Tongariro Crossing Part 2: Bring on the Beauty

These are the rest of the pictures from the Tongariro Crossing (see Part 1 for an explanation of what/where it is). Some of the pictures are from my camera, and some from Patty's camera, which she's generously shared with me.

After hiking through the Mangatepopo Valley and over the top of a ridge, we arrived in the South Crater, which looked very much like a desert, and was beautiful and quiet. The sun had come all the way out by now, increasing the desert-like atmosphere, although it was still rather chilly, especially when the wind picked up.

We climbed up to another ridge, and could see another crater on the other side.

And... drum roll, please... amazing views of Mount Ngauruhoe! Beautiful!

Kirsten maintains that it is much prettier in winter with snow on it, but I think it's plenty impressive anyway.

Note: Mount Ngauruhoe (and other bits around Tongariro National Park) is where they filmed the Mount Doom/Mordor parts of Lord of the Rings.

Ngauruhoe and I are friends now. 

You can choose, while on the Crossing, to take a side trip to climb Ngauruhoe. It adds 2.5 hours to the 6 hour, 19.4km (12mi) hike, because it's very steep and gravely. Apparently, you slide down almost as far as you step up every time, and it takes about 2 hours to get up and only half an hour to get down. Kirsten and I are determined to climb it sometime soon, but decided against attempting it on our first try.

Hiking on up the rocky ridge, we reached the Red Crater, so named for the impressively red colour of the oxidized iron in the volcanic rock. Also notice the hollow lava tube with the white walls, which was created when molten magma drained out from below and the outside solidified.

A nice man offered to take a picture of the three of us at the highest point on the Crossing, announcing that we'd worked very hard to get there, and needed a picture to celebrate.

Note: I am standing all the way up on tip-toe, while Patty and Kirsten are slouching, and I'm still not as tall as them. I need shorter friends.

Also from the top of this ridge, you get your first view of the Blue Lake! And below, the big black thing is a huge lava flow, resting where it finally got cool enough to harden.

Speaking of lava and eruptions, which is appropriate when hiking all over volcanos... yes, these volcanos are still active. There was an eruption in 2012, but there has been little activity since. There are warning lights every so often along the trail, and if they turn red, you have to go back down the mountain. In fact, they suggest that you run. They did not turn red while we were there.

On the way down the ridge are the Emerald Lakes. They are so amazingly sparkly and beautiful because of the sulfur and other minerals coming out of this geothermally active area. You can also see a steam vent on the righthand side, which was a bit stinky, but how could you mind in such a beautiful place?

The Māori name for this lakes is Ngarotopounamu, which means greenstone (jade) coloured lakes.

Patty loved looking out over them.

We climbed down the rest of the way off the ridge, and set off through another desert-like crater. Excited from all the lovely things we'd seen, we were chatting away, telling stories, and after a while I spun around in the midst of an exciting part of my story, and saw that we should have been looking backwards the whole time!

Check out this amazing view!

In front to the right is the Red Crater (the highest peak to the right is where we stood to take many of the above pictures). Behind that is Ngauruhoe, and behind that, looking tiny only because of distance, is snow-capped Mount Ruapehu. Wow! We were all delighted, but none more than Kirsten, who had finally gotten a view of her favourite mountain.

Zoomed in view of Ngauruhoe and the Red Crater - thanks to Patty for the amazing photo. Her camera captures amazing detail and colour, and she took this shot perfectly!

Soon after we turned away from these views and kept walking, a nine- or ten-year-old kid passed us by and said, "Did you turn around and see Ruapehu?" Nice to know that someone knew what was going on and was looking out for us.

A bit further, and we got to the Blue Lake. It is full of minerals as well, and quite acidic. Like the Emerald Lakes, it is tapu (sacred/off limits) to the Māori, so you are not allowed to touch it or eat near it. None of us could get a picture of it that communicated how huge and beautiful it was, so you'll have to use your imagination.

