taupo to whanganui to palmy to wellington

Last time I updated I was in Taupo and just got done with the Tongariro Crossing. After the crossing, I stayed 2 more nights in Taupo, watching people bungy jump, checking out Huka Falls and enjoying the natural hot springs at the river.

Huka Falls

After Taupo, I thought I'd head to Whanganui on the SW coast of the North Island. The drive there, I decided to take Whanganui River Rd, it looked decent on the map and stays right with the river the whole way down. It was a little different than what I expected though. It was about 60 miles of gravel and pot holes and extremely curvy roads along gorge clifs without a town even another person/car in sight the entire time. After a couple hours of winding through I finally came to the end where a road crew was working, they all gave me pretty odd looks as I drove through, I think they were a little surprised.

The Whanganui river is supposed to be one of the greatest river trips you can do in the world. I really wanted to do it but the guiding companies are expensive and need a couple days advance notice. I might do it on my way back up to Auckland. The town was pretty depressing too so I ended up staying in Palmerston North or as the locals call it, "Palmy".

Palmy has one of NZ's biggest universities, outside of that, it's a pretty standard city. Everybody was really nice and I met a couple locals the night I went out drinking. Jason grew up in Palmy, sells sneakers and runs the sound at a local bar that regularly has live bands. We watched a Rugby game together and he explained the rules. Within 30 seconds of kickoff a guy got knocked unconscious. The game didn't stop for a second as they hauled this guy off the field. These guys are huge too, I don't understand why U.S. doesn't recruit football players here. I want to go to a game before I leave NZ. I also met some recent grads of Massy, the university in Palmy.

After Palmy I went to Wellington, NZ's capital and the port to catch a ferry to the South Island. Wellington reminds me of a small version of Seattle without the endless, sprawling suburbs. Lots of people, very young demographic, tons of restaurants and bars and right on the water. My first night, Saturday, I stayed at a motor home lot right in downtown, figuring I could walk to/from the bars and see downtown pretty easily.

It worked out great, ended up meeting three guys working in the film industry in Wellington, two of which were working on the film, The Hobbit. Apparently, one guy is the understudy for the main character Bilbo. The other guy was from California, he left college to work on the film and figure out what he wanted to study in school. All of them were really nice guys and I ended up bar hopping with them all night.

The bar scene was insane. It was like Las Vegas meets Seattle. Tons and tons of people, endless streets of 2-3 story bars that don't close until 9am, the legal drinking age is 18 and prostitution is legal within brothels. A great deal of the bars were pretty trendy too, reminded me a lot of Capital Hill, Beltown, Fremont and Ballard in Seattle.

The next day, Sunday, I walked around downtown Wellington, visited the farmers market and the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. The highlight was the museum was the exhibit on NZ's most successful photographer Brian Brake. Here are a couple of his best pieces and other pictures I got from the day.

waterfront in downtown Wellington

outside Te Papa

After seeing downtown, I headed to Lyalll Bay, just outside Wellington. It's supposed to be one of the best surf spots in Wellington and is located right next to the airport. The surf was pretty good and the experience was something surreal. Surfing and having giant airline jets flying in and out not more than 200 yards from you. If they ever made an arcade surfing video game, this would be a spot.

Lyall Bay

airport runway along to the left

One of the local surfers at Lyall Bay told me I should camp that night at this place on the water just outside downtown. She called it Penguin's Crossing. I didn't see a single penguin though. It was a parking lot, no facilities but right on the water. There were about 8 campers there and I met a couple from Denmark and a couple from France. All very nice people and fun to talk to. After dinner and the great sunset right out the back of my van, see the pictures below, the weather got really nasty with sideways rain and 30-40 mph winds.

It's looking like I'll be catching a ferry to the South Island on Tuesday and from what I hear about the South, it should be amazing.

Also - quick note on WiFi in NZ. McDonalds has free, unlimited WiFi and you don't have to buy anything. So for those that were concerned about me getting skinnier than I already am on this trip, don't worry because I'm becoming a regular at the golden arches and even though the WiFi is free, who can resist a burger or some fries while checking your email.

mt. doom

After three nights and two days in Raglan, I packed up and headed inland to Taupo through Rotorua for some hiking.

I just drove through Rotorua but it seemed like a pretty ordinary town that prides itself on adventure activities like bungee jumping, some slingshot thing and my personal favorite - zorbing. I might have to come and try that. The only part I don't like from that video, is when they hose you down after you hop in. It looks like a scene from Shawshank Redemption or the Green Mile.

So I ended up in Taupo. Its a great town, same appeal as Rotorua but bigger and on a really big lake. They also have skydiving, a bunch of really great hikes and more water activities like fishing and jet boat rides.

The focus of stopping here though was the Tongariro Crossing. Its supposed to be one of the best day hikes in NZ. It covers a bunch of volcanic geography and amazing views. You can also do a sidetrek to Mt. Ngauruhoe, or better known as Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings (and yes, that is exactly what the mountain was like).

Anyway, its 18.5km without the trip up Mt. Doom, which I would guess was another 2km each way. I would guess its a 12 mile day with Mt. Doom included. I have no idea what the elevation gain was, but the top of Mt. Doom is just over 7,500 ft.

