Flooding Horahora

The campsite Little Waipa is situated on the Horahora road, so named after the village that once stood there, but is now submerged under the waters of Lake Karapiro.

Little Waipa: bliss is isolation

I left K working on her novel for a good part of the day and followed the Waikato trail north along the Horahora road. This was another 12km round trip and brought me as far as Pokaiwhenua Carpark, where I learned that Horahora village and its fully functioning hydroelectric power station were flooded in 1947. The power station was replaced by the much larger Karapiro station.

Lake Karapiro

Running short on supplies towards the end of our stay in NZ, I threw what we did have remaining into a vegetable and lentil curry. This was perfect fare for the slightly cooler evening.

Hobbiton

After swinging by our favourite café on The Mount, Eighty Eight, to pick up some sweet and savoury treats for breakfast, we motored on to Matamata, where we had a plans to visit the set of Hobbiton, used in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.

A Hobbity hole

Built on the Alexander farm, which offered rolling green hills, trees and a suitably 'Shire-like' appearance, some forty-odd hobbit residences were built for the first set of films, torn down after completion, and then rebuilt on a permanent basis for the subsequent 'prequels' and for the enjoyment of visitors such as ourselves.

Menfolk in the Shire!

The scale of the outdoor 'set' is astonishing. While there is some artifice - the tree at Bag End cottage is made of steel and expanding foam, with around 200,000 leaves individually wired onto its branches - the gardening team keep genuine vegetables growing in the hobbity veg patches.

Sadly, the inside of the hobbit holes beyond the round doors are not fully featured - save for a small piece of Bilbo's corridor - as the inside sets were constructed and filmed in Wellington.

Bag End

However, the Green Dragon pub is complete and furnished with man-sized chairs and tables.

Down the local

At the end of the tour, we were able to sit and relax with a hobbit-sized cup of ale - choosing from a stout, amber ale, cider, or ginger beer, all of which are produced by the Good George brewery. The 1% abv beer that was used on set, called Sobering Thoughts, has long since run out.

It comes in 568ml bottles?!

Sadly, it was time to part from our friends and travelling companions, who had shared our journey for the past two weeks. They will be returning to the UK via Hong Kong, while we venture on to South America next week.

Meanwhile, we have a few more days to enjoy the NZ countryside and make our way leisurely back to Auckland. For tonight's pitch, we chose Little Waipa, on the east bank of the Waikato River. This is a free and spacious camping spot, with no facilities bar a public toilet.

Silver lining

Having parked up at the scenic spot, we took a walk along the path and boardwalk upriver to the Arapuni swing bridge connecting the village to the far side of the river and power station.

Arapuni swing bridge and power station

Arapuni is downstream of the Huka Falls in Taupo that we visited last week and the raging torrents of water there can be seen still flowing fast towards their ultimate destination - the Tasman Sea. Our 12km round-trip walk had given us an appetite for dinner, which we prepared inside the van, sheltering from the on-and-off rain. Easy pineapple fried rice was on the menu, which we ate tucked up watching (what else) the third installment of the Lord of the Rings.

Jet 2: The Jettening

We left behind steaming Rotorua today to make our way farther northeast along the fault line towards Whakatane.

Our first port of call was at the edge of Lake Matahina for a jet boat tour across it and along the river that feeds it. K and I had enjoyed an excellent ride on the South Island, but our friends had yet to feel the power of the jet.

Follow me!

As we arrived, a band of rain darkened the skies of what was otherwise a fine morning. We sat out the shower, setting off after it had passed. Bill, a manufacturer and exporter of jet boats, as well as former world-champion racer, took us out rumbling onto the lake - the only vehicle on the entire body of water. Shortly, we had exited the wide lake and entered the narrower river, whose course curved excitingly and was peppered with natural obstacles, such as rocks over which the shallow water eddied, and fallen trees under which we just squeezed the boat's bulk. We skimmed our way expertly up river to the hydroelectric power station and back again, winding our way through the beautiful Bay of Plenty scenery.

Jetman

Moving on to Whakatane proper, we strained to see White Island - a volcanic protuberance several miles off the north coast of New Zealand. Unable to discern the shape of the island, we repaired to Poppy's Café for a bite, where I enjoyed a meltingly good zucchini loaf and shared a banoffee tart with K.

