Glacier Wars - 3 Days, 3 Glaciers

We made our way into Franz Josef around 4 pm but it was a beautiful day out so we decided to embark on the walk to the snout of Franz Josef to take a look at the most well known glacier. The walk was a quick one, only 5 km return, but there were multiple waterfalls along the way. We brought beers to enjoy at the snout of the glacier but it hardly seemed worth it in my opinion. 

The weather was quite perfect however from our vantage point, it was mostly disappointing. It seemed the feeling was mutual with the other viewers as well. Too bad, but I did hear that Fox was better and more accessible and we wouldn't give up that easy so the next morning we took off for Fox Glacier. The one saving grace was the beautiful but short walk in to see Franz Josef. There was a triple waterfall right near the path that if the weather was a little better I would have jumped right in (I even came prepared with my bathing suit on). 

It was a bit more of a walk to see the Fox Glacier but it was well worth the effort. 

The walk wasn't nearly as stunning as Franz Josef, go figure, so they both had something to offer up. 

On day three of the glacier wars we embarked on a much more difficult trek to the less famous Rob Roy Glacier. The trek was 12 km return and had plenty of uphill sections to get your heart rate going. The walk was incredibly beautiful and the scenery was constantly changing. 

Cows and Sheep All Around

View From the Swing Bridge

Mountain Views

Glacier Fed River

As we made our way to the Upper Lookout we passed a Lower Lookout. It was a great view, but trust me, you want to make the extra effort and head to the Upper Lookout. The scenery opened up at first to a 1000 foot waterfall. 

The waterfall held my gaze until I glanced to the right and was flat out wowed. The glacier was enormous and fed at least 15 waterfalls that I counted (obviously they were flowing into each other but there was 15 visible). 

We stayed up at the Upper Lookout for about an hour and had lunch. During that time we saw the glacier calve twice. The sound it made was thunderous!

The way down was fun and made for trail running. We took the fast way down. 

Overall, the glaciers will all be worth a view but if you are short on time, make a day for Rob Roy and pack yourself a nice lunch and maybe bring a beer to enjoy at the top. The view is enough of a reward though!

One Ring to Rule Them All - Mastering the Tongariro Crossing

Woke up at 7 am to get going for our long day at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! We arrived at the Mangatepopo car park at about 9:15 and prepared for our 19.4 km journey. We hit the trailhead at about 9:45 am. 

The journey was amazing and for the first 3 hours we were making out ascent towards Mt. Doom or Ngauruhoe as it is really called. 

At the top it was extremely windy out and I literally thought I could be blown off the mountain top. The air was also freezing because of our altitude and there was some serious wind chill going on. After seeing Red Crater where Frodo threw the ring in Lord of the Rings we began our first descent. 

We continued on and found a beautiful place by Emerald Lakes, just before Blue Lake that would mark our halfway point.

 

We enjoyed a quick meal and watched as some clouds came over us and decided we better keep moving as it was cold enough without rain. I believe the Emerald Lakes were my favorite but the Blue Lake was also stunning. 

We kept our pace up and made it to the bottom at Ketetahi car park at 4 pm finishing the trek in 6 hours 15 minutes which included our stop for lunch. I was feeling pretty good about this until I heard the world record for the 19.4 km/12.2 mile trek with 3700 feet in altitude change was 85 minutes! I definitely think I enjoyed the trek much more at my pace! We did not follow the guide books instruction to book a shuttle back to the other car park and instead just asked people as the came down if they were heading that way. A very nice couple was waiting on 2 more friends to come down and agreed to take Sebastian to the other car park and then Sebastian would come back to pick me up. It worked out quite well, I even got a beer from a tour company that had just finished their trek. Score! Afterwards we took off to find a place to park the campervan overnight on our way to Whanganui. 

The Largest Kauri Tree, Hobbits, Kelley and More!

