Do you have your tickets?

To what?

To the gun show Istanbul!

Maybe that's an inside joke that only frisbee players will get. What about a Mastercard Moment:

• One way flight to Istanbul: $956
• Visas to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan: $850
• Home brewed vodka: $3/litre (the only affordable bit of this insanity)
• Travel a quarter of the way around the earth, from Istanbul to Mongolia via a plethora of countries most people haven't heard of in any crap car that has an engine with no more than 1 litre of power: Priceless

Also, yet another New Zealand gallery uploaded. Check out Mt. Cook, Arthur's Pass, and the West Coast of the South Island.

More Bathrooms - Blenheim, Taupo, Tongariro, Rotorua

In our continuing series on interesting bathroom signs we have



I thought this sign meant just pee on the side of the building. Fortunately it was “During Hours” when we passed through and I didn't have to cause a scene.

Next up was at the Black Water Rafting base camp in the Waitamo Caves. You get a nice inner tube to float through the caves after you spelunk. Unfortunately they don't let you bring a camera and charge a bundle for the few pics they take.


The last of my North Island photos have been captioned and posted

• Tongariro to Rotorua


• Blenheim to Taupo

South Island coming up!

Bathrooms - White Island, Bay of Islands

In our continuing series of funny bathroom signs we have from the boat to White Island: And at a bar in Paihia:
And more importantly I've got a couple of galleries up and commented:

• White Island To Coromandel


• Paihia To Auckland

Enjoy!

Round the North Island with Pictures

Slightly later than I had planned, but as promised - pictures of my last couple days in New Zealand running around the coast on the North Island. First up the surfing town of Mt. Maunganui and it's new 250m artificial reef: The picture above was taken from on top of the mountain for which the town is named. In addition to being a popular morning walk for the older retired set - actual quote: "You get kind of sick of the view when you walk up here every day," it's also a launch point for hang gliders and paragliders. Those are both on my life todo list, but I guess it was too early for the adrenaline junkies to be up as I didn't get to see anyone actually take off.
Next up was the Cormandel Peninsula and an overnight hike to Pinnacles Hut. I reserved the last bunk for the night at 3:40 and the ranger told me I should hurry up before dark. After a short but bumpy drive to the trail head and some repacking to drop weight, I was headed up by 4:20. The hut warden was shocked to see me roll in at 5:50 since the walk up is supposed to take 3 hours. But after Tongariro it was a piece of cake! I mean there are several flat sections even. I hung out that night with some lawyers from Auckland and in the morning scampered up the Pinnacles. They have a nice viewing platform with guard rails that I promptly climbed above to get to the tippy top. Pretty impressive to see all the work they did to put a virtual staircase in to the top, but unfortunately it didn't look like the fog was going to lift so I headed down the mountain.
A couple hours later I'd reached Paihia in the Bay of Islands. A beach town that was pretty dead in early fall except for open mic night at the local bar which was a lot of fun. In the morning I boarded the Gungha II for a day sail. The weather forecast was mixed, but it did give us a nice rainbow on the way out of port:
And we spent the rest of the day dodging the showers, including a long stop on Robeson Island. Apparently it's about half privately owned and boy do those houses look nice - that little white dot at the top of the grassy area.
Next I headed to the west coast where you could see big sand dunes and the wind was whipping up the waves. The captain of the sail boat was telling us about the Beaufort Scale of wind speed. This looks about a 7 - some foam in streaks and walking was tough.

I headed further down the coast to the shelter of the Kauri trees - a native New Zealand species prized for it's amazing wood and slowly recovering from extensive logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They're similar to redwoods in size - this picture below is somewhat deceptive as you have to stay 20m from the tree on the path. This tree, Tane Mahuta, is the largest living Kauri tree and I couldn't come close to actually spanning its 13.8m trunk girth.
Afterwards I stopped by the Kauri museum where they have the relative sizes of several large trees on a side wall. Tane Mahuta is the second innermost ring:
Finally I reached Auckland and met back up with the lawyers for drinks. Afterwards Jacqui and I headed to Devonport to check out the night skyline.
The next day I poked around Auckland a bit and discovered the train station is nice and shiny and new and makes good abstract pictures
All too soon I headed for the airport, turned in my rental car, and hopped onto the 12 hour flight to SFO. There I got a double double animal style and caught up with Gary before finally making it home about an hour after I took off from Auckland!

Round the North Island

From White Island, I headed to surf city - Mt. Maunganui - to the Pinnacles in the Coromandel Peninsula to Paihia in the Bay of Islands then over the the West Coast to check out some Kauri trees before finally making it to Auckland late tonight. Tomorrow I'll poke around for the day then get on Air New Zealand flight 8 for the trip back to SFO, some In n Out with Gary and finally home. With luck I'll get some pictures up on Thursday...

