One of Napier's Art Deco fountains all lit up at night. You can't really see it too well, but if you squint, you can get an idea of it at least!

Me with the Gannets in the main Plateau Colony at Cape Kidnappers. I got there at the end of nesting season, so I didn't get to see the chicks, but I did get to see the juveniles, which was cool too.

Cape Kidnappers! Isn't that cool?? Supposedly, it is supposed to resemble a Tuatara's tail. A Tuatara is a native New Zealand reptile that is the only species surviving in its family from dinosaur times. They may live 100-200 years and - I learned all this at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, by the way - they do everything super slowly. The exhibit at Te Papa said that "one breath can last an hour. Their eggs take four years to develop, and when laid, take a year or more to hatch." Isn't that amazing? But the Cape itself is pretty darn amazing, whether you know what a Tuatara's tail looks like or not.

Some of the Gannets hanging out on the offshore rocks along the beach.

Anne and I at the cable car station at the top of the line in Wellington's Botanic Gardens.

Anne and I having a picnic at the Festival of the Sun in "the Dell" of Wellington's Botanic Gardens. We hung out people watching, listening to the live music, catching up and enjoying the faboulous day! Notice our matching water bottles... great taste, Anne! (And I think I have to attribute mine to Ixchel, who picked my bottle up for me when I was in the Dominican Republic. Thanks Ixchel!! Do you guys know I saw colored Nalgene bottles selling for $24.95 in Auckland? Even with the exchange rate, that's about, um, Meredith knows I'm terrible about this, but something like $18US! That's ridiculous. So I'm trying my hardest to keep track of mine, because I certainly don't want to have to buy a new one!

The Marlborough Sounds from the observation deck at the back of the ferry.

The ferry to the South Island was a bit windy coming into the Marlborough Sounds, but the scenery was outstanding!

Kiwi Fried Chicken Bakery and Coffee Shop

What's up with the funny restaurant names here, anyway? The Kiwi Fried Chicken Bakery and Coffee Shop was en route to Wellington down Highway 2. I guess I've never connected fried chicken with a bakery and coffee shop. Maybe I'm just not using my imagination (or maybe I don't want to in that instance!). I've also passed a couple "Chinese Smorgasbords". I consider a smorgasbord particularly Scandinavian, so hearing it applied to Chinese food is just a little funny for me. Chinese buffet, yes, but smorgasbord??? And don't forget Lord of the Kebabs, still one of my favorites. The Wellington Restaurant Scene. Anne and I tried out some fabulous places to eat in Wellington. Not too many, since we found restaurants there to be more expensive than we'd expected. But oooh, the ones we did eat at were worth it! We went in just for drinks on Friday night and found a fun little upper balcony along Cuba Mall, a pedestrian street of shops and restaurants, to sit out on. Anne's take on this (I warned her I 'd put this up since it is too funny!) was that "this is so surreal. I feel like I'm on Sesame Street." "Only you're in a bar drinking your peachy bottle of alcohol..." We also found some other yummy places, all on Cuba Street actually - they had some good restaurants along there! We had a malaysian dinner, which was just fabulous. So fabulous in fact, that I brought half of it home on my shirt! Anne tried to tell me that it wasn't really obvious, but seriously, I have not splashed that much on myself in ages! The next day we had lunch at Fidel's - a cute little place where the food reminded me a bit of Birchwood. We got a roasted root vegetable salad with kumara, beets, new potatoes, carrots, onion, rosemary, fresh cilantro (or coriander as they call it here) and a vinaigrette dressing. I also got a vegan pineapple coconut ginger muffin to go along with it. Mmmmmm! We also had a great picnic in the park on Saturday afternoon. We took the cable car up to the botanic gardens and when we stepped off, there was a sign saying that there was live music in "The Dell" for the Festival of the Sun. Of course we followed the chalked arrows down the path and found the nicest little stage surrounded by picnicers and all sorts of people lounging about enjoying the sun and the warmth of the day. We sat down and spent a couple happy hours people watching, writing and listening to music. It felt so nice to be surrounded by all sortsa hippie/alternative-type people. I've been missing that! It wasn't quite May Day by a long shot, but the atmosphere felt reminiscent of it. There was one little boy who was probably about 6 and was so cute! He was trying to breakdance and had the most bad-ass, concentrated expression on his face the whole time. His two little girl companions were leaping about in their fairy tulle skirt and summer dresses and having a grand old time. Anne's Host Family. I know quite a few of you will be happy to hear that Anne's host parents are soooo nice! They are fabulous people and are taking great care of her and took great care of me as well. They have the sweetest cat and were so incredibly generous, helping with our laundry, my tent, washing my car (!), and anything else you could possibly imagining them fussing over us. Her host mom even gave me a paua shell that they'd found at the beach (one of the pretty ones, with an inside all shiny and multi-colored like an abolone or an opal). We didn't get a chance to try out the spa pool, unfortunately, but that's just because we were so tired when we returned home from our wanderings about Wellington! By the way, Wellington has the greatest library! It is a new building right on the waterfront with beautiful views and gorgeous open spaces to browse through and read the many books and journals and such that they have stored there. It almost rivalled the library on the Sogn campus at the University of Oslo, but nothing can quite touch that library yet. That one was exquisite. Leave it to the Scandinavians to get my top marks for design!