Zucchini loaf

As well as sharing the pleasure of a jet boat tour with our friends, we also introduced them to one of our favourite places - The Mount in Tauranga. We parked up at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at the foot of the eponymous mount.

Magnificent mount view

It was nice to be back in this area of NZ that we had enjoyed so much when visiting four weeks ago. We planned to revisit the eclectic Pizza Library, but discovered a hidden bonus that it was attached to an equally eclectic bar that serves an excellent range of craft beer from the likes of Moa, Tuatara, Garage Project, and the local microbrewery Fitzpatrick. The pizzas were, as before, delicious and varied.

A man plays piano for Elvis and a deer dressed as a vicar

From the library we got a steer to nearby Major Tom's, which had recently paid host to a Garage Project tap takeover. With many of the superb range from this Wellington brewery still available, we settled in for a quick drink and enjoyed the tunes being played apparently just for us from a diminutive DJ booth at the corner of the bar.

On the way home, we stopped by Mount Brewing Co., which we had previously enjoyed a great deal, but their offering suffered a little in comparison to the beers par excellence served up in the previous establishments. Still, the India Dark Ale gave a good chocolatey bitterness to round off the evening.

Rainy Rotorua

The weather forecast was astonishingly accurate for today. Rain began to fall in the early hours of the morning and was beating down as was got out of bed. Sadly, this meant we had to shelve our plans for a cycle ride through the (apparently) magnificent redwood forest. However, undeterred, our friends went ahead with their intended quad biking session and said that the wet and mud added to the enjoyment.

Meanwhile, we bimbled about town, avoiding the worst of the wet weather, before finally ending up at the Polynesian Spa café, where we were joined by our friends, beaming from their recent spills through the countryside.

We sat soaking in the hot water baths as the rain pattered onto our heads, and steam rose from the hottest pools into the cooler air. We had a choice between slightly acidic and sulfurous pools - whose water was yellow like the Devil's bath at Wai-O-Tapu - fed from the Priest springs, and cloudy, alkaline waters from the Rachel springs, which soften the skin.

Post soak, we returned to the campsite to be picked up for a Maori cultural evening at the nearby Tamaki village. En route, we were faced with the decision of electing a 'chief' from among the bus passengers to represent us at the village. Three such buses, hence three chiefs, would arrive at the village and be greeted in the traditional manner by the men there, who aim to ascertain whether the visitors come in peace. Such traditional introductions are still performed today and end when the visitor picks up the proffered silver fern leaf from the ground. Greetings are then made by touching the noses twice together before entering the village.

We were taken on a whirlwind tour of Maori crafts and activities, demonstrated at successive huts within the village complex. Poi tossing (a small beanbag on a string) and manipulation of sticks are traditional pastimes designed to improve hand-eye coordination, joint suppleness, speed and agility. For men, martial training is the next step up from such games, repetitively drilling the footwork and weapons handling required for battle, and includes the haka dance, intended to incite fear into the enemy and which is ably demonstrated by the NZ All Blacks rugby team.

Terrifying

Each activity was demonstrated outside of one of the ornately decorated wooden houses. Carvings have significance and may indicate the skills of the person that lives there. Originally fashioned using greenstone tools, the intricacy of the wooden carvings increased significantly after Cook and the European settlers introduced precision metal tools. The Maori welcomed the different materials and tools and adapted them to their needs. Similarly, when Christian missionaries came, some of the spiritual leaders saw more similarities than differences and folded many of the tenets into their own belief system rather than rejecting the newcomers outright.

Unlike the metal chisels used for woodworking, it seems that the tools used for similar decoration of the body have not advanced in the same way. Tattoos on the face and body indicate the skills of the wearer - markings on the legs and waist for physical strength and speed, arms for manual labour, and above the eyes for spiritual attributes - but seem to be applied by breaking open the skin to apply the ink using a tapping motion. Repeated breaking of the skin forms a raised pattern to complement the design but must be a painful process.

Maori design

Having learned about - and in some cases attempted - the Maori activities, we were treated to a professional display of song and dance, both modern and traditional.

