Sunday 21st
December
As planned
we left Auckland in “Birdie” the Nissan Bluebird from 1992, that Sam was so
generous to lend us, for the 5 following weeks. We also borrowed a pillow, a
sleeping bag and a quilt from them. All we had to buy by ourselves was a tent,
an extra sleeping bag and two self-inflating air mattresses. We got those
things sorted out during the day, both in Auckland and in Matamata,which was
our first real planned stop on the trip.
A short drive out of Matamata is the
area ‘The Shire’, home of the Hobbiton Movie Set. It’s where parts of Lord of
the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies were filmed. The location with sheep and
cattle farms is spectacular. Peter Jackson the movie director discovered the
area in 1998, when searching for suitable film sites. The construction began in
1999, and involved heavy earthmoving machinery that built the 1,5km road into
the site. Thirty-nine Hobbit holes were created with timber, ply and cardboard.
The mill and bridge was built of scaffolding and ply. The oak tree overlooking
Bag End was transported in from near Matamata and artificial leaves were
brought in from Taiwan and individually wired onto the tree. Our guide told us,
that just the tree process took several weeks.
They did the same with some plum
and apple trees, and Peter Jackson made a local girl sit under the tree eating
plums for three whole hours while filming. In the movie you only see this girl in
the background for 2 seconds – if you watch the extended edition. Imagine how
much time they have used on each scene to get it perfectly correct.
Our guide,
a young fellow in his early twenties grew up with having friends who
participated in the movies as the small kids running on the pathways, and some
also got casted as hobbits.
When they rebuilt the area in 2009, the
constructions were built out of permanent materials including an artificial
tree made out of steel and silicon. The reconstruction took two years, and
today the set is maintained to keep the magic of The Shire alive. It’s now a
permanent attraction and a huge tourist draw. A 3 hours trip is $75 (345kr),
and there’s no other way to see it than pay those money.
Our guide revealed the
secret of how they made the Hobbits looks so small compared to for example
Gandalf. We were really impressed by the
stories, the spectacular landscape and all the small Hobbit holes. It made us
want to watch the movies. We only watched two of the Hobbit movies so far, but
we are definitely keen to watch the rest of the movies after seeing the film
set.
In the afternoon when we were done with the ‘sightseeing’, we drove
further south, passed the beautiful Lake Taupo and stopped in Turangi. There
isn’t much to do in the town, but it makes a perfect stop-over for people like
us, who planned to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We checked in at the
cheapest hostel in town – a special place with a lot of graffiti on the walls,
there wasn’t a single white spot left over, there were worn out shoes hanging
as decorations, the buildings were very old and used. It was easy to tell that
the owner didn’t put a lot of effort into maintaining it. He was cool enough to
give us a private room for the same amount of money as a dorm though, but the
bedding was dirty and the room smelled as if something had gone mouldy– but it
was cheap!
For once I let Erik cook dinner and it actually turned out great, so
maybe I should loosen up a bit and give him a longer leash in the kitchen.
Hobbiton Movie
Monday 22nd
December
We rose
early to make our lunch and get ready for the long trekking day ahead of us.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing (19,4km) is said to be New Zealand’s best one day
trekking tour and it’s FREE.
We started at the opposite carpark than most of
the other trekkers – it said to be a harder trek due to the 11km uphill, but by
starting there we had the pathways to ourselves most of the morning.
Erik hasn’t
done any exercise for 7-8 months, so he’s in a bad shape. I have banned him to exercise;
since he loses weight so easily. I have jogged frequently, but wouldn’t
consider myself being fit at all. Taking these facts into consideration I think
we reached the top faster than most people. I started to feel my broken pinky
toe, so I compensated in the rest of my body.
The landscape was the most dramatic
we have ever seen. We passed active volcanic terrain, saw steam vents and lava
flow. It became more and more spectacular the further we got to the top. It was
simply breathtaking to see the three emerald coloured crater lakes. It’s a view
that you can only dream about. We enjoyed lunch in the most picturesque
surroundings you can imagine. After getting some fuel on the engines we continued
our journey to the top, 1886m. From here we got the view over the red crater. I
just can’t describe how dramatic it looked. It’s something that you need to
experience before you actually understand it.