Update 'til next time

I don't have the time or patience to write more at the moment, so coming up, I'll tell you all about Wellington (I LOVE this city!!!) and my visit with Anne Skoglund (SO GREAT!!!!) and my upcoming trip (tomorrow) across the Cook Straight down to the South Island. 'til then, have fun wherever you are!

The Farting Evangelist

Here is the funny story I promised earlier...

When I arrived back at my car after my walk out to Cape Kidnappers, I stopped to stretch a bit and enjoy the quiet lapping of the ocean waves and the pink afterglow of teh sunset. As I was balancing against my car, looking out to sea and stretching my left quad, a woman came walking up the road and asked if I was contemplating a walk back out to the Cape. "Oh no. I don't think my legs could take it. I'm just stretching them out." "Oh. you need to get some salts in you. That'll help. Have you been drinking enough water?" Oh cool, I thought, a fellow athlete. She was quite a nice, friendly woman, but a bit, well, unique. She started warning me about going anywhere by myself and how she didn't want to put fear into me, but its just not safe as a woman alone and I had to be careful, etc. etc.... yeah, yeah, yeah. I was up for a little chat, but htis was starting to drag at this point. I'd just finished a 5 hour walk, it was approaching 9pm and I hadn't yet had my dinner. I tried to hurry her along by taking out my car keys as a little hint. Well, she sort of took it, but not quite as I'd hoped. She moved along to "I just want to leave you with one last thing" and as I looked at her expectantly to see what this parting piece of advice might be, (I'd already been told not to travel alone several times, especially in the mountains, to take the back roads to Wellington and to be careful as a foreign woman, again going back to the not travelling alone theme), she launched into "I just want to let you know that Jesus loves you and is always watching over you and if you let him into your life..." Oh good lord! And I thought it couldn't get any worse! All I wanted was my dinner and a nice, cold beer! She went on like this for quite a while as I nodded and smiled and planned how to get out of this without appearing terribly rude, afterall, she WAS a nice woman. Now, I am fascinated with the whole idea of religions and what brings people hope and courage in their beliefs. Its wonderful that these sources are so diverse and I could totally appreciate the difference that belief in Jesus as the savior had made in this womans's life, but I am quite happy with my spiritual path, and plus, I wanted my dinner! Well, as she was going on, it may have been in the part about how exactly to go about asking Jesus into my life, she let out this BIG fart. She seemed a bit thrown by it for a second, giving me hope, but then just excused herself and went on with her spiel. I know I am 25 years old and that farting is perfectly natural. Everybody farts, myself included, but I still think farting is really freakin' hilarious. And this one was particularly funny. I am proud to say that I somehow managed not to laugh, although my severe facial twitching, resulting from my attempts to subdue the urge, may have given me away despite my suppresion of actual laughter. She continued on for even LONGER after that until I finally put my foot down (nicely) and told her thatI needed to go eat my dinner now that it was past 9:00 and it was fully dark. And let me just tell you, that beer was excellent, and it may have been my 3rd night running of pasta with sundried tomato sauce and stirfried vegetables, but dang, they tasted good! And a salad to boot! I think by the time I got home I was so ravenous that I could nearly have eaten my entire food supply. I must admit though, that even after all the lady's talk, it still didn't occur to me to say grace before digging in.

Gannet Facts

I almost forgot: I wrote down several interesting Gannet Facts to share with you. 1) Australasian Gannets have a near 2 meter wingspan and can live up to 33 years (although usually 20-24). 2) They mate for life and take equal part in incubating the eggs and raising the chicks, although the male builds the nest. 3) They are members of the Booby family - related to pelicans and shags. 4) The 3 colonies out at Cape Kidnappers, which I visited, are the largest mainland colonies of Gannets in New Zealand.

