Auckland

After we returned from our fantastic trip to White Island, we checked into the comfortable Tourist Court Motel in Whakatane. This was the first motel that we had stayed in during our travel and it was wonderful. The room was large, we had a kitchen and the staff was friendly. It was perfect after so many days on the road and so many hostels. We went into town for a while, but discovered that the downtown closed up around 5PM which was disappointing.

The next day, we packed up our bags, bid farewell to the friendly owners and headed west along the Pacific Coast Highway which hugs the coast along the Bay of Plenty. We were driving through kiwi land including Te Puka, the self proclaimed kiwi capital of the world. We therefore had to stop off at Kiwi 360, an unabashed kiwi experience which offers tours of kiwi orchids, helicopter rides over said orchids, a giant kiwi out front that can be climbed and of course, a gift shop full of unique, kiwi derived merchandise such as kiwi wines, clothes and the Golden Kiwi. The Golden Kiwi is similar to the normal, green kiwi, but has a yellow interior and a smooth skin without the fur of its green cousin and has pointed ends. The Golden Kiwi is the product of plant breeding and was introduced to the US in 1999 from New Zealand. The kiwi itself was introduced to New Zealand in 1904 when a school teacher planted the first “Chinese Gooseberry”. The fruit flourished and is now one of the country’s major exports.

We didn’t take any of the tours at Kiwi 360, but we did wander over the kiwi vineyard next to the parking lot to take photos of the fruits on the vines. Kiwis are delicate fruits and therefore are grown between tall trees that serve as break winds. The break winds make it impossible to see the kiwis from the highway and so the vineyard was the only chance that we got to catch a glimpse of the fruits during our whole trip.


We continued on and after driving on one lane highways for most of our trip, we got onto a real highway about 50km south of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. Approximately one million people, or a quarter of the population of New Zealand lives in the city of Auckland. The city is the world’s largest Polynesian city with twenty percent of the population either claiming Maori descent or decent from migrants who arrived from the Pacific islands. Geographically, the sprawl of the city straddles a thin strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea and it is only a few kilometer walk to get from the harbor on one side to the harbor on the other. To the east lies the Haitemeta Harbor which is the city’s deep harbor port which fills with sailboats during the summer, earning the city the name “City of Sails”. Auckland was host to the Americas Cup over the summers of 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. Looking out into the harbor, one can see islands and extinct volcanoes rising from the water. The city was built amongst fifty extinct volcanic cones and is dotted with parks and green areas, often around the volcanic cones.

The highway we were driving on took us within a kilometer of our hostel and after some planning using my GPS, we were able to pull up in front of the Verandahs where we would be spending the last nights of our trip. Sue had found this hostel online and it was really nice and the owner was friendly. He asked us what we did and after I told him that I am studying for my PhD in building acoustics, he told me about a problem that he is having with the noise of a nearby bar. In addition to the hostel, he owns two other buildings which he would like to make into more rooms and his residence, but a nearby bar makes a terrible racket at night. He inquired about different windows that he could use and how to give his walls a better transmission loss. Sue and I unfortunately, got to hear the noise that night. The sound system of the bar sounded as if it was in our room in the wee hours of the morning which was horrible.

Our hostel was conveniently located about a fifteen minute walk from downtown and in the trendy Ponsbony neighborhood which is regarded as being on the cutting edge of Auckland’s food scene. There were restaurants featuring foods from all over Polynesia and beyond. One night Sue and I tried a Malaysian restaurant which was really good and hopefully a good sample of what we will be having next January. Also nearby was Karangahape Road (K’ Road) which is both praised by urban planners due to its shopping renaissance and maligned by opponents to its seedier parts.

Once we checked in, we headed downtown to see the sights. Dominating the skyline of the city center is the concrete Skytower which was built in the 1990’s and is currently New Zealand’s tallest structure at 328 meters in height. There are of course skywalks where one can look out through the windows to get great views of the surrounding city. Part of the fun is that sections of the floor in the observation tower are made of glass. Signs assure the visitors that the glass is thick and therefore as strong as concrete, but it truly is a bit nerving to be standing on glass and watching people scurrying about far below you. Since this is New Zealand, the tower of course offers chances for adventure experiences. There is the Skyjump where “daredevils who love life” can pay to jump off of the tower for a mere $195. The jump is a base jump by wire and the speed of the jump is controlled at 75 km per hour. Guide wires prevent the jumper from being blown about the building and the jumper is slowed to a gentle stop to land on a tower at the base of the Skytower. If a jumper runs back up the tower without taking off their jumpsuit, the next jump is only $75. There is also an adventure called Vertigo Climb where people pay $95 to climb up through the narrow spire of the TV tower to reach a small platform that is at 270m. It sounds tame, but the climber must wear helmets, overalls and a body harness and must pass a test in a simulator before being allowed to climb.

On the morning of Sunday, January 28 we took the last of our bags out of our rental car to get it ready to be returned that morning. However, first we drove the car to a nearby church for services. I was driving and was already stressed about what we would be charged for the dings in the windshield which may have been why I misjudged a curb while parking, destroying one of our plastic hubcaps. Fantastic. After church, we went to the Domain, an area of semi-formal gardens arranged over the profile of an extinct volcano. The Domain was set aside as the city’s first park in 1840’s and a volcanic spring in the park was the city’s first water supply. The park is also home to the Auckland Museum which was originally built as a World War I monument and today holds one of the world’s finest collections of Maori and Pacific art.

After some time in the park, it was time to face the music when we returned to car to the rental agency. Renting the car had worked out beautifully because we could both fly out of Auckland, leaving the car behind. Otherwise, if it had been my car, I would have been looking at a very long drive as well as a ferry crossing in order to get it home. Now, we just had to see how much the damage would cost. At the counter, I explained that I had just shattered the hubcap and that it was in the trunk. The agent left us inside the office as he went out to check on the car. You have no idea how much of a relief it was when he came back in and told us that everything looked fine and that if we were billed for the hubcap, it would only be a $10 charge and that it was most likely that we would not be billed. After we left the office, I had to sit down for a minute after all of the stress that we would be charged hundreds of dollars for the windshield.

After lunch in a park, we took a ferry across Auckland harbor to Devonport, one of Auckand’s oldest suburbs. A naval station was one of Devonport’s earliest residents, followed by wealthy merchants who built fine villas along the quiet streets. The streets of the downtown area are lined with restaurants, cafes, galleries and stores for knickknacks. After wandering about, we climbed up Mt. Victoria which is one of two ancient volcanoes in the area to get views of the harbor and the city. It was a nice way to spend our last afternoon.

Once back at the backpackers we went out to dinner and then started the task of packing. Sue flew out the next morning back to Boston via Honolulu and I flew back to Christchurch. We had jammed a lot into our three weeks of touring about New Zealand. From fjords to glaciers to walking inside active volcanoes to kayaking to tramping on beaches, it seemed more like ten months than only three weeks. Thank you to Sue for being my first visitor in New Zealand. She was a saint for putting up with me for that long, for not letting me ditch the rental car and for putting up with some bad music and “eat your weight in yogurt” days (it was far cheaper to buy a big container of yogurt than two small ones which meant that we either finished the container before we left in the morning or threw it in the bin. Not being ones to waste food, we at a lot of yogurt).