We got to the Waipoua Kauri forest around 10 am ready for some walking. Our first stop was a quick walk in to the woods to see the largest Kauri tree known as Tane Mahuta to the Maori or Lord of the Forest. It was huge, 51.5 meters in height and a 13.8 meter trunk girth. It easily made me feel small and insignificant in only the way that nature can. What I particularly liked about these type of trees was their ability to sustain other forms of plant life in their branches. I found it breathtaking.

After this quick stop we continued to Cathedral Grove, a quick drive on the highway. Here we were able to go further into the Waipoua Kauri Forest and see more of the beauty this place had to offer. We saw the second and seventh largest Kauri trees in this walk along with a grouping of trees titled Four Sisters that were all quite close to each other and born from the same seeds.

This formation was my favorite as it allowed me to reflect on my sisters at home. Although it hadn't been long since I had seen them last it was nice to be reminded of my family in such a serene setting. After hiking through the woods we made our way over toward Matamata where Hobbiton, the set for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films was made!








It was quite a long drive and we passed through Auckland along the way and its beautiful skyline.

We decided to stop in Hamilton for the night despite being told Hamilton wasn't worth a stop we needed a place to rest. We ended up at J's Backpackers just outside of town. The hostel was very cute and booked full with lots of cool people hanging about when we arrived. We made dinner and ate in the yurt they had built out back that had a few picnic tables and reading areas. After dinner we went out back where a group of people were hanging about, sharing stories, and my favorite, drinking beer.

It was finally time to make our way to Matamata and easily found the Hobbiton center...conveniently located at the iSite. We booked our tickets and had to drive a bit out of town to get to the actual film location. When we arrived you still couldn't tell we were actually at the film location until we hopped on a bus and got taken over a couple rolling hills where the scenery opened up. My inner nerd lighted up with giddy excitement. It was pretty neat!

Throughout all the picture taking, we learned some very cool facts about the filming of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. Perspective and camera angle were used whenever possible rather than CGI to create size differences along with different sized hobbit holes.

Bilbo's House - No Admittance Except on Party Business

Samwise Gamgee's House

The fence Bilbo jumped over in the first Hobbit stating he was "Going on an adventure!"

Lastly towards the end of our trip to Hobbiton we stopped at the Green Dragon and we were given a free pint of cider.

The Green Dragon

I was belly up to the bar...

Because I brought the cider into town on my wagon...








After all that fun we made our way to Rotorua where Thomas and I would part ways the following day. I found a nice hostel outside of town called 4 Canoes. They had plenty of open rooms available and we were able to get a 4 dorm room ensuite for $22/night with free wifi. Not too shabby! After settling into our hostel I took off to walk down to the Thursday night market in town. It was similar to a farmers market at home but quite a bit smaller. I tried a mussel fritter which is apparently a big thing in New Zealand (fritters in general).

It was surprisingly tasty but didn't satisfy my craving for mussels quite yet...I think the South Island will be of help for that! After dinner at the market, I stopped at an Irish pub for a pint. There was a one man band playing and he was quite good so I stayed for another as well and met some firefighters who were in town doing training. After a few pints I called it a night and made my way home for sleep.

Finally the day arrived that I got to see Kelley for the first time in New Zealand! With all that excitement it was hard to figure out what to do with my day! It really wasn't that hard since there was so much fun stuff to do and beautiful things to see in Rotorua. In the morning we went to Hamurana Springs Reserve.

It was a beautiful hike along a river that led to Hangarua Spring. The scenery was beautiful and the spring area was crystal clear.


We even passed through some redwood forests along the way and I was reminded of home in so many ways.


We made our way back to town and checked out the geothermal area in town that was free. We saw some bubbling mud pools and everything smelled of sulfur.

It was interesting to see the earth bubble like that but I think it may have been more worth while to go to an actual paid area to see better preserved geothermal activity. I made my way over to Base Rotorua and checked both me and Kelley into a 4 bed dorm ensuite and proceeded to make my way down to the pool for some R&R before Kelley was arriving that night. The pool was geothermally heated so it was not refreshing to jump in and it was a really hot day. I mostly lounged in the shade reading Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail) by Cheryl Strayed. It has been a good book to read while traveling on my own and although I am not quite on my own in the woods, it has given me a good sense of adventure. Kelley cam to town around 11 that evening and found me at the hostel bar, Lava Bar, that was right next door.  I managed to meet a group of cops that were doing a rafting competition that day.  It gave me the bug to want to do it the following day.  They were a fun group and we played quarters most of the night and drank mason jars of sugary mixed drinks.

