Tongariro Crossing - photos

From the first time I opened my NZ guidebook, walking the Tongariro Crossing was on my 'must do' list. It's rated as one of the top 10 one day hikes in the World. The weather was ideal on Saturday when I walked the Crossing and the scenery is absolutely spectacular. 


I'm just uploading my photos from the walk tonight. I'll try and write a full post about the trip in the next week or so.

The sun rising behind the mountain

Mount Ruapehu

Our group at the start of the hike

Rock formation

Steam vent on Mount Nauruhoe

The final part of the climb to the Nauruhoe Crater

Jeroen, Jonathan and me at the top of Nauruhoe

Battling the wind  at the summit

Scree-sliding descent

The southern crater

The emerald lakes

The blue lake

Rotorua

The first thing you notice as you get off the plain is the smell. The region has very high levels of geothermal activity, giving off hydrogen sulphide with the distinctive rotten eggs smell. Fortunately there is enough to see and do in the area to make it worth putting up with the odour.

Rotorua has gained the affectionate nickname 'Roto-vegas' because of the range of tourist sights and activities it offers. The geothermal activity provides mud pools, natural spas and geysers. The area also has some of the strongest, and most tourist-friendly, Māori cultural history and plenty of outdoor activities. With a long weekend to fill my plan was to fit as much as possible into my three days.

After checking into my room at a backpackers, I set out on a walk around town. The geothermal pools of hot bubbling mud are dotted all around the town, particularly in the main park. It's a surreal site to have primordial bubbling and steaming pools right beside shops and offices. The town has built up around the South-West corner of Lake Rotorua, which provides a tranquil setting, periodically interrupted by the passengers of a jet boat doing spins across the smooth surface. After the park, I checked out the original Māori settlement of Ohinemutu, which the rest of the town has grown up around.

Spot the office buildings behind this steaming lake

Mud pool in the centre of town

Traditional carved meeting house in Ohinemutu

My next stop was the Rotorua Museum. I'd heard good things from Helen and Harry. The Museum is housed in the original Bath House, dating from the first marketing of the mineral rich water as a health treatment. The building sits in Government Gardens, filled with perfectly manicured fields for bowls and croquet. Only two things that stopped it being the complete picture of the home counties were the glorious weather and the mud pools in quieter corners of the gardens. The museum contained well presented exhibitions on Te Arawa, the local Māori iwi, the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886, the Māori Battalion in WW2 and the history of the bath house themselves. This final topic included the chance to tour the basement of the building and see the pipes that brought hot mud and water from the springs into the baths.

Oh I say...Government Gardens

Rotorua museum basement

Detail in the museum basement

In the evening I was booked to go to a hangi evening. This is a traditional Māori meal and cultural performances that are a mainstay of the tourist itinerary in Rotorua. I had ummed and ahhed about whether I was likely to enjoy this or find it a bit tacky. On balance, I'm glad I did go. A group of us from the hostel went. The evening was quite staged, but generally managed to avoid making me cringe. The 'Māori village' was near a stream and spring with significance for the Te Arawa people (or so we were told!). The evening started with a performance that showcased waiata (action songs), traditional Māori instruments and weapons and, of course, a haka. It was good to see the performers all seeming to really enjoy showing off their culture and I hope some of the money coming in through these performances goes towards reviving and maintaining aspects of the culture and language. The hangi (meal) itself was really tasty. It's cooked in the ground and consists of lots of meat, potatoes and kumara (NZ sweet potato). After dark we were taken back through the forest to see glow worms and the spring.

Dancer performing a waiata with poi

Haka, complete with drawn on moko (tattoos)

Freshly cooked hangi, yum!

The spring after dark

I was up early on my second day and headed out to the Whakarewarewa Thermal reserve. The most impressive feature of the Te Puia site is the giant 15m geyser called Pohutu ('big splash'). Unfortunately, as the day was a bit cloudy my photos don't really do justice to the arc of heated water that it sprays up into the air continuously for 15-20 minutes about once an hour. The site also has its share of hot mud pools and one pool that Māori used to use for cooking, because the water is naturally heated to boiling point.