White Island

White Island is the name of an active volcano located in the Bay of Plenty, about 50km off shore from the town of Whakatane. White Island was given its name by Captain Cook who was the first European to see the see the island. In his logbook, it is noted that “We called it White for as such it always appeared to us.”

The island was formed about 200,000 years ago by the motion between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate which resulted in superheated rock being driven up through the ocean floor. The island is only about 324 hectares in size with three cones currently visible. The active cone is located in the center of the island while the older ones have been worn down by erosion over time. The volcano continues to be active and between 1976 and 1981 two new craters were formed and 100,000 cubic meters of rock was ejected.

Reverend Henry Williams was the first European to arrive in 1826. He described lakes of boiling substances and bodies of smoke with the stench of brimstone. However, the Maori made use of the island long before the Europeans did, catching sea birds on the island and using sulfur collected on the island as a fertilizer for their gardens. The Maori used the steam vents on the island to cook the birds to eat while they worked. Ownership of the island was claimed by both the Maori and the Crown, but it was a Danish sea captain who somehow gained ownership. The ownership of the island then changed hands several times until the New Zealand Manure & Chemical Company (an advertising company worked long and hard on that name) took control of the island with the intention of producing both fertilizer and sulfur ore. However production was abandoned after Mt Tarawera in Rotorua erupted and it was feared that White Island would erupt as well. Production resumed in 1898 but after the fourth year, the production had decreased so much that the enterprise was abandoned.

Ownership of the island again changed hands, but the island was left alone until another attempt to mine sulfur was made in 1913. The workers lived on the island and slept at night in a camp on one of the beaches. However, a massive lahar occurred in 1914, wiping out all of the buildings on the island as well as the men who were working and living there. (A lahar is a mudflow composed of pyroclastic material and water that flows down from a volcano. Lahars are powerful forces capable of moving great quantities of debris - house-size boulders, trees, etc. for long distances in a short amount of time. They look and behave like flowing concrete and destroy or incorporate virtually everything in their path. Lahars can be extremely dangerous, because of their energy and speed. Large lahars can flow several dozen meters per second and can flow for many kilometers, causing catastrophic destruction in their path. One such lahar happened just recently on Mt Ruapehu on 19 March, 2007.) No one knew that the lahar on White Island had occurred until a local arrived on the island to sell food to the workers. While walking through the crater, he realized that everything looked different and that all of the men had disappeared without a trace.

Production was stalled for a time, but was resumed once more in 1923 by a new venture that was fairly successful. Production continued for ten years until the company went bankrupt in 1933. A local family then acquired the island and this same family still owns the island today. The New Zealand government tried to buy the island in 1952, but the Buttle family was unwilling to sell (which turned out to be a very good financial decision). Instead a compromise was reached and the island was declared a private scenic reserve. Today, access to the island is restricted to those using one of four tour operators. Everyone who sets foot on the island must pay a fee to the Buttle’s which is included in the cost of the cost of the tour.

The primary means of gaining access to the island is to book a tour through White Island Tours which sails people out to the island on one of two boats. The cost of the tour includes the boat ride, the tour guides as well as tea and lunch. The whole tour is really well done and everyone was quite pleased with it. The full cost of the tour is refunded if the boat is unable to land on the island due to rough seas. However if the volcano erupts prior to landing on the island, making a landing too dangerous, no refund is given.

When Sue and I had called to make a booking on the boat, we had been worried about getting a spot, but luckily there were spaces. We left Rotorua at about 6:30 AM and were in the town of Whakatane on the coast by 8 for the 8:15 launch. There are two sailings each day, but we had booked the earlier one because it was supposed to have calmer seas and I was glad that we did. We had a smaller boat than the later tour, but for most of our tour we were the only ones on the island which was great for photos. Plus it started raining at the end of our tour so it was nice to be leaving when that started. Our fellow passengers were mostly from Europe and we were approximately 20 people not including the crew.

During the 80 minute trip to the island, a pod of dolphins was spotted and our boat stopped so that we could see them. There were about twelve dolphins in the pod including a baby. The dolphins made pass after pass by our boat, jumping out of the water and frolicking around us. It looked like they wanted to play all day, but we had a volcano to visit and so we resumed our voyage.

During our trip, I spoke with our tour leader who told me that he could see the island on the horizon. However, all that I could see was haze. As we began to near the island it became apparent that the island had been shrouded in steam from the crater. Our boat neared the island and worked its way around to the harbor used by the sulfur mining companies. The small harbor was formed where the rim of one of the craters had collapsed, creating a hole in the steep walls of rock to allow passage to the interior of the carter. The ocean water in the harbor had a yellowish hue to it, due to the sulfur spread all over the sea floor. Beyond the crater wall, we could see the remains of a concrete building and steel gears and equipment strewn about.

Each of the passengers was issued a hard hat and a gas mask. We had to wear the hard hat at all times on the island and we were instructed to use the gas mask if we had a difficult time breathing on the island or if we were caught in fumes from one of the vents due to a wind change. Gasses typically released by volcanic systems include water vapor (H20), followed by carbon dioxide (C02) and sulfur dioxide (S02). Volcanoes also release smaller amounts of others gases, including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen chloride (HCL), hydrogen fluoride (HF), and helium (He). Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a colorless gas with a pungent odor that irritates skin and the tissues and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat. Sulfur dioxide chiefly affects upper respiratory tract and bronchi. The World Health Organization recommends a concentration of no greater than 0.5 ppm over 24 hours for maximum exposure. A concentration of 6-12 ppm can cause immediate irritation of the nose and throat; 20 ppm can cause eye irritation; 10,000 ppm will irritate moist skin within minutes. I can write from experience that exposure to the SO2 gives you a tingling feeling at the back of the throat and you feel like your windpipe is constricting. To counter this, in addition to the gas masks we were given hard candies to suck on. We the passengers had our gas masks and small exposures to the poisonous and corrosive gasses wouldn’t have a long term effect on our health. But, what about the guides who couldn’t wear the masks and talk at the same time and who were exposed to the gasses every day?

Because our boat could not approach the rocky shore, we were given life jackets and took turns being ferried by rubber boat to an old, concrete dock. Once we were on the island we could peer into what lay inside of the crater walls. Beyond the remains of the sulfur mining operation, we could see the high walls of one of the older craters which formed most of the island. The rock walls were stained white, yellow, red and orange. Within the crater, we could see heaps of rock and stone with steam and mists rising beyond from multiple vents and the crater. The guide pointed out cameras located up on the lip of the crater which are used by scientists to monitor the volcanic activity. However, there was likely to be little to no warning if an eruption were about to begin.

Since there was no way of knowing when an eruption would occur, we were instructed by the guides as to what we should do if an eruption started during the tour. We were told that when the volcano had erupted in the past, it wasn’t lava that had come out of the crater but pyroclastic bombs. The bombs could be as large as a car and in the past they had been sent hundreds of feet into the air. If this were to occur, we were to run behind one of the piles of rock to wait until we were told it was safe to move. In the meanwhile, the crew of the boat would be frantically moving the boat away from the island to prevent it from being sunk by the bombs, leaving us with no way off of the island. Once the bombs stopped flying, they would try to maneuver back to the island to get us. In the case where the water in the crater suddenly rose, we would be faced with a lahar of boiling acid coming at us. I actually don’t remember what we were to do in that case, but I cant think of too many options. The guide had told me that there had been tremors on the island only a few days ago that measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, but these had been determined to be seismic in nature, not volcanic. But basically, we were taking a risk walking about in the crater of an active and unpredictable volcano.

