Taranaki

In the morning we left Wiatomo and headed into the Taranaki region to New Plymouth. It was a nice drive. We even stopped to take a picture along the way. There were lots of cool little cliff sides along the way like this one:



After a couple of hours we made it to New Plymouth. Unfortunately the bad weather at Mt Taranaki prevented us from making a trip to see one of the major attractions in the Taranaki region (in fact we never once saw the mountain the entire day we were there even though we were less than 20 miles away from it). After visiting the information center we decided to go hike up Paritutu (which has a nice view of the area), then go to Pukekura Park and Brooklands Zoo.

Paritutu was pretty cool. We had to climb up part of the way with a chain to help us up the side of the hill. At the top had a great view of the beaches.

Here is Marian going up the hill side:




Here we are at the top of Paritutu:



Here is the view of the city:




Here is a picture of the coast:



After words we went to Pukekura Park and walked through the gardens. There was a nice little lake in the middle of the park.



Eventually we made our way to the Brooklands Zoo. There were a handful or farm animals and a nice collection of birds. The monkeys were entertaining as well but the most amusing animal was the otter. He was running around his cage in frustration. Here are our friends from the day:






After the zoo we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to Wellington around the coastal highway 45.

Raglan to the Black Abyss Tour

We woke up and checked out of the hostel, receiving another apology from the manager for the duty manager’s behavior (one of the other staff members must have passed the message along for us).

After our morning coffee and a quick attempt to find Marian a cheap bathing suit for the day’s adventure we left Raglan and headed to Wiatomo for the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Companies Black Abyss Cave Tour.

We got to the tour company and checked in and got changed into our wetsuits for the tour. Luckily they had a swimsuit for Marian to borrow. Here we are all changed and ready to go:



The group, which consisted of us, a couple from San Diego and the two tour guides, got in the van and left to the Ruakuri Caves. We were trained on how to abseil (Kiwi for repel). Once everyone was comfortable we entered the cave by abseiling 35 meters down into the cave:




Once in the cave they explained that these caves were from the ocean floors being pushed up millions of years ago. They then showed us the fossils in the rocks as their proof. We continued into the cave and came to the flying fox (Kiwi for zip line). Everyone turned their lights off to take the flying fox in the dark. It was a lot of fun not knowing when we would stop. After the flying fox we had a quick snack and a group picture:



We continued the tour by grabbing an inner tube and jumping off a 3 meter (high estimate) ledge into the water. Being as we were in a cave it was very dark and you really couldn’t tell the distance to the water. The loud slap of the inner tube hitting the water also made it sound a lot worse than it was. Needless to say, Marian was scared to make the jump but everyone was proud of her. Here we are jumping off the ledge (John is first than Marian):




We continued by floating in the cold water. We paddled up stream to see all of the glowworms. It was during this part of the trip where the guy from San Diego asked about the giant eels in the water that can be up to 6 or 8 feet long. The tour guide dodged the question saying she doesn’t like to think about it. After seeing the glowworms we continued in the cave. John went through the small rock formation called the birthing canal, can’t see how it got its name:



It was a tight fit. We then continued through the twists and turns finishing the tour by climbing up 2 waterfalls.



We at this point had finished the Black Abyss tour. Since it was a small group we did it fast enough the tour guides decided to also tag on the Black Labyrinth tour. So, we grabbed some tubes outside of the cave and headed back in the cave. We floated through more glowwarms and saw more of the cave. At one point we jumped off a fall small waterfall into the water.




They showed us a small eel named Lily that was very protective of her little home. We floated through more of the cave and finished the tour and went outside to the night.



After the tour they gave us a snack back at the office. It was here the second tour guide mentioned he saw one of the giant eels in the portion of the cave where the guy from San Diego asked about them but the guide chose not to point it out. Marian was very thankful for this.

We went to the Top 10 Holiday park to warm up in the hot tub and rested for our trip to Taranaki the next day.