Napier, the details (second half)

Aight, so here's the second half of my Napier stay: Well, this observation is actually throughout my Napier stay,... but I have never been offered so many jobs in my life! They are a big fruit-picking area and apples were just coming into season and EVERYONE, even the lady who pumped my gas(!) was offering me jobs, or contacts for fruitpicking jobs. I was heading down to visit with Anne, though, so I turned them down - afterall, Anne is much more exciting than a job picking fruit!

On Wednesday, I hiked out along the beach south of Napier to the Cape Kidnappers Gannet colony. Gannets are a type of seabirds who make a funny (aaa-aaa-aaa) call and who smell like, well, for those of you guys who have been to dook/spirit island, you know the smell. For the rest of you, just imagine what a colony of birds might smell like when they've all been pooping in the same place for the entire spring and summer (remember, its getting toward the end of summer here). This was definitely one of my favorite parts of my stay though. I didn't get too much time with the Gannets since I had to walk with the tides (some areas of the beach are unpassable during high tide). I would have liked a little more, because despite the smell, they were awfully cool to watch, and the view of Cape Kidnappers was great. I will post pictures of this once again when I find a computer with XP (wouldn't that be cool if they were playing 'The Sign' again too??). The beach walk was worth it in and of itself, however, even without the Gannets. It was lovely walking along in the sand, across all sorts of stones and pebbles, sculpted in fascinating shapes by the water. The beach was edged by high cliffs (they must have been 100 meters tall!), which is the reason that parts are unpassable at high tide. Every once in a while, there would be a canyon carved out of the cliffs and I could see inland a bit. There were large boulders out off the coast, which the birds liked to perch on and look particularly scenic. Watching the sea shells and polished pebbles at my feet never ceased to entrance me as well. It was a 2 hour walk out to the colony and another 2 hours back, but, ahhhh, did it feel good! And I have a funny story to tell you about what happened to me when I got to the end. I'll put that in a separate posting.

The last thing: remember my farmyard cacophany on Waiheke Island? The rousing chorus from 2-5 in the morning? (Literally rousing, that is!!) Well, here is another fun, similar experience. For some reason, Napier decided to run their freight trains along the oceanfront instead of putting housese there (go figure - I haven't). Well, the hostel where I was camping was smack up against the railroad tracks. And these tracks are not seldom used! I woke up several times each night as the ground beneath me shook with the passing trains. I just had to laugh and vow to think of it as a free massaging bed - not every hostel can offer that!

Napier, the details (first half)

Hi there! Its been a while! I have been loving Wellington so much that internet hasn't exactly been #1 on my list o' things to do, but I figured I'd better get a move-on while I still have access to the cheap internet here. Here's whats up with Napier (my stop before coming here to Wellington): It was a bit hard getting used to being in a city again after spending so much time in the outdoors. I didn't know quite what to do with myself, surrounded by all those buildings and people. So I went for a walk down Marine Parade, the walkway along the ocean coast. I figured it was a beautiful evening, so I'd walk to the end. Well, as I'd been walking for over an hour to the south and it was getting to be 8:00 and I was getting tired, but not being one to give up easily once I've set my mind to a goal, I decided to ask some passing walkers how far it was to the far end. They laughed and pointed to a big factory off in the distance and told me that it went all the way down there and that I'd be lucky if I made it down there before dark, much less all the way home. I figured I'd better turn around and start heading back and leave my goal of reaching the end for another day (and maybe with a bike).

The next day, I headed down to the info center and was helped by a very nice woman named Rae. I bought a brochure on the Art Deco walk around Napier, which is known to be the best example of a town built almost entirely in Art Deco style after most of the town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. It took quite a while, because I kept finding all these cute little galleries and shops to browse through en route. One of them was a natural foods store, where I got all sorts of yummy groceries later that night. Has anyone ever had dried strawberries? They are like candy! I also got to talk to my sister that evening, which was GREAT! Meredith, I love you!!!!!


The next day, I went to explore the neighboring towns of Havelock North and Hastings. I had heard that they have an organic farmer's market in Havelock North that I wanted to check out. Turns out, its only on Saturdays, but there was an excellent bakery in town which made the trip worthwhile. I got some excellent Sunflower Honey Wholemeal Bread and a "dinky donut" filled with whipped cream. I LOVE anything with whipped cream, so that was quite exciting. Plus, it was just the right size, since those big ol' donuts are just a bit much. I guess I like my donuts dinky! I also went up to Te Mata Peak, above the town. They had some beautiful views and hiking trails. I had a nice picnic lunch with my bread and some local organic cheese that I'd bought at a gourmet Italian Deli in town.

