Camping and hiking

At the end of the last post, I had just finished an excellent day on the slopes of a volcano (Sunday, 21 Sept). In order to pay Andy back for the lift tickets I treated him to dinner of his choice. After walking around town several times, he finally settled on Thai. It was a lovely restraunt and the food was excellent. Andy had a pink milkshake, I had a beer. Andy's dish came with bread sails, mine came without. Aside from the meat in his dish (mine was vegetarian) Andy really questioned who the man at the table was! (hmm, the joke is probably funnier in person!)

Anyhow, we had an early night - as Andy had to work the next day, bright and early. While I didn't have to be in Rotorua (an hour away) for several more days, I didn't want to be in Andy's hair while he was working. I got up and said goodbye to Andy before he left for work (Monday, 22 Sept), and then I had a lazy morning of reading and packing before heading south a ways. I took the same roads from the previous day, stopping briefly in Turangi to use their library internet and information center. On the way to Kaimanawa Forest Park - just east of Tongariro National Park (where snowboarding is located) - I stopped at the trout hatchery and Tongariro river. It was a small hatchery, but had beautiful footpaths and good information boards. Rainbow trout is bred for stocking a kids pond and as emergency backup in case of disruption to the natural runs. In the Kiamanawas I found an excellent free campsite and hiked around bit. Not really much worth writing about - but great weather for chilling in the woods.

I woke up Tuesday morning (23 Sept) to a good covering of ice on my tent, but I had slept well and warm. I took my time reading in the sun while everything melted and dried and then started roadtripping north (I didn't want to get to far south, as I didn't want to burn gas driving north again to Rotorua). While I was tempted to go back to Taupo and stay with Andy - and pick up the ice packs I had left behind - I knew the weather would hold out for camping and I wanted to drive around the other side of the lake. It was mostly beautiful green mountains/hills being grazed by sheep and cattle, but it did have several great view points looking over the massive lake. However, I have probably been in NZ to long, as the drive didn't really impress me - its all old hat! While there are lots of waterfalls marked on my driver's map - none of them are marked on the roads. I had been warned that there were a lot of private roads in the area, so I didn't investigate either (yeah, what kind of explorer am I?).

Since I didn't find any places to walk around on the way around the lake, I headed for the Pureora Forest Park. I had been told it was the last virgin native forest on the north island! I easily found the connector road and was looking forward to a lovely, though gravelly, drive. After a bit of driving, I found I was leaving the forest and entering clear cut/regrowth areas. What?! I thought this was a virgin forest, not logging?! Maybe I had missed a sign and not turned off one of the sideroads I was supposed to? No, they definitely would have signed the visitors center. I kept driving, just sticking to the main road everytime I came to a fork. Pretty soon, I started seeing big trees again and a sign that I was near the visitor's center. I arrived at the visitors center and talked with an office lady. It turns out that logging was in fact operating in the area years ago, but in a protest in 1978 created a large enough stir that parts of the forest were kept in tact. I used the forest maps and the office lady to get a game plan on short walks in the area and where the campsites were. I had learned (via text earlier in the day) that Bobbie's plans had changed; I wouldn't be meeting her in Rotorua the next day (Wed) after all - I would be meeting her, and a mate, on Friday. I knew I should probably set up camp and a pack trip into the woods the next day, but my lunch was setting to well and it was to early to set up camp; as both sites were in the hot sun. Yep - heat. Spring had definitely arrived and this day was particularly warm with very little wind. So, I completed a few short walks - viewing the old tractors abandoned in the woods, as well as the 1978 protest site and a big, tall tower that let me see into the forest canopy.

While meandering those short walks, I found my first silver fern! Or actually, I found the branches of the silverfern. The silver fern looks like a normal fern from the top, but when you look at the bottom of the leaves they are silver white. It's an icon here in NZ. Try as I might, I never did find an actual silver fern plant. I found out several days later that I was looking to low. The silver fern is pretty much a tree!

I started towards Rotorua with a few vague campsites in mind. Pretty soon I found myself driving familiar roads! I was taking part of the route I had driven months back when Bobbie and I were heading to Taupo for skydiving! I found that quite humorous - so much for not backtracking! I ended up finding another free campsite on the banks of the Waikato River (yep, the one that comes through Lake Taupo). I was just above a damn, so the river was wide and calm. Quite nice. While I didn't notice an elevation change, I must have come down a bit, because the night was absolutely beautiful. I don't think I even had dew on the outside of the tent in the morning!