We began our walk into the crater and we were instructed to follow the guides along the trails. Periodically, the ground was marked by white, crystal covered mounds that rose from the ground like bubbles in the crust of a pizza. The mounds were about a meter or larger in diameter and up to 1/2 meter high. There were also flat areas that showed the same white coloration and crystals. We were warned to avoid stepping on these areas because they were formed when a vent under the ground heated water in the soil, creating gas that was causing the bubble and the crystals. The mounds were brittle and we were warned that if we stepped on the mounds, the ground would easily give way under our weight and we would plunge into boiling mud.

The walls of the crater were amazing. There were reds and yellows and browns and the walls were scarred as if a child had run its fingers down the walls. Here and there were areas where holes where steam and brimstone were escaping, leaving bright yellow rings around the holes. The ground over which we walked was marked by areas where water was running or had run in streams. Some of these streams were bright yellow while others were bright red or pale blue.

As we walked deeper into the crater, winding our way around mounds of rock, flowing water and open vents, we approached a vent from which steam and gas were hissing out wildly, creating billowing clouds. While we were gathered around the vent, suddenly the wind changed direction and our group was enveloped in the suffocating cloud of gas. We all put on our gas masks and our guide led us away from the vent.

Our walk towards the back of the crater was taking us closer to the active crater. To look into the crater, we would have to walk up a wall of dirt which had formed around the crater above us. The guide stopped us to tell us that if we went up to the crater, all of the safety procedures went out the window. If there were to be an eruption while we were up there, we would only have seconds before we would be engulfed in a spray of boiling acid and showered with pyroclastic bombs. It was suggested that those who came with family should say their goodbyes before proceeding.

We climbed up to the lip of the crater and down below us was a pool of very pale, opaque blue liquid shrouded in mists. The mists were so thick that we couldn’t see the other side of the crater, but we could hear the violent hissing of the vents on the other side of the crater which were producing all of the gas. The color of the liquid was beautiful, but deadly. The guide told us that the PH of the liquid was measured and that at one point the value had been negative. The guide said that he didn’t know that the PH scale could go negative, but apparently super strong acids could do so. The smell of sulfur was strong in the air and my throat was itching from the gasses.

Needless to say, the volcano didn’t erupt while we were standing on the crater and after standing on the rim for a time, we climbed back down and began to walk towards the far end of the old crater. Along the way we could see an older crater that had been partially filled in by one of the eruptions. We were told about one of the sulfur mine workers who had gone missing one day. His shoes were found near one of the craters, but there was no sign of his body. The theory was that he had committed suicide. However, the guides told us that a while ago, one of the guides had been on the island and had fallen into one of the holes in the ground. Unable to get himself out, he took of his shoes and threw out of the hole so that others would see the shoes and know where he lay. He eventually managed to get himself out of the hole, but our guides theorized that maybe that was what happened to the sulfur mine worker.

We passed more areas of brilliant reds and yellows and more of the tiny vents in the ground. These were really remarkable because you would see a brilliant ring of yellow granules scattered around a little black hole in the ground. The whole thing looked extremely delicate and was probably very dangerous. We saw many puddles of gurgling mud.

Our walk took us back to the site of the sulfur mine and we could wander past rusted gears, the remains of a tractor and the dilapidated concrete walls. We wandered down to the dock where the rocks on the shore were a dark red color that offset the bright yellow water of the ocean. We were instructed to scrub our shoes to get off any of the corrosive substances from them we were taken back to the boat in turns. We were given the chance to swim in the bay and one brave woman took them up on the offer, swimming off of an active volcano. The boat had intended to circle the island before heading back to shore, but strong winds on the other side of the island resulted in choppy water and so they turned back.

Like a lot of things in New Zealand, the trip to White Island was pricey, but definitely worth it. Never have I seen anything like the inside of the crater and it was very exciting to walk on an active volcano.


Check out this link to the webcams in several of New Zealand’s volcanoes

More about the recent lahar on Mt Ruapehu can be found here.

A lot of the information about White Island for this email was found on the Pee Jay website

Additional references about lahars and volcanic gasses:
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado

Volcano Hazards Program (VHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey

Rotorua

If you have ever dreamed of hanging out in a city that smells like rotten eggs, then Rotorua is the place for you! Dubbed “Sulfur City”, Rotorua is one of New Zealand’s premier tourist destinations because there is evidence of vulcanism everywhere. Throughout the city, you can find pits of bubbling, steaming, smelling mud gurgling away. Graves in the churchyard have to be built above the ground because digging in the ground is likely to unearth a hot spring. The hotels all advertise geothermaly fed hot tubs and if you are lucky, there may even be a bubbling pit of mud right outside your window! There are thermal parks around the city with geysers, some of which spurt water 20m into the air, mineral baths, and bright orange or green pools.

The naturally hot water lured Maori to settle around the area. The Maori used the hottest pools for cooking and building their houses on the hot ground to provide heating during the winter. Today, there are a number of Maori villages in the area as well as a number of Maori led tours and the guide books say that it is a great place to experience Maori culture in the form of a concert or a hangi. The concerts are performances of Maori music and dancing and perhaps a bit of hongi (pressing of noses). The Rough Guides describe hangi as meals where the meat and vegetables are steamed for hours in an earth oven. First, the men light a fire and place river stones in the embers. While these are heating, a pit is dug into which the hot stones are plaed and covered with wet sacking. The women prepare the lamb, pork, chicken, fish, and vegetables and wrap them in leaves before arranging them in baskets which are lowered into the pit and covered with earth. A few hours later, the baskets are recovered revealing tender steam-smoked meat with a faintly earth flavor.

The city of Rotorua reflects its position as a tourist destination with a plethora of hotels, wide boulevards crisscrossing the downtown area, all lined with shops, restaurants, bars and more hotels. The city has been a tourist destination since the 1800’s when people came to bathe in the waters in hopes of curing all sorts of diseases and to see the Pink and White Terraces which were formed by sinter deposits of silica from volcanic activity. The terraces were proclaimed as the 8th wonder of the world, but were destroyed when Mt Tarawera erupted in 1886.

While in town, we were staying in a nice YHA affiliate which offered nice double rooms with bath. The hostel was a bit odd in that you were issued your own plates and cutlery which you kept in your room when you were not using them. The hostel was located on the edge of the city and next to Kuirau Park, a large park that was full of thermal vents. The vents were the result of thermal activity that took place in January 2001 when an eruption occurred for about 15 minutes, throwing mud and steam 200m into the air. The park was a great introduction to Rotorua and Sue reported that the vents were even better than Craters of the Moon for which there is an entrance fee. There must have always been thermal vents in Kuirau Park because we saw bath houses where one can swim in the heated water. But, now there were also pits of mud all over the place as well as large pools of steaming water. Houses back right up to the park and I saw one house with open windows just above one of the bubbling, stinking holes in the ground. I suppose that you eventually get used to the smell, but still I cant help thinking that it cant be very nice.