Kelley and I woke up in need of adventure...in the form of a 7 m or 22 ft waterfall to raft over.  It seemed like a sensible idea at the time so we took off for some breakfast and came back in time for our rafting adventure down the Kaituna River with Kaitiaki Adventures. It was a blast!! Take a look at us heading off a 7 meter waterfall!






After the waterfall we grabbed some pizzas at the Lava Bar (pro tip: included when you book your tour to Kaitiaki with Base) and beers. We decided to get away from the hustle that the Lava Bar brings and head to the actual downtown area in Rotorua.  Despite it being called RotoVegas (more so for the adventure available), it was quite a sleepy town.  We walked the lake and had some ice cream from Lady Jane's Ice Cream Parlour since it had been recommended to us by a few people.  It was decent but nothing to write home about.





My last day in Rotorua and with Kelley for this portion of the trip so we decided to make a trip to the town for a scone and coffee. Kelley introduced me to cheese scones...omg...heat them up and add butter and it is so good! She also got me on a trim flat white which is our equivalent of a latte-kind of- but better. They have lattes too but these are much better.  New Zealand has their own entire vocab dedicated to coffee which as a foreigner makes it hard to decipher. After breakfast we made our way over to the Green and Blue Lakes in Rotorua that we meant to have a nice 2 hourish walk so we took off for that.

We began our walk along the water and decided to carry on...after about 3 hours of walking we ended up at the highway no where near where we needed to be! It was getting late so we decided to hitch hike back to Rotorua. We got picked up from a nice man and his son and they dropped us at the turn off for the lakes from town and we proceeded to ilhitch hike yet again. This time a nice man and his dog picked us up as he was heading to the lake to walk his springer spaniel. The dog reminded me of my old dog Maggie and made me want a dog even more than I already had. Once we made it back to the car it was time for dinner. We were both craving Indian food and Rotorua had a few stand out places for it. We went to Indian Star that served a complimentary glass of wine with a meal and ordered up some great food, butter chicken, chicken jalfrezi, garlic naan, and roti. It was delish. After dinner we headed back to Base where I dropped my backpack and headed over to the Polynesian Spa to soak in some geothermal pools. Kelley didn't have long so she stayed about an hour and took off. I stayed at the spa for quite a bit longer just relaxing as my new ride was picking me up from Base at 9 pm. Once I was done at the pools, I used the shower facilities and took off for Base to meet Sebastian and his campervan. He arrived at about 9:15 and we took off for a rest stop just outside of Rotorua to sleep for the night. Sebastian builds campervans for a living and is from Chile but has been between Australia and New Zealand for the past 3 years. More on our adventures in the next post!

To the Northern Tip of New Zealand

I slowly prepared everything to head out on a roadtrip with a stranger. It was an interesting thought process...am I crazy? Will this person be nice? Will they leave me stranded in a remote location? I decided to push all those thoughts from my mind and realize that he too was opening himself to a similar situation. Thomas picked me up at my hostel and we took off heading north towards Whangarei. We had nothing planned or necessarily agreed upon for locations to visit but both had sites on our lists. When we got to Whangarei, we stopped at the iSite to get some directions to the hostel we booked, Little Earth Lodge. When we got back in the car, it wouldn't start and in fact the key wouldn't come out of the ignition either. Thomas called a Mercedes repair guy and they said they'd come out for $500...had to get it fixed so he spent the money and it was actually a really quick fix. Something to keep in mind when buying a car out here that not many people own (Mercedes). After it got fixed we headed to our hostel which was a super cute place tucked away.

We checked in and headed back out in search of the sunset and a mountain along the water. The fog socked the sunset in but the mountain we found was interesting to say the least and loomed over the road above us.

