Tongario to Wellington March 30, 2011

Howard recommended the road less traveled to Wellington. So off we went, down a rural highway with hills looming, covered in short grass and lots of sheep grazing on it. We had lots of twists and turns on the road and Mike did great job of driving. The terrain reminded us of the high country in the American west.

As we emerged at last from the hill country, the land flattened out with more cows than sheep. We did pass signs advertising "sheep poo" for $5 a bag and later on, when we were in cow country, the ads were for "cow poo" for $1 a bag.

Back to the cost of food here in New Zealand. Milk is $4 for 2 litres. Meat is also expensive, especially when you consider the number of farms that we passed. New Zealanders like their dairy products and they like their automobiles. The costs of dairy products have been increasing and Easter chocolate is really expensive this year.

We are getting used to the language. If you are talking about a web address, it is pronounced nzed. Z is zed.

We have a wonderful hotel room on the top floor of an office building. The view from the balcony is very nice and the room has a small kitchen with dishwasher and a washer/dryer combo. The owner stopped us in the hallway to ask how things were going. This is a very friendly country.

Volcanoes March 29, 2011

It was cold this morning. Frosty as they say here. We are off to visit the volcanoes again. We are hiking to Taranaki Falls, a much shorter route than the Tongariro Passing. It really is a wonderful day for a hike. Cool and clear once again, with morning fog hanging over the distant valleys. As we started down the track, we were passed by a group of English teenagers and two leaders. They were headed to the falls to do some abseiling. It is another word for rappelling. We looked over the edge and were amazed at their bravery to go down the face of this cliff, with the waterfall just feet away. At the bottom of the falls there was a small crowd watching. The first girl backed off, but the next one hooked up to the rope and came down. The crowd cheered.

The trail gave us a great view of Ngauruhoe (or Mt. Doom from the Lord of the Rings).

After lunch we headed back up the road to where it ends at Iwikau Village on Mt. Ruapehu. A short uphill hike took us to a wonderful view of Mt. Doom. Some filming of the Lord of the Rings was done from this spot. Two chair lifts later we were way up the mountain. The view is not panoramic as the ticket lady assured Mike, but there were stunning views down the valley.

Signs posted on the poles holding up the chairlift reminded us that we were near an active volcano. If the sirens went off, you were directed to go to the ridges, as lava flows down the valley.

An observation on the camper van rentals in New Zealand; there are lots of different companies. We like this one; Juicy. You can also find Britz and Backpacker. Large camper vans and small mini vans and stationwagons all with at the least, beds built in. There are lots of campgrounds, but as Stuart, our wine guide from the first day said, it is expensive to use the campers and you can go to a campground and just rent a camper for the night.

Rotorua to Tongario March 28, 2011

We are off to a National Park and World Heritage Area. Tongario. It is a beautiful day, cool, crisp autumn weather. Before leaving Rotorua, we went up the Skyline Gondola. What a beautiful view. It gave you a sense of the volcanic nature of the area when you looked out to Lake Rotorua and see the caldera.

On top of the mountain you see more evidence of the madness in this country for extreme sports. There is a sky swing that sends you out over the edge at 150kph (95mph) and a series of luge runs downhill. If the Schnierle family were here, they would be riding everything. Mike really wanted to do the luge run but I said it is too early in the vacation for such a thing!

We are off to Tongario. It is a nice drive down to Taupo, where we lunch lakeside. You can see the volcanoes at the end of the lake. As we got closer, the volcanoes really loomed over the terrain. We decided on some hikes after getting information at the visitor center. We ruled out the Tongario Crossing; it is almost 20 km. There are a number of shorter hikes that we are looking at for tomorrow.

Rotorua Thermal Features March 27, 2011

This morning we went off to Wai-O-Tapu to see the geyser and other thermal features like those at Yellowstone. The geyser erupts every day at 10:15. I was amazed at that; better than Old Faithful. We arrived at the geyser and I was not surprised to see a small cone, seating auditorium style in close proximity to the geyser and a ranger type guy with a microphone. So the story goes, there was a prison camp nearby about a 100+ years ago and the prisoners discovered the hot bubbling water. They realized that they could wash their cloths without having to go to the trouble of heating water so they dumped some soap into the water and the result was a reaction and the geyser came to life. The guy with the microphone explained all this then dumped some less toxic soap like stuff into the cone and we had our eruption.

After that excitement we walked around the park and admired the mud pots, fumeroles, volcanic craters with all kinds of colors and the overwhelming smell of sulfur.