Wednesday (24 Sept) started out well enough, but ended in luck and frustration. There were a few campsites on my map that were near Rotorua, but still south and out of the city. I was virtually back in Taupo before I took the connector road towards Rotorua. On my way down this road I decided to check out Orakei Korako thermal area. I could see the white and pink landscape steaming across the wide lake-like river (still the Waikato apparently). The $30 ticket to walk through the landscape seemed pretty steep - but the brochure pictures looked cool. I knew I had plenty of time to kill, now that I wasn't meeting Bobbie. While I questioned, several times, if I had overpaid, the expereience was really quite nice. The entire area was covered in colorful hot water algae and steam rose off the water and rocks - making me feel like I was walking above a bowl of soup. I saw a geyser start and stop many times (though the big neat one had decided not to go off while I was there - which is cool, some places put soap in their geysers to make them regular!). I saw my first ever mud pools and went into a large cave where you could watch bubbles rising from the bottom of the pool (which, to my frustration, was impossible to photograph - if only I had brought my underwater camera!). It really was quite nice, and the cool thing about the ferry across the river was that you weren't timed. You could spend the entire day walking the loop trails if you wanted; when you were done you just pushed a button on the wharf and the ferry would shortly arrive! It was really quite convenient.

I was still wondering if I had spent to much, seeing sights that I might be able to find for free as I neared Rotorua, when I decided to take a detour and see if I could find the "boiling pools" marked on my map. I had to go through the small town of Reporoa in order to find them. Just as I was entering the only roundabout in town (NZ is full of roundabouts - which is funny, since half the residents don't know how to use them) my car died! Yep, just died. Okay - no worries, just start it again as I'm coasting. Yeah - well, it didn't start! What?! Luckily I was able to coast my way out of the roundabout and into a parking spot! I was smack in the middle of the town, perfectly parked in front of the corner shop. I thought about popping my hood - but really, what would I know? I was pretty sure the engine would look exactly the same as it had 2 days preveiously when I had checked the oil and belts in Taupo.

With nothing else to do, I decided to follow the public toilet signs first and find a mechanic second. Funny enough, 2 blocks down I walked past a mechanic shop! After failing to find the toilets, I went back to the mechanics. They were having thier morning tea (which of course they offered to me, but I politely declined). I used their facilities and chatted with them while I waited for break to be over. Eventually the owner and head mechanic walked back with me to my car. He listened to the sounds my car made as I tried to start it - or more accuretely, the lack of sounds - and diagnosed it as a dead battery. What? But my battery should charge while I'm driving? Yep, probably an alternator problem then. Ugh... So, he charged my battery enough to drive the car to the shop where he plugged the battery into a charger. He determined that the alternator was definitely not charging the battery and his wife/receptionist found me a cheap used alternator in Rotorua. They figured the battery, after being charged for several hours would get me to the wreckers, where they could switch out the part. The wife was just getting ready to try to sweet talk the guy into giving me a cheap labor rates (seeing as how I was a "damsel in distress") when the other mechanic said "what about this plug?". What plug? Well, he jams the plug coming out of the alternator in real tight and.... low and behold, the dang thing works! Apparently all my gravel road driving had caught up with my old car and worked the connection loose. The mechanic confirmed that my alternator was indeed charging my battery and said I was good to go. I asked the charge, and, of course, they told me it was no worries - they would just "charge the locals more" ;-) Wow - how lucky am I? I mean yeah, it sucks that my car broke - but it could have crapped out on me in the middle of no where! Luckily I had joined the AA (automotive association - like AAA in the US), so if I had been in the middle of nowhere, I could have gotten a free tow (assuming I had mobile reception!).

So, with another good encounter with friendly Kiwi's, I set off on my merry way - all thoughts of boiling pools knocked right out of my head. I spent the rest of the day driving around. I think I got over my distaste for backtracking that day - as my attempt to find "maori rock carvings" on the map led me on a goose chase (I'm sure if I had stopped to ask somebody in one of the towns I might have had some luck - but my sociability level had been used up with the mechanics - I don't mind talking with people, but I have a really hard time going up to strangers and asking random questions, particularly about Maori culture). Anyhow, after a frustrating time of driving around, driving to a "historical fort reserve" and finding no building (reserve = park, and that's all this was), driving back for gas, and then arriving at a "camping site" only to find it was a built up swimming hot pools with lots of people and loads of kids with camping sites for too much money (absolutely lovely - just not what I was looking for). So, I drove back, again, and found a cool campsite off of Lake Rerewhakaaitu (pretty much back where I had been earlier in the day).

It's funny. I very much enjoy falling asleep to the sound of rain on a roof and I do love the sound of rain on a tent, but for the life of me I just cannot fall asleep to the sound of rain on a tent; in fact, I think I actually wake up when it rains on my tent! So, after falling asleep to the bleating of sheep and the crazy calls of various birds, I spent a good hour or so awake in the middle of the night listening to the rain. When I woke up to a gray light in the morning I immediately noticed the absence of rain. It was 5:30 (Thursday 25 Sept), but I knew that if I put off getting my gear packed the rain was bound to start again. I was packed and ready to go by 6:30, and still no rain. In fact, it appeared to be clearing! I had originally camped at this site because it was close to the trail up Mount Tarawera, but I had found the night before that the mountain has been closed by the owners - though I was more than welcome to take an ATV tour with them! So, I decided to go up Rainbow Mountain instead........