I took a shuttle from Taupo to the trail head at 5:30am and started hiking by 7:15am. The bus I was on was the first one there and by the time I reached the trail to cut off and try Mt. Doom, it was me and 3 other guys. Nobody had done the hike before. One of them was in jeans, another in swim shorts and the other it was his first hike ever. So we start going up this thing and its loose volcanic rock and sand and just miserable because it's at about a 45 degree angle up. It gets really steep and about half way up one of the guys above accidentally kicks a big rock loose and gave a shout to us below. It missed me by about 3 feet. Then we get to this rocky spine that's exposed to wind and it's howling at least 30mph, enough to the point where it throws you off your balance a bit on gusts. I started questioning if this was really a good idea to do with essentially by myself because I don't trust the judgement of these other 3 guys. I turnaround to see if anyone else is coming up and I don't see anyone. So I called it quits and turned around to head back. Within 15 mins, I started coming across a bunch of people headed up and I change my mind, because if these people can do it, so can I and when else am I going to do this?

Anyway, I made it, everything went great. It was a long day with perfect weather (70 and sunny) and with little breaks I was done by 3:45pm.

that's Mt. Doom on the horizon

this is when I quit going up Mt. Doom before changing my mind and going back up

top of Mt. Doom

volcano crater in Mt. Doom

view of the rest of the trail from the top of Mt. Doom

Red Crater  and the first time the pants went convertible (pants to shorts).

view on the way back down

I have no idea what I'm going to do next. I'll probably check out the surf reports around NZ, see if there's anything worth chasing down tomorrow and spend the rest of today resting. Week 1 in NZ is in the books. We'll see what week 2 brings me.

I hope this finds you doing well and in good spirits.

raglan - put it on your to do list

I'd heard amazing things about Raglan from friends that had been to NZ before and it was better than the hype. I've been here for 3 nights, 2 days and it's been phenomenal. It's a small surf town on NZ west coast and home to one of the island's most famous waves. There's a beach break and half a dozen point breaks. All the point breaks are rock bottom though. I gave it a shot, spent 45 mins getting my sinuses cleaned and decided to head for the beach break. Apparently the surf has been below average since I've been here but its still the best stuff I've seen in my life and the surfers are incredible. There are probably 200 surfers better than anyone I've ever seen in person in my life. Unbelievable. They're all pretty nice too which is surprising.

Anyway, more pictures...

Manu Bay

Manu Bay looking back into the beach

Manu Bay looking out toward the 1/2 dozen other point breaks. Insane.

neighbors at the camp site - Brigitte & Lisa from Germany. They're on week 3 of 4 driving around NZ.

sunset in Raglan

updates + pics

Apologies for not getting pics and an update out until now. Nonetheless, here's a quick run down on the trip so far.

I flew Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Vancouver, Canada then New Zealand Air from Vancouver to Auckland. My layover in Auckland was supposed to be about 1:15 but the flight out of Seattle was delayed and I ended up with only about 40 mins to clear Canadian transfer customs and catch my plane. I made it. My bag didn't. Nonetheless, New Zealand Air is the best airline I've ever flown. The food was pretty good, the leg room was great and the service was awesome.

My flight arrived in Auckland on Tuesday at 5:30am and my campervan picked me up at the airport. I checked out with them and cruised around the Auckland area until getting my bag Wednesday morning.

Wednesday I headed to Mt. Maunganui to meet up with a guy my Dad worked with at Weyerhauser, Tony, and his wife Robin. Tony's been surfing and wind-surfing NZ for 30+ years. They put me up for the night and showed me around Maunganui. Thursday afternoon I headed north and stayed in Whangamata. Friday I crossed the island and got to Raglan, a place I'd heard nothing but awesome reviews of. So that's where I'm at now. Raglan, NZ and ready for my first surf of the whole trip.

I've found a new favorite fruit. They're called feijoa. They grow here in NZ but also in Central & South America. I can't say I've ever seen them in the U.S., apparently they don't have much of a shelf life and don't travel well but they're amazing. If you ever get a chance to try one, do it.

So far in NZ it's been difficult to find and meet younger people but Raglan seems to be different. Some of you might not like the idea of this, but I picked up a hitch-hiker in Raglan today. Israel from Brazil. He was just looking for a ride to the beach down the street and had all his gear with him so I figured he couldn't do much harm. He's here working and surfing until his visa clears for him to go to Australia. Nice kid, I met up with him  and some of his friends later for a drink.

Here are some pics from the trip so far:

my plane to Vancouver - that has to be a good sign

wandering around Auckland waiting for my luggage, I went up One Tree Hill

everything I had that made it to Auckland with me on time.

sunrise of day 2 - Takapuna

home for the next two months. any suggestions for a name?

beach walk in Takapuna - reminded me of California beaches

sunrise of day 3 - Mt. Maunganui

just after sunrise on top of Mt. Maunganui

Tony & Robin

Tony & Robin's home in Mt. Maunganui

i drove through avocado country. you can get a bag of fresh picked avocados for $2 NZ on the side of road, honesty policy. I've been eating them like oranges, straight off the peel, since I drove through.

typical breakfast - oatmeal, pb&j, tea and fresh fruit

surf gear for the trip

hiking Karagahake Gorge

swimming hole at the end of the hike

That's all for now. I'm probably going to spend the next couple days in Raglan surfing, spending time with some of the people I've met recently and finally settling into this country/culture/trip.

waiting at the gate

It's here. It's finally here and it feels completely fake.

Anyway, a couple quick updates on the trip so far:

1. My flight to Auckland, New Zealand is through Vancouver, Canada. So for those of you playing travel bingo at home, go ahead and check Canada off the list. I'm excited, I hear good things about Canada and the people. I'm preparing for a real culture shock for the 75 mins I'll be spending in their airport.

2. The plane to Vancouver is Alaska/Horizon Airlines, WSU Cougar plane. That's got to be some kind of sign.

3. I'll be spending at least a month in Kenya at Flying Kites with my buddy Brian Jones. If you want to know a little about Flying Kites and what they're up to, check out this video: http://vimeo.com/20208190