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.

The Drive Up to Mt Manganui

After the late night we woke up at our typical later hours. We rushed around to get everything together to head up North. We didn’t know exactly were we were going and we still had yet to decide to head up north west to Raglan or north east to Tauranga/Mt Manganui. We did however tell Kat we would take her up to Waikanae to her parent’s house for her Pop’s funeral. We finally got out of Wellington a little before 1 and were on the road.

After dropping Kat off, we finally decided to head up to Tauranga for the first days of the trip before heading back through Rotoroa and finish the trip by doing the Tongario Crossing. It was at this point we buckled down and finished the long drive. We got into town at 11:00. After trying 3 holiday parks or hostels we found a holiday park that had an open gate. We were able to hike past the gate and set up camp.