The North trip 2

Hi my loyal readers!

Back in Auckland I decided to get my tattoo done at Monique's tattoo studio, where experienced tattooers help you creating unique designs. Mine was challenging and it took a while until they could meet my high demands. Buzzy, my tattooer, was very patient and she came up with a design which was exactly what I was craving for. Next day I had an appointment and it took more than 4 hours...and YES it did hurt!

Buzzy working on my back side. OUCH!

In the meantime Mike went to the Auckland Powerlifting Championships. Although just watching he was happy to be in contact with his favorite sport again after almost 6 months without a gym...and his gym mates...

Jono Radich setting a new Auckland squat record with 325kg -120kg!

On Sunday, April 1st, we left Auckland to explore vulcanos, caves and other surprises of this astonishing nature. We took a picture with our new friends Jenny and Robert, who hosted for 10 days in total, told them good bye and started heading South.

Jenny, Robert, me and Mike.

On the road Mike had to stop because he saw a very unusual herd of animals: ostriches.

I can see you!

Finally approaching the Waitomo caves we booked a tour through it via boat and saw a throng of glowworms. In NZ and Australia, caves are full of this specific species, so called Arachnocampa. As larves they spin a string hanging from the roof and glow (caused by bioluminescence) to attract delicious flys, believing flying to the sun light. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics. But the roof of the caves looked exactly like that:

Glowworms in the Waitomo caves

Mike was really happy after we had explored those little glowy animals. Can you see the peace in his face?

Waitamo caves exit.

On the way to Patricks aunty Caroline we encountered Sauron at a rest place next to the highway.

We had a great chat about travelling with aunty Caroline, stayed the night with her in Hamilton and headed to Rotarua the next morning. We stopped at Matamata to see the Hobbiton, the hobbit village of the movie trilogy "Lord of the Rings". It looked excactly like in the movies. Here a panoramic view:

Hobbit village in Matamata.

Mike approached also one hobbit house. "Hello, somebody there?" The funny thing is, that they have houses in different sizes. This one was used to film hobbit scenes whereas smaller ones were used when Gandalf appeared to make him look bigger - clever, ha?

Mike is a hobbit.

132$ poorer we wanted to see some geyseers and went to the Wai-o-tapu thermal wondeland near Rotarua. Next to sulphur caves, and big hole in the ground the park had a nice selection of colourful pools:

Oyster pool

Campagne pool. On the edge u can collect nice chemical elements such as arsenic, antimony, silver and gold :)

Devils bath. Different sulphur compounds dissolved in water give this nice poison-green colour.

In the park we found a very funny animal; can you see it in the upcoming picture?

Can you see the animal?

In Rotarua we stayed with Patricks great aunty, Joan. She cooked dinner for us almost every night and served delicious breakfast in the morning. In return we showed her how to make Schnitzel, Kaiserschmarrn and a delicious eggplant salad, as she had never eaten eggplant in her long life before. It felt like staying with my own grandma :)

Mike, me and Joan.

In Rotarua you can do lots of exciting leisure activities like bungee jumping, zorbing (beeing captured in a big ball rolling down the hill), shweebing, etc. In our opinion they were way too expensive and so we boycotted them; we rather spent more time finding a new treasure via geocaching. Here the pic of our first cache which has not been destroyed:

Our second geocache at the Bay of Plenty.

We stayed 4 nights in Rotarua and on the last evening we (mike, Joan and moa) booked a tour to the Tamaki village which was named after two Maori brothers. The idea of this "rebuilt" Maori village is to introduce people to the Maori culture. Today, Maori culture in NZ does not exsist any more in the way it used to several hundred years ago.
Mike was voted as the Chief to lead the group through the village and had to approach the entrance as the first one. After facing the most fearsome warriors and doing hongi (basically something like a handshake where you nudge the nose of the other person with yours), he had to accept the welcome gift of the Maori tribe and finally we were allowed to enter the village.
In the village they showed us dances, explained the meaning of the tattoo culture and trained us to do the Haka (the war dance - today still practised by the All Blacks of NZ, the world best rugby team).

Haka!!!!

For dinner they served Hangi: meat and vegetables heated up in an earth oven as you can see here:

Let's make Hangi! Patrick said if you do it wrong it tastes like rotten food. This Hangi was incredible delicious!!

After dinner: Group Haka!

After that great dinner we had a hilarious bus ride home. It turned out that the bus driver is a real comedian and we couldn't stop laughing.

The next day we drove to Ohakune where we met Patrick again in the ski lodge he is working for. After all these adventures it felt like meeting a family member. Patrick had new adventurous plans for us...he decided we can do a "little" hike, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is one of the world most famous hikes. The night before we went out for dinner with the whole group and I almost choked my smoked salmon bite when they told me the hike takes 8 hours...very little ha?
I thought: "O.K., another challenge!"
The next day we got up very very early (5:40) and prepared for our endeavor. I realized that the Kiwis have a very specific hiking-styling: leggins and training shorts - very sexy:)

Right at the beginning of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

During easter, this hike is very popular, so we weren't the only ones who did that tour.

Sooo many people on the route.

After the first hundred meters in altitude (where we sometimes got in a "traffic jam" and had to wait up to 5 min to continue because of so many people), the crowd divided a bit because some went all up to the top of Ngauruhoe, a vulcano which looks very symmetrical. Patrick and Hannah were one of them :)

Ngauruhoe.

I decided to escape these additional 3 hours hike and continued on the normal track. 12 hours of hiking would have been too much that day. 

Reaching the highest point of the standard track we could not believe our eyes...totally exhausted and proud, that we made it we saw an Asian chick who also made it: in high heels and a pink shoulder bag...the alpine crossing...altitudes of over 2000m...climbing, rocks, ...!!! ...and she finished the track also after 8 hours right behind us...!!! For us she was the hero of the day (and we went into the cellar crying;)

Hero of the day!

The rest of the track was a scenery of astonishing natural wonders like the smoky crater coated with sulphur compounds in black and red:

crater

Emerald lakes.

The track ended in the jungle and after we saw the parking area we realized, that we really did it, the whole track. I felt very exhausted even I spared the additional 3 hours.


The next day we headed to Castlepoint, where Patrick showed us his lovely summer house. This little spot is heaven on earth and we had another little hike, including climbing, approaching windy caves and little islands ;)

Me and Mike at Castlepoint.

Castlepoint lighthouse

The smallest island I have conquered so far!

View from castle rock

Mike on the castle rock

Back in Wellington, we just want to relax and plan our trip in Australia.
I am going to a conference about nanofluidics from the 12-13th of April, actually already tomorrow...I miss Science, so let's see how nanotech is like on the Southern hemisphere ;)

After some serious family issues we weren't sure, if we can continue our journey but after all we finally decided to do so. On Wednesday next week (18th) we will fly to Australia so

see you soon in Melbourne,

Kisses Jiny and Mike :*