Rotorua and Turangi, NZ

Good day to you all!! Hope all is going well where ever you might be.

Monday May 25

So for where I left off.... Oh yes.... the bungy.

Sorry about the photo situation. The do internet here strange. It is based on the number of Megs you use so for me to put up a bunch of photos would cost so much. So I'll give you what I can.

Ok, so after the bungy I went down to the Sky tower, were this time I just picked up the shuttle to the Kelly Tarton Aquarium. It was kind of a shame because there really wasn't much to see there, but I did get to watch some of Happy Feet. Yay Happy Feet.
No really though the highlight there is they have a little train thing that takes you through the Penguin exibit. Yeah, I'm such a dork, I went through 3 times. I wanted to get my moneys worth. Plus, they were just so cute.

I was just able to catch the last bus back into town (Helps being alone at times), where I just went back to Dani's. I wanted to make sure I spent the evening with her and Kris since they were just wonderful to me.

Ok, you don't need to know my move by move.....So.....

Tuesday May 26

That next morning I headed to Rotorua, which is really famous for it thermal heating, and the smell of rotten eggs. Oh yummie, that's exactly what you want to smell first thing in the morning.

Once I got in town, I still had a good portion of the day, so I booked a Mud Bath Spa at "Hell's Spa" This was great because you could go out and see the thermal park first. When I checked in I happened to bunk next to Katherinia, who is from Germany, and decided to do the spa with me. I was really greatful for that, because it would have been boring otherwise.

After the bath, they have you take a cold shower to close up the pores. It was so cold, and it was really cold outside too (All this happened outside). But then they send you over to the Sulfur Pool, where it's like a hot tub, only you can feel it really relaxing the muscles. I stupidly forgot they told us not to put our jewlery on 24hrs after, so to get the sulfur though our system. Well, I woke up the next morning with black ring. It actually looks pretty cool, cept the more I'm washing, it's cleaning it off, but it's still black inside.

Ok back on track.

Wednesday May 27

This morning I went to Rainbow Springs. I believe it is one of the largest natvie bird parks in New Zealand, and it is the largest Kiwi Concervation. So yes, I got to see a Kiwi bird. It's possibly the only time I will because they are nocternal, but I can live with that. I really wanted to go back that night but I'll explain that later.

I caught the bus to go down just a little further where I did Zorbing. Now for those of you who don't know what that is, it is when they have a large clear plastic ball, inside another another plastic ball. They fill the outside one with air and in the inside you one you can either get water or you can strap yourself to the ball. I chose to do the water. I would get sick if I did it the other way. So then what they do is a person climbs into the inside ball, then they push you down a hill. It's about 3 mins of total uncontrolable slip and slide.

That evening Katherinia and I went to a traditional Moari performance and dinner. Moari, are what you could call the natives. But don't say that to anyone from New Zealand who is not Moari. New Zealanders believe that if they were born and raised here, and so were they family, then why does that not make them natives. It is crazy the politics here.

So I caught a shuttle out to the "Village" (It was recreated) where the bus driver told us about doing a combo of the Rainbow Springs at night after doing the Moari event. I thought that since my ticket that day was good for 24hrs I could combine it, but they were dumb and said that I would have to walk myself over there, then find my own transportation. So...forget that....

This Moari event was quite and event...duh...They walked us out to the woods where we saw the Moari men canoe up in a traditionally made canoe. Then we were walked over to the "theatre". We got to learn about their songs, dances, traditions, and we even got to try a hand at some of the dancing. I don't know why but the Moari have this thing with opening their eyes really wide and sticking out their tongue. It might be just as an intimidation thing, who knows.

After the performance, they had a whole buffee laid out for us. This was a traditional Hungi, which is they way they cook their food. They put stones ontop of logs. Once the logs fall in the pit, then they put the food ontop of the hot stones. Oh man, it was fantastic. Probably the best fed I'll be this whole trip.

Thursday May 28

This day I moved on to Turangi. This is a small town in the center of the North Island. Most people go to Taupo, but I'm glad I chose a more quite place. Here, I heard the only real thing to do was walk around their river and do the Tongoriro Alpine Crossing. I chose to do both. However, the crossing was a whole day thing, so I booked it for Friday. Now you all think I'm crazy for going Bungy Jumping, but it can be more dangerous to do this crossing. It is all dependent on the weather. So I was crossing my fingers for good weather.