The area around Rotorua is packed with things to do. Today there are thermal parks all around Rotorua and incorporating the word hell or devil into the name is quite popular (Hell’s Gate, Devils Playground, etc. You get the idea). One of the largest is Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve where you can pay to see the bubbling vents and geysers. There are the nearby lakes fishing including the Blue and Green Lakes (which are blue and green, respectfully) for sailing, white water rafting and adventure sport. There are museums and lots of parks including the Agrodome where you can see a forty-five minute long sheep show (we passed) and many opportunities to see Maori concerts and hangi. Nearby Lake Rotorua is the St Faith’s Anglican church which is intricately decorated with Maori carvings and there is an image of Christ wearing a Maori cloak etched on a window so that he appears to be walking on the nearby lake. There is also a bird park where Sue was finally able to see her Kiwis.

While Sue was checking out one of the thermal parks, I went to the nearby Whakarewarewa Forest where a century ago, exotic plants were planted to see if they could grow in New Zealand. What is surreal is that amongst the numerous walking paths, horse paths and mounting bike tracks through the forest are a good number of Redwoods which had been brought from California. The trees were found to grow three times faster than in California and are thriving today.

Unless we were eating our weight in pizza, Sue and I would cook all of our meals at the hostel at which we were staying. One night in Rotorua, we decided to cook some of the Green Lipped Mussels that are found in New Zealand. As the name implies, the shells of the mussels are black, but have a beautiful green color around the edge. We set about cooking the mussels and butter in the hostel’s kitchen. I feared that people would be upset at the smell of shellfish, but most people were really curious about the mussels and where we got them. At $4 a kg, the mussels are amazingly inexpensive and tasty.

After our first day in Rotorua, we had to sit down to figure out what to do next. When we had planned out our whole trip, we had left an empty day in the schedule because we were not sure what to do with it. We poured over the guidebooks and after much discussion and logistical planning, we decided that we would drive up to Whakatane from where we would visit White Island, an active volcanic island located about 50km offshore. We even had to wear gas masks.

Taupo, Disappearing Kayaks and Sampling Arnold’s Wine

The morning after I had hiked the Tongariro Crossing and Sue had visited Mt Ruapehu, we drove the 1/2 hour to the town of Taupo which is located on the shore of Lake Taupo. The lake is well known to volcanologists because it is actually a caldera volcano. Caldera volcanoes are different than cone volcanoes. Cone volcanoes generate many small eruptions from the same site. An example in New Zealand is Mt Ruapehu which has been erupting almost continuously for about 260,000 years. The many frequent eruptions of the volcano usually produce between 0.001 and 0.2 cubic km of lava and ash per eruption, which has created a steep-sided cone.

Caldera volcanoes such as Taupo produce larger and less frequent eruptions. Caldera volcanoes are created when magma rises through channels from hot spots in the mantle into vast reservoirs beneath the Earth’s crust. The rising magma creates pressure beneath the crust, bulging the crust upwards as the pressure increases. This chamber increases to an enormous size, until finally, the pressure becomes too great and the ground ruptures in an explosion powerful enough to hurl magma, ash and gases far into the atmosphere in volumes so large that debris can rain down for thousands of square miles. As the pressure subsides, the ground collapses into the depleted magma chamber below the crust, creating a huge depression called a caldera. Sometimes the eruptions are as large as 50 cubic km or even bigger, and form new caldera structures. Other eruptions are smaller and contained within the existing caldera like many of Taupo's eruptions over the past 20,000 years. These small eruptions are typically between 0.5 and 10 cubic km.

When I was in the US, I saw a program on the Discovery Chanel about these caldera volcanoes which the program called “super volcanoes”. Examples include Yellowstone in the US where there are a sting of calderas that stretch in a 350 mile line across parts of Idaho and Wyoming. Others are Lake Toba, Sumatra Indonesia, Long Valley, California, Valles Caldera, New Mexico, and Aira, Japan.

About 26,500 years ago, the Oruanui eruption at Taupo produced huge volumes of ash and other volcanic material that buried parts of the central North Island. Close to the vent the ash reached depths of about 100m. Roughly 800 cubic km of pumice and ash were ejected in this one event. The Oruanui eruption is thought to have formed the caldera now filled by Lake Taupo,

In 181 AD, Taupo erupted in what is described as the most violent and explosive known in the world in the past 5000 years. At the climax of this eruption, about 30 cubic km of pumice, ash and rock fragments was erupted in only a few minutes and travelled horizontally as a liquid flow, moving at speeds estimated at between 600-900 km/h. The eruption column heights reached 45-50 km (about twice the height of Vesuvius 79 AD and over a hundred times more than Mount St. Helens.). Ash was distributed over an extremely large area. New Zealand was not inhabited at the time of the eruption, but today that same area is populated by over 200,000 people. The effects of the eruption were seen in the sky as far away as Europe and China.

There have been many smaller eruptions since 181 AD. Today Lake Taupo still shows signs of life, which New Zealanders have put to good use. Ample hot springs and other hydrothermal activity enable New Zealand to generate about 8 percent of its electricity at a geothermal plant on the north side of Lake Taupo, at Wairakei.

The town of Taupo, located on the shore of Lake Taupo is thriving. I had just visited Taupo in 2004, but after only three years absence the town looked bigger with more developments in the suburbs and more stores downtown. Despite the growth, Taupo is still a nice town on the shore of the beautiful lake and ideally located for fishing, kayaking, hiking or other outdoor sports.

Sue and I spent the morning tramping along the Waikato river which at a length of 264 miles (425 km) is the longest river in New Zealand. The last time that I was here, I was impressed by the clarity of the water and its color. The water has an opaque, aquamarine color and patches of sand on the bottom appeared aquamarine as well. However, on the day that we walked, the water level of the river was quite high which reduced the visibility. Our walk took us past people sitting in the river where hot water bubbles from the ground and mixes with the cold river water. We also saw the Huka Falls where the Waikato River narrows from roughly 100 metres across into a hard rock granite canyon only 15 metres across. The volume of water flowing through often approaches 220,000 litres per second.

In the afternoon, we hired kayaks to paddle down the river. The water was flowing so swiftly that we barely needed to paddle to go at a nice pace. We were each in single person kayaks, but our guide was in a special kayak design that had been designed and built in New Zealand specifically for small streams. Our guide was telling us that they can not make the kayaks fast enough to supply the world-wide demand for the small, stable boat. Currently, production is by hand, but maybe that will change as its popularity grows. Even on our small trip the kayak was noticed by other people who wanted to know more about it.

Our conversation with our guide turned towards emigration and he mentioned that a lot of young people are keen to move from New Zealand. Although New Zealand is a beautiful country, young people are lured by higher paying jobs elsewhere. For example, a lot of engineers wind up in Australia because they can earn more money there than in New Zealand.

Our trip took us past a bungee jump where high cliffs near the river provide a great opportunity for people to jump from a platform and to pay handsomely for doing so. Although the quickly flowing water made paddling easy, it created some nice rip currents, one of which I got caught in. I was just paddling along, minding my own business when my kayak went out from under me. Fortunately, I was actually keen on taking a swim anyway and so I didn’t mind getting wet and fortunately my sunglasses stayed on my head. After I got back into my kayak, we made a stop at the hot springs for a nice sit in the water. There were a lot of people enjoying the warm water and it felt like sitting in a pub because people were all chatting with each other and just hanging out.

