Palmy, Tongariro and North, then South alot, then all over the show

I caught the train out of Palmerston, which took me winding through the country-side, with a live commentary on the historical and engineered aspects of the landscape. I arrived in 'National Park' a town on the edge of the... nation park (The Tongariro National Park) which was taken to the big screens by Lord Of The Rings posing as a rather amazing volcano, which is also a coincidence given that it IS a volcano, well in fact about 5 actually.
Given its stature (having been regarded as containing a top 10 day walk in the world!) I couldnt resist a tramp in this revered area. The 2 day route I did circled 'Mt Doom' or Mt Ngourahoe. The track started from Whakapapa Village and undulated around the green western flank before moving in to a valley leading past Soda Springs and up to the Devils Stair Case, right towards the mountain. The stairs climbed 500m up a steep ragged volcanic terrain to 1700 meters. It was at this point on the tramp that the cloud came in and the iconic peak of Mt Ngourahoe was lost for the days as I crossed the sandy, flat moonscape of Red Crater - aptly named due to the rocks colored red by oxidized iron as they cooled.
The terrain from the top section of the valley onwards over the crater is what makes the Tongariro National Park so amazing. The rock ceases to support shrubs, allowing only the most adventurous and hardy lichens to cling to the course black and red larva flows and volcanic debris, which shatter the silent valley with concepts of spitting magma and pyroclastic flows. Were it not for the beautifully groomed paths and stairways ascending these vicious charred buttresses, my boots would have been shredded as I tried to clamber over the jagged formations.
On Red Crater the usual sentry of markers posts that accompany tracks disappeared steadily into the cloud not 20 meters in front, guiding me progressively to the final unforgiving climb, at this height being whipped by a strong, frigid wind, that found its way through all my layers. The summit gave way to a fantastic scree slope, allowing me to glide like on an escalator down through the clouds to the breath taking Emerald Lakes sitting paradoxically in their tranquility, surrounded by the raw rocks that cradle them.
Not only do the milky, turquoise waters emanate, alien, from the landscape but so does the scalding sulphorous steam, whisked by the wind from the raw earth to mingle with the clouds.

Enough with that talk – I’ve got 4 months to catch up with!
I finished that day walking through a strange mix of sandy boulder fields and lava flows to the DOC hut on the Eastern flank of Tongariro.
The following day I tramped south across the barren rocky slopes until I reached native beach woodland and was able to turn west again to cross the shoulder between Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngourahoe and back to Whakapappa. The evening found me cruising all the way back down the climb to the national park, and I camped at a DOC campsite just a k back the way I came.

In the next two weeks I cycled north through to Taurangi, Taupo, Rotorua, and hit the coast at Tauranga, before heading up the coast and around the Coromandel Peninsular (Whangamata, Whitianga, Wharakaho, Coromandel) and finished at Thames, making it about 580km in total - not too far, but I took it easy (very abbreviated version of events, but more can be told later...). I Popped up to Auckland on the bus for 3 days to explore before heading south on busses with a bike and trailer! I managed to catch up with a friend in Wellington, that I had met a year and a bit before at Christmas in Nelson, before getting the ferry to good old South Island again and hitching on a lorry to Blenhiem. A neat set of logistics allowed me to reposes the rest of my gear from Hanmer Springs before making it to Queenstown to start sorting out my winter season.

My aim in Queenstown was to find a job, get a season pass for the ski field, and eeerm .... ski. But it didn't exactly work like that. I didn't get a job, I only skied 2 days and I spent about half my time in Queenstown, the rest was spent missioning with good friends I had met rock climbing over Christmas. I was in Wanaka and Invercargill and Dunedin and on the Remarkables Mountain Range, had a home made sauna by the Shotover River, went to a Mountain Film Festival, had lots of awesome home made food, liven in a caravan for a week, pushed around a snow mower for a week (getting paid fortunately), just cruised and went with the flow...
So that was an absolutely awesome time, no complaints about not getting a job, I had a far better time without! Also over that time my plans for Australia and after developed.
So currently I am meeting with 3 friends on the 20th August in Brisbane from which I am going to spend 3 months doing something...
I am really excited to move on and keep finding new experiences as I feel very content with what NZ has given me, but want to keep moving, given New Zealand feels more like home than a foreign place now.
So it is 9 days to go until I fly out of the city I flew in to a year and 22 months later. I will have to say a fond goodbye to a place so open and nurturing, that has given me more than I could ever possibly put in words, and head towards a sandy red expanse waiting to be experienced. Shortly I think I will have to change the name of this blog...
x

On the road north

Hanmer Springs is done. Finally. I realised I missed the excitement and awe of seeing a place for the first time, and Hanmer was become a little monotonous. I did do that to myself though, working 6 days a week at the cafe over the Easter break having finished with Activity Hanmer.

Given that the North Island has eluded me so far (purposefully) I felt I should go visit given that I’m just across the water from it, and to see it before September when I leave would mean digging up my roots in a job and in the cold winter season. Now is as good as ever. As for the seeing of it - what better way than to cruse the roads at the pace of your legs and to the will of your heart. This somehow bought me round to the idea of buying a bike trailer (one that goes on a bike, rather than one a bike goes on) picture below.



So on Monday morning I loaded my things in to a friend’s car - who was conveniently driving to the ferry port - and made it to Picton with 20 minutes before the ferry left (given i didn't know when the ferries left this was rather good fortune), managing also on the ferry to secure a ride a few hours in to the North Island.

I was dropped in the dark at an isolated hamlet, thinking I was a day or so ride from my destination (The Tongariro National Park) eventuating in the morning that it was at least 3 days ride off, and 2 days of which was on a State highway. No thanks. I did undertake the 1st day though beautiful rolling hills and farmland, landing myself near Palmerston North, a city of 73,000 where I am able to catch the train to the Tongariro.

Now it’s all very well hopping on a train in England, but here you have to book a day in advance or it won’t stop... so I'm bumming around for a day whilst trying to catch up with an elusive contact.

And that is right now, so I’ll let you know what happens after it happens. x