Leaving there we traveled back to Rotorua and visited the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Animal Park. We saw lots of rainbow trout, birds, some amphibians and the elusive kiwi. The kiwi were kept in a special habitat. You had to be quiet, use no flash or other photography and understand they were not active during the day. Despite all that, we did catch a glance of two of the critters, one asleep and the other foraging at the back of the habitat.

Auckland Bus March 25, 2011

We decided to discover the bus today There is a loop bus that took us downtown to the sky tower. You could spend $225 to bungee jump off the tower, somewhat less to be tethered and walk on the sky platform or spend $28 to go to the observation deck with floor to ceiling windows, the latter is what Mike did. While he was doing that, I perused the gift shop on the ground floor!

As we left the building we saw one person land after jumping from above. We waited to see the next person come down. You jump over the side and are suspended for several moments before you free fall down to the bottom. The gal coming over the side screamed the whole way down. She landed and jumped up as tho nothing bothered her.

We then walked down to the yacht basin and decided that there were wonderful restaurants here but way too expensive for lunch, so ended up at the food court in a nearby mall.

Back on the loop bus, the long way around the city to the Auckland Museum. The museum has a nice collection of clothing in exhibits of design and decorative arts organized by decades. They also have a great Maori collection and a third floor that is dedicated to WWII, which we did not have the time to view.

A note about the bus. As each person got off the bus, they thanked the bus driver.

At dinner we had a nice server who was from Brazil. He came here to learn English and stayed on, but is hoping to move to Vancouver. New Zealand has many young people come here to learn English and one of the consequences of the earthquake in Christchurch is the concern about coming to this country to study English. Quite a few Japanese students died in the quake in Christchurch.

Discovering New Zealand Wine March 24, 2011

Wine day! We walked about 2 miles to the Ferry Terminal for our trip to Waiheke
Island, a 40 minute boat ride from Auckland. A nice ride there with great views of the city as we were leaving. Waiheke Island is actually a part of the city of Auckland and many folks commute each day via ferry. We could see by the number of cars parked at the island ferry terminal that there would be a mini rush hour just getting to and from the ferry.

We were booked for a wine tour with Anada tours and Stuart was our driver/guide. He was very knowledgeable about the island and about wine. There are about 17 small vineyards on Waiheke producing award winning wines. Our first stop was at Kennedy Point, an organic winery. A small operation owned by two Americans from Hawaii. Their winemaker is shared with another small operation. He helps hand pick the grapes. The grapes were ready for harvesting this weekend but rain is forecasted, and that could cause problems. This year may not be a good year for wine, but the past three years were very good. We tasted several wines and olive and avocado oil as well.

Off to the next winery, Obsidian. This was even smaller than Kennedy Point and had lovely wines. We bought two bottles here. A note about our companions on this tour. Two Australian couples our age and three Chinese, a daughter who spoke beautiful English and her father and brother. The Australians were very knowledgeable about wines (oenophiles?). We ended up at the smallest vineyard, Jurassic Ridge. Bought a Pinot Grigio blush and a Cabernet Franc. The latter has been around forever as a grape, but always mixed with another grape to make wine. This vineyard specializes in single varietal wines. Uncle John, I learned a lot about wine today!

We had lunch in a little beach side town called Oneora. After lunch we walked down to the beach. The wind was blowing, but the water was warm. Back to the ferry for our trip to the city. Dinner at an Irish pub, the Bog. Beach towns are the same all over as are Irish pubs. I wonder if there is a supplier out there that specializes in furnishings for Irish pubs??

Arriving Down Under March 21-23, 2011

Harrisburg to Cincinnati to LA to Auckland, NZ

The travel gods were smiling on us. We had an uneventful flight on each of the legs of
this trip. Arrived in LA to find our bags arrived as well. Security at LA was not too bad.
Mike had his carryon rescreened and they had the full body screening in operation. The
wait for our N. Z. flight was interminable. That flight was not too bad; exit row not
worth the money. Both of us slept; me from exhaustion, Mike from his pill, so we were
OK when we arrived in Auckland. It was sunny and warm and very green.

It is always a challenge to drive in another country and and more of a challenge when one is
driving on the other(rather than wrong) side of the road. Made it to the motel in one
piece. Everyone from the customs agents to the car rental folks reminded us of the
difference in driving and crossing the road on foot.

We are near Parnell Road, which is lined with shops and restaurants, sort of like
Georgetown in DC. Found a nice Italian chain restaurant for dinner. Food is very
expensive here and this was a nice medium priced place to eat. It was full of young
people out for a meal; all sorts of ethnic groups represented and all talking a mile a
minute.