The next morning, we packed our bags and headed northeast. However, before we left the town, we stopped at the Wishart Estate Winery for a wine tasting. We arrived at a very good time because we were the only people in the store at that time of day. We had to wait for a few minutes while the manager finished a telephone conversation which gave us time to look about and to read a recent news article about the manager and the winery.

In December, Arnolds Schwarzenegger's personal assistant was in New Zealand to scout places for the governor to see during his upcoming visit. The assistant visited the winery and decided that the 2002 Wishart Hawke's Bay Legend would be a perfect gift for Arnold to have with his Christmas dinner. The assistant arranged to have several bottles of the wine delivered to her in Auckland so that she could fly them back with her at the end of her trip. Ms. Olsen, the manager of the winery boxed up the wine and sent to Auckland by courier. However, the day that the assistant was to fly out, she called the manager to say that the wine had not arrived. The manager called the courier and upon learning that the courier had broken all of the bottles on route, she closed the shop, put two cases of wine in her car and drove up to Auckland. She arrived just in time to meet the assistant before her flight left. Fortunately, customs let the bottles through without charging duty on the wine and the governor was able to enjoy them for Christmas. Since then, Ms Olsen has received an email inviting her to dinner with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the US ambassador's residence in Wellington later in the year. And once the story hit the newspapers, orders for Arnold’s favorite wine have skyrocketed.

The manager poured both Sue and I a glass of the first wine for us to sample and we tried the wine under the manager’s watchful eye. When we were finished, she asked us if we would like some tips on wine tasting. It was one of those humbling moments where you are being told that you are doing something wrong and you have a moment to decide if you want to admit that you have no idea about what you are doing even if you thought that you did. We decided to ask for help and I am very glad that we did because we learned a lot. First of all, the wines that we were sampling included reserves which are rarely given at tastings and so we were working with some very nice wines which is probably why the manager was keen on us drinking them properly. Some of the things that we learned included (I hope that I remember these correctly before putting them on the blog!):

* Swirl the wine in the wine glass. If after the wine has settled to the bottom of the glass, you see a syrupy liquid clinging to the sides of the glass. The more liquid clinging to the sides of the glass, the higher the alcohol content of the wine.
* When sampling red wines, hold the glass up to the light and tilt the glass a little. If you see an orange ring around the wine in the glass, it indicates that the wine had been oxidized from standing open for too long. If this happens to a glass that you have received in a restaurant or a bar, it is best to send it back and to ask for a glass from a freshly opened bottle. The manager told us that the restaurant will probably know that the bottle has been open for too long and will replace your glass.
* Smelling the wine is very important to tasting the wine. We were told to put our nose into the glass and to take a deep breath to fully appreciate the flavors of the wine. The manager then quizzed us as to the flavors we smelled in each wine. It is amazing that you can smell the complex flavors in some of the wines including things that you would not think of such as cut grass (especially in Marlborough Region Sauvignon Blanc), oaks, berries and a host of other flavors.

My favorites from the wines that we tasted were the Lonely Mountain Pinot Noir 2005 at $35 a bottle and the Te Puriri Melot Rose at $17.50 a bottle. Arnold’s favorite ran at $33 a bottle.

After our winery tour, we continued on a bit to see the Craters of the Moon thermal area in Wairakei Tourist Park. The park includes steaming ground, mud pools and explosion craters which suddenly sprang up in the 1950's when the nearby power station lowered underground water levels causing the water in the underground reservoirs to boil more violently, producing more steam which escaped in the park. We also stopped by the Wairakei Field where steam and hot water are extracted from the ground to produce electricity. The field is massive and is littered by large, silver and white pipes that run this way and that as the water and steam is collected and sent to the power plant which is located miles away. The scheme was the first geothermal plant in the world to use very hot water as the source of steam used to drive the turbines. With an annual production of 1550 GWH, the plant produces 4.3% of New Zealand’s electricity. However, there have been complaints that tapping the hot water and diverting it to the plant has decreased the thermal activity in the area.

One other stop of interest that we made during our drive was at the Honey Hive which claims that “If the bees make it, we've got it!” The store had every product derived from honey that you can think of including liquors, cosmetics and treats such honey ice-cream. All of the products could be sampled including the honey wines. There was an indoor hive where you could watch the bees at work and a lot of really good educational information about bees.

Finally, we arrived in the city of Rotorua where we would be spending the next few days.



There were lots of references used for this post. Included are:

The Discover Chanel Program
New Zealand Minerals Industry Association
GNS Science

Tongariro Crossing

The clouds were hanging low in the sky on the morning of the 22nd of January when I had planned to hike the Tongariro Crossing. I woke up at 5AM and got myself and my gear ready so that I could meet the bus at 6:20. I packed my SLR in my Camelback hydration pack (compliments of friends at B&D) as well as my Gore-Tex jacket and my leather hiking boots. I wanted to travel light, but decided it was better to be prepared for any weather rather than to be caught unprepared in a rain storm or to be cold on the mountain. I walked to the appointed meeting place and at 6:20 I got onto the bus that arrived. After paying, I realized that I was not on the bus that I had booked with, but instead on a clever competitor’s bus which was making the rounds at the same time. I wasn’t the only one to make this mistake, but as long as it got me to the trailhead early and picked me up at the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. Actually, the bus that I boarded worked out better because it wasn’t at all crowded and it arrived and departed at better times than the original bus that I had booked.

After finally leaving the town, the bus made the long drive to the start of the trail through the dense fog which covered the land. As we drove, the driver explained to us that we could not drink the water on the mountain because it would make us sick and he offered to stop at a store if anyone needed to buy water. He explained that we had several options for pickup times at the end of the trail and that we shouldn’t worry about the dense fog because it would clear soon. We arrived at the trailhead around 7:15 and I was disappointed to see a half dozen busses and lots of people already there. So much for going early to beat the crowds.

After a quick stop, I walked through the crowds of people milling about the trailhead and got onto the trail. After seeing how many people were about, my initial plan was to hike quickly to pass the slower walkers so that I could walk by myself which is more appealing to me than spending the day in a crowd of hikers. I remember when I was a young Boy scout, I went on a trip to hike up a mountain in New Hampshire. During the hike, my friends and I urgently tried to walk fast to stay ahead of another troop much to the aggravation of our leader and it didn’t work out. Nor did it on the Crossing. Everyone had arrived at different times so that there was no way that I was passing everyone since so many people were ahead of me. So I settled down to my normal walking pace and enjoyed the walk. I wound up always being around the same people who would pass me when I stopped to take a photo and vice versa.

The first hour of the tramp was spent hiking through the dense fog along a sand and stone trail through fields of randomly shaped volcanic rock. I didn’t mind the fog as much during this part of the hike because it made the whole experience surreal. Walking past lava flows and sharp rock formations of random shapes, made the early morning landscape seem like a dream world. The gurgle of water to the left betrayed the existence of a small creak but otherwise the stillness of it all was only punctuated by footfalls on the gravel path. Off to the sides, I could catch glimpses of hills and rock formations which faded in and out of the fog, but nothing more was to be seen. The only vegetation that I could see was moss and the occasional tussock. It was very easy to see why Peter Jackson chose this park to be the set for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movies.