Our Day in Raglan

We woke up to the sound of more rain. We then went into the town for our morning coffee and decide how to spend our time in Raglan. Since it was so stormy Raglan’s main tourist attraction, surfing, did not sound too appealing. After visiting the iSite and seeing the small town, John decided to give it ago anyway. We went to a hostile that rents surfboards and car straps to and rented a cheap board. We put the board on our little Yaris and headed to the beach. We were even given a good deal on a room if we decided to stay the night.

John attempted to surf but was unsuccessful. By the time he got in the water the wind picked up and surf became too choppy for him. So here are some pictures of John splashing in the water:




Here is a picture of the beach in general. As you could imagine, it would be very nice during the summer.


Once John was tired of being pushed around, we went back to the hostile to stay the night. We were promptly turned away rudely by the duty manager who "can’t be bothered getting off of the couch to walk down to the office in the rain an hour before his shift actually ‘starts’”.

So, we went back into town for dinner food and we stopped by Ste’en’s house to say hi but he was not home. We had killed the hour and went back to the hostile for the night. The duty manager was pleasantly kissing our asses and let us have the first sauna for the night.

Renting a Car and the Drive to Raglan

There are many luxuries of not having a car. The first is it adds a significant amount of walking to your daily routines and even more walking when you have to run errands. Today’s errand is to pick up the rental car for our trip, rental cars another luxury of not having a car. So, to the rental car company was a little over 6k away from the house. After a nice hour plus walk we had our vehicle:



I'm sure it is the cutest little car the rental company had.

Once we had the vehicle we drove up our favorite route up Highway 1 to Raglan. Along the way we stopped off at Hell’s Pizza for our “damn good pizza”.

Also, winter came during the drive up and it was pouring rain the entire drive.

More work and Still No Car…

Not much happened this week other than work. We are getting ready for our next trip to Raglan and Wiatomo Caves. The car is still missing so we will have to rent one for the trip.

Working and a Surprise at 2 Souls Bistro

So we continued to work since we are no longer able to drive anywhere. Work is now more important since we will no longer be able to sell the car for extra spending money. At the end of one shift we went to Kat’s house and got to sample some wines. John still can’t taste enough to BS his way through a wine sell.

On last Monday (the 17th) John, Kat, James and Jane surprised Marian for dinner at 2 Souls Bistro. John finally got to eat Martin’s delicious steak. At the end of dinner we all went out for a drink at the Library…a bar that happens to have a bunch of books that we didn’t read (just like a real library).

Here is a picture of Marian at work (she didn’t like the picture so it has been edited appropriately):

“Wheres the Car?”

After the trip we had the day off to rest and recoup from the trip before getting back to work. That night we went out with Marian’s boss from the café, John, and his new flatmates.

Work went about as usual this week. We went to the Sunday Market to collect produce and visit Conrad.

That Monday, after Marian got off of work at the café, we went to go grocery shopping and we were packing for our next trip to Taranaki. However, as we walked out to the place where we had parked the car the night before after work, we noticed a big hole where the car was supposed to be parked. Here is the conversation that followed.

M: “Um, where is our car?” (Desperately hoping John will say he drove it somewhere that morning)
J: “I don’t know, did you take it to work?”
M: “NO! I never drive it to work at Velox.”
(pause)
J: “I think someone stole our car.”
M: “NOOOO! Are you serious!? Wah!”

So, we continue to cross our fingers to this day, but for now, CAC332 is RIP. We are hoping maybe someday the authorities will find part of it, and maybe we’ll get some of our money back. Unfortunately, we will have to cut our trip to Australia short as a result – but at least we will get to know.

Here is our little tribute: Peppy, thank you for the amazing journey you have taken us on. It was a delight to change your tire in the pouring rain at Franz Josef, buying new tires on you before the Northland trip, and using as many gas discounts from the super market to fill you up. You faithfully carried us around safely for five months, and showed us some really beautiful parts of New Zealand. So thank you for the good times, we await your return (even if in pieces) some day.






