Sun 1 March 2009
Next stop was Rotorua which, according to everyone that goes there, has a very distinct "rotten eggs" aroma, caused by the geothermal activity releasing sulphur compounds into the atmosphere (thank you Wikipedia). Made no difference to me of course, what with me being only blessed with four senses rather than the standard five. No honestly, I can't smell, I've done the tests at the doctors and everything. If gas was leaking into the room right now I'd be none the wiser and up until the age of about 15 I thought that farts were urban myths, they didn't really exist, and everyone was just pretending.
But I digress, back to Rotorua. We were only there for a couple of hours, just long enough for a spot of lunch, a brief gawp at some hot mud pools and then a quick accidental visit to a kiwi gospel church in full Sunday service swing. Me and H were walking down the street when we heard a band playing so poked our heads in to investigate. We didn't know the building was a place of worship, and before we knew it we'd been led to the second row from the front, told to remove out hats and had our hands shaken by all the church regulars who welcomed us to their group. Now, I'm not knocking those that partake in a spot of God bothering, but something about this place just felt a little culty and odd for my own preferred blend of bland agnosticism. It didn't feel joyous and uplifting, it just felt a little, well, weird. Even H thought felt uncomfortable and she's a church goer herself back in Sweden. We both decided to leg it after the first few minutes of intense preaching and head back to the bus.
Once on the move we passed through Hakka falls (big ass waterfalls and more hot mud pools)...
...and ended up in Taupo, home of Lake Taupo (the world's largest crater lake don't you know) and a popular spot for one of of New Zealand's main backpacking activities, The Sky Dive.
Now I've never really been one for the adrenaline junkie vibes, but ever since I saw the photos of my friend Jake Bailey's skydive on Facebook when I was in Thailand and he was in NZ, I started to get really excited about the idea of doing it myself. If only because my family and friends would be gobsmacked that I had the cojones to go through with it.
Anyway, I was all ready to do it, but then I found out that they only offered a video and no mid air action photos for me to show off on Facebook. So I put it off for now. Or you could say bottled it. Delete as appropriate.
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On Monday 2 March 2009 I did a 7 hour trek/walk/hike/tramp/whatever-you-want-to-call-it called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It was hands down the best walk I have ever done in my life. The scenery was just out of this world. Huge lunar-esque landscapes, vast red volcanic craters, huge mist covered mountaintops. It was awesome in the truest sense of the word. I took these shots, but I'm not sure they even capture the half of it...
Apparently one of the mountains we passed was actually Mount Doom from The Lord of the Rings films, but buggered if I knew which one. They all looked a bit doomy to me.
At night we all stayed at a ski lodge dorm with huge bay windows and an open fire. A perfect place to rest the weary feet of a knackered backpacker.
An truly exceptional day without a shadow of a doubt.
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