The entertainment was followed by the hangi, or feast, prepared in the traditional manner by placing the ingredients in baskets into a fire pit dug into the ground. In this feast, there was chicken, lamb, carrots, potatoes, and kumara, all of which were rendered meltingly tender and smoky from the lengthy underground cooking time.

Hangi feast

Served buffet style, there was plenty of food for the feast, but vegetarians were given a tasty but frankly unnecessary - given the volume of other food - pumpkin lasagne. Fortunately, I still found room to sample the steamed sponge pudding and custard, as well as the enormous pavlova and peaches presented for dessert.

Following the Fault Line

There was a definite sense in our muscles this morning that we had climbed a mountain yesterday. Today, our guide was planning to summit Mt. Ngauruhoe - the bigger mountain that we didn't climb - but, judging from the windy and cloudy weather, he may have called that off.

We attempted to limber up before making the onward journey up country, following the fault line that runs diagonally through the North Island, connecting the three mountains in the national park - Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu - with the towns Taupo and Rotorua. Having visited Taupo a couple of days ago, we decided to stop on the way through to Rotorua for breakfast on the delightful lake shore. Dixie Browns provided an excellent "eggs benny" with mushrooms and spinach, which sadly left no room for their tempting rotating column of sweet treats.

*drools*

The fault line is the cause of many fascinating and spectacular natural phenomena along its course, from mountain ranges to pockets of geothermal activity that have broken the Earth's crust and left it with colourful and smouldering wounds.

Chasm

We stopped at one such gallery of geothermal activity, Wai-O-Tapu "Thermal Wonderland", where the landscape is marked by steaming craters, tiny wispy fumeroles, and lakes of water died green-yellow by the unusual mineral content.

Devil's bath

Many of these phenomena have a hellish monicker, such as the Devil's ink pots or Devil's bath. Oddly none of the features seems to be named Devil's bum, which would be more apt, given the sulfurous stench that pervades the place.

Hold your nose

The view over Lake Ngakoro gives over the cooling tower of Ohaaki power station, which generates electricity from the hydrothermal activity in the area. This provides 5% of NZ's power requirements, so it is no surprise, when coupled with the 15% hydroelectricity from the Waikato river, that the majority of the country's power comes from renewable energy.

Thermal Wonderland

Outside of the Thermal Wonderland is a mud pool, which looks as though it were the model for Labyrinth's 'bog of eternal stench'. Acid from deep underground rises to the surface here, dissolving rock and earth into a viscous clay-like mud. As the hot, acrid steam builds up pressure underneath the surface, it is released intermittently with a glopping sound and a spray of mud, much to the amusement of the onlookers, young and old.

Oh no, not the eternal stench!

Not far along the SH5, we came to Rotorua. After the obligatory Pak 'n Save stop for a few bits and pieces, we pulled up at Cosy Cottage campsite on the edge of Lake Rotorua. Dusk was upon us, so a walk to the lake shore was quickly aborted as the air was thick with biting little sandflies. Instead, we repaired to the safety of the van to eat a simple meal of fried rice and polish off a bottle of dessert wine between the four of us that we had picked up at Framingham's winery in Marlborough last week.

One Does Not Simply Climb Mt. Tongariro

Today is Anzac Day, in remembrance of the men of New Zealand and Australia that fought and died in war, originally commemorating the lives of those that landed at Gallipoli in WWI. There were many dawn services held this morning, but we had our own way of paying our respect - by making the Tongariro alpine crossing and summiting Mount Tongariro itself.

The first impression of the mountain is the imposing conical peak of Ngaurahoe, which is technically a cone of Mount Tongariro and not a separate mountain. Also in the park is Mount Ruapehu, which today was capped with snow and in winter is a popular ski-field.

Mt. Ruapehu

Given the exposed and changeable conditions on the mountain, it is wise to start early and be down before the wind can blow in any troublesome cloud. The journey is a one-way route, leading between Mounts Tongariro (1978m) and Ngauruhoe (2291m), so it is necessary to have someone pick you up at the other end. In our case, a shuttle did the honours and we joined three New Zealanders - one of whom had made the crossing several times before and acted as our guide - to wait in the 6am darkness.