Pohutu geyser

Cooking pool

I travelled back into town only to soon be heading back out to Whakarewarewa again, this time on a mountain bike. I'd read in the guidebook that Rotorua had the best bike trails in NZ and thought I'd give them a go. I had some trouble finding a bike shop open for long enough to be willing to rent me a bike, in the end I found one I could hire for 3 hours, which was plenty of time for me to exhaust myself. I rode the few km out to the forest and started exploring the trails. After seeing a few too many kids and families on the easy trail that I started out on, I moved up to intermediate difficulty. There were a few hairy moments and a some heavy breaking, but I managed to make my way around 4 or 5 good trails. I had barely noticed the light rain until I started on a route called 'the soakhole'. Reaching out into my path from both sides were big fern branches laden with water. While I swept through them without any trouble, I was left a lot damper than I had been moments before.

By the time I had ridden back to town and dropped my bike off and the hire shop my muscles were telling me I'd had a good workout. Predictably, Rotorua has just the cure for that in the form of a soak in a mineral spa. A couple of hours lazing in pools at different temperatures while gazing out over the lake soothed my body and gave me time for contemplation.

Day three arrived with a return of the sun and settled weather. I was relieved as I had a day's kayaking booked and we'd already had to postpone it from Sunday to Monday because of the wind. I arrived at the landing point on the edge of lake Tarawera and met my guide for the day, Jen. I was the only person on the trip, so got to set the pace for the day. It's years since I've kayaked, but it was pretty easy to get into the rhythm and I avoided capsizing. We set off across the lake, which was nearly deserted and made good time across to this hidden little beach. From there a couple of minutes walk took us to a hot pool that can only be accessed from the lake. We had a soak and good chat about life in Rotorua, adventure sports and Tae Kwon Do (Jen is about to take her blackbelt grading).

After a tasty lunch by the hot pool, we followed the coast around to a few other sites before heading back across the lake. Although the conditions were really nice there had been a section where we were paddling into the wind on the way out, somehow the wind had managed to turn around completely so we were again paddling into the wind for the final part of the return journey. That actually helped give some motivation to paddle harder and we made really good time back across the lake. In total we covered about 16km. Before I got my ride to the airport we walked a short track to a rock covered in centuries old Māori paintings.

View from the landing

Mount Tarawera (which erupted in 1886)

Jen with a map of the lake

Paddling my heart out

The day, and in fact the whole weekend, had been absolutely brilliant. I arrived back in Wellington on Monday evening amazed at how much I had managed to see and do.

Brew Zealand

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while, not just since I came up with the bad pun as a title.


One of the pleasing surprises I had when I first arrived was to discover that New Zealand has a thriving craft beer and micro-brewing industry.


There isn't a strong tradition of quality brewing in NZ. In the first half of the Twentieth Century there was an active Temperance Movement and right up until 1967 licencing laws were very restrictive. This created a tradition called the 'six o'clock swill' with pubs closing at 6pm. This didn't work as intended as everyone rushed from work, downed as many beers as they could before 6 and then headed home drunk. It's not very likely these guys cared greatly about the taste or variety. Things continued to worsen in the 1970s, with brewery consolidations reducing the number of options. Apparently almost all the beers that were around, right up until the early '90s were bland and pretty similar.


Fortunately, things are much better now. There has been an explosion of interest in decent beer, not only restricted to a sandals, beards and tankards following. I've enjoyed sampling the resulting variety from breweries that have sprung up right across the country.


NZ brewing reminds me of lots of the West Coast of the US. There's very little cask conditioned beer (although I've found a few bars with hand pumps). Most beer is nitro-kegged, making it colder and fizzier than UK ales. There's also a big focus on bottled beers, both from shops and even in bars, where often the choice on tap is limited but they have a wide range in the fridges. They also tend to be premium strength, with most coming in around 5-6%.


