So at the beginning of March I left Wellington in a blaze of glory. Not really, I just left. But it was a very exciting exit all the same. Olivia took a two week reprieve from work so we could take Gary and hit the open road again. Her first stop was to Hawke’s Bay with a couple girls from J.J.’s. As I was planning on hitting up that region when my parents arrive (SPOILER: my parents are coming/came/still debating on which tense I’m pretending to write this post in) I made other arrangements in Wellington for a few days before I met up with her. She had fun…without me. Very happy for her though! Olivia was working an insane amount in the last few months between her two jobs. She needed a homie holiday – rullll bad.
Tongariro National Park
Tongariro National Park
We back! As you may remember, Liv and I tried to do NZ’s most popular day hike back in October. But due to some poor weather it was too windy and they issued avalanche warnings. Not keen. But we were determined to complete it before leaving the North Island. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is something you hear about even before you arrive in the country. It’s all volcanic terrain and has the most stunning emerald and turquoise lakes. Oh, and it’s also the home to Mount Doom. So that’s cool.
I hopped on my first Kiwi bus from Wellington to meet Liv in National Park. Along the way I met some people from whom I learned critical information. Number one being that apparently NZ granted Germany 133,000 working holiday visas. I most definitely believe that. Number two being that the weather was meant to be horrible for the following few days and the crossing most likely wouldn’t be possible for a little while. Seriously, not again!
Check out this camping cutie.
Upon reuniting with Liv we found ourselves a nice little place to camp because there’s nothing like wanting to sleep outside during torrential thunderstorms. What can we say, we’re very financially driven. We decided we’d absolutely commit to doing this hike and we’d wait it out however long was necessary. So we filled our days with mini hikes around the park. Plus our campsite was only $6 a night. I could work with that.
Taranaki Falls
A few days later we were finally given the go ahead to do the crossing! We woke up bright and early to catch the shuttle so we could set out on this hike we’d been aiming to do for ages. We had a little map that showed all the various stages of the hike. The crossing spanned 19.4 km and takes about 6-8 hours but there were a couple of additional offshoots that could be taken if so desired. So up we went! At the top of the Devil’s Staircase (not exaggerating, real name) we had the option to tackle the additional three hour Mount Doom (or real name: Mount Ngauruhoe but I still can’t say that so Mount Doom it is). Because it’s Olivia and she rarely says no to a challenge, there we were deciding on a whim to climb this beast! As she said, “we can’t not do it.” I can get behind logic like that. So summiting Mount Doom we would! And it. was. HARD. The two hour climb up had me on all fours pulling myself up over shaky, questionable terrain. I can’t express enough how difficult it was. My heart felt like it was planning on beating right on out of my chest. Even it was like, “nah man, this is way too much.” But “we can’t not do it.” So hold on little heart, we’re doing this. Every so often we’d hear shouts of “ROCK!” and have to duck to make sure we wouldn’t get rocked out.
I want to go to there: MOUNT DOOM!
After what felt like the most physically exerting million hours of my life we reached the top. Now they say after you give birth you can’t remember the pain of labour and you just are so in awe of that new baby. I, of course, have no idea if that’s true but I think I felt something like that at the summit. I was above the clouds! And I had gotten up there with my own body! It was excruciating at points but I did it! Looking down I could see fellow climbers still scrambling up and looking out I could just see beautiful mountains and endless plains. I think I fell in love with hiking and climbing mountains in that moment. Such an incredible feeling to accomplish something that tested me to my very limits but unbelievably rewarding seeing those views that, right then, felt like mine alone, knowing that I had successfully gotten myself up there. It was unreal and I wanted more (just not right then… I was pretty sore). I feel so grateful for Olivia for literally pushing me to climb higher mountains. You need people like that in your life. Also the girl power feeling was palpable.
On top of it all with my girl!
