Mount Tauhara and Lake Taupo Walks
Alright, so now that everyone has recovered from my previous skydiving post, I’ll move on to some other stuff I’ve been up to in Taupo. I mentioned before that it’s kind of fallen into a routine at this point. On most days, I do my morning work until lunchtime, then I either go out and explore or I head down to the library for an hour of free Internet time. It really depends on the weather and what everyone else is up to. Tuesday night is Quiz Night down at Mulligan’s, a classy little Irish pub downtown, so everyone empties out to go to that when it’s on. The winner gets a $50 bar tab, so it’s worth the effort. Sundays or Mondays are Free Pizza Night, a treat just for the cleaners as a “thank you” from the management staff once a week. Aside from that, it’s pretty much up for grabs.
The weather has been pretty bad lately, so my days have generally consisted of the library and hanging around this week. Ryan loves it because he’s on call those days to go into work, and he gets paid $40/day just to hang out and play darts even if no one skydives that day. I get a little bored without the Internet or something to keep me busy. I have managed to go out and check out certain areas, though.
The Library in All its Glory
One such day was with Daniela. We tend to go to the library together after work if it’s one of “those” days. Since it was kind of sunny, we walked down to the lake instead. We had already gone quite a ways down the eastern side when we were trying to find Darren’s work once, so we decided to go the other way that day. That ended up going down to the harbor, which was cool because we got to see where all of the yachts and sailboats are docked. A “yacht” in New Zealand is a little different from an American version of a yacht. It can basically be anything from a glorified rowboat to a luxury cruiser. So we went down to check them out and discovered a few other secret areas down by the water.
The Harbor, Where All of the Fishermen and Tour Boats Dock
Just a few days ago, we went the other way around the lake. It was just absolutely beautiful, like walking around the beaches of Hawaii. There are some pretty nice houses and hotels right on the water, but I guess a lot of them are empty right now - the town doubles in size in the summer, when people in Auckland return to their summer houses. German Paul tagged along with us, and we went all the way out to Two Mile Bay. I guess it goes all the way to Five Mile Bay over past Warewaka, but we had to start turning back because we had no idea how much further it went at the time, and it was starting to get cold. The view was just incredible, though. Since the sky was clear, we got to see Mount Ruapehu, Mount Tongariro, and Mount Ngauruhoe in the distance. All of these people were out sailing their boats and generally enjoying the good weather. Some very cool geese with red bills braved the high waves to go fishing, and they had the cutest little call - kind of like a bicycle horn.
The Lake on a Very Clear Day - Observe My New Blackcurrant Staff T-Shirt
There's This Impossible Hole-in-One Challenge That No One Ever Wins
Great Little Walkway Around the Lake
Cute Geese All Over the Beaches
A Good Day For Sailing
Some Great Little Houses Right on the Water
At one point, we came across one of the thermal hot springs feeding right into the lake. There was a little offshoot coming down from a stream, and it mixed right in with the rest of the water. A lot of pools like that were taken by other people soaking their feet at the edge of the lake. It was pretty windy, otherwise we would have been tempted to sit down and join them for a bit. Overall, it was a great trip. We might just go all the way next time and make it a day trip.
The Hot Water Springs Flowing Into the Lake
A Few More Shots From the Day
The real adventure was earlier this week, though. I was going to hang around like always and take it easy, but then Daniela and Ana mentioned that they were going to try climbing Mount Tauhara. Ana left earlier in the morning on her bike while we were cleaning, and Daniela expressed interest in going after our shift was over, so I decided to tag along. They have this Shuttle-to-U service in Taupo which is pretty nice - you just pay $4-6 one way and it takes you to basically every tourist attraction in the area after picking you up right at the hostel. Paul called the number and set it up for us, which was very nice of him. It’s just one guy riding around in a van with the handle ripped off, so you have to set it up in advance for him to get to you. The driver was very cool and took us right to the base of the mountain. He advised us to bundle up at the top and reminded us to call him when we’re just coming out of the tree line. After that, he drove off and left us on this quaint little country road.
The Mountain Path
Even though he had all but novelized the direction that we needed to go, Daniela and I were still a bit wary of the path he had pointed out. It looked like a deer path leading into someone’s private property more than an official mountain trail, plus there was this foreboding sign about how it’s a sacred Maori site and getting off the trail is prohibited. It was at that point that we heard this ear-piercing gunshot nearby. I guess someone was hunting (I hope) in the woods down below, but the echo made it seem much closer. So we set off with great caution. Luckily, the little path-to-nowhere eventually widened out and turned into something a little less shady after the first bend.
Heading Up into the Hills
The first little bit of the hike was nice but tedious. It consisted of a very steep climb up some farmlands and having to navigate around lots of landmines on the way. Sheep and cows were grazing in the pastures below us, and there were rustic little drinking holes set up for them across the hills. The scenery was incredibly pretty once we stopped a bit to catch our breath, but it was a bit tough for the first ten minutes or so. It didn’t start evening out until we found a little step-ladder thing leading over the fence.
