#9 Mountains

There is a beautiful view of the mountains from Whakaipo Bay, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots. The mountains are one hour south of Taupo.

The peaks are three active volcanoes. They were cast as Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings. It rained the day before I took this picture. The mountains weren't nearly as snow capped a few days earlier.

The plateau-topped peak on the right is Mt Tongariro. There is a day trek across the mountain called Tongariro Crossing. I'll be doing that one soon. Mt Ngauruhoe has the classic conical shape that comes to mind when you think of a volcano. It was one of the world's most active volcanoes in the 20th century, but hasn't erupted since 1975. Mt Ruapehu is the dominant of the trio and is home to New Zealand's largest ski field. It's last major eruption was in 1995, followed by smaller eruptions in 2006/07. Ruapehu is currently at a level 1 warning (the highest alert), but it has been since 1997.

On our visit to Ruapehu we went to Whakapapa, the ski field on the northern slope.

Simon was going to the mountain to scope it out for a climbing assessment he has there. It will qualify him to be a climbing guide. I got to do some climbing while he tested his anchors on me. Lucky for me they held. I give him a pass.

I hope you know what you're doing with those carabiners.

Mead's Wall, where we climbed.

View from the top of the wall, looking toward Ngauruhoe.

The snowmelt creates a lot of waterfalls around Tongariro National Park. Summer is coming.

Heading back to Taupo.

In New Zealand it is legal to have an open container in your car. I'm not driving, remember the passenger is on the left.

#8 Caves

After getting worked on the Kaituna, Allison and I tried our luck in Waitomo. Waitomo is known for its extensive underground system of glow worm caves. We did a black water rafting tour, which entails floating through the caves on inner tubes. We went into the Ruakuri cave, which is 1.6 km long.

Glow worms don't actually exist, that's just a euphemism. The creatures aren't worms, but immature flies. And they don't glow, but their feces do. In other words, we were admiring fluorescent maggot shit. But we can stick with glow worms.

I've never had an experience like this. Just being underground in a cave was awesome, but floating down the river on an inner tube with glow worms on the ceiling made it even more extraordinary. We held on to each other's tubes and turned off our head lamps to get a better view of the glow worms. It was so incredibly dark you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.

Allison & I were the only homosexual couple.

Practicing.

More practicing. This is how we got down the waterfall in the cave. Nothing like the Kaituna waterfall. I was actually good at this as you can see.

Not our actual tour, but this is exactly what it looked like.

Our group in the cave.

Peacocks wandered the parking lot.

More pictures from around Waitomo.

Everything is green. Even rocks.

Allision admiring (talking to?) a koru, the spiral at the end of a fern.

I love this picture.

The end.

#7 Rafting

Mary, my roommate from SB, told me that her best friend was coming to NZ on vacation from Austin. Her name is Allison and she stayed with me for a few days. We drove to Rotorua to go white water rafting on the Kaituna river. The river is surrounded by high rock walls and lush tropical plants. The scenery was incredible. It felt like we were going through the rainforest. The trip was classified as a grade 5 and included a 7 meter waterfall.

Our boat flipped while going down the waterfall. (I think it was just one of those weeks. A couple days before I had gone mountain biking and crashed into a tree.) I got stuck under the raft and that was really scary. It was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I would drown. Overall the trip was super fun. There is some grade 3 rafting near Taupo that is a much longer ride. It lasts for a few hours as opposed to the Kaituna trip which was only 45 min. I definitely want to go on the longer rafting trip.

#6 Around Taupo

On the lake shore looking toward Acacia Bay. One of those houses is where I live.

This duck wants me to take him to subway. They eat for free. And they all want Sun Chips! Swans get a discount.

Huka Falls. looking upriver. Then toward the falls.

Hot Springs.

Kayaking on the Waikato. View of bungy platform from the river.


Whakaipo Bay.

Video 1: Riding on the kayak rack.

Video 2: Chasing sheep.

There's a place on the river where a continuous wave is formed when the water level is just right. Fun for paddlers.