A little further along the ridge, and then we got to this grass-land area, and to a slowly downward sloping series of intense switchbacks, eventually ending up at this little hut. Although this part of the hike was beautiful, and the gradual incline pleasant, I needed very badly to use the bathrooms at the hut, and was therefore a bit frustrated when the path lead us directly away from it as often as it lead us closer to it. We did make it, eventually, much to my body's satisfaction.

The view in the other direction from the above picture included this huge jet of mineral steam, which was pretty amazing. The wind direction was such that we did not smell it, for which I am thankful.

This area is called the Te Maari craters, and it is the location of the 2012 eruption. There is a sign when you enter it that warns of the high geothermic activity, and encourages you to keep your stops to a minimum and be prepared to leave quickly.

Further down the trail, we came across this stream, which originates at the Ketetahi Springs. Its beautiful blue colour comes, like that of the lakes, from the minerals and the acidity.

I love the combination of the intensely blue water and the surprisingly red rocks.

The last hour or so of the hike is through NZ native bush, and was lovely. It had gotten rather hot throughout the afternoon, so some shade was quite welcome, and the woods were beautiful.

At the end of the hike, which took us about 8 hours total, we were all tired, but happy. None of us were hurt or pathologically exhausted, and we all felt okay. Thanks to biking to work, my legs are pretty strong, so I was less tired than I thought I would be, although I did get a weird pinch in my Achilles tendon that worried me a bit. It went away even before we finished walking, which was good.

We got the shuttle back to our camping hut, then I drove us back to Whanganui from the mountain while Kirsten and Patty rested and sometimes slept. Then we had a relaxing dinner and rested our bodies. I did a lot of stretching that evening, and was barely sore at all the next day, which was awesome! Patty and Kirsten were sore, but neither one as badly as they thought they'd be, so I'd say we all fared well.

If you'd like more information about the mountains or the Crossing, try one of these websites:

http://www.tongarirocrossing.org.nz/

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/central-north-island/ruapehu/tongariro-alpine-crossing/features/

Thus concludes my stories and pictures for this time, with one notable exception...

For those who share Kirsten's unique taste, I have improved my picture of Mount Ngauruhoe so that you can fully appreciate it.

Tongariro Crossing Part 1: Bunk Beds/Beginnings

The Tongariro Crossing is a 19.4km (12mile) hike across Mount Tongariro, past Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu (all of which are volcanos). It includes hikes through craters, over mountain ridges, and through native bush, as well as views of the Red Crater, the Emerald Lakes, and the Blue Lake. It is rated the number one attraction in New Zealand, and has been rated the number one day hike in the world. It is conveniently located just two hours from Whanganui.

Needless to say, I wasn't in NZ long before I decided that I needed to do this hike. Many people told me how beautiful it was, and that although it is a lot of work (19.4km up and down a mountain is nothing to scoff at), it is completely worth it. I therefore planned to do it when Dad was here, with my friends Lionel and Anna. Unfortunately, there was a huge tropical storm on the day we were going to do it, so we had to cancel. 

Now, with Patty here, and Kirsten eager to come, I tried again, with much better results. Patty and I drove over to Whanganui on Thursday, picked up Kirsten, and we drove to the mountains. 

When we got close, we saw this view, at which point I pulled the car over and Patty and I jumped out of the car to take pictures. Kirsten, surprised by this reaction, said, "It's only Ngauruhoe!" After much incredulity and mockery on my part for such an unenthusiastic response to what is, in fact, a beautiful mountain, Kirsten admitted that she does like Ngauruhoe, but she's just grown up with it so it's not as exciting, and besides, she likes Ruapehu better. 

(Ngauruhoe is the conical mountain to the right, which Tongariro is the flatter one to the left. Ruapehu is the biggest one, and the only one that currently has snow on it, but it was hidden behind the clouds at this particular moment, so Kirsten was out of luck.)

Also, notice the menacingly dark clouds at the top of the picture, which were awesome-looking but a bit worrying. They must have been blowing away, though, because it turned into a fairly clear night.

