Too Little Time on New Zealand's North Island

We arrived in New Zealand more unprepared than we have been upon arrival in any other country so far.  We had bought guide books for Ecuador, Peru and Chile back in August of last year and had spent hours looking at each before entering the respective country.  In French Polynesia, we knew where we would be spending each night before we left Santiago.  All we knew about our plans in New Zealand was where we were staying the first two nights in Auckland, and that we are flying out of Queenstown on April 10.

The first thing we did after checking in was buy a New Zealand guidebook so we could start planning our three weeks here (we originally had four weeks, but the earthquake in Santiago and subsequent plane flight changes cut nearly a whole week out).  Following the advice of a number of travelers we met in South America, we decided to spend only a week on the North Island and the remaining time on the South Island.  I left Magge to find us a rental car while I did our taxes, which will be much easier next year when neither of us has income to declare.  By the end of the day, we had our car and picked out and the two spots we'd see on the North Island: Rotorua and Waitomo.

Since we were planning the trip and trying to maximize our tax refund, we didn't get to see much of Auckland before it was time to leave for Rotorua.  We picked up the rental car, and I felt like I was learning to drive all over again as we rode down the left side of the road.  I repeatedly turned on the window shield wipers instead of my blinker and both Magge and I cringed every time I took a right turn.  After about an hour, I started feeling more comfortable.

Rotorua is a city located in one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, and the reason most people visit this area is to see its geothermic activity.  The guidebook warned us that this geothermic activity had the side effect of making the area stink, and that we would smell the city before we saw it.  Just outside town, I said to Magge, "I still don't smell anything," which immediately preceeded the hydrogen sulfide hitting our nostrils.  It's not an entirely overpowering smell, but it is unpleasant.  If a rotten egg could fart, it would smell like Rotorua.

Despite the intermittent whiffs of eggfart, it's a pretty town on a lake surrounded by green hills.  We spent the first afternoon wandering its parks, one of which was formed from the remnants of a large spa from Rotorua's hot springs heyday in the early 19th century.  After eight days of sweating through our shirts in Tahiti, it was nice to walk around in some cooler air.

Government Gardens, centered around a century-old spa

Moari carving at the Government Gardens entry

A black swan, for all you Nassim Taleb fans out there

The next day, we visited Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, an amazing place with a kitschy name.  We already saw geysers in Chile, but Waiotapu had much more variation.  In addition to a locally famous geyser (that was disappointingly induced to erupt instead of erupting naturally), the park had boiling mudpits, smoking craters, acidic and bubbling lakes and more, all in unnaturally-looking bright colors.  The pictures really do not capture the vibrancy of the colors.  We both fiddled with the settings on the camera to try to bring them out more, but we really have no idea what to do outside of selecting preset settings, and the ever-present steam didn't make things easier.  Maybe we should take photography classes when we get back.

Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland

Who knew boiling mud would be so interesting to watch - we stood here for fifteen minutes

 Fumarole, ringed by bright yellow sulphur deposits

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"The Devil's Inkpots"

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"Opal Pool"

 Magge on the boardwalk crossing the "Primrose Terrace"

 

"Bridal Veil Falls"

"Champagne Pool", ringed with rock colored red with arsenic

"Oyster Pool"

 The very hospitable sounding and looking "Frying Pan Flat"

In person, this chlorine pool looked as neon yellow as a vat of highlighter fluid

Lady Knox before and after

We ended the day with an hour hike in Whakarewarewa Forest. The area originally wasn't forested, but instead covered in ferns and shrubs, like most of the surrounding area. However, late in the 19th century, the New Zealand government began planting 170 different species of imported trees to find a commercially viable tree for logging, since native New Zealand trees take 200 or more years to mature. The modern result is a city park that is very popular with joggers. The most interesting part is the grove of California Redwoods, which grow very well here. Neither Magge nor I had ever seen Redwoods before, so we were impressed with their size, even though they are smaller than the older trees in California.

California Redwoods, in New Zealand

Fern tree, native to New Zealand

Leaving Rotorua, we drove to Waitomo, home to over forty-six kms of caves.  If you've been reading this website, you know that we've been foiled in two attempts to explore caves on our own due to inadequate or forgotten flashlights.  We planned to avoid this problem by going on a guided tour.  Not just any kind of tour, though.  Emboldened by our canyoning experience in Chile, we looked for a tour that would take us rappelling, swimming and climbing through the cave.  We found a company called Waitomo Cave Adventures that had five different options that fit the bill.  Four of them looked good, but one of them, titled "Lost World Epic", looked amazing.  An eight hour trip, it also looked too expensive, but as we discussed the options, our eyes kept drifting to its section of the brochure and we decided to splurge.

The evening before our "epic", we did a short walk to see a cave and a landbridge in the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve.  It was a short trail, but there was a lot packed into it.  Unfortunately, not many of the pictures we took came out too well because of poor lighting (snorkeling in Moorea somehow shorted the flash on our supposedly water proof camera).

Peering into darkness

Our attempt at taking a picture in the cave without a working flash

The next morning we set out for the Lost World with two guides and one other traveler, and I don't have the repertoire of superlatives necessary to describe the tour.  It stands at the top of what we've done on this trip, and maybe in my life.  It kicked off with a bang, as we rappelled 100 meters from a sink hole into the cave.  At that height, it's the longest commercial free-hanging rappel in the world.  Magge was visibly nervous, but kept her composure enough to smoothly work her way down without shedding any tears or cursing at the guide or me.  It took us close to thirty minutes to get down.  At the bottom, we could see that Lost World was an apt name instead of merely a cheesy marketing one.

You can smell the fear from this picture

1 meter down, 99 to go

The Lost World

We ate lunch at the bottom, and I thought that the rest of the tour would pale in comparison to the rappel.  However, the next few hours were just as incredible.  We advanced upstream by walking through the water, swimming, rock climbing (sometimes up water falls), taking leaps of faith into pitch black pools and squeazing through holes through which I thought I would have no chance of fitting.  Close to the end, we entered a large grotto, sat down, and turned off our headlamps.  Covering the ceiling were countless glowworms.  They are actually larvae ("but come see the glow-maggots of Waitomo isn't a great slogan," our guide said), but they do in fact glow, producing a soft green light that doesn't look natural.  All five of us lied on the rocks, quietly looking at the glowworms on the ceiling as though they were stars.  After ten minutes, we started talking what the patterns of glowworms looked like to us.  Looking back, it was a neat moment; a collection of adults, ranging from mid 20s to late 40s, struck by a sense of wonderment enough that they were talking like eight year old kids looking at clouds: 

"That kind of looks like a baseball hat."

"It looks like a duck to me... no, a goose... no, a kiwi."

"I think it looks like a spaceship, coming towards us."

Then Magge, the resident high school biology teacher, ruined the moment with, "It looks like an embryo."  With that, it was time to finish up our time in the cave.  We got back to our hostel that night exhausted, fingertips raw from climbing rocks, but still beaming at the things we had done that day.

 Striking poses in the last glimpses of daylight we would see for hours

It's a good thing neither of us are claustrophobic

 Yep, there were eels in the river

 Magge, the spelunker

The water was 8-10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit)

 Group shot at the end of the cave

Our time was short on the North Island, but we were still able to fit in some incredible moments.  Looking at the guidebook, we are missing so much to see and do here, but the South Island is supposed to be even better.