We rolled into Taupo at about 4:00 in the afternoon and checked into the hostel. We were told that night that all the activities planned for that night and for the next day would be cancelled due to the weather. I was still holding out hope for the 7:00am skydive I had signed up for, but that didn’t stop be from going out with a few girls from our bus and enjoying a very silly, very random evening out.
Dutifully, the next morning, I dragged my exhausted, slightly hungover self out of bed at 6:30 am with full intentions of doing the skydive despite the protests of my body. It was cancelled due to dodgy weather, so I crawled back into bed. Probably for the best given the state of my head (it really was pounding). Needless to say, I was very disappointed to have to leave Taupo without being able to do either a skydive of the legendary Tongariro Crossing walk though the mountains. The weather was just miserable, and I didn’t have enough days in the timeline of my trip to buy any more time there hoping for the weather to clear. We left the city bright and early that morning to head down further south to the beautiful River Valley- home to one of the few class 5 white water rapids in the country. But first we were to stop for a walk in Tongariro National Park (hey, at least I’d get to see the mountain I was supposed to be climbing). About 30 min into our trip, the sky cleared up and was a perfect dome of deep blue. Figures. Well, I couldn’t be too mad, the big walk was already cancelled for that day so c’est la vie, at least we could do the little one. And the perfect blue skies made for excellent viewing of the huge volcano (Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings). The landscape on that volcano is wild. It really looks like a lunar surface. I couldn’t get a good shot when we were closer to it, but here’s what it looked like when we were able to stop for some pictures:
Onward to River Valley. I was psyched to do some white water rafting, I mean after all the rain we had, the river was bound to be raging. At least the rain would work to our advantage this time! We got into the river valley in late afternoon and stayed in a cute/rustic lodge in the bottom of the valley. The place was spectacular…even in the mist and rain you could still tell how amazing it was. Then we heard some news that was almost too fabulous for words. Seemed all the rain we’d had hit everywhere BUT river valley. So the much-hyped river was very low and was a class 3 instead of a class 5. Wow, what luck. After much vacillation between rafting and horseback riding, I decided to go ahead with the rafting, because even though we had to take out small rafts instead of the big ones, they told us it was just as much fun. Liars. I think we spent 80% of the time waiting for all the little boats to come down each set of rapids, and 19% of the time actually rafting. I spent 1% of the time getting flipped over onto some rocks and getting swept down the river (which I have to say was the most exciting part of the day). Actually, that’s not quite true, they did guide us down a pretty fun waterfall where the boats went totally vertical. Sadly, I ended up not buying the pictures even though they were hilarious because they mail them to you in 2-3 weeks instead of just giving them to you right there. I have no idea where I’ll be in 2-3 weeks!
After River Valley, we headed down to Wellington, the capital of NZ. But first, for some strange reason, we stopped at a shearing shed where old ladies shear rabbits to make their angora scarves and sweaters and the like. We got to watch a rabbit being sheared, which was rather disturbing, but I'm including this photo because the sheer (ha) size of this rabbit is simply mind-boggling.
After staring at huge white rabbits for a good 20 min, we got back on the bus and made our way down south. Wellington is really cool, but I was only able to spend one night there due to my frenetic pace. I went out in Wellington, and even though it was a rather quiet night, I didn’t sleep at all due to anxiety about the following morning’s ferry crossing. On the bus the night before, the driver had told us about 15 times that although our names were on the list for the ferry crossing form the north to the south island, we had to pay for the tickets the night before by 7:30. I went to pay for mine, then got sidetracked and totally forgot about it until about 10:00 that night. I can only blame my complete absentmindness on the fact that I can’t hold a thought right now for more than about 5 seconds before it evaporates into thin air. I have the attention span of a 1-week old puppy. I’m hoping this is just a temporary condition due to too much stimulation and too little processing time.
Anyway, I got the ferry tickets without incident the following morning; all my stressing out was for naught. I spent the entire 3-hour ferry ride asleep in a lovely recliner. I heard there were some nice views outside though. We made it into Nelson, the first city in our south island adventure, at around noon. From there is was madness trying to sort everyone onto busses, but we all got seats and sat in them all the way to a little winery where we stopped for lunch. We then went swimming in a freezing swimming hole, and considering there was no AC n the bus that day, the icy water felt like heaven.
We checked into our hostel in the afternoon and some of us took a sunset walk to the “Center of NZ” which is, actually, the exact center point of NZ. It’s a lovely little spot on a hill overlooking the mountains, and we started taking some silly photos to commemorate the occasion. Now, in all fairness, when I got the idea to do a handstand, it was not meant to be this, uh, well…
Sorry if I offended any delicate sensibilities! (Not that I expect my readers to have any of those...)
This morning was a 7 am pickup for either a coastal walk in Abel Tasmin National Park, or a kayak trip for double the price. I so wanted to do the kayaking, but I really had to draw the line with my money so I opted for the 4 hour walk instead. Abel Tasmin is a gorgeous set islands and is one of the country’s most popular parks. The rainforest and shorelines are so pristinely beautiful, I was shocked that the colors I was seeing in the water actually existed in nature. The sand is very gold in color and creates emerald and turquoise lagoons that make the Caribbean look like a joke. I know the kayaking would have been spectacular, but the walk was not half bad, and at the end, I got to swim here:
So I’m now sitting in a hostel with no working internet and am nodding off after every other sentence I write. All the little kids (my fellow bus-mates) are outside drinking and laughing and I’m too tired to move. I did want to go out tonight and check out this cute town, but I’m beginning to think better of it. It would be lovely to get more than 5 hours of sleep tonight… Dare to dream.
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