Central North Island

From Wharepapa, Adam and I headed to Roturua for a day of rest. Roturua is a 'thermal' area, with hot springs, bubbling mud, and geysers created as a result of the volcanic and geological activity in the area. Some of the locals refer to it as Roto-vegas, however, giving you some sense of how tourism has affected these natural phenomena. (Although I don't think that's really fair to Las Vegas ...) Our first stop after a long overdue internet spree was a city park that includes several areas of bubbling mud, hot pools, and steam. Unsurprisingly, (if you know Adam), he was rather unimpressed. He quickly divised a 3 step recipe to replicate the 'attractions' of Roturua: 1. boil some water; 2. add mud; 3. fart, a lot, preferably after eating eggs. Okay, it's a bit crude, but remarkably accurate. Roturua does smell quite bad, and needless to say, after Adam's assessment of the thermal phenomena at the city park, we did not go to any of the over-priced thermal theme parks in the area. Instead, we opted to spend the afternoon soaking away our climbing pains in the Polynesian Spa, which has beautiful stone lined pools of hot minearl water set on the edge of Lake Roturua. Not a bad way to spend the day.

The next day we drove south to Lake Taupo, a mere hour away. Although there was copious fog and cloud in the morning and it had rained overnight, we were cautiously optimistic that the weather forecast for sun would bear out. Fortunately, it did. (I've since accepted that looking outside in the morning is a very poor predictor of the day's weather, in New Zealand.) By noon we were in the lakeside community of Kinloch, and hiking a small trail through the forest to remote Kawakawa Bay, for more climbing. It is a beautiful 1 1/2 hour walk, in and of itself, as you're hiking through the hills with periodic look-outs over the lake, with the three snow-capped volcanoes of Tongariro National Park in the distance. But as access to a climbing area, it's epic! We did a few climbs in the bay, which were worth the scrambling through dense forest and onto precarious ledges to belay, because from the top, there were great views out over the whole lake. And we ended up having the best weather of the trip so far, it was sunny and warm and maybe even 18 C. Adam discovered how hard a 22 (5.11) slab can be. We did leave the bay a little later than we had wanted, and the sun was going down as we hiked out of the bay and over the first ridge. It made for a beautiful sunset, but a long, cold, and dark walk back to the van and civilization.

Back in Taupo, we had some Burger Fuel to recover, and stayed at a 'Thermal Resort' - a hot springs park with attached hotel, motel, cabins, campsite, etc. It was a very nice place and the cheapest campground we had stayed at until that point. Adam especially enjoyed the proper BBQ with a cover, as most of the BBQs we've encountered have had no lid. Overall, Taupo is a relaxing, cute little town that I reminds me a tiny bit of Penticton.

Yesterday we braved the bad weather to drive north-east, backtracking a bit, to go climbing in Mangakeowa, a new area near Waitomo that has been called the Payne's Ford of the North Island. The rock here is very overhung, which means that the rock is dry, even while it's raining. Unfortunately, the access trail was very wet and muddy, and while the rock was dry, it was quite cold. It's difficult to hold onto rock when you can't feel your fingers. Adam had some fun on a overhanging arete, and I discovered how different crack climbing is on 'French Ethics', a clear trad line that has been bolted.

Today we're off to Tongariro National Park, home to those three volcanoes I mentioned earlier, as well as the Tongariro Crossing, which is called the best one-day hike in New Zealand. Right now, we're unsure whether we will get to do the Crossing. NZ has had huge amounts of snow this past winter, and the Crossing is still covered with snow and there is avalanche risk in some areas. As a result, a guided trip would be necessary, and we've heard that there are some access issues that might prevent guided groups from doing the Crossing. An alternative is to do the 'Traverse', another all day hike in the area, but for now we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Robin