Tag Archives: new zealand

NZ: Waitomo Caves

There was one thing on the New Zealand Tourist Checklist that was just screaming out at me above all else. I wasn’t too bothered by sky-diving, bungee jumping, water skiing or walking a glacier (next time, maybe) but visiting the glowworm caves of Waitomo just had to be done, especially as I’d been there before as a wee baby in the 70s and just about remembered it.

This was probably the most touristy thing I did (and this has been a pretty touristy holiday by my standards) but it was worth it. They could have ramped up the tacky to the nth degree and it would still have been wonderful because the caves are fantastic.

There’s a number of different caves to visit but we went for a two-cave combo. First was the Aranui Cave, a mile or so from the main drag and a less popular visit as it doesn’t have the glowing bugs. This, I think, was the best cave to spend time is as the guide was low-key and informative and the crowds much smaller. Loads of limestone stalactites and mites with lighting that, apparently, was well overdue for replacing but I felt added something to the experience. Photos were taken giving the Gorillapod it’s first real test and I was pretty pleased with the results.

Aranui Caves 10

Aranui Caves 02

We then did the Glow Worm cave along with everyone else and the most corny and bouncy guide imaginable. But it didn’t matter. Glow worms really are magical and the final boat trip, floating silently through the darkness lit only by the thousands of points of blue light hanging from the ceiling, was worth every penny. Photos weren’t allowed in this cave, which was a shame, as the flash makes the worms uncomfortable. But no regrets there.

One thing that struck me while I was in there is there’s no such thing as “natural light” in a cave. You only see them under artificial conditions so you never see them as nature intended for nature had no such intent. So whoever decided where the lights would go pretty much defined how the caves would be perceived for a generation. Hmm…

NZ: Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton is the city where my mum and step-dad live and, other that Auckland with sis&co, was my base. It’s not a bad base, being fairly central on the North Island, but it does have a reputation as a bit of a dullsville. And, to be honest, that’s a fairly fair thing to say (even though it was where Richard O’Brien came up with the Rocky Horror Show). But given the awesome nature of what surrounds it that wasn’t a problem and it does have its gems such as the Hamilton Gardens.

These are basically a big park with a number of themed bits in the middle, specifically the “Paradise Gardens” comprising:

  • the Chinese Scholars Garden
  • the English Flower Garden
  • the Japanese Garden of Contemplation
  • the American Modernist Garden
  • the Italian Renaissance Garden
  • the Indian Char Bagh Garden

Should I have been surprised that they were really good? I’m not sure. But they were. A real gem.

The photos, they be here.

Hamilton Gardens 09

Hamilton Gardens 13

Hamilton Gardens 11

NZ: Rotorua

After the fantastic Waimangu Valley we stopped off in Rotorua for an hour on the way back to Hamilton. Wikipedia sez: “Rotorua is nicknamed Sulphur City, because of the aforementioned thermal activity. The sulphur gives off an odour unique to Rotorua that adds to the visitor experience.” In other words the whole place stinks of rotten eggs and farts.

Rotorua is known by some as “Roto Vegas” as it’s apparently the most blatantly touristy town in the country. Indeed, the heritage there all seems to be about the history of tourism in the area from the first time people traveled to soak in the hot springs and mud pools. While this is still a major part of the town it’s also got a vibe that, qyite frankly, I didn’t like and I felt my misanthropy rising somewhat. It was probably the banner outside a hotel promising a Maori dinner and show that did it. The whole place had that air of California, and not the good bits of California either.

But, being New Zealand, it couldn’t help but be nice in places. We parked up by the museum…

Rotorua 02

…and went for a walk along the sulphur flats. Here there were mudpools and hot springs that turned the water a milky white, like someone had poured a load of chalk into the lake and mixed it up. The birds loved it so I got out the long lens and pretended I was an ornithologist. New Zealand does that to you.

Rotorua 11

Rotorua 10

But yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Rotorua as a place to spend any time. Not only is it kinda over-commercialized (and you can get a good volcanic bath elsewhere) but it smells awful.

