Anzac Weekend Part I: Caving and Mt. Doom

It was a holiday weekend in New Zealand, so we had a 4-day weekend to do some damage with the NZ bucket list. We'd spent the past few weekends above ground and relaxing, so we figured we'd take this opportunity to explore some different, more EXTREME, environments. This weekend will take a couple posts to properly document, so we'll start with the events of Thursday and Friday - blackwater rafting through the renowned Waitomo glowworm caves and then trying our luck on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, or as you may know it better, the hike up Mt. Doom.

We joined a motley crew of Aussie musicians and British farmboys and set out for the depths of the Waitomo caves.

First, we fit our arses to the tube of our choosing.

Then we practiced our arse-first waterfall jumping into a nearby river. Just about froze our jibblies off.

Lights switched on, we followed a river down and descended into the caves.

The journey consisted of a couple jumps off of underground waterfalls and shimmying/floating under low ceilings of stalagtites, but the real highlights were navigating pitch-black caves (our headlights switched off) with only the bioluminescence of maggot poop lighting the way above. 

We met Gandolf on the way out, and he wished us well on Mt. Doom the next day.

ONE TUBE TO RULE THEM ALL. (sorry.)

A couple hours in the car later, we found our way to a cozy little motel. A little too cozy.

Very European. Good thing we had a nice view of the police station next door.

We woke up at the crack of dawn and drove through rain and fog to the trailhead at Tongariro National Park. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of the New Zealand "Great Walks", and known as one of the best one-day hikes anywhere in the country, or as the guidebook would have it, the WORLD. On a nice day, that is. In good conditions, it's an 8-hour hike that showcases views of several large volcanic craters and crater lakes colored by the geothermal activity brewing below. We weren't so lucky, but we had fun nonetheless.

Started out the hike in the rain. Ashley immediately regrets wearing glasses.

After a long hike up the valley, we started our ascent up the Red Crater. As we scaled the most un-Earthly topography we've ever seen - craggy black rocks everywhere, obviously forged deep in the fires of Mt. Doom - the rain intensified, temperature dropped, visibility decreased and the wind picked up.

OUR FACES ARE FROZEN LIKE THIS.

Foggy tundra on a plateau just below Red Crater, good thing there were trail markers to follow.

The Sun makes its first appearance. SUN DANCE!!! 

That lasted about 20 seconds, and the fog came back. And the winds, and the cold. 

On a good day, you can see for miles from here. On a good day.

We refueled with some sandwiches and headed down, salami does a lot for morale. 

But salami does not keep fingers from going numb.

SUN DANCE PART 2!!!

The Sun came out for the latter part of our walk down. Thanks, bud. We thought about heading back up, but the summit remained shrouded in darkness. 

At least the view on the way down was pretty okay.

Waterfall.

Mt. Doom - the only stormy place in all of Middle Earth that day.

Just a 30-minute drive north, we found ourselves with awesome views of Lake Taupo.

What a babe.

And capped off the day with some ice cream bars. Big black Magnum ice cream bars.

Sunset was okay, too.

What a poser.

Adventures continued the next day....

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

We're catching up with posting photos and preparing for the South Island, so this post is a little belated. Last weekend, we hired (rented) a car and drove on the LEFT side of the road all the way up north to Bay of Islands, and took some scenic detours on the way to and from. 

About 2 hours North of Auckland, we stopped at a reserve and tramped amongst some of the last remaining Kauri trees, which are the NZ equivalent of Sequoias, basically just HUGE trees that were almost extinctified by the timber industry in the early 20th century. The walk led us to Whangarei Falls, which look like this.

Obligatory post-PB&J selfies.

This amazing find got us really excited.

The next day, we took a nice walk along the beach by Paihia. There, we found loads of abandoned, beached starfish, washed up and left to dry out on the hot sand as the tide receded. No worries, we saved them. Did you know starfish make great skipping stones? 

Ashley insists that I point out that the last statement was a joke. We tossed our friends ever-so-gently back to their aquatic homes.

No caption.

This is not the Cream Trip. It's just the ferry over to Russell, the oldest English settlement on NZ and the first capital! Wow!

Some Australians took this picture of us. Pretty good, for Australians.

Tourists will be tourists.

Look, the sun!

Haruru Falls, just another gorgeous waterfall just asking for someone to jump off of it. 

We drove up to the town's golf course to check out the sunset. Pretty dece view from Hole #1. 

Urea?

On the drive back to Auckland, we detoured to the surf beach at Mangawhai, to tramp along the famous Mangawhai Cliff Walk.

It's my theory that the lines/steps on the hill are formed by all the sheep traversing across the hill trimming the grass. Who needs lawnmowers?

Views from the Mangawhai Heads Cliff.

Back toward the surf beach.

Betcha can't tell a storm's on the way.

Neither could we.

Coming soon, we'll upload some photos from this weekend's travel extravaganza, featuring cave rafting, getting smited by Mt. Doom, stinky geothermal wonders, and more beach time.