Smelly city (~ 5th-7th Feb)

When I finally arrived in Roturua, I got off the bus and realized my hostel was further away than I expected! So it was a long walk with my heavy bags (I did acquire camping gear on the way...). And it had started smelling of sulphur from the moment we entered the city. Roturua is on the shore of a lake with many hot swamps, hot baths, all hot and smelly from the high volcanic activity around the area or simply generally New Zealand. 

In the city there are a lot of Maori places, villages and so on. You can visit these and see Maori culture, hear more about the history and stuff like that. Many have been living around the lake, because it gives many good sources for food and the hot springs give needed warmth around the winter time and with the minerals and so on, that are in the water, it is very soothing and heals different illnesses, like colds, pain in different areas and so on. According to the lady on a tour in the Maori Village it is great for maaaany things, just amazing. Old people should come over, enjoy some baths and would be cured for some time. So many Maori had settled around here long ago. And as soon as the british found these natural hot springs they built bathhouses and so on.

Rose garden in the centre of the old colonial Rotorua town

Maori decorations in Rotorua, they are really dominant in the city!

Otherwise there are many other nice things around the city. The forests offer many walks, the islands and surroundings are simply part of many stories, legends and culture of the Maori. Many national parks are around and that makes it a nice natural place, though it is smelly! You just walk around town and suddenly a harsh smell of rotten eggs flys by and slaps you in the face.

One of the hot "baths" at the lake side

Um... ok, I don't know if I'd want to go there!

A big hot steaming spring at the lake, you can't really see the steam, but it was really hot around there!

While I was there I also did a tour of a maori village (as mentioned above). It was pretty interesting! We were guided by a woman, who has lived in the village for almost all her life. She told us about how people lived there, how they cook (using the hot springs), bath and evolved their culture. With the first europeans arriving also did christianity so the village I visited had 2 churches and they burried the dead (though not very deep because the ground simply isn't deep, you reach a hot spring pretty fast). The one I visited was an actual village, people have been living there for a long time and still do! Most other centres are no villages, but built exclusively for tourism, recreating old huts and so on. I had a nice time there, the guide had nice stories to tell, was witty and made the tour fun. It ended at a viewing platform to see the biggest geyser in the Rotorua region. WE had just missed the eruption, so I went back home instead of waiting another 30-60 minutes.

Here is the name of the Maori village I visited... The name tells its own story!

A picture with some Maori after their performance

Some vegetables cooking over the hot springs!

One of the beautiful Maori houses

The big geyser near the village.. always active!

But main reason for me to stop here was of course Hobbiton! I'll make an extra post for that ;-)

Surely, while I was there I realised Rotorua is a nice place! Definitely a place to visit, maybe relax in the natural hot baths, learn alot about the maori culture and history, see some nice geysers and walk around in the national parks. Great place to relax =)

View of the Lake and the bird island in the middle

(there is a maori legend, that a tribe lived there and because of a Romeo and Juliett story the two divided tribes got together -

because the boy was so determined to swim across and meet her, making her notice him while singing like a bird or something like that)

Another view of the lake

A replica of a Maori war canoe displayed near the lake

One of the bubbling ponds around Rotorua - sadly polluted by trash...

Taupo the second, march on Mordor (~ Feb 4th)

Mordor here I come!

That's what I thought to myself when I was driving to Taupo again. I wanted to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing before (in December), but the weather was really bad... But the weekend I was there it was finally good weather! Awesome!

The hostel I stayed in was able to book a transport for me and so I was able to go there in the early morning and do the hike. I met a girl from Melbourne in my hostel, who was doing the same thing so we decided to hike together!

Off we go!

In the early morning (it still was dark) a bus stopped infront of our place and many people got in. After stopping at some more hostels and hotels in Taupo the Bus drove south towards the Tongariro National Park. After about 1,5 Hours we arrived at the car park and were able to finally start hiking. I had brought my sticks along and was ready for the climb! Annie and I started walking. Durch the bus drive we got some info on the trek, a map and some other things. So we knew which way to go and how long which part of the hike should take. We were doing fine and finally got some nice views of the mountain (Nghauruhoe), that inspired Mount Doom for the Lord of the Rings. The mountain is holy for the Maori and supposedly wasn't actually filmed for the movie (at least that's what the guy from the tour in Wellington said) - They used a CGI generated volcanoe, that was inspired by the actual one.

The plains and volcanic fields around the mountains. You can almost imagine orcs living there and hiding behind rocks!

That's it! To the right are some toilets... Ehem...