I made a special stop in Hastings as well, on the recommendation of Rae, from the info center. She was very patient answering my big line of questions about things in and around Napier: weather? Gannet colony? film processing? .... When I got to the question of whether there wa sa good icecream place around, her eyes lit up and I knew I'd found a fellow ice cream lover, not just a patient visitors center attendant. She told me about Rush Munroe's Ice Cream place here in Hastings, where she used to come asa girl. They sell it elsewhere, but this is the place to come for selection and the true home. Well, how on earth could I pass that up??? My walk from my parking place to the spot where she'd marked a big X on my map for ice cream was a bit worrisome. I parked next to a a Carpet Discounters and continued to walk past the Seafood Corner (serving kippers, and fish and chips), the Big Save Furniture (Open 7 Days), Big Noise Car Audio ('nuf said), United Video, an under construction service station, Bull and Hodgins Ltd. Engineering Supplies, and a Pak & Save (discount grocery store). I was starting to get a bit disheartened by this point, wondering if the icecream place had moved or she'd been somehow mistaken. I continued past Derek Tonge's quality used cars and ah-ha! I say the welcome sign for Rush Monroe's 100% Natural Ice Cream! Sittin' there in the courtyard licking my cone of chocolate nut (a variety of nuts PLUS chocolate chips), I was able to forget about the 'harrowing' experience of getting here!

