Ditch Crossings.

 

You sure do enter New Zealand quite often – Customs Officer

*stamps passport – visitor visa valid for 3 months*

Thanks – Me

*continues on to claim luggage*

For those who still have yet to catch on, the Tasman Sea in this part of the world is also known as the Ditch (like America and the Brits call the Atlantic Ocean the Pond).  Anyway, I crossed the ditch to return to Auckland for 10 days to sort some business. [I love how that sounds.] I’m also sincerely sorry for those Kiwi mates of mine who never saw or heard from me during this time – believe me, I wanted to but I had to sort out my business.

I caught a red eye Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Auckland. For those curious on the airline, I would not recommend it. My knees were in the seat in front of me and because it is a heavy discount airliner, you know the type of clientele attracted. After arriving in Auckland at 5.15am on Saturday, they made us walk down on to the tarmac to bus it to a terminal entrance and then walk for an eternity to reach customs  - all to supposedly save a dollar on my flights.

Great thing my good mate David was ready at the airport to pick me up. Since there was a wide-shouldered man next to me on the overnight flight, I ended up getting maybe 1 hour of sleep. I was very tired. Unfortunately hostel check-ins are not until 2pm. I had over 8 hours I needed to keep myself awake – top 5 lifetime challenge.

Suffering through some breakfast and drinking coffee like water, I crashed at 3pm. After all, I spent nearly a year in this city so what else was there really to see? I was right. After 3 days in Auckland all I did was sort my business, see Olympus has Fallen [B rating], send mum her Mother’s Day card [you never, ever forget Mom's day no matter where in the world you are], and spent my remaining Kiwi dollars. Boring as. What’s opposite of boring as? Well, a road trip to Tongariro National Park AND Taupo!! 

So that’s what my mate David and I did: booked ourselves a hostel in National Park Village and Taupo for the remainder of my time in Kiwi land.

Driving down to Tongariro National Park

Tongariro National Park is home to a few active volcanoes, the latest eruptions occurring sometime last year. Thankfully, nothing of such nature occurred during my brief visit. This place is also home to the famous Tongariro National Park, and has even been featured in the Minnesota Star Tribune travel.  You can do most of the track, but there are certain portions closed off from last year’s eruption. Unfortunately, weather conditions didn’t permit David and I from doing the 6-8 hour trek (plus, we were drastically underprepared for the cold weather). Instead we opted for the charilift and having a coffee at New Zealand’s highest café. 

David and I going up via chairlift

2 chairlifts later and I made it to 2020metres (6,627ft)

Having a coffee at the highest cafe in New Zealand

Unfortunately, what comes up must go down....yikes

After freezing our bums off and returning down below the cloud deck, we did a few of the shorter treks (we’re talking 45 min return, MAX, treks). These included:

1. Mounds Walk – nobody knows for certain how large mounds were formed at the foot of the mountain!

          

            You also get to see school children that are so bored they do this:

                       

3. Tawhai Falls Walk – beautiful waterfall set back from the main drag!

             

4. Ridge Walking Track- offered great views of the park!

             

After mucking about the Village (believe me, this was a village) we drove on over to Taupo to muck about town and visit the prawn park [Ma, we should have gone done this when you visited!] Did you know that prawn live approximately 2 years and lay millions of eggs. They also get smart so catching the more mature, larger ones was a bit of a task.

 

David was ecstatic to try his luck at some Prawn fishing! (But who the heck dressed him?)

Prawn being farmed.

Largest catch of the day! (But the bugger jumped outta the bucket later on)

Look what I'm about to boil up...YUM!

Since Taupo is also a very big tourist attraction, we just had to muck about town and whatnot:

Taupo Saturday Morning market

Mischief Rose at Taupo Rose Garden

Sweetwaters Rose at Taupo Rose Garden

Of course all road trips have to come to an end, so on our way back to Auckland we stopped by Hamilton Gardens to stretch our legs (it’s 3 ½ hours from Taupo, mate!).

Leg Stretching.

Hamilton Gardens

And unfortunately I must catch a 7.30am return flight to Melbourne in order to, ya know, start earning some Aussie dollars.

Cheers for now!

:D

PS my intent was to get to the airport by 5.30 with the free shuttle in order to check in and have some relaxing time with a solid coffee. Alarm thus set for 4.20am (just to be sure). Woke up at 5.20am! It was like Home Alone 1 and 2 (and thankfully I did pack the night before). And yes, I did catch my flight ON TIME (but had NO relaxing time for coffee).