Our descend was a piece of cake
(pis og kage), we both felt full of energy, which is why we started to run
downhill. We both felt pain in our knees, but it was the same pain whether we
ran or walked. And at some stage we both got stubborn and ignored the pain. So
we ended up running the last 5-6km down to the carpark in the other end of the
track. Then we were out of energy!
The normal time to finish the tramp is
between 7-8 hours, we did it in 6 hours, from the hard beginning point, and
with a 1 hour break. We were proud of what we had accomplished during the day
and just needed to get back to our car on the other side again, before the
mission was completed. There were shuttle busses driving between the two
carparks, $30 each way. Since there was so many on this southern carpark we
figured that it was easy to get a lift to the other carpark where our car was,
and it was located towards Turangi as well, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
A
friendly French guy gave us a ride. He was training to do an ultra-marathon in
Hong Kong in January. So his warm up was to do this crossing back and forth,
plus he made it to the summit of the tallest volcano in the area. He was
insane. He dropped us of at a crossing where he was going straight and we were
going right. We then walked while we waited for a new ride that could bring us
back to our car. An Australian ski bum picked us up, he had hitch hiked back to
the other carpark, picked up his car and was now on his way to pick his friend
up at ‘our’ carpark.
Back in our car we were a bit indecisive of what to do and
where to go. We knew we wouldn’t get much out of the rest of the day. I was
already asleep shortly after Erik started the car, he drove towards the clear
blue Lake Taupo, but very quickly also got over manned by fatigue, so we had a
break near the lake in the shadow of a tree. I fell in a deep sleep,
unfortunate for Erik he couldn’t sleep. He was too tired to sleep, he said!! Anyway
we were both clear in our heads after the rest and decided to drive up to Taupo
town.
Taupo town is pleasant, busy and friendly. Its biggest attraction is the expanse
of Lake Taupo where there is countless activities to enjoy. Fishing for trouts
being the principal attraction, but there is also more adrenaline-pumping activity
such as bungy jumping, skydiving, parasailing etc. The town is pumping at this
time of the year, as the summer holidays for all Kiwi’s has just started.
We
visited the thermal spa park, with a hot spring pool. It was crowded as well,
with German tourists and a lot of them. They must have shut down Germany during
Christmas! The warm water was good medicine for our sore muscles and even
though we had to squeeze in between our neighbor country we still enjoyed it. Waikato
River’s cold water stream was running next to the hot pool, and we finished off
with a cold shower in the clean water.
Later we phoned a few campgrounds and
realized how unreasonable pricy they were, the cheapest was $22 (101kr) per nose
per night, for sleeping in our own little tent!! It was ridiculous – we could
get a dorm bed in a hostel cheaper than that!
A lady on one of the campgrounds
told us where we could camp for free. We were relieved and we now appreciated
that we had taken the ‘shower’ in the cold river, cause there was no showers on
the free campground. We were surprised to see how well located it was. Waikato River
was running right next to it and there were plenty of people out there. It’s a
really cool spot for budget travelers. We pitched our tent and arranged ourselves
in the best possible way. We then consumed cold wraps with tuna and salad
before we went to bed. We were both knackered after a long and exhausting day
so we passed out quickly.
We started from Ketetahi and ended in Mangatepopo
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| Steaming volcanoes |
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| Valuable view |
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| The blue lake |
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| Frodo overlooking the terrain |
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| Best lunch view ever |
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| Crater lakes, notice all the white steam coming up |
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| This was original taken as a raw picture, we tried to convert it, but we don't have the right program and that explains the red line on the right and the writing in the corner |
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| The red crater and the same story as above |
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| Panoramic views |
..Fordi vi kan..