Then we headed to New World grocery and picked up some food and drink for dinner and the up coming days. We cooked up a feast of marinated beef, tortellini, and salad with some Carlsberg beer to wash it down and prepared for the following day.

The following morning we took off from our lodge (Little Earth Lodge) and paid $5 for a headlamp, helmet, and water shoes to hit the Abbey Caves which were just a short walk away. We made our way to the first cave, Organ Cave, which didn't look like it could be possible that someone wanted us to walk in there...we actually passed it at first thinking that can't be it! Turns out it was and it was scary! We had to climb down some rocks to enter the cave and when we were just 5 feet from the entrance it was pitch black except for our headlamps.



We made our way cautiously into the cave and stopped to shutout lights off and check out the glow worms. There were quite a few worms glowing and the longer you kept the light off the brighter they shined. I wish there was a way to take a photo but even with the GoPro there was no easy way.

We went into 2 more caves, Middle Cave and Ivy Cave although I think that the first one was my favorite cause it seemed that we could go the farthest in it (the last one the water got too deep and I saw an eel in the second one that was quite large...eek!).





After the caves, we headed to the Whangarei Falls to check out the most photographed falls in New Zealand which were quite stunning.

 
We also did a canopy walk to and from the falls called AH Reed Canopy walk which consisted of all the preplanning I had done for the day...not much as I found already it was best to be a bit flexible with your schedule.

We started our drive up north to Paihia and arrived with enough time to find a hostel and drive over to Shippey's for some good old fish and chips, calamari and chips along with a mega jug of Wild Buck. A jug is our pitcher equivalent so we had quite a bit of beer to start the night. Shippey's is an old ship that appears to have hit a sand bar and no longer runs and it just so happens to face the sunset perfectly.

We made our way into the hull of the ship after dinner and there was a jam night going on where anyone could show up and partake in playing an instrument. Surprisingly people were able to pull together incredibly well and create some great music including a lot of good stuff I knew.
 
Today we embarked on the Cream of the Bay trip! It is not what you think... Cream of the Bay is a full day cruise around the Bay of Islands. It got its name from its previous purpose of picking up cream from the neighboring islands to return to Paihia. It morphed into a mail and goods delivery service and tourists jumped on board to help with the cream pails in order to get a free trip around the bay and the service again morphed into a tourist trip that also does mail delivery. Fun fact, mail is only delivered on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Saturday's in New Zealand. Luckily we were cruising on a Monday and got to see the mail delivery and pick up at the neighboring islands. This was pretty cool because it seemed so old fashioned and service oriented. The people on the islands here the "honk" of the ferry and the people on land come out to meet the ferry with a bag of mail and pick up their mail as well. Many times there were dogs waiting on the dock for us and they all received a treat. It was definitely a personal touch that I appreciated. Out first stop was in Russell which was visible across the bay and a cute small town out on a peninsula that you can drive to or take a vehicle ferry over to. If I had more time I may have made a point to wander the streets of that town but no such luck here and since it was similar to Paihia it was easy to miss on this trip.




En route to the largest privately owned island we passed these beautiful black rock formations where the green lipped mussels lived.

One of our guides jumped off into the bay and shucked some fresh mussels from the rocks which a little later towards lunch he grilled and we all got to try one. They were delicious and of course extremely fresh! Still nice and warm when we got them too. We made a few more stops along our way to our lunch spot at Urupukapuka and ended up seeing a dolphin pod that swam right at the bow of our boat!

It was so beautiful to watch the dolphins swim in and out of the water and this pod even had a few calves with them. Unfortunately this made it impossible to swim with the dolphins due to regulations on swimming with calves or juveniles. When we got to our lunch island we disembarked and took to a path up the closest hill for an overview look of the Bay of Islands. It was absolutely stunning...

After our short walk I was ready to jump in the water and do some snorkeling.

