The day we drove in, Cecil had had to work and was on call until the AM so we got to check in at about 1pm. We stayed in Chantilly's motor lodge which was nice. They have a lot of these motor lodges which are well equipped with a microwave, kitchenette and silverware/plates. We had packed a cooler with soda, jelly, bread and Peanut butter so we threw that stuff into the fridge and went to Orakei Korako a Geothermal park about 30 minutes north of the city. It supposedly the same as thousands of years ago. They shuttle you across a lake and ten there is a nice walkway highlighting the different geysers and sights. It smelled of sulfur and was HOT, like the ground was hot!! It was like underfloor heating!
(Visitor Center)
(Boat across lake)
(Pretty :-))
(I was soo hot and overdressed lol)
(Remember our discussion of how there are attractions that would never be in the US? Look how close cec is to that spring!!!)
After that, we drove back to Taupo and make two quick tour stops. The first was at the lakeside pull of on the road. We threw pumice stones into the lake and watched them float. Childish but fun lol. Then, we went to Huka Falls. Its basically a waterfall made from the lake so its that crazy pretty blue. Not as impressive as Niagara but still a sight. Just the pure speed and color.
(Lakeside stop)
(See the COLOR of huka falls)
(We wish the person would have done a better job of getting the falls but another nice pic of us)
For Dinner we decided to stop at the grocery store called New World and got some canned soup and bread for dinner as we had a very early morning ahead of us. We were heading out at 4AM to the Tongariro alpine crossing. We had booked a 6:15 AM shuttle from the end of the crossing to the beginning. This was a day, let me tell you. Cecil and I also had different experiences lol. The crossing is 19.4 km (12.1 miles). It is described as "NZ #1 day hike", I disagree it was light mountain climbing. The walk starts with an hour of slight uphill walking with basically scrub brush around. Not bad at all. Then you stop at some toilets (port-a-johns) where a small waterfall is. This is where a warning sign is placed. Basically, it warns you that you need gear and this is hard. They are not joking. Then you have what they think should take an hour of stairs. This is called the DEVILS STAIRCASE. They were not lying, awful painful stairs for about 2 miles. According to the guide they said it should take an hour, it took me like 2. I did really well at the beginning but about half way up I started to have trouble breathing. Both Cec and I thought it was because the air had thinned. You figure your like 5,000+ feet up at this point. I had to stop a LOT, luckily we had all day so we didn't rush. Now, at this point we were at Red Crater. I had read up on this and I KNEW the staircase would suck and thought the rest wouldn't be to bad, just distance, and I was WRONG. After a nice (finally) flat walk through the crater we ascended even more. This part was somehow harder because it wasn't a nice set of stairs. There were chains and wires on rock ledges to keep you from falling off the rocky, slippery ground. By slippery I mean the footing would shift and move under your feet and/or the rocky terrain made you tread carefully. After that, "fun" ascent we could see the emerald lakes. Those are nice, don't get me wrong. However, it was overshadowed by the fact that we now had to go down. You may be thinking "I thought you were tired of going up Karen?", I WAS but going down was the scariest part. I was seriously scared of seriously hurting myself. You basically go down this 45 degree narrow path that is sandy and rocky. People are falling all over the place because the ground shifted everywhere. Oh, and if you fall of the edge you would really hurt yourself. I was TERRIFIED of falling on my head and needing to go get a CT to make sure I didn't get a brain bleed. It took forever (seemed to probably was a half hour) to get down this thing. At the bottom you needed to shake the sand and dirt from your shoes. After that, it wasn't to bad but you still had 2/3 of the hike left to do! We walked past some lakes which was nice, then got to the snaking side of the mountain. You could see hot springs and more scrub. There was a stop with toilets (finally!) as there isn't anywhere to hide everything is barren I was so happy to pee! They also had seats that you could rest on vs. the ground. We relaxed for like 20 minutes, then spent the next 2-3 ish hours going downhill. It started as snaking the mountain then went into just forest. The forest was what I thought was the nicest part, but at this point your at mile like 10 and just want to be done. have never been that happy to see a car park, We deiced to stop at the grocery store, get more soup, bread, cookies and booze then went back to the motor lodge and ate, drank, and fell asleep at 7pm. Seriously, we were both tired. Poor cec did this thing with our pack as I knew I would struggle so he carried our water/clothes/food,/gloves etc. Yea, you needed those extra clothes, it was cold up top! It took us somewhere between 9-10 hours. The time suggested is about 7. Most of that was me struggling to get up those inclines were the air was thin. We also stopped to take a lot of pictures. We had done the shuttle so we didn't have a bus to catch and didn't want to rush.
(cecil on the bud before the walk. It was EARLY)
(Here we go!!)
(We are going the distance!!)
(Did I mention that we were hiking by Mount Doom???)
(Here is the warning sign)
(Cec in the first part of the Devil's Staircase)
(see where cec is pointing? That is the start of the staircase where the toilets are)
(Me on one of my numerous breaks up the stairs)
(I was SOOO happy to be up the stairs)
(But great views of mount doom!)
(And the barren landscape)
(Red crater flat)
(Me at the top of red crater)
(Cecil going up the next incline, notice the wire to keep from literally falling down the mountain)
(And going down the most terrifying hill ever)
(Cec at the bottom of the terrifying hill. Notice the guys in front of him emptying thier shows of dirt/sand/rocks)
(All of these are at emerald lake)
(Finally going down. See the road? Its the little white line on the middle left of the picture)
(This is the snaking path we went down for hours, cec still has a smile )
The next day, we were both stiff but ok. A little Tylenol and we were both good. My only real would was a giant blister on the side of my foot. Seriously, the side. I think it was from my shoe rubbing when we were going down the hills at the end. Anyway, we did a morning cruise to see these Maori carving son the lake. It was so nice to just sit, sip tea eat muffins and look at the beauty. The carvings were nice too. They even had trained ducks to fly next to the boat and eat bread, it was cute!! After that we stopped at two tourist traps both of which I enjoyed.
(Here is our ship!!)
(See the carvings behind us?)
First, a honey hive where you could see the insides of some of the hives
and try and sample hundreds of honey products. We found out we like
mead a lot..... Anyway, then we went to the prawn park. This place uses
geothermal wastewater from the power plant to farm Malaysian prawns.
They have a little tour that shows you how they farm them, lets you feed
baby prawns, then fish for as many as you can catch. They give you a
bamboo rod, ox heart and say have at it. The prawns grab the heart,
carry it around then eat it. They are quite large too! The cafe on
site also cooks them for free. Cec and I fished for about an hour and
both caught one! It was unbelievably exciting. They also had lots of
family-friendly activities and a foot spa. I wish we had had more time
but we had a 3 hour drive back and cec worked the next day.
(Yes, we are those people. We enjoyed the honey hive!!)
(Wonderful tourist trap lol)
(cec feeding the baby prawns. It was a weird sensation, they would pinch you with their claws. See them on his hand? Look for the black eyes and white/clear bodies)
(We both caught one!!!)
Oh, and Happy Holidays everyone!!!