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| At Taupo free Thermal Park |
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| Hairwash Tongariro Crossing |
Tuesday 23rd
December
It seemed
like a brilliant idea to run down the volcano yesterday, but after our first
night in the tent our legs were sorer than ever. We both had a great sleep, but
getting up wasn’t enjoyable. We were in pain, and could barely walk. Maybe it
hadn’t been the smartest idea to sleep in our tent after such a long trek. I
walked like a retard down to the river to clean our dishes from the day before.
I really enjoyed the fact that everyone uses the river for showering, shaving, doing dishes,
etc. That’s what we consider REAL camping!
After a short conversation via Skype with Erik’s mom & Jan, we
locked the tent and left into town to get our breakfast, cereals and milk. We
were out of energy and Erik was really struggling with his hay fever. He hasn’t
sensed it during most out our travels, but the climate here is so similar to
the Danish climate, and since it's summer here now, there is a lot of pollen in
the air. So the poor thing sneezed countless times during the whole day, he
just couldn’t get a break. We rested our bodies on the beach for a few hours,
and swam in the cold, but extremely clean and clear lake.
Our visit to the
library was mainly based on sending friends and family Christmas greetings. We
visited McDonalds (Maccas) as it is listed to be the most unique McDonalds in
the world. We haven’t quite figured out exactly why, but maybe it’s due to the
aircraft in the back of the “restaurant”. Back on the campground, I gave Erik
his Christmas present, a haircut near the river. Meanwhile we enjoyed the last
bit of sun and a cold drink, before we took our evening shower in the refreshing
river. We celebrated “small Christmas night”, sitting on our Danish flag, drinking
red wine and watching videos from our previous adventures.
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New Zealand's cheapest haircut |
Wednesday
24th December
Christmas
day and never have we felt the Christmas spirit being so little. Our plan was
to drive to Levin, where Sam’s family lives and as mentioned before, Lisa and Sam
had invited us to celebrate Christmas with them. Erik drove the whole way from
Taupo, meanwhile I got some blog and sleeping sorted out.
We arrived at Sam’s
mom’s house in Levin in the early afternoon. Sam has got a big family, his
parents are divorced, and his mom, Vivian has adopted five children, she also
has a teenage son with her “new” husband, Simon, and then there is Sam and his
biological Brother, Tom. Her husband has a big family as well, so it’s only
going to get more confusing from now on. Anyhow, we arrived at this lovely
house, the sun was shining and the beers were cold. The family was great and
really easy-going. They made us feel comfortable right from the beginning. We
spend the afternoon on their porch and later Lisa arranged a trip to the river
where we had a swim, more beers and a good time. Here they celebrate Christmas
on the morning of the 25th, they do barbeques and drinks, but
honestly Christmas isn’t big here at all. We were lucky to celebrate it two
days though, first day would be with Sam’s dad and his family and second day
with his mom and that part of the family. We (us, Lisa, Sam, Tom and his
boyfriend Adam) were supposed to be at Sam’s dad Nigel’s house at 4pm, we were
running late after visiting the river, but Kiwi’s are really relaxed and
there’s never an excuse for rushing through your life – just take it easy and
enjoy every moment. We just followed the laid-back life style.
It was funny to
leave Vivian’s house and stepping into Nigel’s, as it was two completely
different worlds. It was like coming from a house on Christiania in Copenhagen
and stepping into a house in Hellerup. The difference was huge, but both houses
were great in their own way. When we arrived everybody put their presents
underneath the Christmas tree in the corner of the well decorated lounge room –
and that’s the only thing that reminded us a little about Christmas. Nothing
else during this wonderful day was like a danish Christmas, except for the 3-4
christmas songs playing in the loudspeakers.
We all sat in the garden all day
and night. We were nine all together, with Nigel’s wife Sue and her son. Nigel
made us a delicious barbeque buffet and it was basically “just” a barbeque night.
Their friends came over for drinks and we had a great time. We were actually relieved
that it was so relaxed. I imagine it being awkward if we would have strangers
visiting during x-mas at home, mostly because our traditions are so strong and
we are definitely not open-hearted people at home. We are aiming to change that
though – cause in the end, that is what Christmas is all about!