The track wound its way through the rock formations until eventually coming to a bowl shaped area with tall walls of rocks that I could glimpse through the mists. The trail began a rapid ascent up one of the walls, climbing from 1400m up to 1600m on a section of the trail called the devil’s staircase. Loose, volcanic rocks were underfoot and I gained height quickly with every step. The sharp, loose rocks that were dislodged with every step bit into my boots (but not my feet), scratching the leather making me glad that I had real hiking boots rather than low boots or sneakers. At one point, I looked back over the plain and was lucky enough to catch an opening in the clouds which revealed the valley through which I had hiked for a few seconds. But then the clouds came rushing back in and everything was white once more.

I arrived at the top of the ladder to find a lot of people sitting in a flat area to take a breather after the climb. The fog was still limiting visibility to about 20 feet, but it was clear enough to read a sign warning that recent seismic activity had made it unsafe to climb to the crater of Mt Ngauruhoe due to the release of poisonous gasses. Because of the fog, I never even realized that it was here that a side track departed from the main track if you wanted to climb to the crater. However, our driver had advised against climbing to the summit due to the poor visibility in the mist. I would later learn that a whole group of school children had tried to make the climb, but they became disoriented in the fog and the trail was not well marked. Fortunately, they were only lost for a few hours.

I took advantage of the fact that most people stopped for a break to press on alone to the next part of the track. I walked across a wide, flat expanse of sand. For all that I knew, the expanse of sand could have gone on forever because all that I could see around me was mist with darkness beyond. The mists swirled around my feet as it raced over the sand, propelled by the wind. The racing mists gave the impression of speed even though I was walking slowly and the still dampness of the air swallowed the smallest sound. The trail was marked by poles stuck into the ground and as I passed by one, I could see another at the edge of the mists which was the only indication that I was going the right way and not wandering aimlessly through this dream world.

I arrived at another steep climb up a rock wall just as a gap in the clouds behind me raced across the plain that I had just crossed, revealing the sand and other trampers before the sun disappeared again. I climbed the hill and once I got to the top, I walked to what had to be the edge of a cliff, beyond which there was nothing. I stopped here to change socks because the thick rag socks that I had on were too stretched out and were threatening to give me blisters as they bunched around my feet. Fortunately (or stupidly depending on the viewpoint) I knew that this would happen and had brought another pair of socks. However, it turned out to be a very serendipitous thing that I had to make this stop because as I stood on the precipice, the clouds opened up revealing bright, blue skies and the cone of Mt Ngauruhoe which stood out above the clouds. It was startlingly quick transformation from bleakness to beauty. Also revealed, was the very deep Red Crater below where I was standing. Yipes. I quickly took out my camera and shot away, fearing that the clear skies would disappear. However, my fears never came true because once broken, the clouds cleared entirely leaving the sky clear and blue for the rest of the tramp. Everything was timed perfectly because I would have been very disappointed if I had not been able to see the surrounding mountains from this vantage point.

The trail continued upwards and skirted along the top of a narrow hill of rock. It was around here that a side track led to the Tongairo summit, but I never saw the side track. The winds up there were ferocious and I had to hold onto my bag to keep the jacket that I had stashed in one of the pockets from being torn out and blown down the mountain. Once I got to the top of the hill, I could look down upon the flat valley floor of the Central Crater below. To the left I could clearly see old lava flows which were like platforms of continuous, black rock that stood out in contrast to the sandy floor of the valley. To the right were the Emerald Lakes which were round pools of brilliant colors in the black rocks. On the rock wall on the other side of the valley I could see the large, Blue Lake beyond which the landscape descended again, giving the impression that the lake was floating at the top of the mountain. The view was fantastic with the blue and green waters contrasting with the black rocks and the blue skies and mountains in the distance.

The track descended down a steep hill of loose scoria which people were hesitant to walk on because you sank into the small rocks slid downwards with every footstep. But, thanks to my high boots, the rocks never got into my boots because the tops of my boots never sank below the rocks. I could take long strides and sort of float lazily walk down the hill with my camera in one hand.

I walked over to the very alluring Emerald lakes which were each about 30 feet in diameter. The air smelled of sulfur thanks to the vents nearby. The blue, green and yellow color of the lakes is caused by minerals which have leached out of the surrounding rocks. Despite the hues, the water was very clear so that you could easily see to the bottom. One pool had a yellow ring by the shore because the sediment was a yellow color, but then gave way to blue at the middle of the pool.

From the lakes, the track continued across the sandy floor of the crater towards the other side of the bowl of rocks that ringed the crater, about a mile distant. The sand of the floor was littered with rocks and other than the well worn trail, the area looked as it had never been disturbed. To my left was the black rock of the lava flows that had oozed out of the Red Crater and had been frozen in time when the lava cooled. I climbed up the side of the crater and could look back at the volcanic cones and the range of snow covered mountains behind me. The trail continued on past Blue Lack and entered into a valley through which I could see the surrounding country side and lakes below me. The clouds that were crossing the countryside were below the mountains on which I stood, giving an indication of the height of where I was standing.

From this point, the track began a descent down the side of the mountain, leaving the volcanic world behind. There was a series of long switchbacks that gently arced back and forth across the fields of tussocks on the side of the mountain. The day was getting warmer and I had to take off the last of my warm gear and apply sunscreen to my bare arms and legs because there were no trees at all to offer protection from the sun in a land with no ozone layer above it. Eventually I arrived at a hut with bathrooms where people could rest and get filtered water. From there, the track continued to descend and I could see white steam rising from bare patches of rocks and canyons that looked like rough gashes in the hills. These were areas where thermal vents had broken through the ground, killing the vegetations and looking like lesions on the sides of the tussock covered hills. The track entered into an area of hot springs and flowing creeks of water. The water in the creeks stained the rocks over which it flowed bright orange and red. Signs warned that the track was crossing private property that belonged to a thermal spa and urged trampers to resist walking off the trail in search of springs in which to relax.

The track continued to descend along the very warm side of the hill. There were some points where the track was below the ground level which prevented the cooling wind from alleviating the heat. Fortunately, there were few of these. Finally, the track descended into the cover of the forest for the last leg of the walk. I walked past roaring streams and waterfalls for the last hour before arriving at a shelter at the end of the track.

The tramp took me about 6 1/4 hours and it had been about 3 3/4 hours since I had arrived at the top of the track. Others took less time. I had about an hour to wait for my bus which was disappointing because had hoped to make the side trips up the volcanoes rather than sitting, but those trips will have to wait till the next time that I can make the tramp. I cant wait to walk it again, especially during the winter when the track is less populated and the snow will be covering everything.

Maps and more information on the Tongariro Crossing

Wellington and Northward

Wellington is not the largest city in New Zealand, but it is the capital of the country. In my opinion, it is also the nicest and most cosmopolitan city in the country with a redeveloped harbor, a buzzing downtown and lots to do and to see. The downtown area has tall buildings, the Beehive (a building that looks exactly as the name implies), parliament and even a train station. I have been to Wellington before and at that time I was struck by how smart people dress as they go about their jobs and sit in the cafes the line the streets. Most of the city has been built between the harbor and the surrounding hills which keep expansion at bay and result in a walkable city. However, the hills also serve to funnel the winds through the harbor, earning the city the nickname “Windy Wellington”. The cliffs by the ocean make landings at the airport an exciting affair because the runway starts near the edge of the cliff and is surrounding by houses on both sides. The location of the city also happens to be on a major fault line and it is expected that one morning, Kiwis will wake up to find that their capital has disappeared.