Another view on the Volcano and to the right the Tongariro

So we started the hike. Annie and I had a good time, talking and watching the other people. There were A LOT! Several buses arrived at the parking place and dropped off dozens, probably hundreds of eager people to trek up this mountain. Good thing was you never had to worry where to go - or at least to get lost alone. Downside was you always had people around and so it simply wasn't as secluded/ natural as I'd have liked it (I just adore the nature especially when I'm not surrounded by a group of people, then I usually can't enjoy it as much). But as we went on walking, the herd started to thin out and you weren't in a bulk of humans any more.

The first climb was a little tricky, but nothing compared to the treks I had done in 2016 ;-) After a few hours we reached the frist crossing of the trek. You can decide to go up the Nghauruhoe - or Mount Doom - or not. The climb up to the peek takes several hours and isn't easy. On our map it said when you should start it the latest, so you could arrive at the bus in time (they stopp driving back to civilization at about 5 or 6 pm I think). So if you hike slowly and take all the detours the buses might not wait!

We decided not to go up, I was thinking about my bus later on I wanted to catch, so I didn't plan to do any detours.

The next part of the hike was simple, very straight forward past another old crater, one of which is partly filled with water. From there the probably hardest part started! It was up a ridge between the Nghauruhoe and the Tongariro. The description mentioned it being difficult, especially when the wind is blowing and it did! Wow! It was really strong and at some points we had to struggle to keep going. This was another place where the group of humans split up even more. We finally made it to the top and reached the second crossroad. This one I was more confident about and was happy about passing the wind so I convinced Annie to join me up there. We headed to the summit of the Tongariro Mountian. There were only few others doing it, so it was much calmer and we could enjoy the "nature". But there was just basically rocks, sand and so on around, because it's a volcanic region. We reached the top (which isn't that spectacular, almost like the tallest Annapurna peak) and had wonderful views of the surrounding area! And the taller Nghauruhoe was standing proudly opposite of us, we could see some colourful dots walking up the side of the volcanoe, very few people decided to actually climb the mountain.

Panorama from the top of Mt Tongariro

The way back was easy going and we reached the crossing again and went on with our regular track joining in the streams of other hikers. Then we saw one of the highlights of the trek - the emerald lakes! Beautiful colourful lakes shing bright green, blue and really amazing between the surroundings, which were simply red, brown or black.

Emerald lakes - beautiful!

The way down wasn't that easy, you had to be careful of many loose rocks and a lot of sand, so your steps weren't always that secure. We overtook many people, especially older people who had problems going down the sandy bit. Other guys almost ran down this bit which seemed effective aswell, but a wee bit more dangerous I guess. We stopped for lunch at the side of one of the lakes enjoying the view and realxing while the sun was slowly showing itself again. The weather was pretty good, thatnks to clouds, it wasn't too hot, additionally the wind would cool you off, when the clouds were blown away. Almost perfect!

Past the Emerald Lakes a view back to Mount doom with another big volcanoe (with ski-places) in the background

Blue lake, the biggest one in that volcanic area

After lunch we headed on past the big blue lake and slowly got to a much greener section of the trek. It was the north side outside of the volcanoe massive so many plants were able to grow here I guess. The path was now often a board walk and we met several people going the opposite direction. But they were probably doing a different trek. There are several treks into the national park, some are several days long others - like ours - for one day and I can imagine there might be some for a few hours as well. After the last hut the path took us down the mountain again. People started speeding up and I also realised I was kind of late, thanks to the detour up the Tongariro peak I was a bit afraid to miss my bus to Roturua. So we kept up with some others and walked down. Now the hike was a bit more boring, just straight forward, not much of hills or so. The sun came out again but had arrived further down, where a small forest was growing and gave us shade.

Finally we saw the car and bus park, found our transport and I asked when they'd leave. They checked the time and their sheets, how many are left. Luckily they were able to leave a few minutes later and I was able to make it to my bus in time. Of course the bus to Rotorua HAD to be late, so I could have been much more relaxed on the way back, but you never know! 

The day before I had found a wallet on the street and dropped it at the police station. They made me fill out a form and then suddenly why I was waiting for the Bus to Rotorua I got called by it's owner who wanted to thank me! He wanted to invite me to a coffee, but wasn't in town and I was leaving, so it didn't work out. But it was nice of him to call to say thank you.

Ferry back to the Northern Island (Feb 2nd)

I hitched a ride to Picton to take a ferry to the north island  and stayed a night in Wellington before taking a bus to Taupo.
Nothing special.