The Whanganui River Journey

Alright. So I think I left off after the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Now you get to hear about my river trip! I had been talking to Karin, one of the women I was hiking the circuit with, about the river trip and she was all up for a go at it too, so we called around, got ourselves geared up, and off we went! (Obviously you have to do a 3-day river trip after a 3-day hiking trip, just to even out your muscles, ya know?) Whakapapa Visitors Center I decided to stop at Whakapapa Visitors Center (in Tongariro National Park) on the way down to National Park, where we were staying to be picked up for the river trip the next morning. They have some great info displays about volanism, biodiversity and invasive species in the park. Here's a couple cool things that I learned there: 1) They had "Did you know" facts about each of the invasive species described in the exhibit. One of them was about Stoats, a weasel-like animal. It is "Female stoats are able to breed when they are very young. A 17-day-old stoat - blind, deaf, and almost immobile - was mated and produced 13 kits." Does that sound incredibly inhumane to anyone else? It sounds like the articles about frat parties and roofies and such, if you ask me. 2) The invasive lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) eradication program is called 'Aborta contorta' - how funny is that?? 3) During the Taupo eruption in 186 AD (the most violent anywhere in the world in the last 5,000 years), ash was sent 50 kms in the air, and a pyroclastic flow (fast-moving clouds of ash and debris like from Mt. St. Helens) moved through the landscape at about 600-900 kms/hour!! It burned and buried everything in its path for up to 80 kms. Get this - the pyroclastic flow overtopped Mt. Tongariro!!! Day 1 on the river We were up and off on the river around noon (later than we wanted, but we were going through an outfitter, so we didn't really have much choice in the matter). We canoed through the coolest landscape of carved sandstone cliffs. When I say cliffs, think of 5 times the size of the ones on the southern MN rivers. They were enormous! And they all had the most unique patterns of how the water had carved shapes in them. And the waterfalls - there were waterfalls at least every 5 minutes along the way, seriously. Many of them were tiny, just little trickles over the rock, but it was the variety of stages that was fascinating. Some of the newer ones just skated over the surface of the rock, while others had already carved their own gorges back into the cliffs. Some waterfalls were so far back that although we could hear the roar of the falling water quite clearly, we couldn't see the waterfall itself. We did quite well getting through the class 2 rapids. Another pair of women who was canoeing the river wasn't so lucky. Or maybe they were - becuase they certainly got some unique memories! They managed to go backwards through 2 rapids, flip their canoe, get stuck on a rock and then shallow rapids... and were still laughing about it when we saw them at the end of the day. Their only comment was that they were waiting to crash into a jetboat the next day. Luckily we didn't see too many jetboats, since they are noisy and feel totally out of place in such generally secluded wilderness. We arrived at the John Coull Hut in time for a swim before dinner. Carrying our gear up the banks and UP to the hut was quite the hike, but so cool up there at the top. Everything was built on wooden boardwalks and being surrounded by the forest and perched on a bluff, I felt a bit like I was living in the treehouses of Swiss Family Robinson, one of my favorite dreams as a child. AND, the hut wardens took us out that night along one of the boardwalks to show us the glow worms that lived in the underbrush along it. We had to kneel down to look up under the hanging leaves and we were treated to the most wonderful sight! I felt like I was looking in on a little fairy village! Day 2 We just cruised down the river. Karin took the helm today and did a great job, never having steered a canoe before. Personally, I think she did better than me, but she insists not. I don't know... We had more excellent scenery and lots of floating and talking time. We also stopped partway through for lunch and to hike up to the "Bridge to Nowhere" which really is quite funny. A bunch of settlers decided to farm this land (don't ask me why? I would never think you could farm these bluffs!) and built this ornate, concrete bridge to transfer their supplies. It is half an hour's hike in from the main river up a tributary and is literally in the middle of nowhere. Yet I felt like I was in a botanical garden or something. It was good to get out and stretch a bit, too. We perfected the art of standing up in the canoe during the calm patches on the river, one at a time, to stretch out our backs and legs. We ended up at Tieke Marae that night, a Marae (Maori meeting house) that is also a DOC (Department of Conservation) Hut. Our whole crew of hut-to-hut travellers hung out on the porch along with a big rooster who strutted around our feet. It got dark and we heard a rustling in our food bags, which were sitting out on the floor on the porch, just 2 meters from where our group was sitting. We jumped up thinking the rooster had managed to find our food, but when we shined our headlamps thataway, we found a possum staring back at us! This possum was huge! So much bigger than I'd pictured. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of a rabbit size, but this one was closer to a raccoon. Luckily, we were able to scare it off before it had a chance to eat any of our food, which we promptly put inside and shut the door. I was mentioning the size of the possum to an Australian guy that Karin and I were talking to later and he said that he thinks they get bigger here than in Australia (where they were introduced from) because they have such an abundant food source and no natural predators (thus why they're one of the number one most destructive invasive species. They eat something like 22kilos of vegetation a night. Is that right? Sorry. I've forgotten the exact fact. But its a whole heckuva lot.) The Last Day We had a nice canoeride out. We cherished those last moments in the wilds before we had to get back and head into town. It downpoured for a short while, just in time for us to pull over for lunch. As we were eating, the sun came out again and we had a nice paddle the whole way back. Whats up with rain on the last day of our tramps, anyway? That's what happened on the Northern Circuit as well! But anyway, we had the 3 biggest rapids of the trip, one of which we almost swamped, but stayed upright. We later found out that the women who had such an eventful time in the rapids on the first day had managed to flip their canoe going through this one, WHILE ON FILM! One of the guys who had stayed at the huts with us had a video camera and after he and his girlfriend got through, he turned around to video the next people, who happened to be Claire and Sharon, and oh, did they put on a show! They were going through, riding the pressure waves, looking all hardcore and then, flip! Over they go and next thing you see is the two of them swimming with the canoe. Karin and I were lagging behind, savoring our time on the water and didn't get to see the actual event, but we defintely watched it multiple times back at the landing. All of us were just cracking up and Claire and Sharon were making everyone watch it because it was just too funny to miss. Dang! Alright. Its getting late here and I'm going to try to take off to hike out to a gannet (sea bird) colony. I have to do it at just the right time, since you have to plan around the tides, so I'd better head out. I'll update you on Napier at a later date.

Searching for XP and then "I saw the sign"...

Actually, first I heard 'The Sign', playing from speakers above a shop, and as I stopped to do a little dance in the street, I noticed the sign for email just around the corner. As I discovered, in Turangi, Whakapapa, AND National Park, there are no computers with XP (which I need to post photos, thus the long wait). But in Napier? Yup! That is one thing to be said for the city. OH. And, I realized that I never told you all my new favorite joke, courtesy of Lesley (a very cool friend of a friend) and her 7-year-old, Kate, and 4-year-old, Josh. What goes "ha ha plop"? I'll give you a little while to think about that one and tell you my new favorite phrase that I learned from Karin when we were canoeing down the Whanganui. She told me that when you have to go for a nature pee in Sweden, you say you're going to pick flowers. How cute is that? So now you won't wonder what I'm talking about when I say it cuz you know I'm going to use that every chance I get now! And the answer to the joke is a man laughing his head off. Isn't that funny! I loved it.

The view from "Difficult Road" as I drove from National Park to Napier yesterday. I was definitely standing in the middle of the road while taking this, by the way, with no worries about encountering oncoming traffic!