A few hours after midnight I think we all had
enough to drink. We were provided with a huge air mattress in the living room,
and then we all went to bed.
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| Lisa and I enjoying a cold beer after a cold swim |
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| A beautiful Christmas day |
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| Love the open fire place |
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| Presenting Lisa |
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| Delicious X-mas dinner |
Christmas in the sun
Thursday 25th
December
Woke up by my alarm
scaring the shit out of me, after realizing where I was and more important
where the door was, I knew why I had put my alarm that early - to skype with my
family at 7am (7pm their time). I reckon I was still a bit drunk when I got a
hold on them, we skyped for a little hour and after hanging up, reality kicked
in... I was missing out on a x-mas at home with the people I love the most. I
was in a sentimental mood when I walked back to Erik. Some of the others were
already up, and wished me merry x-mas – it made me happy and quickly I was
looking forward to how the morning would turn out.
Erik got a hold on his mom
and Jan as well and wished them a merry x-mas, before people slowly gathered
together in front of the x-mas tree in the lounge room.
Soon Sue started to
hand out presents. The first one was for their dog (that’s not very different
from home), and then she started handing out presents for everyone, all at the
same time (not how we do it at home), but being there and watching them
unwrapping their presents was so overwhelming and satisfying at the same time. I
truly realized how big hearted it was of them to let us be a part of their
Christmas, and let us watch them from the sideline (that’s how it felt, but not
uncomfortable or anything near that). It’s indescribable and undoubtedly
something that we will remember every x-mas from now on. It was amazing to
experience a different x-mas. The present thing was done quickly, as mentioned
before they don’t spend that much time and energy on x-mas here, and they don’t
get thousands of expensive gifts, but just a few really considered once. As
last night Nigel again created some awesome food, bacon and egg, the perfect
hangover breakfast! This was just the start of the day.
Around noon we drove
back to Vivian’s house, and started drinking again while we slowly got ready
for another x-mas celebrating there. It was excellent that we experienced it
twice. Viv and Simons house is so relaxed and full of love. I mean you need to
be a special breed if you can manage six kids living at home and still be so
calm about everything. It’s very admirable. We gave Vivian a Bombay gin - she’s
the queen of gin. We were surprise to receive a few presents as well… A bottle
of vodka, two boxes of chocolate and some Hubba Bubba gum – good thoughts!
We
didn’t know that we were going to another party later on, but after showering
and feeling new-borne, Lisa told us we were going to an even bigger party at
Simon’s parents’ house. They live in Levin as well, and threw a massive party
during the whole day and night. We were about 35 people, including a bunch of
kids/teenagers. We had a huge barbeque dinner, enough to drink and we were
completely overwhelmed to be a part of all their celebrations. All though it
didn’t feel like x-mas for us at all, it was still the best x-mas we have
celebrated, in terms of being special, memorable and different! A cab brought
us safe home to Viv’s house and I think we had a few beers there before we all
passed out.
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| Presenting the family, from left Adam, Tom, Lisa, Sam, Sue's son Matt, Sue & Nigel |
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| Christmas celebrations back at Vivian's house and my favorite present this year, a bottle of vodka. |
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| A puzzle for Sam revealing that he's going to be a certified diver in the new year. |
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| Party at Simon's parents house |
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| Sam and Vivian |
Friday 26th
December
After a long and good
beauty sleep we didn’t feel too bad when we woke up. Vivian made us breakfast
and we said goodbye to everyone before we hit the roads again. We had two days
on the road before we again planned to meet up with Lisa and Sam. During New
Years they have rented a house near Mount Maunganui with some friends and
that’s where we were going to celebrate Erik’s 30th.