We stayed in this tiny little cabin the night before the hike. And when I say tiny, please notice that it is actually about the same size as that harakeke (flax) plant next to it. But it had exactly what we needed, which was a comfortable place to sleep before our big day, and a shared kitchen down the road for a healthy breakfast before we set out.

We walk into our little cabin and Kirsten yells, "YAY! BUNK BEDS!" As she is climbing up and sprawling on the top bunk, I am in the midst of both deep indignation and hysterical laughter that while the volcano down the road inspires a placid shrug, the bunk beds produce exclamations of delight. Kirsten graciously surrendered to the understanding that she is never going to live this down.

After enjoying a rest in the bunk beds, we headed to the Chateau Tongariro for a lovely dinner at the Pihanga Cafe. I was particularly excited about that, because Pihanga is the beautiful girl mountain that all the boy mountains want to marry in the Māori legend, so I felt very special to be eating in her cafe.

Before we ate, we wandered around the Chateau a bit, and I loved this pretty window with a view up towards the mountains!

There was a guy playing this beautiful piano, and Kirsten went to tell him how amazing his playing was, and he offered to let her play it! She is a fabulous pianist, and it was so cool to hear her play in such a fancy place!

We went to bed fairly early, because we needed to get up at 4:15am to have a healthy breakfast and be suitably awake before catching the shuttle to the hike at 5:30am. Discovery Lodge drops you off really early (or there are later options) so that you can take your time and enjoy the whole day of hiking, before taking the shuttle back. This is a particularly helpful service, because you end up 19.4km away from where you started, so you'd have to take two cars all the way up into National Park in order to do it yourself without the shuttle. 

When we started our hike at 5:55am, it was still pretty dark, but it lightened up quite quickly. It was overcast, but the shuttle driver said that it usually starts out that way, and then the clouds burn off later, so we weren't too worried. Plus, the misty clouds gave the first part of our walk great atmosphere!

Sometimes the trail through Mangatepopo Valley was a walkway like the first picture, and sometimes it was more natural, like the stone steps in this picture.

This is Ngauruhoe behind the clouds. The one strip of clouds across the middle looked the same colour as the sky behind the mountain, and sometimes it really looked like there was a strip missing from the middle of the mountain!

Kirsten and I towards the top of the first long and rather difficult uphill trek. Yay, us! (Patty took the picture, but don't worry, she made it to the top, too).

As the sun started to burst through the clouds, we got to see these stunning splashes of golden sunlight across the Mangatepopo Valley, which we'd just hiked through.

I will end this post here for now, as there is much too much to the Tongariro Crossing to be crammed into one post. At this point we'd done about 2 hours of what turned out to be 8 hours of hiking, so there is still lots more to come.

Hamilton Gardens with Patty

On Wednesday, Patty arrived for a visit! Yay!

She flew into Auckland Airport, so I drove up to meet her. Unfortunately, her flight from Fiji was delayed by over four hours, so I spent a lot of the day in a cafe near the airport reading my book. Ordinarily, I like spending four or five hours reading my book, but I do not like waiting, and was eager to actually get to see Patty, so it wasn't as pleasant as it could otherwise have been. Anyway, I finally picked her up, and we had great conversations throughout the drive to Hamilton, checking into our beautiful, classic hotel, and having a lovely dinner at a little Indian restaurant downtown.

The next day, we went to the Hamilton Gardens, because Patty had seen my pictures and decided that she definitely wanted to go there. It worked out well, because Hamilton is only 1.5 hours from Auckland Airport (as compared to our house, which is five hours away), and is kind of on the way home, so all the travel coincided helpfully.

Patty has a fancy new camera that Mom gave her for Christmas, and so was really enjoying taking pictures of the multitudes of stunning flowers throughout the gardens. This had not been my focus when I went with J, but I quite enjoyed taking some flowery pictures with her this time.

These are in the Indian Char Bagh section. That whole area is comprised of delightful splashes of colour.

I had forgotten, until we stumbled upon these, that I used to really like Tiger Lilies! And no wonder.

I realize that these are not flowers, but I love the dark, shiny leaves!