One area where Kiwis haven't gone as far as West Coasters is on the hops front. Although there are some pretty hope IPAs to be found, there isn't the same fetish about IBU ratings and super-hoppy flavours.


Style-wise, most breweries have created a range to suit different tastes. The most common include IPA, Pilsner lagers, Stouts (often just called Dark) and Golden Ales. I've come across a host of other styles including Bock, Helles, Ardennes and Imperial Porters. In most cases, the names refer to the style of hops being used but they often vary significantly from the 'true' styles they are named after. Some breweries have a better grasp than others. For instance Tui, a big mainstream brewer released an 'East India Pale Ale' only to get in trouble with a consumer watchdog as it was basically a pale lager.


There are quite a few pretty bland lager brands on offer in most bars - the aforementioned Tui (cheap and nasty), Steinlager, Export Gold and international brands like Heineken and Stella (which is weirdly seen as a classy Continental European beer!). Many bars also stock a selection of styles from one of the bigger brewers that has got more adventurous that just pumping out lager - including Montheith's, Macs, Speight's.

The Macs range

The Speight's brewery is down in Dunedin and was one of the sights we visited when we went down there to see England v Romania during the Rugby World Cup. My favourite beer from their range is the Old Dark, a rich, malty ale.

Inside the Speight's brewery

The real quality is when you start to get into the smaller brewers. They make up for not having a cask tradition by producing their ranges in bottles and some of the supermarkets in Wellington stock a great range and regularly champion new breweries. Among the ones I've come to know and love are Tuatara (a Wellington local that is getting quite big now), Mata, Number 8 Wire, Boundary Road, Epic, Moa and Yeastie Boys.

I've made it along to two beer festivals - Beervana and the Pacific Beer Fest - that have both helped my exploration of what's available. With 10 months of my trip gone I feel like I've sampled a good range of the local brews, but I still have a lots of tasting to cram into my last few months here.

Cheers! 

Rock and bowls

This flyer turned up in our letterbox during the week -

All credit to them for trying to break down stereotypes...I'm still not tempted.


For English readers, 'jandals' is Kiwi for flip-flops. It's short for Japanese Sandals apparently

Kiwi Christmas and New Year

I had a pretty packed couple of weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.


My friend Tyra came out to visit again. Her birthday is on the 24th of December and she'd always wanted to celebrate somewhere warm. In the weeks running up to her visit I was getting worried as the weather was pretty mixed. Luckily, New Zealand put on the sunshine and heat for her trip. We spent her birthday driving all along the coastline around Wellington, starting with Oriental Bay, which starts in the heart of the city.

Wellington from Oriental Bay

We stopped off at a couple of the bays to enjoy the sun, including Lyall Bay. We had lunch at the Chocolate Fish Cafe, which is famous for being a hangout for the Lord of the Rings cast and crew.


We then came back to the flat for a birthday cake. New World, a local supermarket chain with a very Orwellian name, supplied an amazingly tasty chocolate cake that got the thumbs up all round.

Tyra's cake

Christmas day itself started with pancakes and bubbles (the Kiwi name of champagne and sparkling wine). While my Mum was over to visit, she had put together a stocking and left it with my flatmate. This was a total, and lovely, surprise. I spoke to my Mum on skype, before she headed off for her Samaritans night shift.


We then headed over to my flatmate Gabby's family home for a Christmas meal. Again, the weather was scorching so we spent the afternoon in the shade in the garden chatting and enjoying a few drinks while the meal was cooking. The meal itself was fantastic, with roast turkey and roast ham, lots of traditional trimmings and some lighter summery additions like artichoke hearts and asparagus.It was so nice to spend my Kiwi Christmas amongst such a welcoming family.

Carving the ham

Yum!!

Lighting the Christmas pudding

Boxing day was a relaxed affair. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see The Iron Lady. I enjoyed the film a lot, even if it skimmed over much of the politics. As all the reviews have been saying, Meryl Streep gives a fantastic performance.


