved in the competition and having a go….Challenge yourself as you jet-boat, shoot, hammer, skin, cook and ride your way to the title.”  She probably also drinks Speight’s out of a jug, and doesn’t mind if her man never holds her hand in public.  Know a woman who fits the bill?  You might want to give her a heads up.

Mt. Cook to Auckland

Today the hiking/kayaking trip on the South Island comes to an end and I move on to the rest of my trip on the North Island.  It's a big travel day for most of us, some longer than others, starting with a long 4+ hour drive from Mt. Cook to Christchurch.  Along the way we stopped in Lake Tekapo to admire this cute little church, the Church of the Good Shepherd, right on the banks of the lake.

Couldn't get a good shot of it because the church was in use, but we did peek inside - the front of the church has a picture window that creates a perfect frame for the view of the lake.  It was really picturesque.  The color of the lake is a bit obscured by the clouds, but this lake is a stunning color of blue.  It gets its color from"rock flour" - finely ground particles of rock brought down by the glaciers at the head of the lake and held in suspension by the melt water.

NZ has also had its share of monuments to the oddest things, like deer, and the liberation of sheep.  In Lake Tekapo we found the latest - a monument to the sheep dog.  I couldn't help but chuckle to myself and think, "when people find these monuments 500 years from now, what are they going to think about the things these Kiwi's are celebrating?"

Back on the bus for the last time, things were pretty quiet.  I think everyone was pretty tired after the tough hike yesterday and the active past 10 days we've had.  I know Charles was wiped out! (love the mischievous grin on Kevin's face, and props to Erica for the great photo bomb):

It also took until the last day, but we also experienced two "firsts" for the trip: 1) Rain!  I'm not sure how we got so lucky, especially with how wet the west coast can be, but the weather gods were definitely smiling down on us during this trip; and 2) Josh FINALLY delivered a good farm animal joke! 

Before long we had arrived in Christchurch, and it was time to say goodbye to the new friends we'd made on the trip.  Thanks to everyone, including Josh and Geoff, for making the South Island trip so memorable and so fun.  I had a great time experiencing NZ with you all!  

And so I boarded a plane and the second part of my NZ journey began.  

I arrived to a wet and soggy Auckland.  Having booked this part of the trip at a travel agency only 3 days earlier, and thanks to the lack of any reliable wifi access in this country, I had to stop at the travel agency's branch in the Auckland Airport to pick up my prepaid travel vouchers.  Unfortunately they had not yet arrived, so we had to track down the travel agent who booked everything at her home on a Sunday evening and have her resend everything by email.  It took a while for everything to come through, so I was several hours later getting my hotel than I anticipated.  By that time, St. Patrick's Day was in full swing, and lots of party goers were walking the streets in their green garb.  My hotel seemed to be pretty close to party central, and props to the travel agent - she hooked me up with a sweet as room on the top floor, overlooking Quay street and the Auckland Harbor.  Check out the view!

I had just enough time for a brief walk around downtown Auckland and the harbor.  Auckland's Ferry Building (almost as pretty as SF's ;-) ):

And the Sky Tower, all decked out in green for the holiday:

Not staying in Auckland for long.  Tomorrow I'm on to Hawke's Bay and wine country.

Mt. Cook, Mueller Hut Hike

Here we are - 11 hikers and 2 guides gathered in front of a small mountain lodge in a narrow valley between soaring peaks and glaciers, which are temporarily obscured by a low cloud layer hanging over the valley.  Its cool but not cold, a good temperature for our long hike today.  After 9 days of traveling together this group has had some good laughs and can be boisterous at times, but this morning most of the faces are serious.  Either everyone is dog tired, or they have their game face on.  Either way, everyone is checking their packs before we depart, making sure they have exactly what they need for the next several hours - no more and no less.  The bus ride to the trail head is short but quiet.  We're all in our own heads with our own thoughts.

Today were hiking to Mueller Hut, and we know this is the toughest hike of the trip.  The instructions are brief but simple - enjoy the first 15 relatively flat mins of the trail, because after that it gets very steep very quick.  Sometimes knowing less really is more, I guess.  And off we go.  Over the next few mins we get a few more clues:

7 hours round trip?  Uh, seriously?  What am I getting myself into?

And welcoming us at the end of our first 15 enjoyable minutes, and written 3 steps up, is this:

Come on now.  This is not helpful (although it did end my temptation to count 'em, which was for the best).

So up we went, climbing 1,813 steps.  And Josh wasn't kidding - it was steep.  Take a look at the group starting to spread out on these steps.  If you zoom in, you can see the speck of orange on top of the boulder.  That's Aaron.  He was the first to that point: 

It took us about an hour to get to the top of the steps, to a point that I think was Sealy Tarns.  I actually felt pretty good at this point.  I didn't train for the steps, and I knew they were going to hurt my knee going down, but I thought the 45 mins of steps up on yesterday's Red Tarns hike was tougher than the hour of steps on this hike.  Today I just focused on where I was planting my hiking poles on the steps.  That alone made me climb at a slower but steady pace, allowed me to get a good rhythm going, and gave me something to think about other than 1,800+ stairs.  

Once we reached Sealy Tarns, the low cloud layer had burned off and we were getting some great views into both the Mueller Glacier and the Hooker Glacier.  

But what Josh and that damn step count at the bottom failed to mention is that this was not even halfway.  Maybe just over 1/3rd, at best.

When we were lucky, the first part of the trail looked like this - nice, even stairs:

The second part of the trail looked like this:

And this:

Plus fields of huge boulders.  Almost two flipping hours of that crap.  The higher we went, the more rock there was and the less obvious the trail was.  When there is loose soil on the trail, it was easy to see where most people step.  When it is nothing but rock and a few intermittent metal posts telling you roughly where the trail is supposed to be, it's quite a bit more challenging.  All I could think with each challenging step up was "this is going to be SOOO much worse coming down."  

We took our second break for lunch just 30 mins short of the hut.

During lunch we could hear the many glaciers in this area crack and calve as the sun warmed them.  There was also a steady hum from the sound of countless waterfalls and running water spilling down to the valley and echoing up the mountains.  Rested and refueled, we then set out for our destination.

At long last, Mueller Hut came into view.  Aaron and Chantal celebrate:

My turn to celebrate- I'm on top of the world!!!

In the end, this hike was 7 miles round trip, 3,523 ft of elevation gain (starting at 2,450 ft), and took 7 hours to complete (roughly 3 hrs 45 mins to make the climb up to the hut, with resting time).  I was definitely feeling it when I got to the bottom, but not from the uphill.  I found the uphill part remarkably manageable.  What hurt most was the downhill.  All of the loose rock, uneven and unstable footing for nearly 2 hours had me tense and anxious with nearly every step and made my legs shake uncontrollably when I stopped moving, followed of course by all those stairs which are tough on my knee.  Good news is that we all made it, with only sore muscles amongst us once we got to the bottom. Time to celebrate with happy hour, a farewell toast,  dinner, and of course lots of post-dinner boozing, laughing and sharing memories on our last night together.

Sweet as!