Tongariro NP & Current Update

Flying Kiwi: Sunday 21.01.08

On this day most people woke up early (like 5am) to go on one of the most famous walks in New Zealand called Tongariro Crossing, which goes through Tongariro National Park. It's a full day's walk, which takes about 6-8 hours (although you can do it in about 4.5 hours if you're going at a quick pace). Sam and I opted out, wanting to have a lie-in. Most days we have to be up by 6:30 or 7:00, so it was greatly appreciated. Well, it was, until Brad started blasting his kiwi music out of the bus at 9:00, haha.

Anyway, the hikers left early because they didn't want to be out in the harsh sun at midday, so it was a good idea to start that early. You would think that at the hottest time of the year they'd only need a tank and shorts, but on Tongariro the weather changes drastically as you go up and down different altitudes and across the park. Maybe if I didn't have to get up so early I would have gone, cause it sounded pretty cool. At least Sam and I got to walk through some parts of the national park when we were headed down with Alex and Stuart. We had gone on the Silica Rapids Walk, which was about a 2-hour walk. There we got to see Mount Doom in the Land of Mordor. Choice, eh? I would show some pictures of those, but I didn't have my camera (just my camcorder). Maybe I can steal photos off Alex or Stuart.

For the time being, here's just one picture from Alex's camera of us at Tongariro National Park.

Update:

I know that all I've been doing lately is blogging about our travels, and therefore not updating about our current status, so I'll do it now. Our tour ended in the middle of February, with mixed feelings of relief (from the constant traveling, activities, and company of others), disbelief (the entire 28 days just zoomed by), and sadness (saying farewell awesome mates).

We took a bus back down to Te Puke, and are now staying at the familiar Hairy Berry Bunkhouse. We also got a job at the same packhouse as before - I love those guys! But work has been really tedious. Kiwifruit is our usual product, but as we're out of season, they've got us working on this new fruit called kiwiberries. It's basically kiwifruit, but in the size and shape of grapes. Seriously. They only started growing and selling this new genetically-modified fruit last year. Tiny, bite-sized, hairless kiwifruit. Fun to eat, and deliciously sweet, but a devil when it comes to grading and packing them. There are like eight different kinds, but I've only seen three, and one of them is red. Delicious!


Crazy, ain't it?

Anywho, other news:

- Leap Year. Totally forgot it, but what the hey.

- There was a huge story going around on the news here in New Zealand last week concerning an NZ resident, and I'm assuming you guys have heard about it too, because it took place near Atlanta. The basic gist of it is that there was a Chinese man, Nai Yin Xue, living in Auckland with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. He murdered his wife and stuffed her into the trunk of his car in September in New Zealand, and then abandoned his daughter in a train station in Melbourne, Australia. The girl was nicknamed Pumpkin because that was the label on her clothing when they found her. He was on the run for 5 months, and was finally captured in Georgia. Apparently, he'd been on America's Most Wanted a couple of times, but what led to his arrest was the Chinese newspaper in the area. Someone from the community recognized him from a picture in the paper, checked it out on AMW's website, and then got 5 other guys to go with him to ambush, hogtie, and sit on him. Then they called the police. Everyone here in NZ was ecstatic over his capture. Go Americans!

- I'm homesick. Really. I keep thinking about the people I'm going to see, the things I'm going to do, the places I'll visit, the food I'll eat, etc. I know it's still about 1.5 months off, but seeing as I'm just working (grading kiwiberries all day long), there's nothing much else to occupy my mind. Plus it's getting cold fast for autumn/winter (they call it the cold snap, 'cause it happens in an instant), so there's no fun in going to the beach or anywhere outside. Got so many plans for when I come home!! I miss you guys. Hope you're all doing well.

- Plans for the rest of holiday: work until the end of March. Fly out to Sydney beginning of April. Hang out with Ebang. Hang out with Kate and Amy (FlyingKiwi) in Canberra. Hang out with Christine (BC) in Melbourne. Hang out with Matt, Sarah, and Ben (FlyingKiwi) in Woori Yallock. If we're lucky, we won't have to pay for accommodation the entire time we're in the land down under. The only problem is figuring out how to get to all these places (at least the two small towns are in between Sydney and Melbourne). My license expires in 15 days (which means I probably can't rent a car), and Sam can't rent one because he's under 21. Crap (what to do?). But after that it's off to Auckland only to catch our ride home. Yay!

- Lastly, please leave a comment if you read these posts. Even if it's just to say hi. Otherwise I feel like no one is reading them, and that there's no point in posting about my travels and pictures. Take care!