Erik took that Friday (July 6) off work and we slept in a little longer than we had planned. Sleep is a wonderful thing. At about noon-ish, we wandered down the street to the rental car place, picked up our lovely vehicle and hit the road. One thing that turned out to be a little shortsighted on our part was that we only burned one CD of music. I think by the time we got home 2 days later, we must have listened to that CD about 15 times. Good songs, just too repetitive.
We hit the road with no real plan. We knew we wanted to head towards Tongariro National Park (the place that they used to film Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movies) and we were hoping to head all the way to Rotorua where there are some great hot springs. But we were just happy to hit the road, see the sights and go where the journey took us. It was almost like a scene out of a Jack Kerouac book or something, but much more pretty. We started heading up the coast until we got to Palmerston North. We stopped for lunch there at an Irish Pub that took so long to get our food, I thought they might be hand making the sausage in the back. It did leave some time for me to remember that I am no good at darts at all and Erik is.
The countryside was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It was like the mountains in Colorado, but much much more lush and green. The grassland in Colorado is much more brown, but in New Zealand, the entire landscape is pure green. It is not however the bright emerald green that is normally associated with Ireland and I believe that is due to the brightness of the sun in that part of the world. Due to the big hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, there is much less of a filter of the sun. It really seems to make colors appear to wash out, like if you took pictures and slightly overexposed the film. Colors don't appear majorly vibrant, but it really didn't matter. Everything was gorgeous. I believe that the sheep outnumber the humans 10-1 in New Zealand and from what we saw as we drove, I wouldn't doubt that statistic in the slightest.
Another thing we came across were a number of cows. At one point, Erik and I had stopped to take pictures and these four cows followed me as I jogged to the other side of a hill to get a better shot of the valley below. They then followed me back to the car. I think they wanted me to take a picture of them, so I did.
Something else we learned is that when you see a sign saying "scenic overlook ahead" you go check it out. We got to Stormy Point just as dusk was beginning to settle in. Those images are some that were burned into my memory forever. Words really can't describe how amazing the scenery was there.
As the sun went down, I took my turn behind the wheel. It was my first experience driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car. Add to that the complete lack of any lights on the side of the road and couple it with the blizzard-like conditions that swept in over the mountains and it made for an interesting drive. One thing that I commented on was the fact that I had absolutely no idea what was on the sides of the road. For all I knew it could have been a sheer cliff on each side and I would have had no idea. I knew that we were driving through the mountains and the road was "The Desert Road" so I had some guesses on what it might have looked like. We were in Tongariro National Park, so I imagined Mordor and I figured that was probably close enough. Finally, I could tell that we were alongside Lake Taupo because I could begin to see the reflection of the city of Taupo begin to reflect off the lake.
We got to Taupo and checked into a neat little hostel. Nothing special, but it was pretty cool. I think the highlight of Taupo was meeting John the Fisherman. Erik and I went to find some food and a drink and we went to one of the local establishments. Out in front was this grizzled guy who we got to talking to. He was clearly a regular at the bar as it looked like he had a standing tab and he knew all the bartenders. We had a great conversation about fishing. He said he used to lead fishing expeditions out on the lake and the rivers around it. Apparently Lake Taupo is one of the greatest places to fish for trout in the world. This guy was so much fun and really took a liking to us. When, while we were ordering dinner, Erik made a comment that everything was better with bacon, John asked the bartender to put bacon on our steaks and to charge the bacon to him. We had a great time chatting with him.
The next day was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. It was a little brisk, but the air tasted pure and clean. We spent the morning at Huka Falls, which are the largest falls on the Waikato River, one of the longest rivers on the North Island. Just a beautiful area with the water rushing by. It was very serene.
Another serene location was the Craters of the Moon park which was just just up the road from Huka Falls. I'm just going to let some of these pictures speak for themselves.
I'm glad to see that Erik and Ann Marie went back to Mt. Ruapehu when the weather was better. When Erik and I went, thick clouds were covering the top of the mountain and it had snowed something like 12-15 inches the night before.
The skiers were loving it, but it didn't make for good picture taking. Instead, we got some great shots of us climbing through the rocky desert towards "Mt. Doom" in the distance like a scene out of Lord of the Rings. 
The views from the mountains were amazing. I was struck with how different the climate was in such short distances. One moment, you are in rolling green meadows covered in sheep, the next, desert mountains. It was simply amazing.Thanks go out to Erik for letting me post to his blog and double thanks for his magnificent hospitality while I was out there. So for now, Be Excellent to each other, and Party On Dudes!
No comments:
Post a Comment