I didn't see much until I realized that the crew was throwing food into the water behind the boat so I swam over there and saw a ton of larger fish and swam right into their pod while they were eating. It was a crazy feeling to be swarmed by the fish and I would dive down and look at them from below...really cool angle! I finally got out I the water when I felt one nibble my elbow and thought it was time to get out of the water before I became fish food too! After lunch we continued on making a few more spots here and there we made our way to Motukokako or better known as the Hole in the Rock. On calm days you are actually able to cruise through the hole however it was quite windy and there were white caps throughout the tunnel so the captain made the executive choice to not go in based on safety. I was a little bummed but honestly that hole was quite small and I didn't think that we would fit!




We made our way back towards Paihia and found another dolphin pod along the way but they also had calves with them so instead we made a stop over for some snorkeling at a reef nearby. The guide jumped in the water with us and he would dive down and grab some shell fish and crack it open and the fish would swarm him and eat out of the shell.







It was pretty cool to watch! Then we got pulled in the boom net which was basically a net right along the side of the ship that pulls you along through the water. It was super fun but not so fun when your bottoms begin to come off!

I met a really nice German girl in the boom net who was traveling by herself for the past year in New Zealand but was leaving for Australia next week. We made our way back to Paihia and hopped in the car to take off towards Cape Reinga to find a place to stay. I decided to try my hand at driving on the left side of the road and took the wheel. It was funny to have to constantly remind yourself to stay on the left. The really tricky part for me was turning both left and right. What a trip! I got a hang of it and we made it all the way to the beginning of the Ninety Mile Beach.

We decided to stay over at Lake Ngatu down the road for free because they had a really nice view and more importantly toilets!

Off we went to Pak n' Save for some additional things for dinner. We cooked at our car camp by the lake and made quite the feast...we had salad, sweet corn, mac and cheese, and pepper steak filets. It was a meal fit for a queen and it was cooked quite well I might add. We had to cook in rounds so we ate everything separately but still quite tasty and even better when paired with Honesty Cider (apple flavor=so good!). We called it a night relatively early and tried to make ourselves comfortable in the SUV.



Woke up in the car around 9 am at our lake location ready to spring to action...kind of. It was a bad nights sleep in the front set of the car but surprisingly I was able to sleep until 9... After we packed up and cleaned the dishes we took off for Cape Reinga, the northern most point of New Zealand. We arrived around 11:00 and did a little walking tour. I thought the light house would be on the water but it was quite high up. It was cool because it was where 2 bodies of water met, Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean and was called the Meeting Point and you could see them collide and mix with each other. It was a tumultuous area of water as they fought each other.
 






Turns out I am only 10479 km or 5709 nm away from LA. It seems so close when I say it that way. Hi to my friends and family across the pond! After checking out the cape, we made our way back down the peninsula.

I stopped at the great dunes for some sand boarding of course! It was incredibly high an looked like the slope was about 80 degrees...almost straight down, at least that is how it felt. The walk up was pretty grueling but it was totally worth it! What a crazy rush of adrenaline on the first run and on the second and third I found myself attempting to go faster and faster. After my third run my quads wanted to kill me so I called it a day with the sand boarding and headed back to the car where my friend was sleeping while I did crazy shit. Sounds about right.

After sand boarding we took to the road again and stopped at a lake for lunch...standard PB&J, chips and a bevie, cider this time. After our quick lunch we headed back to the lake chalet aka Lake Ngatu so I could jump in some fresh water and clean off. It was much needed since I was covered in sand and the water was surprisingly warm too. We continued on our way toward Waipoua Kauri Forest in search of a place to stay near by. We got to a small town Opononi and stopped at their I-Site location but they were closed, bummer! So I consulted my CamperMate app on my iPhone which is available offline and shows great things for anyone road tripping through New Zealand including campsite, recycle facilities, attractions, public toilets, free wifi, gas stations,and accommodations. We found Globetrekkers not far from us, rang them up and they had a vacant 6 person dorm room that we took as ours since it was a slow night for them, lucky us, sad for them. The town, Omapere, is a sleepy seaside town but right on the ocean with a gorgeous sunset that's not to be missed. We made dinner in our hostel after going out in search of mussels at the only restaurant in town (not on the menu anymore) and called it a night do we could be well rested for our forest treks tomorrow.