Ready or Not…

I started out today by not knowing what the heck my plan was for today. I hate that. I did some research last night and dog-eared some items but never actually made a solid plan. Thankfully I woke up naturally at about 6am. I made a cup of tea (it’s starting to make more sense why people put milk in their tea given how dark all the tea provided over here has been!) and pulled out my trusty two sheets of paper, pen, guide, and iPad. And yes, exactly two sheets of paper. I, apparently, did not pack ANYTHING to write on for this trip, all I had were two printouts, one with a rough list of activities and which towns I was in each night and one with a very very very generic map of the North Island. These two pieces of paper comprise my sole travel notes and itineraries, no electronics are used in the listing of my days’ treks! While working on the day’s itinerary I went to book the Class 5 whitewater rafting trip for tomorrow (as part of this you actually drop down a 7m waterfall!!!) to join the woman I met last night but alas, with the heavy rains the water levels are too high and it was cancelled. I exchanged some texts with my new friend about plans falling apart (she had not even gotten notification yet from the company) and decided it was for the best anyways as it would have meant an adjustment to my itinerary 😦

I left Rotorua and headed towards Taupo, my first stop being the Orakei Korako geothermal park and cave, about a 45 minute drive from my place in Rotorua. I made pretty damn good time until the last 6 or 7 miles, when I ended up behind a tractor on a windy country road going about 30 mph. At first I was getting frustrated and then I started soaking in my surroundings and asked myself what the hell was wrong with me for caring about a little slowdown. The scenery was gorgeous, I am in love with this country. I embraced the situation and decided to stop to really examine or snap a pic of sites and animals along the road. Sometimes stopping and putting my car in park right in the middle of the highway, there was no one behind me. I made friends with a horse and photographed some cows who all turned and looked at me like, “Seriously lady? Have you never seen a cow before?” I’ve certainly seen cows before but I’ve never felt judged by them before!

Upon arriving at Orakei I found that you have to actually take a little ferry across the lake to the geothermal area. Love it. Orakei blew my mind. Yes, this was the 4th (I think) geothermal park I’ve visited but they are all so unique an different. At the forefront of the area is the Emerald Terrace, a silica terrace with some areas as brittle as only 20 mm thick. Near the lake’s edge there are two geysers, the Diamond and the Sapphire, said only to erupt occasionally and randomly. This was the first feature I approached, I’d been there about 5 minutes, when there she goes, Sapphire decided to erupt and give me a show! She’s not a huge geyser but none-the-less, I felt special that the earth decided to perform in my presence.

I stopped at one lookout point and met a sweet couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I know this as the wife was eager to share this as she asked if I would snap their picture. I congratulated them and she teased that now that they’ve made it to 50 they think it’s going to last. However, at 25 years they renegotiated their marriage contract for the next 25, so now it was time for another negotiation, and New Zealand was one of her conditions. I like these people. Later on down the path I met a family from Singapore. They were awesome, I saw them trying to take a picture and so I moved to make sure I wasn’t spoiling their shot. They noticed my movement and came over to thank me and explain that they didn’t mean to inconvenience me. Of course, I didn’t feel as though they had. We chatted for a few and the father asked me if it was a school holiday that allowed me to travel like this. I thanked him for the compliment of thinking that I was young enough for a school holiday to affect my plans! Following the logic of my guide at Hobbiton, Singapore has skyrocketed to the top of my list of places to visit. This was the second family from Singapore I’ve met in New Zealand and both were wonderful.

The most awe-inspiring feature for me at Orakei was the Ruatapu Cave. One of only TWO geothermally situated caves known in the world! The origin of Ruatapu is still uncertain, while some theorize it was a result of a giant hydrothermal eruptions, others theorize it was the result of a cave-in. I was not prepared for how much this cave would move me. Standing on a platform before that cave it was as if all time and space had come to a halt. I wish I could describe the sense of peace and serenity that flooded over me. It’s not that it was loud at Orakei, it was extremely quiet save for the bubbling sounds of the mud and pools and the calls of the birds. But Ruatapu blocked out the entire world, creating the greatest sense of still and quiet I have ever experienced. I was mesmerized and transfixed. I felt embraced by the earth and nature. Really, it’s not that much to look at, but it was amazing. It was hard for me to peel myself away and continue my trek. It is hard for me to not have the words to describe this. It is also hard for me to not keep writing about it but I have to be up in about 5 1/2 hours so I must be judicious with my time writing tonight.

Once I was able to peel myself away from Orakei, I made my way into Taupo and stopped to visit the Lava Glass blown-glass garden. Lame. Lame lame lame. Once you’ve seen the works of Chihuly I guess most blown glass pales in comparison. The whole garden was about the size of my backyard and felt very basic. I’ve blown glass before, if I can look at features and think that I could have done it myself then no bueno. There was a great little cafe though and I had the Tree Hugger platter for lunch, the unanimous favorite among all the staff. A healthy veggie meal of grilled haloumi atop roasted mushrooms and beets. Delicious.

