Tongariro Crossing!

New Year’s Day 2010 ~ the beginning of a new decade!!

We woke up to a perfectly blue sky with the sun shining in! Just beautiful outside and exactly the kind of weather we needed for our hike. It’s not too hot outside as there’s always a breeze blowing and just right for hiking and whitewater rafting. We shuttled the kids over to Turangi about a 40 minute drive and then drove ourselves back to the car park at Mangatepopo car park. We started our hike at 1:00pm and finished at 6:00pm. The first section up to Soda Springs is fairly flat and easy and then the climbing begins. 800m up a well marked trail that has a good path up through the volcanic rock. You reach South Crater where the trail flattens out to give you just enough of a rest before the last hump up to the Red Crater where you get to the high point and look over to Emerald Lake and Blue Lake, a small lake that has some steam coming out from the side of it. Emerald Lake is a perfectly round crater lake with turquoise water, very pristine looking amongst all the black rock. The wind was blowing quite strong up here, we heard later probably gusting around 60kmh so we didn’t hang around that long. We turned and retraced our steps back to the car. This section of the track is the more interesting of the crossing itself and since we didn’t want to do the shuttle ($30NZD) because we have a car we walked back. Still we covered the same distance as the total crossing, 18km. Never a cloud was found in the sky on this day which was not the case any other the other days we were there.

We went back to Turangi to meet the kids coming in from rafting and then headed back to our hostel. Dinner and bed was pretty much our evening and packing as we leave the following morning for Waihi Beach where the Doleman’s are enjoying some major beach time!

New Zealand Part 2
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January 2, 2010

Stopped in at the Station Café for our last latte and then headed out for a 4 hour drive to our friend’s, Steve and Christine Doleman. We drove through Taupo, a very popular sport destination area and then onto Rotorua, but we didn’t stop here. Got a quick whiff of the sulpher springs that grace the area and made our way onto Tauranga, the largest town before Waihi beach.

We pulled into Steve and Christine’s around 4pm with the sun blazing hot out and a completely different summer atmosphere compared with everywhere else we’ve been. We took a walk down to the beach and up and around a point over to another bay with a beautiful beach. The beach here is gorgeous! It goes for kms of white sand, not many people and nice water to swim in. I felt like we’d just hit summer paradise! We had a delicious dinner sitting out on their deck with champagne and of course Spaights brews. A great evening under the stars!

January 3, 2010
Our final full day in this amazing country. We decided to spend more time hanging out around this area rather than drive into Auckland and try to see a bit of the city. The morning was clear and warm out. I took an early morning walk down to the beachside café for a cappuccino and a walk on the beach. There was no one around except all the dog owners taking their dog for a run, walk, or stick fetching and swim. A perfect place for dogs!

Today was the Provincial 7’s Rugby Festival in nearby Mt. Maunganui. Tickets were 5 bucks each to get into the park and watch the best 7’s players from all over NZ play before heading to the Nationals. The day got hotter and hotter and it was impressive how many people were out sitting around the field watching the games. Lots of sunscreen and umbrellas today! After a few games Meg, Jess and I drove into town to do a little last minute shopping and then head back to Waihi Beach for a swim and drink on the deck before driving into our airport motel in Auckland. We reluctantly pulled out around 7pm and arrived two hours later at our motel just 5minutes from the airport. This was a good idea because the airport is well outside the hussle of the city so it was very quick access to get there.


January 4, 2010

Awoke to rain! This made it all the more easier to leave. We returned the van at the airport and flew off back to HK then Shanghai at 8am on Cathay Pacific. Our total trip car mileage was 3200kms in 12 days!!
Great flight with loads in movie entertainment, food, and leg room. All flights were smooth and landed in Shanghai the same day at 8:00pm!
A really wonderful time and a place we’d definitely go back too!!

By time we landed back in Shanghai, our friends Anna and Corran in Dunedin decided to take the plunge and come visit us and China! Now I’m helping plan their trip for this April/May!