Surf n' Turf

My picture book continues.
So damn far behind, I hate to consolidate two posts in one. Especially with locations being such polar opposites as Piha Beach and Tongariro Crossing. But haste is necessary, and local diametricity is the norm here in New Zealand.

Example A) Piha Beach
Piha is a rugged west-coast town. Dark beach sands and nasty rip and surf. It's known as a particularly great surf spot, along with Raglan which is farther south down the coast. The location is actually a mere 40-minute drive from downtown Auckland. Like most beaches in New Zealand, the drive curves through varying amounts of rainforest and mountain ranges, until you finally peek around a corner and spot the ocean. Lion Rock, front and center in the shot, is Piha's most recognizable landmark. The surf at Piha is known as being incredibly dangerous, especially for novice surfers or daring swimmers. The beach is also unpatrolled, adding to it's risk.


Example B) Tongariro Crossing
This is the area known internationally as Mordor. To the left, Mt. Ngauruhoe stands as the real life Mt. Doom. It is one of the most mountainous regions of the North Island, with three of the largest peaks in the country. Mt. Tongariro, Ngauruhhoe, and Ruapehu are all active volcanoes, with Ruapehu being the tallest of the three, doubling as the country's largest ski field. This is the view looking west towards Mt. Taranaki on the west coast. The other side is the Rangipo Desert. The entire area is at a relatively high altitude and is particularly barren on all sides, with a large amount of thermal activity. On the North end of the crossing, it is possible to view Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand.

Piha was our first destination. It had been a long time since we've seen a clear day in Auckland, with record amounts of rainfall coming down since our semester break. With the outbreak of sun and the arrival of a new visitor in town, we hopped in a rental car and headed west to Piha. The drive was brief, and not long after curving through the Kaiteriteri ranges we spotted the rough surf. Our rental car, the Sprinter, headed straight for the beach. We parked and got onto the wet dark sand. It's been a while since anyone had been on a beach, so we dabbled for a while, scouring the sand for weird objects such as the odd embyonic type object to the right. Even more fun were the tentacly palm fronds that were littered all over the beach. When kicked, they flew through the air like flailing octopus legs. The beach was also littered with dogs, alive and kicking, playing fetch with their owners. As such domestic creatures are rare sights for college students, particularly students abroad, it was exciting to see the dogs in action.



Maybe even more amusing to watch was Piha's lone surfer that day. I don't know much about surfing but I could tell this guy knew what he was doing. He was jumping from wave to wave like he was playing hopscotch.

Then we turned our eyes to Piha's finest landmark--Lion Rock. It is a natural rock formation standing smack in the middle of the beach. I believe it's also been recognised as a war memorial as their was a plaque at the base with a roll of honour. (Ah--I'm starting to spell like them. All these NZ English academic papers. Z's replaced with S's, unnecessary U's. I can barely recognise myself anymore. Anyway...)


We climbed up Lion Rock. That's what we do here. Broken down real simple: we climb and we jump. We left jumping out this trip, since we've already done our share of expensive jumping. (Suprisingly, climbing seems to be the cheaper option)

There was a trail on the way up, but it was a pretty steep incline. The trail was made of dirt and rocks which were a little bit slippery and seemed to be falling out. When a sign prohibited us from going any further, we stopped for a little and took in the scenery. From either side you could see well down the coast. I figure if you look in the direction Lion Rock is facing you'd be able to see Australia.


Then we continued going further into the bush, past where the sign and the wood gate blocked us off. We were dedicated to getting to the summit, as any ultimate traveler would and should be. Bernie, Garry and I unfortunately had to settle for getting as close as physically possible, due to the route being completely impassable. I guess the danger sign was right. We turned back and started our descent down to the bottom. We all piled into the Sprinter and vamoosed back to Auckland packed like walrii in a clown car.



A couple days later...
The climb up Lion Rock proved to be the equivalent of speed bump in the landscape of New Zealand. We climbed into yet another Sprinter (apparently the only rental vehicle this side of Queen St.) and journeyed southward, past the bustle of Hamilton and then around Lake Taupo. Pulled into Turangi, our overnight shelter at around 10 PM, ready to rest up for the early hike in the morning.

