Mt. Taranaki

Once again, I am about two weeks late with my updates. I'll try to catch up this week.

This weekends adventure was a two day one night tramp near Mt. Taranaki. I picked up the rental and the employee asked if a manual transmission would be OK, but asked in a tone making it clear this was my only option. When the rest of the group (Joe, Maura, and Margaux) arrived, we found I was the only one who had any experience driving a manual. The drive was a little over 4 hours each way, and I had the privilege of driving it all. Leaving in congested Friday evening traffic was frustrating, but the road soon cleared and it wasn't a bad drive at all. Stopping and starting on hills was my only issue.

We stopped short of the mountain that night in a little seaside town (on Friday the 13th, haha), and stayed in a backpackers ran by a little old lady and her husband. We wanted to take a walk down to the beach, but it was dark and we didn't find any accessible points. There were a few people on a front porch singing kareoke, so Joe asked them for help finding the beach. They said it would be a long walk at night and we should just go in the morning with our car. Then we were invited to join them in some kareoke, and ended up having a very enjoyable night. It was the man's 40th birthday the next day and he was "testing the equipment." The quality of singing was hit and miss, but I believe Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" performed by Margaux and myself was a big hit.

We did go down to the black sand beach the next morning and could see Mt Taranaki off in the distance.

The hike the next morning started out with a bang. It seemed the first mile was nothing but stairs as we climbed towards the summit of Mt. Taranaki. The view below from the carpark at the beginning of the trail.



Then we emerged from the shrubs onto some more rocky walking along the ridges. This is Joe, who attends Georgetown back in the states. He appears in many of my picture because he was always in the way. Kidding, it was usually either him or myself leading the group, so many of the pictures either have Joe or no one in them. There are a few of myself taken by others that I may be able to find.

After a little more climbing, the trail began to even out and start to circle the mountain. There were great views everywhere, but sometimes you had to keep your eye on the trail.

Then the trail dropped down into a valley between Taranaki and some of the smaller peaks. We took a side hike to Holly Falls, which was a great spot to rest and eat some lunch, or climb around on the boulders like I did.

After getting back on the main trail, we walked through a marshy plain surrounded by mountains on all sides. The views were tremendous.


The final push to the hut was intense. These stairs were steep and I took a few breaks on the way up to turn around and see how far we had climbed, and to look ahead and see how far we still had to go.

The night at the hut was nice. The hut itself was nothing special, but from the windows you could see the seaside city of New Plymouth and tons of stars. A Kiwi family was also there and they nearly fed us a complete meal. They kept shoving food at us they didn't want, and we happily kept eating everything they offered. We woke up for the sunrise the next morning and it was well worth it. Walking around the top of the ridge nearby just before sunrise was amazing. I can't say much more about it, so here are some pictures.



Then the sun started to rise over some distant mountains.


After admiring the sunrise, we wandered down to a few small pools on the rise. One of the park rangers had told us to make sure and see the reflection of the mountain in the pools. We all agreed after looking at the pools that Mother Nature had intended New Zealand to be a tourist destination.


Next up was Henry Peak, and I recited a story of my ancestor being the first to climb Henry Peak: The Deadliest Mountain in New Zealand. I think everyone bought it. In all seriousness it was a difficult climb with steep steps and even ladders.



Some clouds were coming in behind us and obscured some views, but were fun to take pictures of anyway.



The ending of the hike was through dense forest, so there were few spectacular views. This section of the hike was still worthwhile, and consisted of many decents into streams and climbs back out of them. Many times the roots of trees had been made into elaborate stairs and ladders.

After some tricky climbing we were back to the road, and we all wanted some serious food. A common problem on the end of our trips has been the lack of open eateries in NZ on Sunday. Every town seems absolutely empty. We finally found a little burger joint and rewarded ourselves with some greasy sandwiches and chips (fries).

Rugby Game

After getting back from the Coromandel, I had to immediately shower and walk/jog to meet the group going to the rugby game. It was a great deal. For $15 we got tickets to the game, transportation to and from, and they provided food before and after(and one free drink). The game featured the Auckland Blues and the Durban (South Africa) Sharks. The Sharks had a surprisingly good crowd there, but I'm guessing many of them live in NZ. I have met a good number of Kiwis who were born in S. Africa.

