Tiki Tour 2012 - North Island Part 1

The weekend after the parents left was spent figuring out how to pack all of our crap into the Adventureship for our two month travel. Thankfully it all fit and after saying our goodbyes to the flatmates we were off on the open road.

We headed out early Monday morning toward Picton to catch the ferry to Wellington. A beautiful cruise through the sounds to the North Island – imagine Seattle ferries x 10. These things are huge and have numerous levels for parking, lounging and even a movie theatre. We spent a couple of days in Wellington, touring Te Papa, the museum right on the waterfront, learning all about NZ history along with Wellington-specific history and visiting a couple brewpubs after.

Wellington is known as the craft capitol of NZ, competing with Nelson who also claims the title – and the selection didn’t disappoint our craft palates, thank you NZ hops for a different kind of taste and aroma.



River Anduin / Rohan River



Isenguard Gardens

 

Rivendell

 Next we were off on some Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Adventures. We headed North toward Upper Hut where we found the location of filming for the River Anduin and Rohan River then the Isenguard Gardens, The Orc Tree and finally camped overnight in Rivendell. Those of you that are LOTR geeks would recognize in your head all of those scenes instantly…for others…we took photos for you. One of the great things about the filming crew is that they did an impeccable job returning the land to its original state as it was prior to thousands of people tramping through to make the movie. It’s actually quite difficult to tell that a major feature film was shot in these locations, so use your imagination and visualize the scenes if you can.

 

We continued North to explore the Shannon, New Zealand township as well as University of Montana’s sister college Massey University in Palmerston North. Ultimately, we were heeded for New Plymouth via the Surf Highway. New Plymouth sits on the West Coast with the incredible Mt. Taranaki as its amazing volcanic backdrop. After a sausage sizzle for dinner we were off to a windy nights sleep in the tent…thankfully we didn’t blow away.

The next morning we headed to Mt. Taranaki (2518 m). What started out as a two hour loop track turned into a summit climb, one of the most rewarding in NZ to date. The landscape is incredibly beautiful and as you climb higher and higher, the ocean views to the North past the farming fields made the experience that much more amazing. Also in the distance to the East, you could see another mountain on the itinerary to climb in a few days, Mt. Doom. After such a hard working day, we headed to Mikes Organic Brewery in Urenui for a much deserved brew.

Back in New Plymouth we cooked up a mussel feast and headed to bed, ready for the next day’s adventure. Via higway 43, The Forgotten World Highway, we were en route to Tongariro National Park. The most incredible part of the journey from one volcano to another was not only the beautiful green covered peaked hills that make the drive so unique, but also that along the side of the road as we passed by, we caught a glimpse of our first Adventureship.

It was really bizarre, of all the places in NZ, we ended up camping later that night at the same campsite as the couple we sold our first minivan to. We’re happy to report, she’s still running like a gem – and parked next to our new ride, she’s lookin mighty fine.

 

The next day we headed to the Whakapapa Village where the Tongariro Crossing information hub is located. The day was spent waiting to find out whether or not the scheduled hike (1/2 of the Tongaririo Circuit) would be possible the next day due to bad weather. After a wonderful Grandma Sanden pancake dinner, we were off to a very very rainy nights sleep. The next morning we awoke to good news that the weather had passed and we had the approval to proceed with our hike. The first day took us through what is referred to as “the ditch”, a very wet track through an area that eerily resembled the dead marshes from LOTR. Quite fitting since once we made our way over the final rise, our hut was in view with the incredible Mt. Doom towering above. 

 

A nice bonus to hiking most of the multiple day hikes in New Zealand is the hut system. Basically, you pay a nightly rate for the use of the hut which includes a cooking area, bunk bedrooms with sleeping pads, water and heat. For those who don’t want to pack a tent in, this is a great alternative and also allows you the chance to meet other trampers along the way. Our first hut experience, Mangatepopo was great, a small group – 8 people including us (2 Aussies, 2 Brits, a Canadian and the American hut warden) – stayed that night and we enjoyed watching the top of Mt. Doom come in and out of visibility, taking photos of the incredible sunset, teaching the Canadian and American hut warden cribbage, playing hearts (which I – Shannon – despise), drinking vino that we didn’t have to pack in (thanks Kimball the American hut warden) and a wonderfully delicious freeze dried dinner. It was a great night. The next morning we headed off to tackle the crossing.

The crossing was very populated, for those of you who have been to Machu Pichu in Peru it was crowded like that but for a much longer distance. The hike was about 18 k’s, roughly 10 miles to the next hut. It started through a valley floor carved out of volcanic rock and dust. Then it switch backed up half way of Mt. Doom before following a ridge through a few peaks on either side. At the ridge you had the option to go up the shale and scree Mt. Doom and then come back down to the ridge. After the ridge it took you through two sunken craters (red and black) that look like a different planet. We reached the top of the second crater and then started to descend into some thermal pools called the Emerald pools which smelt strongly of sulfur. After the pools we journeyed up another ridge line and then looked out over the giant Lake Taupo and some more of the North Island peaks. We switch backed down hill for about a quarter of the Mountain and then found our next hut. This hut experience was not even close to the first nights and let’s just say you don’t want to sleep in the same area as 24 other people, chances are you will find someone who snores. We just so happened to sleep beneath 2 hammered Brits who put my Dad’s (Sanden) snoring to shame and couldn’t be waken. So 3 of us took our mats outside and slept on the porch, well tried to sleep, not the best of nights as you can imagine.

We woke up early from our nights sleep outside, had a quick breakfast and finished the trek down the mountain. Once we reached the road, we experienced another first in NZ…figuring out how to get from the car park back to Whakapapa village where we left the Adventureship a couple days prior (approx. 30K’s). Hitchhiking it was …it only took three passing cars and we had a taker. A nice welsh couple heading into the village to complete the crossing the following day. Thank you very much you wonderful people for picking up smelly hitchhikers.

We then decided to find our next place to sleep, one that had a bed and no flatmates. We found a perfect one at the head of Lake Taupo which was our beautiful backdrop during the final parts of our hike. This lake is a lot like Flathead in MT and is 238 sq miles with mountains surrounding it and many small lake side towns. The rest of the day was spent walking around the city, enjoying a much deserved pie and some delicious Belgian Quadruple, mmmmmmmmmmm is all I can say. We also treated ourselves to some very nice wine and a few movies form the backpackers lobby.

 

"It's like holding a baby"... John's description of his super huge sandwich


The next day we headed off to the surf capital of New Zealand, Raglan. People come from all over the world to surf these breakers and so would we, thanks Grabone (NZ’s Groupon) for the half off lesson. We stayed in this town the day before our surf lesson to do a little exercising and to check out the laid back atmosphere. As you can imagine a surfing town of that notoriety can only bring out some of the most laid back and easy-going attitudes and culture. The town was great and we embraced the chilled out surrounding very quick. Pictures from the surfing will have to wait for Surfer Steve to get done crunching some killer waves and email us the pictures. 

That’s it from us for now…stay tuned for the next entry, we’re currently in smelly Rotorua...the Vegas of NZ.

Cheers,

John and Shannon