White Island

So I got up early this morning and got my second New Zealand rental car. This one is from Budget, and only has 18k km on it (compared to my other rental which had 200k). Almost brand new! It is however a stick. And let's just say that stick + right hand drive + hiking boots + only a rough idea how to get to Whakatane is quite a combo. Also interesting side note: Whakatane is pronounced fuc-a-tawny. Anyway, I then boarded a boat for the 90 minute trip out to White Island - New Zealand's most active volcano. The seas were also a bit rough: But they gave us some protective gear for our trek on the island:
And after a quick attempt to land in Shark Bay (tide was too low):

We headed for the main wharf where the zodiac tried to time it's trips in between the big sets of breakers and the crew hung onto the railings for dear life:
Once safely on dry land, we got to see a lot of sulphur formations up close. They're all brilliant yellow. Note also the hot spring bubbling on the middle left of the picture:
And there were some big mud pots too:
Some of the formations were huge - this one was 20m at least - and constantly covered by steam:

This is a lake in the crater at the heart of the volcano. It's about 50 C and has a negative PH! Also lots of steam coming off it:

The fumarole in the upper left is about 3 m, the biggest one on the island and conveniently situated near all this scenic yellow foreground:
Finally we wrapped up the day looking at the old sulphur mine and processing factory. The abandoned machinery weathering away is quite scenic:
Doh - this is why I need an SLR - I thought the gear was in focus, not the stupid wall. Oh well.
Uhh and apparently these wharf railings aren't the original - they're only 5 years old. Scary stuff all these volcanic gasses!

Hot Stuff

Spent a couple of fun days checking out random geothermal events. Not a lot of pictures unfortunately but if you squint hard they're here. Met Kerry and Noah in Taupo and decided to grab a ride with them to Waitomo to check out the caves there. We got in late in the afternoon and with nothing better to do, decided to head to Kawhia where hot springs are supposed to perk through the black sand beaches at low tide. Only problem was that low tide was 11pm. So we hung out in the local bar, played pool, were amused by townies, and I had some great fish (whole fillet, lightly breaded, delicate) and horrible chips (not quite fully cooked).

At 9pm we headed to the seaside and remembered the wise words of the guy at the gas station: "Remember to mark where you came over the dunes." When asking him if it was a good idea to do this at night, or if we where crazy, he replied, "You're foreigners. It's about the same." But after 15 minutes wandering, we found a hot spot in the sand. With no spade (shovel) we could only dig a pit big enough for our feet. But it was still a cool experience to stand in the warm water while the waves crashed over the black sand and the moon darted from cloud to cloud overhead.

After the caves, we headed to Rotorua where we headed to Kerosine Creek for some free hot spring action. There a stream runs through a set of waterfalls and pools providing a hot massage and sweet pool to relax in. Way better than spending $90 at the pools in town (with massage) and the entertainment value from Kerry dodging rocks in the rental car just added to the experience.

Sorry for the short post. Internet is up and ethnic dinner and dancing awaits!

Tongariro Crossing

I'd spent a couple extra days in Wellington waiting for the weather to clear to do the Tongariro Northern Circuit - a 4 day tramp around Tonogariro National Park. Eventually I headed to Taupo to be that much closer to good weather, but the park rangers and hostel staff kept trying to scare me off with "who knows what the weather will do" and "it's getting into winter." No one seemed to have actual boots on the ground knowledge though (apparently all the volunteer hut wardens are slacking off). So given that I had been unable to convince anyone else to attempt the full circuit with me, I resigned myself to just doing the single day Tongariro Crossing.

Billed as the greatest one day walk in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing has a lot going for it -high alpine splendor, brilliant colors, snowy peaks, and a convenient (6:15am) bus from my hostel in Taupo. Also, smack in the middle, Mt. Ngauruhoe, better known as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings.


Oh yeah, it's also an active volcano
Fortunately, life thrives on the sunny northern slope. Gold and silver lichen dot the red and black volcanic rocks
But there is some foul smelling smoke coming out of this vent on the eastern false summit (left hand side of the photo)
After a quick run up the snow and scree - the snow was still frozen hard and quite a pleasure to walk on - I'd made the summit and met a Czech guy who was kind enough to take my photo.
Then the best part of the day, a standing glissade almost the entire way down from 2300m to 1600m! Just like skiing, but without having to lug up the stupid skis.