Lord of the Rings fans will know that the world premiere of the Return of the King was at the Embassy Theater in Wellington. A nearby quarry served as set for the close shots of Helm’s Deep. And a park served as the scene where the hobbits were chased through the forest by the evil Ringwraiths and it is possible to sit under the tree where they hid.

The waterfront area has been revitalized and there are now wooden piers along the harbor on which people can walk. The nearby visitor center and Civic Square was designed by Wellington architect Ian Athfield with a mix of old and new architecture and sculptures which are easily accessible from the wharf by bridges over the road. Also on the waterfront is the fantastic Museum of New Zealand which opened in 1998 as the country’s first national museum. The building and the surrounding courtyards were built on a floating platform to try to minimize the damage caused by an earthquake. The museum is six levels high and would seriously take an entire day to explore properly. Or, you can easily spend several days in the museum because entry is free. There are visiting collections (which however, may require a fee to see) and when we were in Wellington, an exhibition on Egypt was there. The other exhibits include a Maori section, New Zealand art, a section on natural history, an interactive section on earthquakes and volcanoes, and even a section with rides such as the virtual bungee jump.

The earthquake and volcano section was really interesting. I learned that the South Island has a fault line running through the Alps called the Alpine Fault. Here, the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are not only moving past each other, they are also moving towards each other. The Pacific plate is being thrust over the Australian plate causing the Alps to grow in height at a rait of 7mm per year. But since the plates are also moving past each other, part of the South Island is moving south relative to the other. Christchurch is moving at a rate of 25mm per year away from the west coast.

One of the displays showed the location and scale of recent earthquakes and there had been a good number of them recently. When I first arrived at school, I had to learn what to do in an earthquake and where people were to meet at school after a quake to make sure that everyone was safe. But before I saw the display, I hadn’t fully appreciated just how many earthquakes occur in New Zealand on a regular basis. There was one display that included a house that you could stand in to experience what the aftershocks of the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987 would feel like. There is a television in the room which shows the damage that occurred in the house and while this may seem hokey, it is rather disturbing to see how much damage can happen so quickly and there is not a thing that you can do until it is over.

Of course, the museum is rounded out with several cafes (which Sue discovered include free refills of coffee during your visit to the museum) and a museum shop.

Sue and I spent the morning of Sunday, 21 January exploring Wellington and checking out the museum for several hours. Between all of the sites and things to do, Wellington could easily deserve a few days for exploration. But in the afternoon, we packed our car and headed north.

Our destination would be the small town of Turangi on the shore of Lake Taupo, about a four hour drive north from Wellington. Our drive took us through the Kaimanawa Mountains where we passed through an area used by the New Zealand Army for training with live munitions. Signs along the road warned of the danger and urged calm if explosions were seen along the highway (none were). Our drive also took us past the Tongariro National Park which was established in 1887 as New Zealand’s first national park. The area which includes the volcanoes, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu originally belonged to a Maori tribe, the Tuwharetoa. To the local tribes, the mountains were sacred and people averted their eyes while passing and wouldn’t eat or build fires in their vicinity. The Tuwharetoa chief, Te Heu Heu Tukino IV, recognized that the only way to preserve an area of such spiritual significance during the land grabbing of the late 19th century was to give it as a gift to the nation on the condition that the land could not be settled or spoiled.

Within the boundaries of the park is some of the North Island’s more striking scenery including semi-arid plains, crystal clear lakes, volcanoes, and rainforests. Mount Ruapheu burst into life in 1996 when it blasted ash 12km into the atmosphere and emptied the crater lake down the side of the mountain. However, the eruptions did little damage other than to curtail the ski season on the mountain. The area also gained notoriety as the set of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Not surprising, the park is home to two of the most famous tramps in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing and the Tongariro Northern Circuit.

We decided to stay in the little town of Turangi to use it as a base for exploring the Tongariro Park. The town was a lot smaller than we expected and without much character. The town is right near the amazing Lake Taupo and there is ample trout fishing in the nearby Taupo River, but the town is cut off from both of these waters by its location and by roads. The town itself was created in the 1964 to house workers from the Tongariro Power Scheme. The scheme provides 7% of the country’s power through hydroelectric plants with minimal impact on the environment. The outflow from the plants goes into Lake Taupo which then feeds into the Waikato River where another series of dams further harnesses the water for power. The only sign that the Tongariro hydroelectric plants are even there are the power lines which cross over the highway.

I had been to this area before in 2004 when I spent several days trying to walk the Tongariro Crossing without success due to bad weather. I had been told that the tramp was not worth trying if the weather was bad because nothing could be seen. However, I was now back and eager to try again. The Tongariro Crossing starts and ends at different points and therefore you need someone to either drop you off or pick you up or both. Several companies offer bus rides to and from the crossing and I made a booking with a company that promised to be the first bus to arrive at the start of the day if you chose their early bird bus. When I called, I was told that the weather looked promising and so I went to bed with high hopes of making one of the most spectacular tramps in New Zealand.


The cat has more photos of Wellington that I do. Click here to see them.

For more information on
Wellington
Te Papa Museum

Abel Tasman National Park

In 1642, Duchman Abel Tasman became the first European to catch sight of the South Island. He anchored his two ships in Golden Bay, northernmost part of the island and was approached by local Maori who came out on their canoes to make the traditional challenge of friend or foe. The Dutch misunderstood the meaning of the challenge and blew their horns, inadvertently challenging back. The Maori then attacked a boat of Dutch sailors which was lowered to the meet with the Maori, killing four sailors. Tasman sailed off and no other European approached the South Island for another 127 years.

Today, the very famous and very spectacular national park at the northernmost tip the South Island bears Abel Tasman’s name. People speak enthusiastically about the stunning beauty of the park with its beautiful golden sandy beaches lapped by crystal-clear waters, formations of granite that rise out from the sea and all backed by lush green forest which include silver and red beech trees. Sea lions make their home on the shore and there is a rich variety of sea bird. The boundaries of the park include the Tonga Island Marine Reserve which was created in 1993 to protect the seals, birds and fish in the surrounding waters.

The park has become very popular with most people opting to walk the Coastal Track which wanders along the coast and promises views of the beaches. The Coastal Track is billed as the easiest of the New Zealand Great Walks. The total length of the track is 51km and it can take from 2-5 days depending on your pace. Passage through parts of the walk must be planned carefully because tracks over some of the beaches are not passable at high tide. The DOC has built overnight huts along the track and there are also campsites, both with toilets and filtered water. For those not wanting to spend several days walking the track, it is possible to walk just sections thanks to the numerous water taxis which will take passengers from the town of Marahau at the base of the park to various bays along the track. Another popular option is to kayak along the coast of the park. Kayaks can be rented for the day or bookings can be made for overnight trips which can include several days of paddling along the coast and camping at night.