Our party was seven strong, which is only two shy of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. The comparison is not as obtuse as it first appears, as Peter Jackson chose Tongariro as the model for Mount Doom in Mordor for his Lord of the Rings films. Ngauruhoe provided inspiration for the fictional volcano, but could not be filmed directly, as it is held sacred by the Maori.

The route along the pass is a 19.4km crossing by way of the ridges around the many craters formed by eruptions. Our journey started at the foot of the mountain, where a boardwalk elevated us from the frosty ground.

First light and frost

First light soon broke and shone on the mountain peak. We presently found ourselves at one of the hardest parts of the climb - a 200m ascent over ancient lava flows, surrounded by lumps of black rock, known as the Devil's Staircase.

Mt. Ngauruhoe

After the climb, we were rewarded with a plateau across the South Crater, before climbing to the lip of the aptly named Red Crater, which sports an enormous gash in its side, where tons of material was ejected. In the distance, we could see a blanket of white cloud making its way towards us.

Red crater

As well as the peaks of the Tongariro, the weather was clear enough to see another volcanic mountain - the perfectly conical Mt. Taranaki, about 135km away as the crow flies.

Distant Mt. Taranaki

At this location, we were at the highest point of the crossing (1886m), but had made good time thus far, so our guide recommended that we detour to the summit of Mt. Tongariro for a spot of lunch.

Three peaks

We sat at the peak, munching on our predominantly peanut-based lunch. Aside from an egg mayonnaise sandwich, we had peanut butter sandwiches, peanuts (honey-roasted and salted), trail mix (containing peanuts), a cereal nut bar, and a peanut slab. And, of course, Anzac biscuits - delicious and homemade by one of our party.

It was good to fuel up and to lighten our load - all the water on the mountain is sulfurous, so we brought all our drinking water with us. The round trip to the summit added another 4km to the overall journey.

It was close to freezing at the summit, but felt a few degrees colder due to wind chill. As we walked into and out of the warm sunshine, we had to constantly layer up, strip down, put on and take off hats and gloves. We rejoined the trail, which had become much busier with latecomers who were not interested in the sidetrack to the summit.

Tongariro trail

Behind us a blackened lava flow spread out into Central Crater and, as we made a sliding descent on the volcanic black sand, stunning views of the so-called Emerald Lakes opened up in front. The waters are each coloured a different shade of turquoise-green by the concentration of minerals in the surrounding rock.

Emerald lakes

Our route continued past a large circular blue lake and over a ridge to North Crater for the long descent that wound our way down to the Ketetahi hut. The hut was rendered inoperable owing to damage by an explosion in 2012.

Route to Ketetahi hut

Given the lack of toilet facilities on the crossing, the two portaloos were seeing a lot of foot traffic. Greyish cloud mixed with the whiter steam rising from various fumaroles, however looking north we could still see out over Lake Rotoaira as far as Lake Taupo.

Having relieved ourselves, we continued the descent where the terrain suddenly changed to a forest environment. Emerging from the cover of trees, we reached our destination - a rather unprepossessing carpark full of other hikers and their pick-ups - at around 3pm.

We patted ourselves on the back as we took the bus home for a well-deserved hot shower and a few beers.

Top of the Lake

Sunshine graced us again this morning, even as the air cooled down. Eating breakfast outside was a good opportunity to say hello to the ducks, which turn up every morning in search of food, and arrive shortly before the more unwelcome wasps.

We left Reid's farm and nipped down to the lakeside at Taupo for a game of mini golf on the lakeshore.

Tongariro viewed over Lake Taupo

The views from the top of the lake over the water were splendid and threatened to distract us from the eighteen holes.

Lakeside golf

Before setting off, we fuelled up at Burgerfuel, knowing that this might well be the last oppotunity to sample their excellent burgers and ingenious doofer system.

Ingenious

Today presented only a short 90-something kilometre journey back around Lake Taupo to the Tongariro national park, where we parked up at the Discovery park in readiness for tomorrow's alpine crossing along the pass between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngarahoe.

Tongariro taunts us

Despite an early sunset, there was still plenty of time to enjoy a drink in the afternoon sun, before settling in for dinner in the warm confines of the van.