We'd been discouraged from taking side trips due to the weather and the average inexperience level of the group. But as I rejoined the main trail, I discovered the stragglers were just now making it to the saddle by the warning sign which I'd left 2 hours earlier. Since the bus was going to wait for them anyways, it allowed me to dawdle through the rest of the hike, waiting half an hour for the mists to clear and get a good shot of Emerald Lake
And Blue Lake with a half melted/half frozen grass tussock to provide foreground.
There was a bunch of melting from the previous days' snowfall still in evidence as this poor drain pipe seems not quite up to his job
And this lovely waterfall a little further down the trail.
Definitely the highlight of the North Island so far! Not sure where to next - maybe Rotorua for more thermal action. Or the coast for spectacular scenery. Both are apparently better with a car and those are cheapest in Auckland...

Rain in New Zealand

Or the threat of rain at least caused me to bag my plans for Abel Tasman and take the ferry to Wellington. The ferry across Cook Strait isn't much bigger than the ones across Puget Sound back home. But they are much more serious about their life boats. Apparently the crossing can get pretty rough. I'm still not exactly sure how you gently get to the water in this boat. Looks like it bounces off the sides a bunch!

Once in Wellington, they had a bunch of interesting art, as befits a capital city. This statue is titled "Solace in the Wind" and is currently available for sale. Feels kind of like I did standing on the bow headed into port.
Wellington also has a historic cable car you can ride to the top of a big hill with some nice views

and a botanical garden where I stopped to smell the roses
I took a quick tour of Parliament
Wandered the streets some in the evening. There's a comedy festival in town and saw some hilarious acts. Slepak, I've also sourced a potental car for the Mongol Rally
Finally I ended my trip with a bit of rubgy Super 14s.
Gotta run to catch a bus north. Hopefully the snow that was threatening the Tongariro Northern Circuit has blown through!

Lamb and Wine in Blenheim

So actually that's a steak sandwich, not lamb, but still pretty darn tasty. I spent the day biking around the various vineyards, and actually saw some sheep grazing among them. Apparently they don't like eating grapes, just grass, and help to keep the soil healthy.

Other highlights from the brisk, sunny, autumn day (my favorite kind) include the view from the top of the Wither Hills tasting room

A first hand look at the fall out from perhaps this week's biggest story in New Zealand. Three aging hippies decided to protest New Zealand's involvement in the war against Iraq. Apparently some local satellite dishes download signals intelligence information and sends it back to the US. So these guys decided to hop the fence and burst the protective bubbles around the dishes with sickles. Really.

Also got to look up close at some grapes that have been left on the vine to develop noble rot. Or perhaps due to the bountiful harvest this year and the fact that all the storage tanks are full, just left on the vine.

And finally I attempted to take an artsy photo or two

With luck the weather will hold and I'll be off to Abel Tasman tomorrow!

Arthur's Pass

After a wonderful trip to Muller Hut in the shadow of Mt Cook:

Where it snowed a bit overnight:

I took my rental car and headed North (well south, east, north and west) to Arthur's Pass. Mariell, who I met at Muller, decided to come along as well. We spent the night in the ski town of Methven planning to leave at 8am. unfortunately they had a wonderful free breakfast and the host was very chatty about "Flight of the Concords" so we left at 9am. After a very scenic drive to the pass, we talked to the ranger and decided on the Avalanche Peak-Crow River track which would give us some scenic views (for Nate who had tagged Avalanche Peak when it was cloudy) as well as I nice night in a $5 hut! Muller had been $35 and all the ones on Routeburn and Kepler were $40! Plus I could use the stove I'd been lugging around all trip. But when we got back to the parking lot, we discovered I had a flat tire!

After changing it, we headed to drop Mariell's car at the end of the track, and found the road flooded, so we had to stop at each puddle and wade in to see how deep it was. So that delayed our actual start until almost 2 that afternoon. It's supposed to be 3-4 hours up to Avalanche Peak, then another 2.5 hours traversing the ridge and down a scree field to the river and the Hut. All the estimates seem to be a little on the generous side, so we thought we had a chance. After two hours, the summit was in sight.
And by 2.5 hours we'd bagged the Peak:
Sorry you missed these views Nate!
The instructions said, head down the south side of the slope and traverse the scree two valleys over and then descend to the river. Two Czech guys were supposed to be also staying at the hut that night, and so we found what we thought were their foot steps and followed them. Unfortunately they didn't descend far enough and we got to a sketchy descent that didn't look particularly safe. Combine that with Mariell's less than ideal gunn boots and the late hour, we decided to give up on the traverse and head back to town. All was not lost though as we got a spectacular view of sunset.

P.S. Random photo of a church in Lake Tekapo, which would be an ideal destination wedding location. Who wants to get married and invite me back to the Southern Alps? :)