RIP Peppy.

Tongariro Crossing

The following morning we woke up super early (7:00 AM), to catch a shuttle to head up to the Tongariro Crossing. The Shuttle guy that picked us up was an awesome dude with lots of knowledge about local places, and Maori names and meanings, and the history of the region. Needless to say, we didn’t absorb a lot of it (esp. early in the AM), but it was interesting nonetheless. The Tongariro Crossing was initially where John thought he would propose to Marian, but being a flexible guy, he thought Mt. Maunganui would work better because of the parties happening that day at the Ladenburg’s house – i.e. we could call everyone easily. The Crossing is a highly popular treck over and through three mountains (Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, Tongariro). Ngauruhoe is also known as Mt. Doom from LOTR. The crossing itself was a bit “Planet of the Apes” like, and very cool. We lucked out with the weather – there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The Crossing can be very tricky as the weather changes quickly and quite often, so we were thanking our lucky stars for that.

Here are some of the pictures from the beginning of the walk:



Here we are with Mt Ngauruhoe, otherwise known as Mt Doom and a close up of the mountain:



Here we are with the Emerald Lake behind us:


Here we are on Mt Tongario with Mt Doom in the background:


Here is the Red Crater:


Back with the Emerald Lakes:


Here is the Blue Lake:


Here is our staged picture on the way home where John is pointing at the start and Marian is pointing at the finish:


All in all took us around seven hours to hike the entire thing, 21 kms later. We were thankful for all the good fortune we had on our engagement trip, and Marian was thankful for her new greenstone on her neck! Back to Wellington.

Rotorua to Onakune

The next day we woke and drove to Kairau Park, which was recommended in Marian’s Lets Go as a great place to go or free to see Geothermal activity. We were thrilled to see bubbling mud puddles, soak our feet in some naturally heated water, and occasionally smell the odd sulfur smell. We had been warmed so many times about Rotorua’s horrible smell, that we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered the smell wasn’t as bad as advertised. We then stopped by another Starbucks to continue calling people and telling them the good news about our engagement. Needless to say, everyone was thrilled! However, not altogether surprised….I wonder why…







On our way out of town, we stopped at a fantastic hot pool. Earlier in the trip we met some Americans on the West Coast of the South Island, who told us how to get to these particular hot pools. It was really super duper cool, because the pool is a result of a hot stream meeting with a cold stream and forming a natural hot tub, in a very natural setting. Pretty unbelievable. The setting looked like where you might find a pond in the Washington, but the water was hot tub warm! It was easy to tell the difference between the foreigners at this particular hot pool – the kiwis were naked, the foreigners were wearing bathing suits. Here are a few pictures.





We then headed down to Ohakune, where Marian promised John that we would always book ahead at even campsites so we wouldn’t be stuck out in the cold without any facilities. We arrived safe and sound at a top ten holiday park, and got to bed pretty quick for the big day the next day.

Mt Maunganui to Rotoruoa and Some Special Events

After a long cold night of trying to sleep we decided to get up. It was a rough night, as we both had to add extra layers throughout to the night to warm up. At one point Marian woke herself up because she was shivering soo much. It took a couple of times before she even realized what was happening. Needless to say she woke up a little tired and grumpy. We also decided that we are done camping for the winter.

Once we packed up camp we headed to the actual Mt Maunganui (a big hill). We walked up the historic stone steps, they had an interesting name “Historic Stone Steps”. Check them out:



Once we got to the top we enjoyed the view and John waited for the other people to leave when he presented Marian a present in a box. He then asked Marian to marry him… see her reactions below:









After a minute John asked again to actually get an answer. She said yes. We then headed down the mountain and called our families from our favorite spot:



After talking to our families we headed to Rotorua for a Maori performance and Hangi at Tamaki tribes cultural performance. We enjoyed the performance and the feast. The food was really good and we were plenty full by the time we left. Here are some pictures from the evening.