This is Taranaki Falls at the end of our last day of the Tongariro Northern Circuit. It rained the ENTIRE way there, and just as we reached the ridge from which we hiked down to the waterfall, the sky cleared and we had a wonderful, well-deserved, and dry rest on the rocks (huge, ancient lava deposit) above the waterfall. From here, it was only 45 minutes back to Whakapapa Village where my car was parked. The path followed the Wairere Stream from the base of the falls back through the forest. What a beautiful way to finish off such a wonderful hike! This waterfall bit actually reminded me a lot of the north shore - bare boulders with lichen, waterfalls, and piney-looking trees along the cliffs. Yet another reason to love it!

Looking back up at the Crossing we had done the day before. You can't really tell how steep it is from the photo, but the scary, slippery gravel path with all the switchbacks is on the right side of the photo winding its way down from the Red Crater to the Emerald Lakes. And believe me, its VERY steep!!!

This is during a rest on the way up to the Red Crater on the Tongariro Crossing. Apparently I needed one, since my eyes are closed!

Hiking down to the Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Crossing (day 1 of my 3-day Tongariro Northern Circuit hike). I'm smiling here, but this part was so steep and slippery with gravel, it was scary! There were all these abrupt switchbacks with hundred meter dropoffs below them and you'd be sliding down and hoping against hope that you'd stop in time!

The view from the beach where I hiked down for my early morning swim in Lake Taupo. Crystal clear water. Literally. I had started to wonder whether all water in New Zealand was crystal clear, but the Whanganui River was muddy. Just a little bit of reality amongst the amazing clarity everywhere else. Of course, the scenery along the river bluffs more than made up for the muddiness of the water.

The long awaited car photo!!! Its a 1989 Mazda Astina hatchback and I'm still waiting for a good name to come along...

My First 'Great Walk'

