Giedre tyttö Ozista

Around the Island

This picture pretty much sums up what has been going on here for the past couple of weeks. I was on leave and accompanied my mother and her partner on their short trip around the North Island.

During our 8 week trip in April-May we somehow managed to miss a few of the major parts of NZ. This trip was a great oportunity for me to catch up.

For example, last time we stayed in Rotorua, we didn't visit this thermal valley. We thought that it was a terribly touristy thing to do.

And it was touristy, yes. For example, this geyser eruption was induced by pouring 300g of soap down the geyser crater. The soap apparently thins the water surface and helps the hot water build-up from the bottom to break through the upper layer of cold water. Pure physics and chemistry. Extremely spectacular at that!

Living in Auckland it is easy to forget that we're on the major geoplate faultline and earthquake zone: the Pacific geoplate meets the Indian Ocean plate just here. So we have lots of (extinct, dormant and active) volcanos around here. All this hot stinky water (I wish the camera could capture the sulphur smell!) comes bubbling straight from the depths of the Earth. This Champagne Crater is 65m deep!!! It makes Rotorua a very special (though stinky) place. The landscape looks like from another planet! Mineral residue in water creates the amazing pallet of colours in the pools. Beautiful!

My mother was delighted to find all the thermal volcanic activity here. For her it meant hours of scorching in hot natural baths - all types of hot water pools and springs are abundant around NZ. She managed to find hot springs in most remote and forgotten places in the North Island and from what I know, soaked at least in 5 different locations. We with Kaj gave the Hot Water beach in Coromandel a pass. The hot springs on the beach are exposed only during couple of hours in low tide, so the human activity is very concentrated during these 2 hours. It didn't keep my mother away. She dug a small pool in the sand and stayed till the tide came in and washed the hot water away... :)

My favorite place in the whole trip (and right now in the whole of NZ) was Gisborne on the East Coast of the North Island.

During our long and cold spring in here we've been checking weather forecast and Gisborne seemed to be basking in sun when the rest of the country soaked in never ending rain. This was the place that had +25C degrees while we were shivering under our blankets at +17C in Auckland. And after visiting the place, I think it was one of the most liveable cities that I've seen in NZ! Gisborne also has first class (and empty!!!) surfing beaches (I had the best surfing session of my life in Gisborne, catching the cleanest waves ever!!! The waves looked like they were drawn with a ruler!!!).

Besides beaches, beautiful scenery and wonderful climate, Gisborne is also the chardonay capital of NZ.

There are lots of vineyards around and we managed to appreciate that during the tour to local wineries (we hired a driver/guide so that we could fully appreciate that!!!) The wine kept pouring, the sun kept shining, we couldn't have asked for more...

The bonus souvenir from Gisborne was the dent at the back of the rental car. Some girls rammed into us at the gas station. Completely unneccessary and extremely stupid of them. But, I guess, this kind of crowns the kiwi experience for my mother. Driving style is atrocious throughout the country!

Another thing that we missed out in April was Tongariro crossing.

When we arrived to National Park ready to do the 6 hours walk last time, we learnt that there was a major snow storm the night before and the crossing was closed for the season.

I couldn't miss the chance this time.

Even though it is only 6 hours walk and you climb only to some 1880m height, the scenery is breathtaking.

You pass the Emerald lakes of the most amazing green colour.

And the Red (and black) Crater of a dormant volcano (blows your mind away!!! Too beautiful!!!)

So in this short trip I managed to see some of the most spectacular sceneries in my life. I was happy to see my mother gasping at the landscape, stopping every 5 minutes to take yet another picture. I kind of felt proud that we live in such a beautiful place.

The first day in Auckland felt like a nightmare (to certain extent Auckland reminds Singapore a lot!). After spending a week in rural areas and small towns I was shocked by traffic, noise, polution and amount of construction happening in Auckland. Why do we have to live here?!?!

My mother has left yesterday (with an extensive collection of seeds and plants to smuggle to Europe), I'm back to work and things are slowly getting back to normal. I enjoyed having guests a lot and I think they really liked this trip. So if you are pondering on the idea of coming here, get yourself together and do it!!! You won't regret it! NZ is a truly amazing place and you'd find something you'd like here: hot springs and forests for my mother, surf beaches and mountains for me... I'm sure there'll be something for you as well!!!