We arrived, circa 7 AM, circa 20 degrees fahrenheit, at this:The flat looking path didn't last for long. The Tongariro Crossing, our full day hike, was my personal first foray into serious tramping in New Zealand. The crossing was graded as "challenging", and about a 17 km and 8 hour hike through the most active volcanic areas of Tongariro National Park. The entire track was elevated, starting at a base of 1150m, ascending to 1886m, then downward spiraling to 700m. We geared up, renting hiking boots and packing backpacks full of hats, gloves, extra socks, liters of water and PB&J sandwiches. It was an intensely clear day, but we had been told the weather was unpredictable at some of the higher altitudes, and sunny skies could easily turn into all out blizzard-like conditions in minutes. We were adequately prepared.


We began our walk on the flat path pictured, yet within minutes we began our ascent and left flat walking ground for higher peaks. We were winded early, hiking at a steady pace and wishing we could borrow a marathon runner's gaunt frame and swollen lungs for just the day. We looked ahead of us and saw "The Devil's Staircase", the part of track which caught the steepest incline between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe. Once climbing up the nearly 90 degree incline, while slipping on tumbling dirt and rock, the name seemed to make sense and didn't. The track was obviously created by some kind of evil, however a staircase it was most definitely not. It was just dirt and rock. No sight of stairs anywhere in sight. Using our hands for stablity and sometimes upward mobility, we sledged up the "staircase".

It was about 45 minutes to the top, and we stopped occasionally to check our view from the higher altitudes. It was actually so clear that from the centrally located park, we could see Mt. Taranaki all the way out on the west coast. The peak had been featured as Mt. Fuji in "The Last Samurai". Getting to the top of the staircase was by far the most strenuous exercise of our trip, however it granted us an extremely priviliged vantage point at basically the summit of Tongariro, extremely close to the summit of Ngaurahoe. The Ngaurahoe side track had been closed off for the winter, yet several groups equipped with crampons and ice picks chose to attack that track as well. I looked for Garth the glacier man but didn't find him. It was a nearly vertical climb to the top of the perfecly conular summit.

The three of us: Ryan, Drew and I, rested and ate an early lunch at the spot, enjoying the sustenance of peanut butter and raspberry jelly while meeting up with a couple of other students staying in Railway. At this point, we were barely 1/3 through the journey, but already us three Sir Edmund Hillary's felt like we achieved something of interplanetary excellence. And damn, the view from excellence is superb.
In the opposite direction--a giant crater.

We continued, walking around the edge of the crater and eventually slicing directly through it. It was extremely snowy, and thus very slippery. At one part there was a steep decline on ice, so I put my recently purchased waterproof pants to work, sat on my ass, and slid for as long as I could. To the right was a giant red crater--The Rangipo desert. This area looked like miles of barren red turf. It was, in fact, the last leg of Frodo's journey in Mordor, Mt. Ngaurahoe serving as Mt. Doom. After watching the movie, the area is quite obviously Mordor, however it shows the incredible amount of digital retouching that must have gone into the films. The volcano itself, well it's a volcano. It could easily be believed to be Mt. Doom, when it isn't the winter and isn't covered in snow. Peter Jackson felt the need to stretch it a little taller, make it a little less of a perfect cone, and billow hot reds and oranges out the top of it. The real life Mt. Doom does have a small cloud of smoke coming out the top of it since it is an active volcano. Continuing on the track we came to two perfectly emerald thermal hot pools, with ice surrounding the edges and steam oozing from the surface. The green of the lakes was pretty much the only green we had seen in the barren area we were walking on. Once went down the hill towards the pools we cut across the crater and began climbing up towards the larger blue pool that was at the top of Mt.Tongariro.
From there, we started a slow and long descent from the high crater. Falling from such great heights was painful, as there were several parts with large stairs 1-2 feet high that we seemed to be sprinting down. The snow began to vanish and slowly lakes popped out of the distance. But it was still a long downhill walk before we got to the end of Tongariro Crossing.

The last leg of the walk was through the Ketetahi Hot Springs, a private area that was granted to the government with limitations on access. This point, as a landmark on the end of the journey, was such a welcome sight, and an excellent place to stop to snap some shots. We crossed a stream and kept walking, down more dirt stairs. The stairs felt endless, the backpacks grew heavier on our shoulders, and knowing that this difficult part of the journey would only lead us to a parking lot was less motivational. We made it down the stairs on the mountain, ended up on stairs in the rainforest for a while, found flat ground and walked to the opening in the dense green brush.

Pictures