The Wonders of Technology
Then it was just gorgeous. It was like an instant transformation from pastureland to rainforest as soon as we went into the trees. The path snaked around all sorts of beautiful greenery, and the roots of giant trees formed a natural staircase for us to follow. It’s hard to describe how amazing it was, so I’ll just say that it was like being in Pandora from Avatar. Kind of. It definitely had the same feel to it, minus six-legged man-eating dogs and giant shark birds trying to kill you. We walked around in a bit of a daze for a while, trying to orient ourselves to the change of atmosphere. It was much cooler inside the trees, and it seemed generally easier to walk with our eyes preoccupied with something. A lot of the trees had moss hanging off of them or were completely surrounded by ferns, so there was a lot of moisture in the air. The lower level was covered with pine needles and roots, but it got a lot more jungle-like as we went higher.
The Initial Climb
At the first checkpoint, there was enough of a break in the trees to see how far we had climbed. We sort of rested there for a bit and got our bearings. I had a nerd moment when I noticed a carved-up bench situated just over the lookout and immediately thought of the Seat of Seeing from Amon Hen. Dork. We pressed on and started to hear something faintly in the distance. I thought it was the wind blowing through the canyon at first, but it turned out to be this cool little mountain stream. I took a bunch of pictures and got crazy over it while Daniela kind of…watched and managed to express her concern for my sanity without saying anything. She’s more of a mental observer, while I love taking three pictures of the same thing. I try not to stop at every single thing when I’m with her, but it’s a hard habit to break.
The Seat of Seeing
After the stream, we reached a pass carved out of the mountainside. It looked like someone had literally taken a chainsaw to a piece of boulder so that one person could barely squeeze through the gap to the other side. I think someone with broad shoulders might have had a problem continuing on at that point. There were a few other places throughout the trail where it was very difficult to navigate across. You definitely had to be in good shape and able to jump fairly far to get all the way to the top. I was the trail blazer out front, scoping out the terrain, but Daniela was a little mountain goat because I would turn around to see her hop daintily from rock to rock like she did it everyday.
Mountain Stream and Daniela
The thing that sticks out most in my memory about the walk is the mud, though. It had rained the day before, so it was incredibly thick and deep in some places. We managed to get around most of it early on because it was drier towards the bottom, but it was impossible to avoid the further up we went. I think we gave up trying to stay clean once we landed in one particularly bad spot that covered the entire top of our shoes. Our pants and shoes were splattered with the stuff by the end, which would be perfectly fine except for the fact that I only have one pair of shoes. It was alright, though - I just ended up air-drying them overnight.
As it got progressively wetter, the greenery got gradually more lush. It went from forest to jungle in the space of about half and hour. It took about two hours altogether to reach the top, and it was very slow going, but it was worth it in the end.
Gorgeous Scenery
The view was just spectacular. We could see the whole Taupo area spread out in front of us for miles. It was a clear enough day that it almost seemed like we could see the ocean with binoculars. The lake was just gorgeous and went on forever, and we could see several little places where the steam was rising up over the trees from thermal spas. It was really, really cold up there, but we were fortunate enough to have extra coats with us. It was nice and warm under the trees, but the wind just hit us the moment we cleared the summit. Daniela and I took a few pictures, then we headed down for the return home. The way down was much easier, even though the mud slowed us down a little bit.
Images From the Top
The only real problem hit just as we were clearing the brush. The guide had told us to call as soon as we got back into the grassland area so that he could have time before picking us up, but my phone decided not to cooperate with us. In New Zealand, rather than pay a set rate every month depending on how much you use your phone, you "top off" your minutes manually every once in a while by feeding in $20 when your minutes get low. It's great in practice because you might not make a lot of calls in a given month, but the whole process is rather confusing. I got a free $10 voucher when I signed up with Vodaphone, but I had already used up the last of my time that day. The operator asked me to input a credit card to charge for topping it off, but it wouldn't accept my American Visa card, even though the saleswoman had assured me that it would.
We ended up texting pretty much everyone in my phone directory, but no one was around their phones. I eventually figured it out, but we had to wait a while for the guy to pick us up at the bottom. For some reason, Vodaphone rejected my Visa card and my NZ Westpac card but accepted my American BoA Debit card for some reason. Weird. We made it back safe and sound, and that was pretty much the day.
The Foreboding Sign, and a Dart Competition that Darren Barely Lost
I'll let you guys know about any more updates. I'm going for a waitressing job at Dixie Brown's, so wish me luck with that. They tried me out for two hours last night, and it was so-so. I guess I'll know by Wednesday night if they like me enough to put up with all of my mistakes! Talk to you guys later!