An early night

Water: Steaming, Falling and Bathing

Blue skies and sunshine warm enough for us to enjoy a fried egg sandwich for breakfast outside greeted us this morning. It was a far cry from the grey and rainy skies under which we arrived at Reid's farm yesterday evening. The Waikato river was lined with golden trees shedding their leaves into the water and looked splendid.

Waikato River in autumn

To get closer to nature, now that we were out of Wellington and urban life, we decided to explore the countryside on horseback.

Saddle up

A little light trekking in the forest seemed ideal. One of our number is more than comfortable in the saddle, but for the rest of us it was an unfamiliar experience - and a first for me in particular. Nevertheless, courtesy of four placid creatures, named Rogan, Bailey, Tonka, and, ingeniously, "Horse", we set off for a loop that took us as far as the Craters of the Moon.

We could see from afar that steam rose from the ground at various points where the geothermal activity not far below had broken the surface. While riding we couldn't get close, but having dismounted, afterwards we took a walk around the steaming craters.

Steaming Craters of the Moon

This area of the country is replete with unusual and impressive natural phenomena. Near to the craters is Huka Falls, a torrent of water that, while not falling far vertically, causes the waters of the Waikato River to rush through a narrow passageway it has carved in the rock, and exit downstream, turning the river into a foaming pale blue and white jacuzzi.

The raw power in the falls is awesome, and the Waikato River apparently provides 15% of NZ power requirements through hydroelectricity - a figure I find astonishing.

We segued from these two natural phenomena to enjoy the results of a third - combining geothermal heat and cascading water. The Wairekai terraces are a set of shallow terraced steps, down which water flows that has been heated by the Earth to 70°C. Around this hot spring, a series of pools has been built. While many hot pools exist in New Zealand - we have tried a few - this is by far the most natural setting, as the heated mineral-rich water flows directly into the pool, creating a gradient of heat, in which anyone can find their ideal temperature. In the cooler autumn air, the scalding source created a metres-high plume of steam, which was backlit by the low afternoon sun. The water contains silica, which is apparently good for the skin, but also lays down deposits, so that the terraces are continually growing. We all agreed this far surpassed the experience at the more famous Hanmer Springs - an important factor in its favour is that it is restricted to adults only.

Relaxed by the steaming waters, we came back to the darkened campsite at Reid's farm to cobble together a meal from packet couscous, cauliflower and red cabbage. The result was pleasing and varied.

Taupo or Bust

We said goodbye to the capital this morning and took an epic drive all the way from Wellington to Taupo, on the edge of the great lake in the central north of the North Island.

Fortunately, the route is simple, requiring us only to follow the SH1 all the way. The weather obliged with some grey cloud and and rain for much of the journey, so we didn't begrudge the five or so hours in the van.

We made a stop half way at the self-proclaimed "gumboot capital of the world", Taihape. Oddly, no gumboots were in evidence (having missed the gumboot throwing competition), but we found Soul Café, where we indulged in some of their tempting cakes.

All about the presentation

We stopped at Pak 'n Save just outside of Wellington to inaugurate our friends in 'low cost' NZ shopping and to stock up for the next few days, including some calorific food suitable for sustaining us on the Mount Tongariro crossing planned for Saturday.

Pack. And save. For less. At Pak 'n Save

Heading through the blasted heath of the central plateau, we were treated to a sneak preview of Tongariro, which was wreathed in cloud and looking daunting.

Soon afterwards, our course met the edge of Great Lake Taupo. This body of water is so enormous as to be mistaken for a sea, especially in the misty conditions under which we approached it.

This evening and tomorrow night we are spending 'freedom camping' at Reid's Farm. This proved to be a popular spot. For our friends, it was the first time without an electrical hook-up, but we still managed to have light owing to the battery in their well-equipped van. Travelling in convoy with a more luxurious van means we often don't suffer the privations we would otherwise have to face. It even has its own toilet on board, which came in handy when we discovered the provided public loos were a little smelly.

Even given the relative comfort of the 'RV', we planned and ate a simple meal of tinned soup with bread and cheese.