Sue and I had booked at the information office in Nelson to take a water taxi from Marahau to Bark Bay. We would walk about 13km to Torrent Bay where we would be picked up in the afternoon and taken by boat back to Marahau. We left Nelson early in the morning to get to the offices of the water taxi in time for our departure. Once everyone was ready to go, we climbed into a boat which was sitting on a boat trailer in the parking lot of the water taxi company. The boat was then towed by a farm tractor to the launch dock which was about 2km away. There was something comical about sitting in a boat with our life preservers on all the while being towed along the road and being passed by cars.

Once in the water, the boat sped off to take us to the Split Apple which is a large, round granite rock which sits on a outcropping of rock in the middle of a bay. The rock was split in the middle, appearing as if it were an apple cut in two. From there we went up the coast to a seal colony where we saw lots of seals loitering on rocks. I am sure it was neat to see, but after having been spoiled in the Galapagos, I doubt that seeing one or two seals on rocks will ever be exciting again.

Our boat then took us into Torrent Bay so that we could see where we would be picked up in the afternoon. Torrent Bay includes a small holiday resort residential area surrounded by the Abel Tasman National Park. Somehow, the houses were built before the area became incorporated into the national park and all existing properties have been allowed to remain. Although there appear to be a good number of houses in the area, there is no electricity, requiring each house to have a generator. There also aren’t roads into the area, so the only way to get goods in and out is by boat. The houses have their own generators. Our guide told us that he had looked at a house a while ago which was selling for $250k. However, he missed his chance and now the least expensive house for sale in the area will cost more than $1m. The bay is also home to dozens of boats including a catamaran which served as both the only licensed bar in the area as well as being a hotel.

From Torrent Bay our boat continued north to Barks Bay where we disembarked to start our tramp. The walk took us along the coast but also wound its way through the bush as it climbed up and down hills. I have heard a lot about the Coastal Track since I have been in New Zealand and everyone speaks of it with reverence. I hesitate to put this into writing, but I actually didn’t find the track to be all that impressive. We caught glimpses of beautiful beaches here and there, but the bulk of the track was through the bush where you just get to see trees. I suspect that the best way to see the park would be to kayak. In a boat, you get to stay along the coast to see the secluded beaches that are otherwise inaccessible and which are the real jewels of the park.

After several hours of walking which included side tracks to lookouts or beaches, we arrived back at Torrent Bay where we wandered the wide, sandy beach while waiting for our boat to return at the appointed time. We had to wade out to our boat which then took us back to Marahau. In the morning, our boat had been backed down a boat ramp and straight into the water. But that was when the tide was in and in the afternoon there was a very long stretch of sandy beach between the boat and the dock. Amazingly, the park can see tides as high as 10m (over 30 feet!). Tractors were waiting with boat trailers on the beach and as our boat approached, the tractor backed into the ocean so that the boat could be driven right onto the trailer. Once the boat was on the trailer, the tractor pulled us across the beach and through tidal pools to take us up the boat ramp and then down the road to the taxi office.

Our drive back was uneventful and we kept our eyes open for a glass repair shop. We had noticed a few dings in our windshield and were fretful that we would be charged an absurd amount of money by the rental car company to get it repaired if we didn’t do it ourselves. Although Nelson is littered with automotive repair shops, we couldn’t see any glass repair shops.

Saturday, the 20th of January was the day that we were to take the ferry between the islands and so we would need to drive from Nelson to Picton to catch our 3PM ferry. We had a lot of time to make this trip and so we poked about Nelson for a while and wandered about the big morning market in the town. Rather than to take the main highway to Picton which would go far south before turning north again, we opted to drive along the coastal route. The coastal route was windy which made going slow, but offered great views as we made our way. We actually arrived in Picton too early to check in for our ferry and so we ate lunch in the town park before joining the queue.

Taking the ferry between the islands is rather expensive at $150 for a car and then $50 per person for the three hour voyage. It can be far less expensive to fly and when I had made the crossing in 2004, I flew Origin Pacific from Nelson which took a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, Air New Zealand aggressively marketed its own flights on the same routes that Origin Pacific offered and in the end, Origin Pacific stopped all passenger service. However, when we booked the car, we had taken advantage of a relocation special which offered a great rate and where the rental car company would pay for the cost of taking the car on the ferry and we in turn would move the car from Christchurch to Auckland for them. We just had to pay for ourselves to get onto the ferry.

We parked our car in our designated space in the lines of cars forming to get onto the ferry and then sat in the car and waited. While we were waiting, we were approached by a uniformed man who wanted to ask us if we had been tramping, fishing or swimming to make sure that we had cleaned our gear to prevent the spread of Didymo. Didymo is a freshwater alga which is a alien species which is rumored to have been brought to New Zealand by a fisherman who did not clean his fishing gear. Didymo's native distribution is limited to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including the rivers of northern forests and alpine regions of Europe, Asia and parts of North America The alga does not have any natural predators in New Zealand and is therefore spreading at an alarming rate. Didymo attaches itself to streambeds by stalks which form a thick brown mat on rocks, plants and other materials in the water. Established mats form flowing streamers that turn white at the ends and look similar to tissue paper. Because Didymo is microscopic, it may be impossible to eradicate the alga.

It was first discovered in 2004 during a routine study of a waterway on the South Island and has since spread all over the South Island. The problem is that Didymo is microscopic is microscopic and therefore it takes a number of cells to be present in the water before Didymo is visible to the human eye. All that it takes is for a person to swim, fish or walk through a river that is contaminated and then to do the same in an uncontaminated river for the Didymo to spread. There are cleaning stations at DOC offices throughout the South Island and there are warnings of fines for failure to properly clean gear. Didymo has not yet been spotted on the North Island which is why we were being asked if we had cleaned our gear before making the ferry crossing. We were asked to clean our hiking boots in soapy water and to wash our swimming suits with detergent prior to using them on the North Island.

By the time that the ferry was ready for boarding, about eight lines of cars and campervans had formed. Lines of cars were directed to advance one at a time onto a ramp which led to the second story of the eight story boat. We parked our car in the hold and then climbed up a staircase to the passenger areas. The boat itself was made in Denmark and could accommodate not only cars and people, but also trains. It was neat to stand on the top deck and to watch cars driving onto the second floor of the boat while trains were pushing rail cars onto the boat on a ramp on the first story. The boat included cafes, restaurants and lounges as well as a movie theater that was showing currently released movies for $10. The distance between the North and the South Islands is not that far as the bird flies, but we had to travel from Picton harbor to Wellington harbor and that would take about three hours. It was drizzling out and the water was a bit choppy resulting in a number of children getting sick onboard.

We arrived in Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand at around 6PM and navigated our way to the YHA hostel right in the downtown area. Without knowing it, we had planned our arrival in Wellington very well. Parking meters did not need to be fed, nor did the 2 hour limit on parking need to be adhered to after 6PM on Saturday nor at all on Sunday. Score! So we were able to find a fantastic parking space in a very popular lot right around the corner from our hostel and we could leave the car there for the entire time that we were in Wellington. We couldn’t believe our luck and even checked with the staff at the hostel who confirmed that we were lucky indeed.
The YHA hostel in Wellington is several stories tall and is more like a hotel than a hostel. Rooms are accessed by cards, just like a hotel and we saw people of all ages staying at the hostel. There were two big kitchens and eating areas and there were computers with internet on every floor. It was centrally located with a grocery store just across the street and a great place to spend the night.

Here are some links to find out more:
More about Abel Tasman
More information about Didymo