The 27th was time to say goodbye to Tyra, who flew down to Christchurch before heading home. In the afternoon I then went to a Twenty20 match at the Basin Reserve. My last visit had been to see the Christchurch fundraising match in March. The Wellington Firebirds were playing the Central Stags. Unfortunately the Firebirds kept up the traditional of the Wellington Hurricanes (rugby) and Phoenix (football) and got soundly beaten, by 29 runs. Fortunately, it was still a good afternoon sitting on the grass in the sun and enjoying a few beers.

The next day (28 December) called for a hike to work off a few of the Christmas dinner calories. My friend Carina and I had decided to do a day-long walk in the Belmont National Park. This is a great area that is incredibly close to Wellington, one minute you are driving through suburban housing and then a minute later you're at the start of a forest track where you won't pass another walker. The day was cooler and cloudier than the week had been before, which was actually refreshing and made the walking a lot easier. We didn't manage to follow the exact route we intended. We still managed to take in all the sights we'd planned, including the scattering of old WW2 ammunition stores, the hilltop Trig and the views over the coastline in most directions.

The ammunition stores...and some cows

Made it to the Trig

Luckily when I woke up the next morning my legs weren't sore from the hike, as I had a long drive ahead of me. I was heading all the way up to Gisborne on the east coast to meet up with a group of friends and go to the Rhythm and Vines music festival. I set off pretty early and a mere 540 kilometres later arrived in one piece.

Having travelled across half the North Island, I was ready for a beer, but the first task was to set up my tent. Although the festival has big campsites, we'd scored a much better arrangement as a friend's family has a house just outside Gisborne. So although we were camping in their garden, we had access to bathrooms, a kitchen and a deck. Meaning instead of a diet of mars bars and pot noodles, we were having oven cooked pizza and daily BBQs, including freshly caught fish.

In the garden

I arrived a day after most of my friends, who already had their tents set up. When I started unpacking mine, which I borrowed from a colleague, it quickly became clear that what they'd described as a 'two...or maybe three person' tent was, compared to what my friends had, palatial. I couldn't quite stand up inside!

Mine's on the right

The festival started that night, so after a couple of drinks and BBQ it was time to head in. Buses ran from right outside where we were staying to the festival site. The music kicked off late in the day and with most people drinking before they went, it was always an entertaining ride out to the festival and even more amusing on the ride back.


The site was a local vineyard and was suprisingly hilly, with different stages and bars scattered around and lots of different routes between them. Rhythm and Vines isn't as big as the major UK festivals, but it has about 25-30,000 people attend, which gives it a great atmosphere.

The line-up across the three days was pretty good. There were a bunch of local artists and then the headline acts for the three nights were Pendulum, Calvin Harris and Example ('changed the way you kissed me') on NYE. Without a doubt, my favourite was Pendulum on the first night. As well as being one of my favourite acts, they had an incredible visual show for their set. The entire stage was made up of screens and set over several different levels, so they could move around the graphics.

Pendulum visuals

The weather across New Zealand was pretty atrocious in the few days up to New Year, with storms and flooding in several places. Gisborne was among the least affected, but on New Year's Eve the heavens did open up. That did make it feel completely like a UK festival in one important way...mud! I slipped over a couple of times and it looked like the majority of people did the same. By the end of the night, some people were simply diving into the mud and sliding around.


With the combination of mud and a bit too much to drink, New Year's Day had the potential to start pretty badly. Fortunately, we were staying a few minutes walk from the beach. A dip in the pacific was a fantastic way to start the first morning of the New Year.


We left Gisborne and road-tripped back as far as Napier, which I visited back in March. I stayed the night there to break up the drive (I was not going to try and attempt the same epic distance in one go after three nights of festival mayhem). I met up with Helen and Harry, who were also stopping off for the night there. The next day saw some mini-golf and pottering around the Hawkes Bay before driving back to Wellington.


A lie-in followed by cleaning a tent, a lot of washing and a surf on the 2nd and I was all ready to head back into work on 3 January. Luckily things were pretty quiet at work for the first few days.