Thank You. Okie doke. Its been a while since I wrote you all. I should start this out with a big ol' shout out to the Gilbert Ave. crew for having me for 3 weeks! Yikes! A houseguest for three weeks. I like to think I am a pretty good houseguest though, and they certainly let me believe so. I hope they weren't just being nice! My First 'Great Walk' New Zealand has this whole series of hikes around the country designated as 'Great Walks.' Basically, they are super scenic and have huts to stay in along the way along with campgrounds and such. Now don't go getting any ideas that I was tramping in the lap of luxury, cuz it was definitely just a bunch of bunks, pit toilets and some gas cookers. No electricity or anything. And oooooh, the hike! Now as you all know, I am a Minnesota girl born and raised. And as many of you also know, Minnesota doesn't have mountains. At least not unless you count the Sawtooth Mountains on the North Shore, but for our purposes here, those definitely do not count in the same class as the mountains here! So due to a rainstorm and a little confusion on my part about exactly where I was, I ended up staying with an incredibly nice farm family outside of Turangi on the night I left Auckland. They were enthusiastic about telling me all about things to do in the area, including a secluded beach on Lake Taupo that I was able to hike down to from their property. Unbeliveably clear water (as is all the water here from what I've seen), and I had it completely to myself. I went for a little dip and played in the water before heading back up to the house for lunch. Over lunch, the guys were telling me about the Tongariro Crossing as well as the Northern Circuit, the 3-day route around Mt. Ngauruhoe and Tongariro that encompasses the Tongariro Crossing ("the greatest one day walk in the world"). I went to the visitor center here in Turangi to find out more. The woman working there told me that if I wanted to do the Northern Circuit I should start it the next day. So that I did! And oh my goodness was it worth every minute (and every blister, and believe me, I've got a nice big one on my left pinkie toe!). A few highlights: The Crossing. First off, this is what I started to mention earlier with all of this mountain talk. I was scared out of my mind! Going over those muddy, slippery mountain passes where you have 5 inches of trail and then a sheer drop into a crater. Yeah. Scary. But I got to see some amazing scenery, which I will post photos of soon, along with descriptions, so I'll skip those here. It was a very big climb and that heart-stopping descent where you are sliding down through loose gravel on a ridge only a meter or so across, afraid that you won't be able to stop in time and you'll hurtle off the edge from your own inertia. The next day. At Ketetahi Hut the first night, we had a great crew of people staying there including a Swedish girl named Karin and two Dutch guys whose names I can barely say, let alone spell. But they are all nice! That's the important part! The four of us set out the next day with the Hut Warden's advice of a mountain to climb off-track for a great view out over the Emerald Lakes, Blue Lake, Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu. When we got up to the saddle where we had to head out off-track, the boys decided to go BACK over the crazy crossing of the day before to head up the summit of Mt. Ngauruhoe. You would not believe how steep the climb was! Totally doable, but 2 days in a row?? I was not up for it! Neither was Karin, so we split up and the two of us headed up the Warden-recommended mountain, Rotopaunga. She let me borrow one of her trekking poles to help out with the gravelly mountainside and I am such a convert now. Those things are great! But anyway. We made it to the top. 1856 meters. We got some nice views and then headed down to continue our hike to Waihohonu Hut. The day was glorious and we had a spectacular hike. We ended up meeting up with some of the German guys who had also stayed at Ketetahi with us the night before and hiked with them. We stopped for photos every ten minutes because literally, the scenery changed that often. Not just little changes, dramatic changes. The most amazing one was when we were walking along a gravelly, arid ridge with low, scrubby plants and coming to the bottom, we passed a line in which there were a few short trees. This line of transition was literally less than a meter wide, and then we were in one of the lushest, greenest, forests I have ever experienced. It was crazy! We had another nice night at Waihohonu Hut, although I had to switch beds during the night because the guy next to me was snoring! Luckily I wasn't on a boat in the middle of Lake of the Woods, eh? Oh! And the Hut Warden, along with the rest of us got a good laugh out of the German guys who were hiking with us. They went off to find a tent spot, set up and came back to make their dinner. The Hut Warden commented on how lucky they were to have these beautiful sites by the river. The boys looked at her blankly until she asked "where did you guys set up your tent?" "up there." "on the helicopter landing pad???" As it turns out, yes. They had set up their tent on the helicopter landing pad! How funny is that? She totally cracked up whenever she saw them for the rest of the night, but they left their tent there because there weren't any helicopter runs scheduled and they didn't want to move it at that point, understandably. The way out. Our last day it RAINED. Almost the whole way. And we all had sore feet and just hiked it back as quickly as possible. The rain obscured everything but the very close scenery, so we couldn't see much anyway. Luckily, it cleared up just in time for us to fully appreciate Taranaki Falls. Both because it was GORGEOUS and because it meant we were less than an hour from Whakapapa Village, where we ended our hike! I've got a great photo of the falls that I'll put up here, probably tomorrow. Whats up next. Next, Karin and I are going to rent canoes and do a 3-day, 2-night trip down the Whanganui River, a little southwest of here. The trip, although done by canoe, is considered another of New Zealand's Great Walks. I've been wanting to do this one since Beth told me about it at Spanish class, cuz I LOVE canoeing! A couple women who saw me looking over the materials at the Backpackers tonight (called Extreme Backpackers - I guess after all the extreme sport activities you can do around here?? Its a great place though. there is a climbing wall and a really great cafe) stopped to tell me what a wonderful time they had doing the 3-day trip too. So I am really looking forward to it. After that, I will head down to visit Anne Skoglund and tour around Wellington, then over to the South Island. I don't yet know what I'll do between Whanganui and Wellington, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something to entertain myself! There doesn't seem to be much problem with that! I think that's it for now. OH - I'll leave you with my favorite sign from the DOC Huts, recruiting volunteer DOC (Department of Conservation) Hut Wardens: "Do you have good people skills? Are you fit and helthy? Can you spell? Do you have first aid training?" How hilarious is that? Obviously someone at DOC has a sense of humor! I'll leave you with that because its 10:30 and I'm going to bed! love, Ilana :)

"Growths" by David Carson. This one's for dad - its made of old sawblades that he collected from sawmills. Apparently he's quite fascinated by the sawblade medium and has done a lot of work with them.

"Stellar" by Chiara Corbelletto

Sculpture on the Gulf, a sculpture walk of installations by New Zealand artists along the cliffs overlooking Hauraki Gulf - "Walking to the Mainland" by David McCracken - if you line yourself up correctly, it makes a bridge to the other shore.

I was chatting with the people at Fossil Bay Farm and told them that I wanted to go check out some new beaches - ya know, maybe Palm Beach or something. They told me no, you should go to Fossil Bay beach. I was a bit hesitant until they told me that the only way to get there is to take a trail back through the woods and then use a series of ropes tied to trees to scale down the cliff to the beach. Well of course when they told me that, I was all over it! I made it down there at high tide, so I sat on lichen-covered rocks overlooking the bay and listened to the waves crashing against the rock beneath me. I did take a look at the cliffs later, and unfortunately, no fossils.