We discovered this rather fascinatingly mutated flower, the middle of which had grown so oblong that it started curving around the top of the stem, making it seem as though it was growing a flower out of both sides. We loved it!

When this flower mutated, it transformed into a happy hybrid between flower, bumblebee, and butterfly!

The rose gardens had not been impressive last time we were there, but they were stunning this time. I love this rose, the colouring of which makes it look like it has been acid washed or something. (I don't find acid wash a particularly nice look in jeans, but it quite suits this flower!)

Yellow roses are my favourite, and I particularly liked this set of four, because it shows a closed bud, a just barely opening bud, a full flower, and a slightly overblown flower - a whole yellow rose cycle in one cluster!

I am, recently, liking deep colours in plants, which I think is a new thing for me.

Here ends the flower section, and here begins the "other cool stuff in the gardens" section.

These are in the Māori Parapara part of the gardens, and I must not have noticed them last time, because I think that they are interesting and quite beautiful.

This is part of the wonderfully huge zen sand garden in the Japanese section. I saw them last time, and was not particularly impressed, but this time I was drawn to the island of moss in the sand, with its own islands of rock within it.

In the Chinese garden, I delighted to discover that this little island over the bridge (not really an island, but it feels like one) is called The Island of Whispering Birds.

Last time we were hear, the American Modernist Garden wasn't open yet, but this time it was. It is based on California-style modernist fancy houses, as far as I can figure out. I'm not sure how many massive succulents are in that particular part of the world, but they were really cool here!

I loved this pool, with the strange, white sculpture in it. This is probably a bad reflection on my sophistication, but it looks like Pokemon to me.

 We met my friend Jenny for morning tea at the nice little cafe in the gardens, and then went to a fabulous sushi place for lunch, before heading back to New Plymouth. I was very proud to show Patty the beautiful countryside between Hamilton and New Plymouth, and she was suitably impressed and appreciative, so that was lovely.

We have had a great start to her visit, and I anticipate lots more fun and excellent stories to share, so stay tuned.

Christmas Tree Number Three

At long last, on January 6th, I am posting my final Christmas post. Technically, since it's Epiphany today, it is still the Christmas season until midnight, so I'm still within a relatively sane level of belatedness.

Every year, Jonny has a Christmas tree decorating party, and invites everyone over to put up decorations, eat yummy food, and spend some time together before Christmas. Really, this should have been my first Christmas post, since it was at the beginning of December, but I somehow thought that I'd already written it, so it got a bit lost.

So... the table is beautifully presented with red and gold ornaments for the tree...

... and the tree is being assembled as we arrive. As we rather laboriously untwist the branches, Jonny admits that although the party is a fun time, the hidden message is that it is genuinely time-consuming to set up the tree, and he appreciates the help. We were glad to oblige!

As Jonny's dad Ernie starts to string the lights, and I'm untwisting branches near the top, somethings slips near the bottom of the tree and the whole thing starts to topple over. Luckily, I was in a perfect position to catch it, so it didn't fall too far. Less luckily, that meant I was in the natural position to become the tree-holder for the next 15-20 minutes as the rest of the party worked together to figure out how to get the tree to stay up (and to procure me champagne and candy canes). Not such a bad job for me, really.

In the end, the tree was stabilized, and we decorated it and chatted away.

Anna, Ernie, and Marie (Jonny's mom) were the only other guests who had arrived by this time, and since they were the other people coming who we have really gotten to know it, was lovely for it to just be the six of us for a while. So pleasant and relaxing. 

Tah dah! Sorry it's a bit blurry, but this is the only picture I got of the fully decorated tree. It is lovely, though.

I find it rather pleasantly ironic that I have no interest in the effort and inconvenience of having a Christmas tree in my house, and yet I have so enjoyed decorating no less than three Christmas trees this holiday season! 

Jonny, Ernie, and Marie invited us to spend Christmas day with their family again this year, which we did. It was a beautiful, sunny day of amazing food, great company, and fun games - a perfect way to spend Christmas. 

I forgot to take any pictures during the day, but I did take this one when we got home, since Mom requested a family Christmas picture.