hello again! So although I've just actually managed to connect and post the previous post, I actually wrote that one a few days ago. We're now in Napier, have met up with Gavin's parents, and have a 3G connection so we've uploaded photos!!
Enjoy :)
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Hello there!
I am writing this entry as we sit on our bed overlooking the ocean - litterally, we're in a small town called Waimarama on the east coast of the North Island. We're parked on a flat space behind a few houses, overlooking the beach and the ocean. There are 2 other campers near us, also parked for the night. Two surfers parked to our left, and an older couple to our right. We've made up the bed, and are sitting here with our feet keeping warm in the comforter, overlooking the waves and the last bits of the sunset. Another nice evening :)
We've actually been pretty busy the last few days. We waited out the weather in Tongariro national park, and on Saturday did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike (the name sounds a lot more intense than the hike actually was). It was super fun, as we ended up hiking it in a group of 9, made up of 5 dutch, 2 israelis, and us. This hike is a bit of a tourist-trap hike (it's apparently one of the most beautiful hikes in New Zealand, and was where they filmed mount doom in the lord of the rings, which means LOTS of people on the trail). It's 19.4 km's one way, and because it's a crossing, they suggest to all of the tourists to take a shuttle from the vistors center to the beginning of the trail, and then it's there to pick you up at the end of the trail and take you back to the visitors center. We thought this was a great idea (given that we only had our camper, and no other transport at the other side) - - until we heard that it would cost us EACH $30. Ridiculous. So in all my cheapness, I asked a group of 3 dutch campers (two girls and one guy) who had pulled in next to us in our campground if they wanted to 'share cars' and put one at the end and create our own 'shuttle' so we could all save the $30. Well, it turns out that as I was asking one of the girls, the israeli guys camping next to them on the other side were asking one of the other girls, so we all decided we would carpool together! It made for quite a hilarious trip (oh, and the 3 dutch campers had previously run into another dutch pair on the south island, who happened to show up just as we were starting the trail off the shuttle - so that made 9). We hiked the trail together, managed to get everyone motivated to add on a little extra side trail to the top of Mount Tongariro...and we all made it to the end, a little tired and cold, but having laughed a lot. A great day.
From there we all split off - we contined east towards Napier, the others towards Rotorua - we picked a small road to drive through a few mountain ranges (small = mostly unsealed), saw a gazillion sheep, and passed through the 'carrot capital of the world'...they have a giant carrot erected at the entrance to the town. Interesting. We ended up in the Kaweka forest / mountain range - in the most gorgeous campsite EVER.
There were about 8 horses grazing in the meadow where we parked our camper, right by a river, at the base of a beautiful mountain. We were alone in the campground (and it was free!!). We spent two nights there - hiked during the days, I did some yoga and gavin went for a bike ride - just loverly. Oh, and I also beat Gavin at crazy-eights - my 50 points to his 300...a trouncing. :) Today we did another hike up Mt kiripapango...but unfortunately the clouds were so low that we were hiking in them, and so the views were of white fog - still a fun hike.
Overall, we're having a fabulous time - I'm adjusting to the 'no showers' (we've had two warm showers since we got here...the last 7 nights have been jump in the lake / stand in the rain / jump in the river / home-made water jug showers...I'm about due for a real hot shower, which will hopefully happen before we meet up with gavin's parents in two days), and the bugs (which our home-made screens have kept mostly outside the camper at night). Gavin's adjusting to the patchy internet and lack of tech-toys, and the bumblebees (they are the most humungous bumblebees I have EVER seen). We're super relaxed, and are really enjoying living to the natural rythm of the days - we wake up to no alamrs, fall asleep when it gets dark/we get tired...it's AWESOME. We've had a bunch of rain, and the weather is definitely cool, so it's great for being outside and active during the days.
Anyhow, I've rambled on too long. I hope that everything is going well at home! Huge hugs!
I am writing this entry as we sit on our bed overlooking the ocean - litterally, we're in a small town called Waimarama on the east coast of the North Island. We're parked on a flat space behind a few houses, overlooking the beach and the ocean. There are 2 other campers near us, also parked for the night. Two surfers parked to our left, and an older couple to our right. We've made up the bed, and are sitting here with our feet keeping warm in the comforter, overlooking the waves and the last bits of the sunset. Another nice evening :)
We've actually been pretty busy the last few days. We waited out the weather in Tongariro national park, and on Saturday did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike (the name sounds a lot more intense than the hike actually was). It was super fun, as we ended up hiking it in a group of 9, made up of 5 dutch, 2 israelis, and us. This hike is a bit of a tourist-trap hike (it's apparently one of the most beautiful hikes in New Zealand, and was where they filmed mount doom in the lord of the rings, which means LOTS of people on the trail). It's 19.4 km's one way, and because it's a crossing, they suggest to all of the tourists to take a shuttle from the vistors center to the beginning of the trail, and then it's there to pick you up at the end of the trail and take you back to the visitors center. We thought this was a great idea (given that we only had our camper, and no other transport at the other side) - - until we heard that it would cost us EACH $30. Ridiculous. So in all my cheapness, I asked a group of 3 dutch campers (two girls and one guy) who had pulled in next to us in our campground if they wanted to 'share cars' and put one at the end and create our own 'shuttle' so we could all save the $30. Well, it turns out that as I was asking one of the girls, the israeli guys camping next to them on the other side were asking one of the other girls, so we all decided we would carpool together! It made for quite a hilarious trip (oh, and the 3 dutch campers had previously run into another dutch pair on the south island, who happened to show up just as we were starting the trail off the shuttle - so that made 9). We hiked the trail together, managed to get everyone motivated to add on a little extra side trail to the top of Mount Tongariro...and we all made it to the end, a little tired and cold, but having laughed a lot. A great day.
From there we all split off - we contined east towards Napier, the others towards Rotorua - we picked a small road to drive through a few mountain ranges (small = mostly unsealed), saw a gazillion sheep, and passed through the 'carrot capital of the world'...they have a giant carrot erected at the entrance to the town. Interesting. We ended up in the Kaweka forest / mountain range - in the most gorgeous campsite EVER.
There were about 8 horses grazing in the meadow where we parked our camper, right by a river, at the base of a beautiful mountain. We were alone in the campground (and it was free!!). We spent two nights there - hiked during the days, I did some yoga and gavin went for a bike ride - just loverly. Oh, and I also beat Gavin at crazy-eights - my 50 points to his 300...a trouncing. :) Today we did another hike up Mt kiripapango...but unfortunately the clouds were so low that we were hiking in them, and so the views were of white fog - still a fun hike.
Overall, we're having a fabulous time - I'm adjusting to the 'no showers' (we've had two warm showers since we got here...the last 7 nights have been jump in the lake / stand in the rain / jump in the river / home-made water jug showers...I'm about due for a real hot shower, which will hopefully happen before we meet up with gavin's parents in two days), and the bugs (which our home-made screens have kept mostly outside the camper at night). Gavin's adjusting to the patchy internet and lack of tech-toys, and the bumblebees (they are the most humungous bumblebees I have EVER seen). We're super relaxed, and are really enjoying living to the natural rythm of the days - we wake up to no alamrs, fall asleep when it gets dark/we get tired...it's AWESOME. We've had a bunch of rain, and the weather is definitely cool, so it's great for being outside and active during the days.
Anyhow, I've rambled on too long. I hope that everything is going well at home! Huge hugs!
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