Loring's New Zealand Trip blog: Kia Ora from New Zealand, #4, April 15, 2013

April 15, 2013

Introduction: The Kindness of Strangers

We are so very lucky to have wonderful friends, and now friends of friends.

This winter, Rachel introduced us to her brother and sister-in-law, Lars (Lawrence) and Libby. They were visiting Vermont from their home in Las Vegas, and came to a concert in which Rachel and I were singing. Turn out that Lars and Libby have spent a lot of time living in NZ, including in Hamilton, for Lars’ work in studying revegetation after volcanic eruptions. Lars and Libby kindly put us in touch with their close friends Bev and Bruce Clarkson, both on the faculty here at Waikato. We had a delightful lunch with them, and Bruce is making plans to have Mike speak to the Uni’s Engineering school.

THEN, Libby put us in touch with HER brother, Tom Powell, who lives near Rororua, and Tom and his partner Moira invited us to spend a weekend with them.

Then, of course, Law School Computer Director, Dan Taylor, invited us to spend a weekend staying with him at his bach in Raglan, on the west coast of the North Island.

AND, our Hamilton landlord, Bobbie Wisneski, offered a stay at her family’s bach in the seaside town of Whangamata in the Coromandel, on the east coast.

What great kindness, and what great treats. We’re just back from five days in Whangamata and Rotorua---but more on that later.

Two Offerings in one Post

Today, in the fourth update of our NZ adventure, we offer a special treat:

Two offerings in one notice.

The first is called “Stunning And Intriguing: Two Great Walks in One Great Week, the Tongariro Crossing and Five Days Down the Whanganui Wilderness River”.

The second, called “Boredom Alert” represents Michael’s idealistic belief that some of you are such land-use junkies that you will want to see pictures of the built-landscapes, the constructed houses and streets, within which most Kiwis live and work, from parks and gardens and suburban streets [Loring agrees so far]; right down to the excruciating detail of ‘places Michael chose not to rent’ ....[Loring: Oy vay....]

Hence, and herewith, for those of you with long attention spans, are a lot of photos of little or no esthetic interest, but showing our daily life.

Now the Good Stuff.

Stunning And Intriguing: Two Great Walks in One Great Week, the Tongariro Crossing and Five Days Down the Whanganui Wilderness River

New Zealand has nine Great Walks. These are mostly multi-day hikes in some of New Zealand’s most spectacular scenery. The DOC (Dept. of Conservation) maintains the trails and huts, and controls access through reservations and fees. Most of the Great Walks are in the South Island, but two are in the North: the Tongariro Circuit and the Whanganui River. The Whanganui is the one Great Walk that is actually a paddle. We did both the Tongariro and the Whanganui in seven spectacular days, Wed. April 3 through Tuesday, April 9.

Hiking the Tongariro Crossing

An aerial view over the flat top of Tongariro, looking toward Ngaruahoe, with the snow on Ruhapeu in the background.

Here are some well-done notes from a hiker:

“Viewed from the west, the triptych presented by Mts Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu is arguably one of the finest views on New Zealand’s North Island. ... At a mere 2,500 years old youthful Ngaruhoe is particularly impressive by virtue of its almost perfectly symmetrical single vent cone – in comparison to the shattered multi-peaked facets of its much older neighbours.

“Ngauruhoe is classified as a stratavolcano. The mountain is generally regarded as New Zealand's most active volcano, having erupted 45 times in the 20th century, with its last eruption coming in 1977. More recent eruptions in the area, however, occurred in 1996 when Ruapehu woke up long enough to wipe out some of the higher ski lifts on its northern flanks [LS: and just this past November 2012, when Tongariro woke up and erupted as well].

Walking on the Red Crater

“The three volcanoes present some interesting hazards [?!!] to the aspiring climber. Loose rock in abundance, abrupt and violent changes in the weather, etc. In addition, fumaroles in the craters can release toxic vapors at any time and, if the wind is blowing from the wrong direction, these may envelop climbers without warning.” [LS: They also smell powerfully of sulphur, as we noticed when we crested a ridge and met those vapors.]

The Tongariro Crossing is “the most spectacular one-day hike in NZ”, according to many Kiwis. It is usually a one-way walk, starting in the west, winding among the cones of Mts. Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, and finishing to the east. Hikers arrange shuttle transportation to get them back to the start. (And there are many shuttle operators in the area very willing to sell transport.) But because of Tongariro’s November eruption, the DOC has closed the western part of the hike and it is currently an out-and-back.

As far as you can hike right now. View of Emerald Lake and Blue Lakes, plus steaming fumaroles (lower right) from the Nov. eruption.

Thank goodness. Mike and I worked hard to complete the out-and-back, and the regular Crossing is longer.

The Crossing is by far the most extraordinary hike that either of us has ever done. It was a long, exhausting, and glorious day.

The photos here do it some justice, but it is the utter other-worldly-ness that most astonishes.

Heading towards the Red Crater

Some hikers at the top of the Devil’s Staircase. We had lunch here, practically dangling our legs over the abyss.

Whanganui River Great Walk

"Ko au te awa, Ko te awa ko."

“These words embody the spiritual, cultural and historical relationship of Whanganui Maori with the river which holds their ancestry.”

