New Zealand North Island - March 15 - March 19

Tongariro National Park was NZ's first national park and is made up of three mountains, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu which are all still active volcanoes. Both Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu were used for Modor's Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings but primarily Ngauruhoe. Mt. Ruapehu was the last mountain to erupt and that was in 1995. We arrived at the park early afternoon and set about getting information about the tramp we wanted to do the next day, the Tongariro Crossing, and finding a place to park the RV for the night. It rained that afternoon but that was ok because we were gathering the info and preparing for "the crossing". The Tongariro Crossing is a 18.5 km, 7-8 hour hike excluding photo stops, food stops and heart stops. It is often described as the best one day hike in NZ and climbs the saddle between Tongariro and Ngauruhoe and continues up to the Red Crater (1900meters) by climbing the Devil's staircase before it drops down to the Emerald Lakes and then on to Blue Lake.


That day dawned clear and sunny which was quite lucky on our part because we were told that the area gets on average 190 days of rain and, even on other days, can be heavily overcast. We took a shuttle bus from Whakapapa Village at 7:00 am to the start of the tramp and started hiking. This tramp is graded as "challenging" and they are definately correct. We now know how the Devil's staircase go its name.... However, it is also awesome with amazing and very different scenery from your typical hike. You are hiking up to, into and across craters and lakes formed by the volcanoes. There is absolutely no vegetation and it is what you would think you would find if you were walking on the surface of the moon, but the colors are what really bowl you over. The pictures can't really duplicate the feeling of being there.











The other hike we did in the park was to Taranaki Falls. This was an easy 3 hour hike and was a nice place to have lunch and take some photos. We got back to the van in the afternoon and left the park and headed towards Wanganui. As usual, we took the longer, and what we thought was to be the scenic route, along the Whanganui River but that didn't pan out. So after a long, bumpy, dusty, dirt road ride we arrived in the town of Wanganui and parked for the night outside of town at the fishing and surfing beach. It's all good! The next day happened to be St. Patrick's day and as the luck of the Irish would have it, there was one Irish pub in town and we just happened to find it. Can you imagine that!









New Zealand was coming to a close and we had one more day to get close enough to Wellington to return the RV and make our flight. So we drove to a park in the town of Paekakariki, packed up the suitcases and backpacks sitting beachside and then checked into an RV camp for the night. One last barbecue, one last bottle of wine ( a very good one by the way), one last cigar under the stars and say goodbye New Zealand......



Things New Zealand.........

Sheep and cattle rule the land
Kids go to school barefoot
Two lane roads and one lane bridges
Roundabouts
Rugby is the national pastime, followed closely by cricket and then temporary roadwork
Thanks or thank you is "cheers"
Thank you very much is "cheers" with a thumb up!
Birds that don't fly
Fish and Chips are everywhere
An RV is called a Campervan
Campervans reproduce on the South Island and rarely travel to the North Island.
A hike is called a Tramp
A Cooler is called a "Chilly Bag"
Sand Flies Suck!!! ( so do Possums)
Great Walks are really huge journeys
Peppers are called "capsicums" and pumpkin is good.
As they say, "lovely"
They have NO pretzels........
Kiwis are all very proud of their country.
Bad pizza is everywhere!
Flat whites are great
Great vine tomatoes in Feb.

Kiwi's are awesome people

We really loved New Zealand and the people!
NO WORRIES.......