The 26th
December (called Boxing Day) is the biggest sales day in the year, so in Palmerston
North we took advantage of that fact. We hadn’t thought it through though,
because off cause we weren’t the only ones going for the sales. There were a
shit load of people, and we struggled to get a parking spot. We realized how
little of the stress and hassle about Christmas that we actually had missed... It’s
close to none. I think we both considered leaving again when we walked into the
crowded mall, but we had also put our heads up to getting some stuff. We finally
found some new trainers for Erik (what we call my birthday present to him), and
I got a new top and my first haircut in 8 month (my x-mas gift). I was pretty
nervous, as my last haircut turned into a disaster, but luckily this time it went
fine.
After getting out of the nightmare
mall we drove up to Hastings, to our surprise we discovered a wallaby (small
kangaroo) killed at the side of the road. It was strange, we thought Australia
was the only country with those animals, but apparently they’ve spread to New
Zealand as well.
In Hastings we were quite unsure of what to do, as we didn’t
want to pay a lot of money for a decent campground. There’s campgrounds called
DOC, it stands for Department of Conservation, and they are owned by the
government, they have fewer facilities but are much cheaper, sometimes even
free. We were trying to find one of these, but the only one in the area only
allowed self-contained vehicles. Eventually we found a normal caravan park, to
a reasonable price, $24 (110kr) for both of us. It was actually really nice and
located on Clifton beach, just a short drive from Hastings. We got a great spot
sheltered from the wind, and we spend the rest of the night in the tent,
drinking red wine and making blog.
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| Drove by this little settlement on our way to Hastings |
Saturday 27th
December
Around 9 o’clock the
sun had heated up our tent to a point, where it was impossible for us to sleep
any longer, even though last night’s 2 bottles of red, and going to bed late,
made it feel like we should.
Well we got up, had some cereals and packed down our
“bedroom”, before we left to follow the east coast up for 3-4 hours. This plan
sadly didn’t last for long, as we discovered that the major part of the roads,
was going through mountains, and not along the coastline, as we thought it
would – so we decided to skip the east coast plan, and cross inland instead,
towards NZ’s geothermal hotspot, the city of Rotorua, a city known for its
active vulcanoes, colourful crater lakes, erupting geysers, many freshwater
lakes and boiling mud/hot springs. Beside all of these nature wonders, it also
is a mekka for spa and massages.
I did the first couple of hundred k’s, and
then Erik took over and did the other half. The landscape was outstanding, and
we wanted to catch it on a picture, but it’s simply impossible. At some point
we were surrounded by green hills, they were shaped like soft cones and the fir
trees were making a perfect shape around them. This landscape continued and it
was breath-taking. Around 10 k’s from our destination point, it started smelling
very bad in the car – we already knew about this phenomenon, it’s coming from
all the volcanic activity in the area. It smells like fart and rotten eggs.
We
drove straight to the I-site, and got some information and brochures about the
different spa and massage places in town – my other birthday present to Erik (and
myself) was to have a spa and massage treatment while we were here in the town
renowned for it! Erik started to ring the different places, but every time he
got the answer: Sorry, we’re fully booked for today. It is very high season in
NZ now, so we knew it could be difficult, but in the end we found a place that
could take both of us on the same time for a massage, and afterwards we could
relax in their spas. Before getting that sorted we had our lunch on a bench in
the middle of the town… Wraps again, and we’re still not tired of eating them!
The massage Erik got was as he asked for – a relaxation massage. But I wanted a
prober massage, since I’m still struggling with my back from time to time. The
masseuse seemed pretty professional to begin with, but after a short amount of
time, I actually had to teach her some basic massage skills, just to try to get
her to clear some of my pain, it didn’t seem like she had any idea of how to
actually perform a therapeutic massage! We enjoyed the hot spa afterwards and
took advantage over the hotels free wifi, before we left to find some fuel and
some wine for the night.
We then drove to a DOC campsite outside of town,
located next to Lake Okareka. The place was so idyllic, we pitched our tent and
had a stunning view over the lake and the landscape, for just $10 (46kr) per
person. As last night this night was also dedicated to wine and blog making. We
knew we had to get updated before reaching the house in Mount Maunganui and we
work best with wine in our veins.
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