Unfortunately, we had to climb back down to get back to the main crossing. Because of our additional route we still had a solid six hours ahead of us. The crossing itself wouldn’t have been too difficult without the Mount Doom summit. But because of our little extra adventure my body was quickly failing. Soon enough every fibre of my being was screaming in total agony. With each step I was feeling more and more keen to arrive at the car park. But again, those views made it all worthwhile! Funny how that works. At the top of Red Crater Summit there are turquoise lakes that almost look fake because the colours are so vibrant. A bit further on was a huge blue lake that was perfectly spherical. Just stunning. Olivia and I had taken to playing 20 questions which I realized I’m really not very good at. But at least I was better than the American guy we met on the track who joined in. It’s all relative, really.
I believe in colour palettes.
Towards the end we came across this huge warning claiming a “lahar hazard” and that we shouldn’t make any stops and keep pressing forward for the next 1700m. However, there was absolutely no context given as to what a lahar actually was and what we should be wary of. We assumed it was some sort of aggressive pokemon. I don’t care to know if we were wrong. But that brought us to the christening of a new name for Gary. Gary Lahar Bean. We’re only one ‘L” away from having a little Gary L. L. Bean. Stay tuned!
Aptly named, Blue Lake.
After we crawled to the car park we desperately split the one beer we had left in the car. Recovery fluid is very important after activities such as this. And since we hadn’t showered in, oh about five days, we rushed to find one since there wasn’t one at our campsite. I won’t cop to any illegal activities but we each had a lovely, luxurious shower that evening.
So that was it! Finally we managed to complete the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! Boom Doom!
Taranaki
New Plymouth Sunsets
Up next we wanted to check out Taranaki. It’s home to a beautiful mountain as well as being a fun little surf town in New Plymouth. We were hoping to climb Mount Taranaki but I was a bit nervous. It’s the most dangerous mountain in NZ with a lot of tourist deaths and it was getting closer to the end of the hiking season so conditions could be treacherous. All the same, we went to the iSite to get some more information and were abruptly told ‘NO’ we couldn’t climb it from the woman who was not the most helpful despite working at an information centre. I felt quite bad because I knew how much Liv wanted to tackle it. I was just worried with my comparative lack of experience I would hold her back plus my muscles still hadn’t recovered from Mount Doom despite my best beer drinking efforts. So it wasn’t in the cards that time to wait till conditions improved as we had already pushed our trip back so much waiting for Tongariro to become accessible. So we ambled around town and took in some sun for a few days.
Raglan
View from my accom.
But then, back to Raglan! This was my favourite stop on our initial road trip. It’s the fun little surf town with the sweet hostel where we met so many cool people the last time we were there. Liv spent a couple days here before returning back to Wellington for work. I decided to stay for a week or so. Sleeping in the car at the hostel I had beachside property getting to watch the beautiful sunrises and sunsets each day. I was constantly running, surfing, or kayaking. It was exactly what I wanted after leaving Welly, just to be outside and actually doing things. I read so many books while lounging in the hammocks or going to the beaches watching the surfers ride some very impressive waves. I made some new friends. Canada was very well represented again. It was an amazing week. But I really wasn’t sure what I would do after that. I still had three weeks before my parents arrived. Initially I was planning on WWOOFing (Willing Worker on Organic Farms) to save money but I was having such a good time that I was contemplating just staying and becoming a surfer babe qualified to at least be an extra in the next Blue Crush movie if that should ever happen. I could only stay at the hostel one week though so I was considering staying at a friend’s place. A few things fell through so all of a sudden I needed new plans for the very next day. Normally I would stress out quite a bit at this point but I’m actively trying to handle things better, so I made a plan. I decided to try and find a place to WWOOF near there for a few weeks. Luckily enough, things did work out! And I didn’t even need to stress! Self growth. Very important.
I really, really want to be in Blue Crush. With these girls.
So I said goodbye again to Raglan. My mini residual road trip with Liv was done and I was onto the next adventure. I’m realizing that plans are all well and good but by keeping myself open to new possibilities so many more exciting things can happen. Things don’t always work out the way you expect them to. I’m learning that that’s okay, and I’m okay when that happens.
ohanywaythewindblows 