No, we weren’t walking on water. Although it’s a river journey, the Whanganui is part of New Zealand's Great Walks network.

We staggered back from the Tongariro hike, fell into bed at our backpackers' hostel, and the next day drove to meet our Whanganui River Trip group.

From the Doc web site:

“Natural History--

“The land surrounding the river is only about one million years old. Formed of soft sandstone and mudstone (papa) from the ocean-bed, it has been eroded by water to form sharp ridges, deep gorges, sheer papa cliffs and waterfalls.”

They are not kidding. Here’s some of the crazy topography.

Getting to and from the river: As you can guess from the topo map, the roads around here are insane. Vicky and John, think Maui--the road to Hana, but make it much longer, and instead of the ocean to one side, there are sheer cliffs down to bottomless gorges.

We splurged on a guided tour organized by Jamie Anderson of Unique Whanganui River Experience. (Thank you, Mom and Joyce, for your $$ help!) We were on the river for five days, camping along the way, and paddled from the Retaruke River tributary to Pipiriki.

Web photo of old WW2 thermette. These were used by the NZ troops.
Also called a Benghazi Boiler, it holds 1.8 litres.

We had a unique trip indeed with Jamie Anderson. He has a deep love for and knowledge of the river and its history, and shared it with us generously. It was great to have time built in for a couple of hikes, as well. Jamie's guided trips are a great window into old-time trips on the river. We boiled our tea water in old Thermettes (a New Zealand cultural icon), and had hot tea even at lunch stops on the river. Jamie cooked us hearty food every night in his cast-iron kettles over his cast-iron burners (roasted stuffed chicken, anyone?); and he even baked scones and muffins in his portable oven.

Did you note the mention of cast iron?

Note further that the river floods regularly, so that campsites are built high above the river, with the path to one site starting with a steep sand bank, continuing with a slanting goat track along a cliff, and finishing up with four full flights of wooden stairs.

Note even further that we had five large canoes loaded with the cast iron kettles, bottled gas cans, giant water jugs, four coolers, and a food chest so heavy that we had to sling a paddle thru the rope handles and assign two stout folks to carry it. We also had the thermettes; the outdoor oven; more food bags; a large dry bag for each person’s gear; tents; ropes; a chest of metal plates, bowls, mugs, cutlery and cooking tools; old Coleman lanterns; hatchets and saws; and on and on. And then there was the booze (many, many bottles of wine, beer, and scotch). Machias Gang, think of all the gear we hauled in the 50’s and 60’s, and add in for the Whanganui that we hauled it up the cliffs every evening and unpacked it all; then packed it all up every morning, hauled it all down to the boats, and loaded it and lashed it all in. This is what I really meant by “Jamie's guided trips are a great window into old-time trips on the river.”

Here's most of the gang on the trip

Ditto, but missing two blokes who'd stopped for a smoke

We were with an unusual and wonderful group. For this Easter week trip, Jamie had invited a group of his old mates from prep school, and their wives, rather than the usual international tourists. They were all in their mid to late sixties. The only reason we and an English couple got in was that a couple of folks from the mates group cancelled. Doing the trip with these NZ guys was a treat. They were the genuine article: tough old Kiwi blokes. Outrageous stories, generous cursing, a can-do attitude, handy at everything, and stoic toughness. And boozing. The amount of alcohol we hauled up those cliffs was prodigious.

The whole crew, on the Bridge to Nowhere

Washing dishes

Mike and I took turns in the kayak

A special treat was that several of the gang, as well as being tough Kiwi blokes, had a deep knowledge of flora and birds. We explored the broadleaf- podocarp forest of rata, rewarewa, rimu, tawa, kamahi and kowhai, with towering black beech on the ridge tops.

(Mom and Joyce, this is the Black Beech in the title of Ngaio Marsh’s autobiography, "Black Beech and Honeydew"). The cliffs were covered with tree ferns and many other ferns and trailing vines.

Mike and Bob--a veterinarian, naturalist, and Bloke. Mike: tea. Bob: beer, then wine later, then scotch.

We saw and heard fantastic birds, and thanks to our gang, we learned what they were. In the bush (the forest) we saw and heard kereru (native pigeon), piwakawaka (fantail), tui, toutouwai (robin), riroriro (grey warbler), miromiro (tomtit) and the bellbirds. At night, we heard the calls of the kiwi and the morepork owl. On the river, we saw grey ducks, hawks, and even spotted the rare Blue Duck.

Paddling, hiking, singing, stories on the river, and the liquid, bell-like songs of the tui and bellbirds are some of the wonderful memories we will take home with us.

Flow well, beautiful river.

BOREDOM ALERT

THIS SECTION represents Michael’s idealistic belief that some of you are such land-use junkies that you will want to see pictures of the built landscapes, the constructed houses and streets, within which most Kiwis live and work, from parks and gardens and suburban streets [Loring agrees so far]; right down to the excruciating detail of ‘places Michael chose not to rent’ ....
[Loring: Oy vay....]

Hence, and herewith, for those of you with long attention spans, are a lot of photos of little or no esthetic interest, but showing our daily life.

"Lemonade Tree" fruits ready for juicing

The "Lemonade Tree"
(according to our landlord) fruits.
We still don't now that the tree actually is--
possibly a cross btw. Lemon and mandarin orange