Wellington, Our Place

Waking up in what is in essence a glorified carpark, we found ourselves - unusually for our trip in NZ - in the heart of the city. Wellington has expanded rapidly over the past 150 years and it quickly became clear that the small church - considered sufficient for the likely growth of the small congregation at the time of its construction in 1865 - was underspecified. Now known as Old St Paul's, the church is surrounded by buildings much larger than itself - a 'new' St. Paul's in the modern Gothic style dominates the street only a couple of blocks away, looking like something out of a Terry Gilliam film. Despite the usurpation, the old church - built in native timber - has a certain charm and has remained a consecrated building, retaining its popularity as a wedding venue.

Old St. Paul's

Speaking of large modern buildings, the Te Papa museum (meaning "Our Place") is an imposing presence on the reclaimed land of Wellington's waterfront.

Its collections and exhibitions are enormous and varied, and so I resolved to download an audio guide to help us make the most of our time. After a overly theatrical but convincing introduction, this turned out in fact to be a piece of audio theatre. The spoof commentary by two Wellingtonians guided us round the lesser visited parts of the museun and challenges the visitor to view the displays, other people and, by extension, reality itself, in a different way.

Life as art

For example, the café, when viewed from the upper mezzanine, appears as a long-term installation, in which the patrons are actors, and the 'piece' explores isolation and the nature of human interaction. To be honest, although this guide didn't take itself at all seriously, or attempt to navigate the actual exhibits, it was a good way to introduce us to what is otherwise a cacophonic sensory overload.

The museum's collection covers Maori culture, European settlement up to the 20th century, and some isolated incongruous exhibits, such as a horses skeleton, the skin of which is on display in an Australian museum. The whole makes for a confusing maze of exhibits that could occupy the interested visitor for several days, but I soon suffered museum fatigue and had to reboot by installing myself in the café exhibit.

Having revived myself sufficiently, K and I tackled the newly opened exhibition on Gallipoli. We knew that this would take a toll on the emotions but were eager to see how the history was told with the aid of Weta workshop's skilled artistry.

Lt. Col. Fenwick

Through a series of rooms, the days and weeks of the conflict were told from the very first landing. In between rooms were dominated by the presence of a astonishingly life-like mannequin representing a real person involved in the battle.

Corned beef again

The individual ANZAC soldiers had enviable courage and tenacity, but were ultimately failed by the leaders of the war and the concept of taking Gallipoli from the battle-hardened and much underestimated Turks. After much attrition, through sickness as well as battle injuries, the leaders ceded to the superior force and pulled the men out. It was a heavy price to pay. Lt. Col. Percival Fenwick, who, as part of the medical corps, saw the worst that the conflict wrought on its combatants, observed the futility most eloquently in one of his letters home: "If this is war, I trust NZ will never be fool enough to forget that to avoid war one must be too strong to invite war."

Desperation

After having spent much of the day inside, we craved some fresh air. A cable car runs directly from the centre of town - departing from an unlikely looking doorway between two shops on Lambton Quay - to the top of the hill and the botanic garden. The lookout provided us with a view over the bay and out to the erstwhile prison island of Matiu/Somes, which sits at its centre.

Let the train take the strain

We made a return trip on the cable car, but then found ourselves (under my leadership) walking uphill again through a series of steep steps to The Terrace. The hilly route was due to a topological miscalculation and failure to take into account gradient when navigating our way to Garage Project - a brewery set up in a petrol station.

Hopper-esque

The extended walk had worked up a thirst, which was admirably quenched at the brewery taproom. Given the draconian liquor licensing laws, getting alicence to sell on site is almost impossible, so the brewery offers generous tastings, growler refills, and a shelf bending under the weight of bottles and cans for sale under off licence.

Not a bad'un in there

We were met by a very friendly and knowledgeable server who ran us through the eight beer taps and even cracked open a can of their seasonal special, Pan Pacific, brewed in commemoration of the Anzac soldiers. While all went down a treat with our four-strong group, the best for me was the Venusian Pale Ale, which was bursting with Asian citrus flavours, from kaffir lime to lemongrass, and was underpinned by a malty IPA backbone. Garage Project carries an astonishingly varied range for a brewery only four years old.

To the next four years

After a prolific beer tasting, food beckoned, so we took the shorter, less hilly route back into town and stopped at Little Beer Quarter. LBQ was cozy, if a little busy, as it was 2-for-1 meals night. We availed ourselves of the offer and the excellent selection of beer on tap.