Well as I'm sure you know by now, we're not the best at keeping our blog up-to-date...there's just so many things to do here we never seem to find the time! So I thought it was a good time to recap whats been going on recently.
About two months ago, we left Wellington for a tour around the North Island. If you've been following our adventure this year you'll know we've mostly been concentrating on the South Island since we finished work, so we thought it was about time we became better acquainted with the island on which we've been living most of the year.
At this point, I have to admit, I was one of the many people who had a bias towards the South Island with all its mountains, glaciers, fjords, etc... But I was pleasantly surprised with the new things we saw in the North. We travelled around anti-clockwise, visiting huge colonies of Australian Gannets, great beaches, thousand year old trees, plenty of wineries - its a hard life!, beautiful rural landscapes, diving Poor Knights islands, and walking around an amazing active Volcanic island. We even met up with Gretchen's friends from the US - Julie and Jay, in Auckland.
After heading back to Wellington, we've been warming up for our multiple hikes in the December in the South Island, by tramping around and about Wellington. We start the Milford Track hike on the 30th of December, so not only will we be some of the first people to see in the new year as we're in NZ, but we'll be celebrating by hiking through some of the most beautiful scenery in NZ's Fjordland National Park.
We've even sorted out a chalet for Christmas in Nelson Lakes National Park, and will be celebrating with Julie and Jay! Christmas in the middle of summer will be an experience, although with temperatures of around 25C I'm sure we'll cope!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Tongariro Crossing
This is a walk I've wanted to do since I first came to NZ in 2002. Its billed as 'The best one day walk in the world' and I can't argue with that. Its a 17km tramp between two of the North Island's three active volcanic peaks of the Tongariro National Park. With about 800m ascent and over 1000m descent its 7 hours of tough walking, but the views more than make up for it. The panoramic views of the higest point is (at 1,886 meters) the summit of Mount Tongariro's Red Crater, which incidentally last erupted in 1926, are simply stunning. There are still patches of snow on the ground all around - nearby Mount Ruapehu is a winter ski resort - which add to the unearthly quality of the landscape. Include a few emerald lakes full of minerals and noxious sulphur vents everywhere, plus towering view of Mount Ngauruhoe with its and you've got a simply amazing walk.
This is a video Gretchen took looking back at Mount Ngauruhoe, the 2nd peak on the left is the summit of the Red Crater, and where we'd been an hour before.
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