The interesting thing with Rotorua is that signs of volcanic activity are everywhere. Vapourous hot pools abound, with just a short (less than 5 minutes) walk takes you to several spots with water hot enough to need safety barriers.
First I started with Sulphur point, a place where numerous birds come to nest in the warm water area.
The seagulls were especially plentiful here. And protective of their area. Far less intimidating than magpies though.
Note: I had to sign a confidentiality agreement before I was allowed to go on this tour of an interesting piece of farm land that had been converted for a certain trilogy of films that shall remain nameless so I don’t show up on search engines and find lawyerly emails and phone calls awaiting me one day. Instead, I shall just make vague references and show you pictures instead. They just had a few clips on the news here showing the area in detail, so I don’t mind showing the pictures. I’ll respect the confidentiality agreement in keeping what I heard from general public ears/eyes though, since a lot of it relates to the ongoing filming and production. If you are really curious about certain aspects, feel free to email me.
Tauranga’s one of my favourite spots in New Zealand so far. It’s just a lovely city, and Mt. Maunganui is just another highlight of the area. I hiked up to the top of it once again. The weather wasn’t quite as good, but there were still numerous people making the trek upwards, and the view from the top still very enjoyable after a sweaty hike up.
This time there was a bit more action at the top than before. With the sea-breezes coming off the bay and being driven straight up the sharp cliffs of Mt. Maunganui, this made a great spot for those wishing to fly.
I almost don’t want to talk about this place. I spent 4 nights camping in McLaren Falls park, a 10 minute drive south of Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty. It felt like one of those ‘best kept secret’ kinds of places. It was absolutely wonderful.
For 3 of the 4 nights I was there, I had the place to myself. The entire park could camp well over 100 if it was busy, probably a couple hundred even. They give you picnic benches with free working BBQs nearby. Free hot showers. Wonderful scenery and bird life. Far off the highway so no sounds but nature. All for $5 per person per night. Which they are supposed to collect in the morning, but nobody ever came around to collect from me (probably not worth it with just one car in the park). I walked around the park and just enjoyed the scenery.
While I was in Costa Rica in April I gave what was called Canyoneering. It involved 2 abseils and two…sort of abseil, sort of ziplines. The 2 full abseils were short, the sort of ziplines were the larger ones. The would have been highlight of the activity was that all 4 activities were over waterfalls. Except it was so dry at the time that there was no water to be found on any of the falls. I was left underwhelmed by the experience.
When a chance to do Canyoning (the local term) here in New Zealand came up, I decided to give it another shot. I was very glad I did.
Early in the morning I was picked up in Thames by a van with 2 guides and 7 other adventurers, on our way to the spot I had just hiked the day prior – the Kauaeranga Valley and the Billy Goat Track.
We packed all of our gear into numerous waterproof sacks. Myself and one other guy got the worst of it – we carried the rope in our packs. Incredibly heavy stuff. The hike was grueling. 40 minutes uphill all the way, with only a short stop. The heavy weight didn’t make things either. But eventually we got to the top, donned our wetsuits and safety gear, and got a quick practice with abseiling. And then we were off. I went first.
The Pinnacles are part of the Coromandel Range, and while none are spectacularily tall (the largest mountain in the range is ~850m or something), they still provide a good hiking challenge. They would also be home to me for one night – I’m up to overnight hiking now, and using New Zealand’s backcountry hut system.
From the signpost it’s a DOC estimated 3 hour uphill-all-the-way hike to the Hut. One of the biggest differences this time is I’m taking my large backpack, not my small one. Sleeping bag, food, and cooking stuff takes up room! So I had a good extra bit of weight and bulk on my back.
Going from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula normally doesn’t take too long – 1.5-2 hours depending on traffic getting out of Auckland. Since I have time to spare though, I took the more scenic route and camped at a couple spots along the way instead of heading straight there. The Auckland region (which extends north and south of Auckland city by…maybe 75km each way?) has over 20 district parks that are akin to provincial/national parks in Canada. In otherwords, quiet and peaceful areas with lots of activities to do.
I didn’t leave Auckland until the afternoon, so my first and last stop on my first day was Omana Park. It had an enjoyable camping area that somewhat overlooked the ocean.
My travel power adapter has surge protection built into it thanks to a small cylindrical fuse. The fuse blew yesterday (in unspectacular fashion). This left me without a source of power for my happy laptop, which was nearly out of battery power as it was. So updates will have to wait for a couple of days, because while I have found and replaced said fuse (after nearly a day of looking in the sleepy town I’m in), I now need sleep. Lots of updating to come, including camping near Auckland, my first overnight hike…and jumping off waterfalls. Updates in a few days.