Friday May 29

I got up just before 6am to call in to see if the crossing was happening. It was, so I did a little happy dance. The bus picked us up and we were off.

In the winter time (Cuz remember it's winter here) they will only do guided tours because of the danger, and they provide all that you might need for this crazy walk. Once on the bus, I got hiking boots, a water resistant jacket, a larger backpack, and some crampons. Crampons are great. They are the spiky things you attach to your boots when you get to snow.

When we first pulled up all we could see was Mt. Doom. Yep, that's right, the Mt. they used to film Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. So far that is all the LOTR thing I've seen, but I've still got 2 1/2 weeks. We, however were not climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe (don't ask how to say it, I have no idea) the real name of the Mt., we were climbing Mt. Tongoriro.

If you're looking for more LOTRs you would go to the other Mt. Ruapehu, which is the tallest Volcano in NZ and a very active volcano. But they filmed a lot of the mountain scenes there.

So to give you an idea of this hike. It was 19.6km (just under 12miles). The summit we reached was 1900km.

Let me tell you about this fantastic experience. It was all pretty easy walking for the first 3km but then we walked up "Devils Stairs". Oh boy did the devil all out to you call that. It was rough. At the top of that we walked down into a valley of snow, and walked across to our volcano. Oh, did I forget to mention, it's a volcano, yep, it is. At the base we got to put on our Crampons, so yay me, I"m a mountaineer now. Well after this next part I would say I"m far from that. All this time, the veiw was fantastic and I really wish I could have experienced this with someone home. However, I'm glad no one I know saw me make a fool of myself. Well they say, "Slow and steady wins the race", no I would say "Fast and steady wins the race". Slow people loose. Yeah, I was the last of the group to reach the summit. How embaracing. At least I made it.

At the top we ate our lunch. Oh how I loved my flat,crummy sandwich. Yummie. Well, from there we went down the other side. This however was a side step down because it was a steep hill of dirt and loose rock. It was kind of scary, especially when you got to the edge where you could fall off. Well, you would more of slide down since it's snow, but that would be no fun at all. We reached a a real steep part of just rocks and dirt and just below was snow, where Sara (our guide) told us to take off our campons. We thought she was crazy because the hill was just too steep. I followed the crowd and next thing I know we are all sitting on our bums sliding down the side of the mountain. Oh man it was fantastic. Until I realized I lost my camera, b/c somehow I managed to do flips down. I guess I'm clumsy even when I'm sitting. Lucky for me Jeff (another one of the guides) saw it on his way down and picked it up for me. That was a pretty big scare for me.

We continued on over another valley of snow and went back up a moutain. Oh, we so thought we were done going up. But it was ok. Before we knew it, we were on a slight decline. An hour later we were at the out house on the other side of the mountain. There were only 4. One at the beinning, one before the climb, one after the climb and one at the end. So it's a good thing nature lucked out for us. Once we got to the out house we found out we still had another 8kms to go. But this was kind of the end of the guided part. Here, Sara had us all go around and tell our low and high. I would say my low was being at the very back of the group at the summit and thinking I would have to be the only one to go back. I just felt so unfit next to these people. But I did it, so I can't complain. The high, had to be getting to eat my lunch looking over the Emerald Lakes. They were lower down, but they just shone. So amazing. I mean, the view all around was, b/c it was mountains for miles.

The end of the hike was hard but I made it and now I feel I need a shirt that says "I concored Mt. Tongoriro" Can't seem to find any around here.

Well, as you may have guessed I did not go to the Whitomo Caves to see the glow worms and do dark water rafting, but I felt Mt. Tongoriro was so much more amazing. I think it was much more worth my money too. I mean shoot at the end of the hike they gave us free beer. Well, ok so if you know me, I didn't take the beer, I took the Sprite, but it was still so good after the walk.

Aside from all that, I've been doing well. Been really thinking about all of you. Plus, it's hard when you're away, feeling a bit under the weather, but I'm trying to fight it off, so hopefully it won't hold me back too much. I mean shoot, I just climbed a snowy volcano.

Tomorrow morning I will catch a bus to Wellington. Not quite sure how long I'll be there, but it is possibly you may not hear from me for about a week. It might not be till I'm in the South Island, unless I can find some free WIFI.

I have sent out some postcards, so keep your eyes out. I miss you all!!!

Cheers from Turangi!!