Waiheke Island

This past weekend was Auckland's Anniversary (i.e. holiday) weekend, so I took off on a ferry to Waiheke Island out in the Hauraki Gulf. It is only a short, 35 minute, ferry ride, but so nice to be out there amongst the greenery and calm! Fossil Bay Farm I camped out at Fossil Bay Farm in my new tent. I found a little spot under some trees. Not the most even ground, but it was such a cute little hideaway glade that I just couldn't resist. My tent is entirely mesh, and I decided to take the chance of not using the rainfly, which paid off because I had the most wonderfully fresh and breezy bed around. I was able to use the kitchen and bathroom and such at the farm, which made things quite easy. There were some nice families staying there who were also on holiday, plus some people who live there more permanently, all of whom were really friendly. Only problem was one that I discovered the 2nd night I was there. The first night I was so exhausted, I fell asleep at 7pm (sunset wasn't even until 8:30!) and slept soundly throught the night. On Sunday night, however, I was a little more well rested and was awakened to a little farmyard call and response at 2am. The rooster would crow and then the other farm animals would respond (cock-a-doodle-doo... baaaa, quack, quack...20 seconds later - I counted... cock-a-doodle-doo... baaaa, quack, quack). This went on for 3 hours! I mentioned it the next morning and everyone was like, "oh yeah, that's normal. The rooster always crows between 2 and 5 in the morning and then he's quiet again." Aren't roosters supposed to crow with the sunrise???!! Oh well. I guess this one is one of those annoying ones that likes to be early for everything. Either that or maybe he's from further east. The Cook Islands or something. Oh well. It was definitely a bizarre experience. Waiheke Hills On Monday I decided to rent a mountain bike and head out to the eastern side of the island to check out some new beaches and do some wine tasting and an olive oil tasting (so yummy!). The sign outside the bike shop said "we love Waiheke hills." Fair enough. There are some hills around. Some people at Fossil Bay had brought their bikes over and gave me the DL on which vineyard was the best to visit in bike gear and all that important stuff. They also told me that there are some big hills and I shouldn't be afraid to walk my bike up them. Well these people looked like they were in pretty darn good shape, so that struck me as a bit odd, but whatever. So I took off on my little tour about the countryside. I headed south from Oneroa through Surfdale and Ostend out to the Rangihoua Estate where I tasted their gourmet olive oils (and yummy apples!). Then I continued on up to Onentangi Road Vineyard where I had some good (expensive - whoo!) wines on the biker couple's recommendation. After that, well, I'd like to say it was all downhill from there, but you'd have to take that in the figurative sense, cuz you certainly shouldn't be taking it literally! Man! They had some looooooooooooooong hills on that northern stretch through Onentangi and Palm Beach. They certainly kicked my butt! After the first big hill that I'd come to on the southern route, where I walked halfway up since I was intimidated by the fact that the couple had warned me about the hills, I got to the top and thought "that was not bad at all. I could totally have biked that!" So I vowed to bike the rest of the hills in their entirety. And I did! It felt so good. I definitely needed a good workout. I stopped halfway through at Palm Beach for a little ocean dip to cool off. Luckily, it was actually a bit overcast and rainy, so I wasn't frying in the saddle. Waiheke Hills - Part 2 So although the biking was my main hill-climbing experience on the island, it was not my only one. Upon my arrival, I checked the map and although I didn't know exactly where I was going, I noticed that there were a couple tramps that would take me over to the road where the farm was located. Of course I thought "Oh good! I don't have to walk along the road the whole way to get there!" I should mention that I hadn't exactly packed light for this trip. I was planning on a relaxing weekend, lolling about at the beach, so I packed lots of books to read, plan my further travels, write letters... So here I am: backpack full of books, tent, etc; bag of food in one hand, boogie board in the other, hiking it up this little mini mountain... and then DOWN the mini mountain! Uff da! I guess I forgot about the fact that roads tend to be graded fairly gently, but footpaths have a bit more leeway in that respect! All I have to say is thank goodness for switchbacks and the fact that I wasn't in a hurry! Other Stuff I will put some photos up here from the Sculpture on the Gulf walk I did. You'll like those. It was so cool. Like the sculpture garden, only on a path along the cliffs overlooking the Hauraki Gulf. I also got some homemade strawberry frozen yogurt from Schooner's Icecream Parlour (they didn't make homemade icecream, so I figured I'd go for the fro-yo). Oh. And I went to the Oneroa Sunday market where there was a French woman selling homemade croissants. Of course I bought one and it was fabulous. AND - even better - there were people selling freshly squeezed orange juice. Heaven in a glass!