riverECHO

On Thanksgiving Day Gretchen and Brad returned to our hostel with a van. We quickly set out to plan the next few days outside of Auckland over a dinner of mussels and German beers. We would head to Raglan on the west coast, a small town known for a left point break, and then on to Tongoriro National Park to hike. We awoke bright and early the following morning, and after gearing up on a camp stove, towels, and a little food, we pointed the car to Raglan. Outside of the main cities, the interstates turn from bustling 6 lane freeways to winding 2 lane roads with no shoulder. The speed limit, 100 kph, of course stays the same. BJ seemed to maintain the speed, but once I got behind the wheel on the right side of the car, things started going by a little slower and cars started driving by me a little faster.

We met up with Gretchen and Brad at the skate park in Raglan where Brad showed us and the local kids some of his skills. Raglan is a quaint but hip surf town. We checked out the break which despite being “turned off” right now, looked huge. Gretchen and Brad wanted to stick around for a little longer so we chose a campground to meet at in Tongoriro National Park and parted ways. When they still had not arrived at 8:30pm and we had worn out our welcome in the camp cafe, we cooked dinner, set up camp, and went to bed, assuming they had decided to camp elsewhere. We had a cell phone but had no way to reach them. Around 11pm that night I heard their van pull up and their telltale van door slide open.

The hike across Tongariro National Park is about 20 km, not including a side hike to one of the peaks, and is termed by Lonely Planet as “the best one-day hike in NZ.” Apparently everyone else in the country agrees (we tried to keep them out of the photos). The park actually suggests walking it in a certain direction as to avoid walking against traffic the whole time. Despite the hoards of people on the trail, it was beautiful in a volcanic sort of way. Mt. Ruapehu just blew up last year and the other peaks had steam rising from them so the fact that all surrounding land was barren made sense. There is a volcano watch tower of sorts at the top of Mt. Ruapehu. Apparently last year the watch tower was destroyed by a . . . guess what . . . volcano, and they had no way of warning the village and ski area below. The hike wound up and over a ridge in between two snow capped peaks, around a few fluorescent thermal lakes, and then down a mountain side with views very similar to valley views you see from Grand Teton National Park. After our long walk in Tongariro and a shower at camp, we said our farewells to Gretchen and Brad for the time being and drove 5 hours to Wellington to catch a ride on the ferry to the south island the following morning.

BJ went to school for a semester in Wellington ten years ago but transferred to a different university in Dunedin on the south island for the second half of the year. Although we were hoping to drive by his old flat and school, we were also anxious to make sure he could set up this week with a solid internet connection for his meetings with Tim on Tuesday and Wednesday. The internet connections we have found at hostels, campgrounds and libraries are either too expensive or not fast enough so a vacation rental with wifi will be necessary until we can rent out a cheap room in a house somewhere. So, we jumped on the early ferry to Picton and just as we pulled into the Marlborough Sound on the south island, the seas calmed and the cloudy rainy skies parted. We headed straight to Nelson and after grabbing a bunch of brochures from the visitor center on hotels and vacation rentals (places we wouldn’t normally stay) we started making phone calls to see what was available. We found an interesting locale called Joya and immediately had a good vibe from the woman, Paulina, who owns it. She runs an organic bed and breakfast as well as a music and artistic therapy center. The studio that we are renting this week is completely private and has a front deck overlooking our own Japanese style meditation pond and garden. We can afford this luxurious living for a week.

Yesterday afternoon and today we explored the area within and surrounding Nelson. We hiked up into the hills directly behind Nelson and passed a young woman who had turned back after, as she told us, she “got the fear of cows.” We laughed and proceeded up the cow spotted hill, only to get the fear as well. A calf charged BJ, maybe just to play but we will never know, and the bull stared at me long and hard. We giggled at ourselves but then realized that the cow may in fact be the largest animal that exists on New Zealand. There are a handful of National Parks that surround Nelson that we hope to explore while here, including the most well known Abel Tasman which you can either hike across or sea kayak around. For some reason we have been set on the idea of living in Wanaka since we arrived but we also feel like we should take advantage of where we are before moving on. That being said we are not sure how long we will stay in Nelson.