Assault on Mount Taranaki

The phrase "to bite off more than you can chew" was appropriate to yesterday when we realised that we are not as young, fit and agile as we once were. 

Having been to the mountain visitor centre and read up on it we thought we would tackle Mt. Taranaki, which at 2518m is a little higher than Snowdon.  Should have realised that being the perfect volcanic cone the going just gets steeper and steeper as you go up. We started at the visitor centre at 952m.

 

The first bit up to the mountain hut at 1468m wasn't too bad over gravel track and concrete road. 

 

 

 Thereafter things got worse. First up a set of wooden steps which, Dave Robey, make the Steps of Doom in Idaho look like a walk in the park.

 

 

 

Then a scree slope which we really struggled on. Imagine trying to climb a 45 degree slope covered in marbles, that's why I'm hanging on for dear life.

 

 

I think the camera got stowed for safety reasons after that until we reached the crater which was above a sheer boulder scramble.  Common sense took over then as we realised that although it was probably only another 100m in height, the climb would have taken us another hour, it was 1330, we had taken 5 hours to get this far and we still had to descend.

The descent was painful and took us longer than the ascent.  Not many photos as we had to concentrate hard.  Not sure if the walking poles helped or not, I still fell over and ended up battered and bruised.

The guides state that the climb should take between 8 and 12 hours - we took 11.  Was it worth the pain?  Yes, the views were fantastic and it looked so beautiful in the evening sun.

 

  

Today we have nursed our aching muscles, hobbled in to town for lunch and that's it!

Huka Falls & Waitomo caves

A short account today as we're a couple of days behind and the camera wasn't up to the wonderful sights of Wautoma caves yesterday on our way from Rotorua to New Plymouth.  Starting with the falls, these are just below Lake Taupo which is NZ's largest lake and feeds NZ's longest river the Waikato.  The lake empties through a narrow rock channel at a rate of 5 Olympic swimming pools per minutes (the Kiwi information boards are very good and describe things in terms of Olympic swimming pools rather than London buses).  For those of you who don't swim, that's an awful lot of water and again the photos don't convey the impressive nature of the feature.

 Yesterday we left the generous hospitality of the Sutton household for the west coast taking in the Wautoma caves on the way. These are in a limestone outcrop amidst all the volcanic rocks that form most of the area.  They are renowned for their glow worms which of course you have to see in the dark.  Hence the lack of photos as the little instamatic, although pretty good, just isn't sophisticated enough.  We did manage to get a picture of the trails which hang down from the worms to catch their prey of insects.

 

I will have to cheat with the trip down the underground river by rubber dinghy and show you the picture from the company's website.  It's actually even more magical than shown as you're in complete darkness apart from the glow worm light.

 

 

 The second cave we went down was dry and home to a large range of stalactites and stalagmites and other fascinating limestone features.

 

 

 

 

A veritable geographer/geologist's paradise. No wonder Aberystwyth University now choose to come here on field trips.  Had to make do with The Wrekin and Wenlock Edge in my day!

Maori & Vikings

The Maori would have you believe that they are the indigenous people of New Zealand, but in fact they are very much like the Vikings in that they came from elsewhere.  Like the Vikings they were very good sailors and having navigated by the stars, winds, wave patterns, currents and looking at birds they reached NZ  around the early 14th century (so much later than the Vikings arrived in Britain) from Polynesia.  Whereas the Vikings travelled in longships, the Maori used outrigger canoes, probably twin hulled.  The one below is a model in the museum at Auckland.

 

At the Māori experience we went to we saw a single hulled canoe or waka which the Maori would have used for warfare.  It was manned by rather scary looking warriors.  To travel the South Pacific though the sailors would have needed more space to carry food, water, animals and plants as well as their personal possessions. Since they travelled in the warmer seas of the South Pacific the Maori didn't need to wear such warm clothes as the Vikings.

 

 

When they settled in New Zealand (which was given that name in 1642 by the Dutch sea captain Abel Tasman, the first European to visit) the Maori lived in small huts in villages around a central fire, not longhouses like the Vikings.

 

 

Unlike the Vikings, the Maori were more hunters than farmers. They hunted seals, dolphins and moan (large flightless birds that are now extinct). But they did grow kumara which are like sweet potatoes and we tried some when we had the hangi - a meal cooked the traditional way on hot stones which are then covered with wet cloths to produce steam.

 

 

The Maori were quite fearsome warriors like the Vikings and used long sticks, spears and short club like weapons.

 

 

But whereas the Vikings used runes the Maori had no written language. They relied entirely on the spoken word to pass on their history and stories like the Viking sagas.  They didn't have access to metals like the Vikings, so rather than produce intricate jewellery they produced amazing carvings.

 



 

 

 

 

Rotorua day 2

Today's post consists of two parts, this for the general viewer then part 2 for schools studying the Vikings (no they didn't get this far - it's a comparison between Vikings and Maoris following our evening Maori experience entertainment).

So, after a leisurely start, it being Auckland Day and therefore a Bank Holiday in Rotorua, we went off to the local Moors Valley equivalent.

 

But about 10 times the size of Moors Valley in terms of acreage and size of trees as they were redwoods again.

 

 

The bike tracks were graded rather like ski runs and some required serious protective clothing. The one below was quite tame and is good for spectators now that the forest around it has been cut.  Look closely at the middle bump to spot the cyclist.

 

 

Being responsible, middle aged parents though we stuck to the footpaths and climbed up to the trig point that overlooks Rotorua and the geothermal area for which it has become renowned.

 

 





The evening entertainment at one of the local Maori villages for an "authentic traditional Maori experience" warrants a separate post so that they can be compared to the Vikings, currently being studied by Year 3.

First Day out in Rotorua

A leisurely start, a call to a highly efficient Tourist Information Office and the obligatory late morning coffee saw us (with Chris and Sally) walking through the woods to the Hamurana Spring.  Weather not too good but a days downpour made a welcome break from the daily sunshine we've had since we've been out here - at least the rain is warm!

 

Water from the spring was exceptionally clear and it is believed that it takes 70 years for the water at its source to percolate through the volcanic rock to the spring, delivering 2 Olympic size swimming pools of water / hour to Lake Rotorua.

The water also feeds the Dancing Sands Spring where it comes through the sand in 'bubbles' and hence the name of the spring.



Having seen the feed into Lake Rotorua we went and saw the water leaving the lake over 3 waterfalls, the largest being the Okere Falls, as well as the adrenalin seekers flying over the falls in kayaks and rubber boats - sorry present company excluded from these mad antics.

 

 

Of course another well known feature of the volcanic landscape is the hot mud flats, which are in abundance in the Rotorua area, leaving that well known smell of rotten eggs in the air - we drove out to Waiotapu Geothermal Valley.

 

 



 

 

 

Leaving Paihia for Rotorua

We decided to spend an extra day in Paihia which meant we had to do the journey south to Rotorua in a day - in fact it took us 8 hours, including a couple of stops.  Starting out at 7.30 on the Saturday morning we were spending a few days with Chris Sutton and his family, another old RN friend of Colin's from many years ago.  One of the stops involved taking on some necessary sustenance and of course the all important coffee.

One of the highlights of the journey, notwithstanding battling our way through the traffic on the outskirts of Auckland, was the art nouveau decorative layout of the public conveniences (Hundertwasser toilets) in Kawakara - excellent use of ceramics and coloured glass bottles!