Rotorua, Taupo, Tongariro & Waitomo Caves

Sunrise at Tongariro

Brad & Mount Doom

70 degrees celcius!

Devil's Bath (the green colour in the crater is from the combination of minerals)

Lady Knox Geyser

Fly fishing lessons near Lake Rotorua

Going into Waitomo caves

Glowworm webs

The middle of the north island is a geothermal mecca. It's got several volcanoes and some major geothermal hot spots. The geothermal activity in Rotorua is at the surface in much of the town- which means every hotel has natural thermal hot pools! We visited two geothermal parks and took fly fishing lessons.
The best golf course in New Zealand is located in Taupo-and although we did go golfing, it wasn't there (because much to Brad's dismay it was under repair for the whole week of our trip!) Taupo is a base for hiking the Tongariro Crossing- a day walk which traverses between the volcanoes Mount Tongariro and Mount Nguaruhoe (which is actually a vent of Mt Tongariro- and is also known as Mount Doom- in the Lord of the Rings). Many of the scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed in Tongariro National park. None of the volcanoes are very active at the moment (although Mt Ruapehu- also part of Taupo's volcano zone- is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and erupted in 1996 and 2007- and it has a ski field on it!) We did a 3 day hike through the park (one of New Zealand's great walks- the Tongariro Northern Circuit, which includes the Crossing) and although the weather wasn't the best for a couple of the days, the hike was quite spectacular.
After that we headed to Waitomo caves and went "black water rafting" (actually it's more like floating). The caves are full of glow worms, and are very long with rivers running through them. Waitomo means "water passing through a hole" in Maori.

Harper River Pinnacles

This Saturday was a grey day in Christchurch, but it was sunny and beautiful by the Harper river- about 1.5 hours drive away. It's an easy walk along the Harper river to pinnacles. The Pinnacles are made from geologically young rock (probably 3–7 million years old) consisting of alluvial sands and gravels. Erosion by rain water washes away the exposed soil and forms the
pinnacle shapes. Pretty neat!

Mt. Grey and Mt. Thomas

From the top of Mount Thomas

From the top of Mount Grey

With the Port Hills unsafe due to loose boulders from the earthquake, we've retreated to the foothills for day trips. There are some beautiful trails- but I go so often that I'm quickly running out of options that are within an hour from Christchurch (this was already my 2nd time up Mt. Thomas).
On Saturday I did a navigation course with the tramping club in the hills in dense fog (so no pictures) while Brad enjoyed a sunny day of golf below the clouds (usually, it's the opposite!)

You know you're from Christchurch when...

One of our friends came up with these. It's funny and sad at the same time (and quite true!):

1. You use the terms "liquefaction" and "seismic design" in casual conversation
2. Digging a hole and pooping in your garden is no longer weird (well- luckily Brad and I left town and returned when we were allowed to flush again- so we never had to do that. They've been pretty quick to get in port-a-loos to places with no sewage service, but for some people it's still a reality even now).
   
3. Your mayor describes the city as "munted"
   
4. Weaving through car-sized potholes on the street is no longer weird
5. Going to Wellington to escape earthquakes makes sense (Wellington is on a massive fault line and is by far the most seismically active city in New Zealand)
   
6. A shower is heaven
7. You have a preference of which kind of silt you'd rather shovel, dry or wet
8. You see tanks driving around town
9. You are always noting what you are under or near (to make sure you aren't crushed in the event of large earthquake)
   
10. Due to frequent aftershocks, you can sleep through a 4.5 magnitude earthquake (well- that one's true for some of us, but for others the aftershocks mean they aren't really sleeping at all!)
    

Mt. Somers

With all the recreation centers closed, tramping club trips cancelled, and many of the beaches that are right in Christchurch contaminated for the time being, a lot of us were getting antsy- me included! At least Brad's home golf course is unaffected by liquefaction- and still open.
A few of us from the tramping club went to Mt Somers. It is a beautiful beech forested mountain area with great tracks and huts. It was good to get out of town for the day and forget about everything going on in Christchurch.

Stewart Island & Rakiura Track

Plane from Invercargill to Stewart Island

Kakas

The town on Stewart Island (Oban)

Remnant of log hauler

We had been told that Stewart island was a cold, windy and rainy place and we had the impression that it was a stark and desolate island- after all, it is nearly sub-antarctic. Those notions were completely wrong! The island is a lush, pristine wilderness with beuatiful white sand beaches- and the birdlife is incredible. It is supposedly more similar to what New Zealand looked like before the maoris brought rats and the europeans brought stoats and possums and cleared much of the land for agriculture and introduced invasive vegetation. There are 20,000 kiwis on Stewart island (the total number of all 5 species of kiwis is 70,000)- and it is only 75 km across and has less than 400 residents (almost all of which live in the main town). 85% of the island is a national park.
The Rakiura track is one of NZ's great walks and we had three calm, sunny days for our walk. We saw about a dozen different species of wild New Zealand birds. We didn't run into any wild kiwis, but we ran into people who had done the 8-10 day walk who had seen several.
At our hotel, we had the chance to see Kakas. They are a relative of the Kea (the alpine parrot) but Kakas live in the forest. Like most NZ birds, they've been badly affected by predators which eat their eggs and chicks (and attack adults on nests), but they have strongholds on a lot of the offshore islands. The department of conservation doesn't allow people to feed Keas, but people can feed Kakas certain foods. They can become obese from over feeding, so they recommend you only feed them nuts occasionally, and stick mostly to fruit.