New Zealand

16/01/08
Hello from the west coat of the North Island! Today I really did a day off. I took a bus from Wanganui up to New Plymouth. The ride was about 162km, which meant biking there and back would have taken at least 4 days, time which I simply can’t spare if I hope to be on the South Island by February. However, I did want to come up this way and take the time to check out Mount Egmont / Mount Taranaki. Yes, the second-highest peak on the North Island has two names. One is the Maori name, and the other is left over from when NZ was colonized. Nowadays, most people are referring to it as Taranaki, which I think is the better name anyway. Of course, there is more to this region than just the massive volcano which acts as a stand-in to Mount Fuji in the movie ‘The Last Samurai’. If you want to learn a little more, just read on, and don’t forget to check out my ever-so-useful map that I put together.

15/01/08
Hi gang! Wow, another day has gone by, can you believe it? I just heard that some of you are wondering where all the posts went. Well, don’t worry. As you can see, I’ve been keeping up with my end of the bargain, but the NZ Internet it not living up to its potential yet! Hee hee. At any rate, I, your humble scribe, am still hard at work. Both on the road and off the road, so I bring you yet another story in the life of ActiveSteve, even though you haven’t seen any for days on end 🙂 Today I was heading from Raukawa Fall, the YMCA camp, down to Wanganui, a shortish 60km ride taking me to the Tasman Sea, and closer on the route to the south Island. As mentioned earlier, I’ve booked a return bus trip to New Plymouth from here, in order that I may check out the Eastern Coast of the North Island, and Mount Taranaki in general. This is not in any sort of violation, as I’ll still be biking from north to south on my trip, but otherwise, I would have to spend at least 4 days (2 up, 2 back) just to check out that town, and I wasn’t about to do that. Anyway, read on for a little bit about today and Wanganui.

14/01/08
Happy Monday to you all! As you’ve probably noticed, I was unable to post anything last night. This wasn’t because my hostel didn’t have the facilities, but rather because according to the manager there, the Internet was down all across New Zealand. That’s too bad, because I was hoping to get you caught up on my exploits. However, as I now find myself in essentially the middle of nowhere (Raukawa Falls), I still won’t be able to post anything. I have high hopes for tomorrow however, as I’ll be in a town of over 40,000, so surely they’ll have fixed the Internet there, right? Hee hee. Well in spite of that, my trip continues, and I have a new post to write for you all. Today Ralph and I bid farewell to Tongariro National Park, and made our way (mostly downhill) to the Raukawa Falls Adventure Centre, which is a YMCA camp, but also has cabins for independent travelers. We got a cabin for 15NZD each. Not bad. The location isn’t too shabby either, with some really cool falls nearby, as well as a flowing river behind our cabin. So, read on for my little story, and don’t forget to check out the day’s map. With the return of reliable power, I can give you an accurate map now 🙂

13/01/08
Yeehaw! I did it! I reached the highest point in the North Island of New Zealand. Yup, Ralph and I achieved our goals yet again on another glorious day in Tongariro National Park. We managed to summit Mount Ruapehu, through the aid of both a car, and some chairlifts. Hows that you say? Well, the start point was 6km up the road, very much uphill, so we decided to hitch-hike up and back instead of biking. Also, rather than try to scale the entire vertical distance by foot, we took the park people’s advice and paid 20NZD for the chairlifts to take us up to 2000m, leaving us only an extra 700+m of vertical to climb. Our plan was to be on the first chair at 9am, and be back in Whakapapa Village around 1pm, and in National Park Village and the included spa by 3pm. Read on for a bit more of the day, and check out the map. Sadly, the GPS was paused at some point early in the climb, and I didn’t realize till much later, so a lot of the pictures are in the wrong place. Sorry, but that’s the best I can do for now.

10/01/08 to 12/01/08
Good day to you all! Well, it’s been several days since I wrote a blog post, primarily because there was no way I was going to lug a computer around with me on the highest peaks of the North Island. Not that I’m not loyal to you all, it’s just that there wasn’t going to be any power anyway, and I really wanted to focus on the hiking and the sights. Let me tell you right off the bat, I was not disappointed in any way with my decision to spend 3 days in Tongariro National Park doing the Tongariro Northern Circuit with Ralph. I’m not sure how I can actually write a blog post that does any justice to my experiences in the past couple days. They are just so numerous and awe inspiring that it’s really one of those experiences you’d have to be there for. The pictures are probably the closest thing, and those will have to wait until I send a CD of the full-resolution pictures for Jody to post for everyone. It was just that good. In any case, you can for now check out two maps for days one and part of day two before the GPS batteries died. What follows are a few more of my thoughts on the experience, and what lies ahead for me.