New Zealand: Rotorua

Only 80 km north of Taupo, Rotorua is heavily promoted for its geothermal activities, near and far outside of town. As a weather front is expected the next day, we decided to use the rainy day to bus north, rather than being holed up in our room in Rotorua, so we only had time for a walk around town. Not only can geothermal activities be seen at places, the smell of sulfur is literally everywhere. Our motel even had a thermal sulfur pool (spa) for us to have a quick soak.

On the rainy walk from the bus to our hotel, the wind was too strong to put up our umbrellas.


The route for our walking tour.


The first stop is Kuirau Geothermal Park, with some steaming ponds, foot soaking "spas", and beautiful flower gardens.








We walked along the very windy waterfront promenade to the colorful Government Gardens.




Our final stop on the tour, the marshy Sulfur Point, was pungent with a stark landscape and bubbling mud pools. Nevertheless, on one point of land there were hundreds of sea birds. First below is a mud pool thermal vent video. Link here.

New Zealand: Taupo

From Napier, Taupo (pronounced toepoe) was the first stop on our way north to Auckland. It's located on the shore of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand. We had a glimpse of it from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing . Our goal was to walk the Huka Falls Track to see the outlet of Lake Taupo .i.e Huka Falls. It was every bit as magnificent as I had expected. The volume and color of the water were breathtaking.

The next day, under threat of rain, we had some time to walk along the lake shore. It's a geothermal lake with quite a bit of "HOT H2O" activities along the lake next to town. They are not well advertised, thus not well attended.

Judging by the large number of accommodations in the area, Lake Taupo must be well loved by New Zealanders considering that it competes for visitors with every town on the very long coastline.

Let's go right to the (short) videos! If the embedded video below does not play, click here.


Watch below or click here.


Watch below or click here.


Selfie on the Huka Falls Walkway.


Huka Falls from below.


We did NOT take the boat tour.


We bought some tomatoes and Golden Kiwis, which were the most tasty kiwis ever, at the local PAK'nSAVE.




Checking out the geothermal hot spots at Taupo Beach.

New Zealand: Napier Art Deco

After bagging the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, we headed to John's #1 destination for the North Island, Napier, known for its art deco architecture. It wasn't much easier to get to by bus, we had to overnight in Palmerston North, where we had a very tasty Thai food dinner and witnessed our first ever light saber practice session.





Napier was devastated by the 1931 earthquake. The city was rebuilt in art deco style which was in vogue at the time. While the central business district is very harmonious architecturally, I was rather underwhelmed - the buildings are rather small and plain. The city oversells its art deco. I'm not sure it would even make my top 10 art deco city.

None of the art Deco buildings in Napier can be said to be "monumental" as the town was wary of building tall after the devastation of the earthquake. Here are several of the larger Art Deco buildings in Napier starting with the Municipal Theatre.




The Daily Telegraph Building (with an Art Deco Tour Guide in front). We were able to go inside and take a few photos.






The entrance to the National Tobacco Company Ltd is amazing.


Napier also has a bluff with a view, a busy port that ships lumber, and a black beach








Here are some other Art Deco buildings around town.

New Zealand: Tongariro Alpine Crossing

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, often touted as the greatest day hike in New Zealand, if not the whole world. Bagging it was not simply logistically.

1. Since it's a 20 km one way trail in a remote area, a shuttle is needed.
2. As our usual style is to enjoy hikes leisurely, we had to base ourselves in National Park to get as much walking time as possible between the dropoff shuttle and the pickup shuttle.
3. Buses in and out of National Park do not run everyday, only four times a week.
4. Ten days before, we happened to be chatting with some fellow hikers. They told us how they had to stay an extra day because the trail was closed due to high wind. As soon as I got back, I started to monitor the weather forecast. Sure enough the trail was closed that day for high wind again. I immediately canceled all our North Island plans i.e. buses and lodging. We would aim for the Crossing on the earliest day possible, which turned out to be a Saturday - beggars cannot be choosers.
5. I continued to monitor the trail. The previous Saturday, a hiker died on the trail of natural causes. Out of respect, shuttles were closed for three days, which further affirmed our determination to attempt the crossing sooner than later.

Finally the day came, it was a rare day with no weather hazard warning, some rain in the afternoon - a go. After the shuttle dropped us off, we joined a parade of hikers on the day's adventure. The first part of the hike is up the other-worldly volcanic field to the Red Crater. Then came the most difficult part for me, down the rim of the crate in loose scree (Had there been a contest, I would have been the winner of the slowest descender, hands down), to a couple of neon colored crater lakes, all amongst some steam vents here and there. Downhill on the other side, there were dreamy views of Lake Rotoarira and Lake Taupo. Soon it started to shower and rain, that kept us at a steady pace, as we didn't bother to bring our umbrellas - surely the wind would render them useless we thought; amazingly it was not windy. Towards the end, we got to walk through a rainforest, complete with waterfall!

In the end, it took us just over 8 hours. I'm sure if it weren't for the rain, we could have taken longer. While the hike may not be our #1, it may be a top 10. The varied landscape is certainly incomparable.

Our accommodation was across the street from the shuttle bus stop with great sunrise views to the volcanoes.


After a 20 minute bus ride, we're ready to walk. 20.2 kms to go!


We are not alone on the first section of the track.


The weather is changeable, and can be deadly.


On this section of the trail there was a boardwalk across the lava fields.


After Soda Springs, the trail goes up, up to the South Crater with great views to the southern valleys.






Walking across the floor of the South Crater felt like we were on the Moon, except there were lots of humans with us.










From the South Crater floor, the trail goes steeply up and up to the Red Crater Lookout. Sun-Ling was very pleased to conquer that section.






The highest point of the walk is the rim of the Red Crater. In the first photo below you can spot some steam rising from the rocks and sand. Many walkers stop to take photos.








Sun-Ling was slow on the Red Crater scree downhill, but so were most of us.




From the scree slope there were great views to the neon Emerald Lakes and the Blue Lake.




The three Emerald lakes and steam vents continued to give amazing views. We decided to eat our lunch on the shore of the biggest one.






A view back to the Red Crater from near the Blue Lake.


Taking a break at the Blue Lake.


While at the Blue Lake we turned to look back at the Red Crater and saw Mt Ngauruhoe break out of the clouds behind it. Wow! It was only visible for a few minutes.


The clouds moved in as we began the long, long descent to the shuttle pickup point at Ketetahi Car Park




And then the clouds lifted and we had views to the near Lake Rotoaira and the far Lake Taupo.






But our luck changed and we walked in a steady but light rain for an hour. You can see I'm drenched, but only on the outside, when we stopped at the waterfall for a rest.




The shuttle bus was on time and returned us to our accommodation in time to see the gorgeous over the volcanoes where we had hiked all day.


SL cooked a delish dinner, and the cold Weedcore NZIPA (with NZ hops) was tasty.