The atmosphere at the game surprised me. I expected crazy fans similar to the chanting masses at European soccer games. Instead, it felt more like I was at a baseball game. The crowds were generally quiet and relaxing, apart from big moments in the game. There were still some interesting characters in the stands. A man next to our group was wearing a wedding gown, and we were told it was part of his bachelor's party.
The game was close and high scoring, but from my limited knowledge of the game it seemed the Auckland Blues let many big chances slip by, and this cost them the win. Afterwards, we waited for some of the players to come by for pictures and autographs.

Coromandel Peninsula

I'm running a little behind with my updates. This trip was actually last weekend (6-7 March).

I knew I wanted to get out of Auckland for the weekend, but also wanted to be back Sat. afternoon for the rugby game I had tickets to. So I reserved a car for Friday and then tried to figure out exactly where I was going and who (if anyone) I was going with. Friday morning there was still a chance this would be a solo trip, which is the risk I ran for impulsive renting. As I was walking to pick up the car, Margaux and Colleen decided they were interested in tagging along.

Coromandel is the destination I decided on. The base of the peninsula is only 1.5 hours from Auckland and there are plenty of awesome sights there. Originally, I planned on making the 8 hour hike to Pinnacles, which offers views of the entire peninsula from the summit. As we drew closer to Coromandel, I realized we were going to be too pressed for time to enjoy the hike, and we had to decide on another option. I had remembered reading about Hot Water Beach in a guidebook. There is a small area on the beach where a hot springs seeps up, and with a little digging a personal hot tub can be made. We had to drive over the mountain range in the center of the peninsula, and watching vehicles come around turns from the left side of the road is unsettling. The weather had been fantastic up to this point, but from the mountains onward it was very wet and dreary. We went to the hot beach regardless, and hadn't packed any digging tool for the visit. We found the hot spot, and it was painfully hot if not mixed with ocean water coming in.
Our gameplan after this involved finding somewhere to dry off for the night, hopefully near Cathedral Cove. We planned on waking early and getting to the cove before the masses. Good weather would be a plus. We managed to get the last room in a backpackers in Hahei and our luck was improving. The next morning was free of clouds and the car park was nearly empty when we arrived at the start of the Cathedral Cove walk. The walk is only 30 minutes one way and had some nice views, but we were amazed when we stepped on the beach and saw Cathedral Cove.

We walked around and enjoyed the scenery, took a swim in the ocean, and found the small waterfall that runs onto the beach. I could have spent a few more hours there, but the rugby game was calling and the beach had started to fill up with visitors after a time. However, for a near hour it felt like we were the first to ever see it. Relaxing and unreal.

Note: I've heard Cathedral Cove is in the opening of one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies, but haven't watched them.

Waitomo Caves

For our last adventure before the beginning of classes, Andrew, Alyssa, Ryan, Ben, and I rented a car and went on a caving adventure. The caves were amazing, but the car ride might have been the most thrilling. I went to pick up the car with Alyssa because she didn't want to drive, and I thought it would be fun to learn how to drive on the other side of the road. Then we found out there are higher rental insurance fees and more liability in the case of a crash if the driver is under 21. That ruled me out, and none of the other guys were with us, so Alyssa became the only one who could drive. She put the windshield wipers on instead of a turn signal the first two or three times, and we had to remind her to make "tight lefts and wide rights." She did fine, but the ride back at night seemed to take forever, as she was hitting the breaks whenever a car would pass.

Now about the caves. We arrived about an hour early, so we went to the village nearby and visited the Museum of Caves and laid around in the park for awhile. We got back and met out guide, Simon, who was a lot of fun. His secretary could probably get him for sexual harassment, but they seemed to both know how to take a joke. We took a ride up the hillsides in a large 4WD van, and it took quite a beating. Then it was time to change into wetsuits, "gumboots", and harnesses and take a quick training course. We learned that holding the rope out to the side was fast, and pulling it behind (thumb up the butt as Simon called it) was slow.

Then he led us to the edge of the cave, which is somewhere around 100ft deep. We swung out over the cave and lowered ourselves slowly to the floor. The views were spectacular and I made sure to take my time.

It really did look like Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel, and Simon told us the film crew from Planet Earth had spent a few days in the caves he was leading us into. The glowworms lined the entire ceiling of the caves, and we turned our lights off to see the full effect. It looked similar to a clear night sky. I tried to pet one of the eels that live in the cave, but it was shy and swam away. After making some tight (especially for myself) squeezes, blackwater tubing down the cave, and exploring some caverns, it was time for the rock climb back to the top.

I showered, changed, and was treated to some hot tomato soup at the end. The trip back probably seemed longer than it was due to how exhausted we all were. I know I enjoyed it, and I think the rest of the group did as well.