From there I was able to check in to my AirBnB, always a relief to be able to drop my bags so I don’t have to worry about them in parking lots. My gut reaction was that I was NOT as impressed with this AirBnB as I have been here. Apparently the last three nights I was AirBnB spoiled. I opened the lockbox and let myself in. And then felt super annoyed when the host who lives in the attached unit upstairs came down with her children to greet me. I wanted to get moving and didn’t want to waste my time talking, and, like I said, I wasn’t loving this place with it’s ugly brown carpet and musty smell. The rain was starting to come down hard and I wanted to head out to hike to Huka falls.

The last couple days the rain has been sweeping through but never lasting more than a few minutes or getting too intense and then it clears up again. I peeled myself away from the host and headed out for my Huka hike. The rain was not letting up. Fine, I donned my rain coat, threw my pack on my back and hit the trail. From where I parked the signage and guides all said it was a 90-minute walk, each way, to the falls. I started hiking and the rain persisted. And persisted. And persisted. And came down harder. And harder. The trail was getting muddy but was manageable. This was the worst rain I’ve hiked in. Within minutes my shorts were completely soaked. I wasn’t enjoying it or even getting to savor the magnificent river I was hiking alongside as I was keeping my head down to watch for flooded patches of trail and keep the rain out of my eyes. And then there was thunder. Lots of loud cracking thunder. What the hell was I doing out here? I was soaked and starting to feel pretty down in the dumps. Many times I thought that I should just turn back but then would argue with myself that I am not a quitter. And then argue with myself some more that I don’t have to prove anything to myself. After a while these crappy feelings intensified as I realized my shoes were not as watertight as I thought and both they and my feet were soaking wet. Ugh. Now what? How the hell do I dry them out? I want to hike every day on this trip. I need those shoes. My damn bathing suit didn’t even dry hanging overnight because of the humid weather, how the hell was I going to dry hiking shoes?! At one point I stopped for a moment and did take in the scenery. I had not seen anyone else on the trails for a while. In an attempt to lift myself up, I loudly proclaimed out loud, “I’m fucking doing this!”And just as the words came out of my mouth an older couple came around a corner in front of me. Awesome, now I’m wet AND people probably think I’m crazy. As I was feeling sorry for myself and stressing I noticed that the river was starting to change characteristics and there were little rapids along the banks. I took this as a sign I was making progress towards the falls. I had not checked the time nor my mileage since starting the trek. Making progress or not, I still felt pretty yucky.

And then it all came together. Another 100 yards or so later I came out from behind some large foliage and holy shit, I was there. I stepped onto the footbridge over the falls and like a goddamn disney movie the rain stopped as if on cue. I looked down at my stats. I had made the 90 minute hike in 45 minutes. I took in the falls, hiked a little bit past them and then turned back. The rain did not return and the skies actually cleared and turned blue (for a while at least) on my way back. FYI – I could have walked to Huka falls in about ten minutes from my AirBnB. But that would really mean just walking to the parking lot land a viewing deck. I wanted a hike.

 

And also FYI – Huka Falls was featured in one of the Lord of the Rings movies where a hobbit dude escapes something by going down the falls in a barrel.

As I made my way back to the lot I met a woman who was just about to start the trek. I don’t remember what made us start talking but I knew right away she was American. I asked and she confirmed. Her name is Kyra and she lives in Alaska. We talked hiking for a bit and she mentioned she was doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing tomorrow, this is a 13-ish mile full day actual Alpine hike. Its the only thing other than Hobbiton I really knew I wanted to do on this trip. Kyra was also traveling alone. Before I knew it I blurted out, “Do you want company for the crossing?!” And she, surprised, said yes. We exchanged contact info and said we’d plan on it.

I headed back to my AirBnB to try to dry off. How was I going to dry these shoes? And why did I say I would do the Alpine crossing tomorrow? First things first, I sent a message to my AirBnB host to see if there was a hair dryer I could borrow to even dry my shoes. Even better, she said that I could use their clothes dryer. Double-score since I had also put in a load of laundry upon my arrival and had no idea how it would get dry with this humid weather (this AirBnB has a washer but no dryer). Score!

I continued to think about the alpine crossing and it really does make more sense for me to do it the day after tomorrow. The weather will be slightly warmer and I’m staying about an hour closer to the trail head tomorrow night. I got a message from Kyra a short while later about meeting for dinner. We arranged a time and I let her know that I would not be joining her on the trek and would be doing it the following day. She responded with disappointment. Surprising to me as I didn’t think she was that into the idea when I brought it up upon our initial meeting. We met for dinner and lo and behold, I am now going to go ahead and do the trek with her tomorrow. I had wanted an extra day to get closer and prepare myself but ready or not, here I go! I have to leave Taupo at around 5am I believe to get there. As soon as I’m done writing I actually need to confirm my departure time and get some sleep!

Tomorrow morning bright (probably still dark actually) and early I leave Taupo and will be staying in Turangi tomorrow night. I currently don’t have an accommodation booked for the following night, I should get on that. And for the record, my AirBnB host’s dryer sucks. My clothes are still damp and my shoes still soaking wet. I’m hoping that they will dry under the car heater on full blast during my drive tomorrow. If not, well, the trek is really going to suck!