Photos from Rotorua are here.

NZ: Waimangu Valley

I’m getting behind so again I’ll keep it brief.

After the mountains on what I guess was New Years Day in normalworld we went into the Waimangu Valley, notable because it was formed by a volcanic explosion in 1886 so the resulting ecosystem is very new indeed. There’s also a hell of a lot of volcanic activity with hot springs, geysers, bubbling lakes and steam pouring out of the hills. It was beautiful, otherworldly, dramatic and quite wonderful.

Many photos were taken, naturally.

Waimangu Valley 09

Waimangu Valley 16

Waimangu Valley 27

Waimangu Valley 21

Well worth every penny, and if you go make sure you do the boat trip.

NZ: Bubbling Mud!

Another tick on the New Zealand tourist checklist. Mudpools!

Mud Pools 06

Just north of Taupo on the way to the Waimangu Valley. 11 gloopy photos are here.

NZ: Into Mordor

It’s a terrible cliche but I can’t help myself. Whenever I’m in certain parts of rural New Zealand the music of Howard Shore sings through my brain. At first I figured this was because the Lord of the Rings was my only point of reference (looking out of the plane window the first land I saw through the clouds looked exactly like Hobbiton) but it’s refused to go away. When they say those films were the best tourism advertisement for the country they weren’t exaggerating. New Zealand is Middle Earth, and I was about to go into the most recognizable part – the foothills of Mount Doom itself.

Tongariro 40

We were doing the first part of the Tongariro Crossing up to the Soda Springs, pretty much a flat walk that takes about an hour. It then gets steep as you pass between the Tongariro and Ngauruhoe summits and pop out the other end seven hours later. I’m planning to go back on my own on Monday and do the whole thing, weather permitting, but for now we were just getting a taste.

That’s not to say the foothills are in any way mediocre. You’re walking over lava flows, some of them fairly recent (Ngauruhoe only became “relatively quiet” in 1975), and the sense of desolation with the volcanoes towering above you is very striking.

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Tongariro 19

Tongariro Crossing photos are here.
Wikipedia is your friend: Mounts Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Doom.

Then after lunch we went up another volcano, this time in a car to the ski village on the snow capped Mount Ruapehu which was very Mordor in appearance and the Howard Shore was booming in my skull. Dum, dum, dada dum… do do dooo, do do doo, do de dooo, dum, dum…

The volcano looks like this from afar:

Tongariro 04

and like this when you’re on it.

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Mount Ruepehu photos are all here.

Coming soon – journey into the volcanic valley!

NZ: Lake Taupo

Sunday saw us bundle into the “truck” and head off to Lake Taupo in one of the many volcanic regions of New Zealand. As I discovered at the Auckland Museum, NZ is pretty much made of volcanoes what it with being on a subduction zone where one tectonic plate slides under another to be turned back into molten rock (which, in turn, pops out of the earth in the middle of the ocean). This area was renound for its hot springs which, as I discovered, mean bits of the hills look like this:

Taupo 04

and there are holes like this in the earth:

Taupo 14

where water, heated underground by lava, steams into the air. It’s impressive in the summer but in the winter it’s apparently insane. I particularly noted how while some of the hot springs were in conservation areas those that popped up in residential bits were treated in much the same way we might treat a small stream or bog, which makes sense I guess. When the remarkable is all around you it quickly becomes the mundane.

We were staying at the very satisfactory, cheap and quite lovely Tokaanu Lodge Motel where for a reasonable fee you got a pretty spacious, well, house really, and access to their private mineral pools which were quite, quite lovely. We would recommend them.

The owner, name of Blue, took us out on his boat for another reasonable fee and let us drive (drive? Is that right?) it. Here’s a photo of me at the helm, taken by mother.

I drived a bote! It were funs!

The next day was spent up mountain, and I’ll get to that in the next post, and after that we left Taupo, stopping briefly to say farewell to this lovely, clear lake.

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Here are my photos taken on and around Lake Taupo.

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