Tongariro National Park has to offer quite a few interesting hikes (or tramps as they say in New Zealand) and you get spectacular views of the surrounding area – at least on a good day. ;)
Kerosene Creek is a small river with little waterfalls and a temperature of about 40 degrees. It is located between Rotorua and Taupo near SH1 south of the turnoff of SH38 and north of Wai-O-Tapu.
It’s pretty amazing to sit or slowly swim in the hot water, relaxing and feeling the pain of hiking all day flow away. :) Just remember: Never stick your head under water in volcanic hot springs, as the water may might contain unhealthy bacteria. That’s why it smells kind of like kerosene.
Waiotapu is one of the many volcanic parks between Rotorora and Tapu.
You have mud pools, hot springs, sulfor lakes, carbon terraces and volcanic vents all around.
There’s also one geyser which errupts everyday punctually at 10:15am – with the help of a little organic soap… Kind of ridiculous…
(continue)
Last weekend I met up with six Wellington CouchSurfers to go for a 3 day hike – the Tongariro Northern Circuit leading around Mt. Ngauruhoe (a picturesk vulcano in Tongariro National Park).
We started out on Saturday from Whakapapa Village and went throu bush, forest and little canyons for creeks until we reached the Mangatepopo Hut – a hut managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
David and I went down to a creek near the hut, relaxing a bit from our ‘exhausting’ 3 hour hike by building a dam to rise the waterlevel.
Afterwards we started cooking – green curry :-) great choice!
Everyone went to bed around 9:30 to be fit for the next morning.
When I woke up for the first time around 6 is was raining so hard you could see the waterlevel standing about 10 cm high on the paths. All of us decided (independendly from eachother) to turn around and sleep some more. We finally got up around 9:30 :) Visibility outside the hut was still only about 15 Meters. At an altitude of about 1200 meters above sea level the hut was directly in the clouds…
We decided to stay the day and next night at the hut, hoping the weather would clear out, so I went to the nearest car park (about 30 mins) to hitch hike back to my car and went to get some more food and wine. :-)
For a few minutes it looked as if it might clear so 4 of us decided to go on a short tramp. After 90 minutes we were completely soaked – but of was good to move anyway. :)
The rest of the day was spent by playing UNO, cooking dinner and singing songs.
Monday wasn’t any better, so we packed our gear and went back to my car – whose batteries were dead, since I left on the lights. Stupid me! Someone gave Rachel and Dave a ride to their cars at Whakapapa Village. Good thing that Rachel had starter cables in her trunk.
What a fun and exciting weekend!
Next weekend I will do the tongariro alpine crossing – which is only one day and part of the circuit.
The New Zealand Traffic Agency is airing radio spots – during the normal commercial breaks – where they inform about future, ongoing and completed road constuction. Imagine Germany telling you in commercials about resurfacing the Autobahn or constructing new roads… Also thanking drivers for their patience… Really nice. :-)
NZTA also runs a TV and print campaign against driving tired or speeding. I’ll see if I can find some of the really good adds somewhere when I’m online next time.
…
I found some of the TV Spots, print advertisements, . My Favorite. The NZTA website has them all ;-)
NZ has thausands of shades of green. I took the following photographs on a hike just within a radius of a few hundred meters.
(continue)
Diving at Poor Knights Islands :-)
(continue)
I am spending about 2 weeks to see the area north of Auckland right now. For one week I was traveling with Aelita, an Estonian-German girl from hamburg. We met in Auckland at a couchsurfing meeting and I offered her a ride up north. Since we had about the same ideas and plans, we spent most of the Northland trip together, picking up another girl in Paihia for a couple of days to go to Cape Reinga.
(continue)
Opening a bank account
You’ll need an ID (passport) and a proof of address. This can also be a hotel or youth hostel receipt (even if you just stay there for a night! doesn’t make sense, I know…) – or a letter from your landlord, stating that you live at his/her place.
Applying for a tax number
To apply for an IRD (tax-) number, you need your passport and a driver licence (and official translation, if your licence is not in english).
Getting a driver licence
I decided to also get an NZ drivers licence, since I don’t need to take any tests and it will be accepted as a proof of ID everywhere in NZ.
The downside of that is, that as a German (and ONLY as a German!) you have to hand over your current licence to the authorities, which will send it back to Germany. It’s a ‘german only’-thing. Who knows what the German government thought when they passed that law. Probably nothing – as usual….. They just have to be special – and especially difficult – in ANY way… stupid Germans! I am just curious how I will get it back – it doesn’t have an expiry date, remember? And if I have to pay for another card or not. My guess is: “yes, of course we will charge you again! We took it from you by law, so now you have to pay to get it back…” Well, I’ll then drive with my NZ licence for the next 10 years. I don’t care… :)
I might have been avoiding it by having an international licence and just hand that in. Don’t know if that had helped or not.
First of all: there seem to be no goats at Goat Island. We went there for the fish :-)
Goat Island is a marine reserve located 90 km north of Auckland near Leigh. Is basically is not more than a big rock about 50 meters off shore. The small channel between the mainland and the island is about 2-5 meters deep. Ideal for snorkeling and diving. On some parts of the cliffs you can stand at high tide with the fish swimming around your legs. On good days there are hundreds of thousands of fish near the beach, so you can literally walk between them.
(continue)
Jacobs Depot – the starting point of the Waitekere Ranges rain forest express – is located about 40km west of Auckland (5 km from Titigrangi village). Initially build to ensure the maintenance of pipes for the water supply of auckland the narrow train (if I say narrow, i MEAN narrow….) goes through the heart of the rain forest along those pipes. “WaterCare” still maintains those pipes and offer those touristic rides.
(continue)
Wednesday we organized a tour with some other CouchSurfers to Whakatane (Bay of Plenty) and booked a trip to Whakaari (White Island), which is New Zealands most active volcano.
The island is located about 50km off shore of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. The boat ride takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to get there and there’s a pretty good chance to see whales on your way.
(continue)
The carfair at Greenlane which is hold every sunday morning is a great opportunity to get your new car. There are hundreds of used cars in every shape and pricerange.
I got my car last sunday! :-)
The registration of the new owner can be done at every post office – so that’s no big deal.
It is not mandatory to have an insurance for the car over here – but I’d recommend it anyway… Most of the banks or the AA offer insurances. Some are really expensive for tourists, though.
