A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Despite having the world's slowest internet connection, i'm having a great time here in Pukenui Lodge, National Park, a village in the Tongariro National Park (Hmmm, someone was having a lazy day when this place was named...)
I can even show you exacly where i spent the evening, plonked out on the sofa in the foreground, drinking Steiny's and watching Notting Hill on the large telly in the corner. I'm fairly sure i would have done my best to dislike Notting Hill normally, but the effect of three whole bottles of booze, the roaring log fire, pleasant company and having just had one of my bestest days in NZ had the effect of making me like it immensely.
The day was spent doing the Tongariro crossing, after first checking the trusty Guardian website for the City's final result at Filbo (The live text message updates from Cat & Pablo dried up at half time, did you get arrested or clubbed to death or something?), happily we did Spurs 2-1, so my day started off pretty well. It improved still further when i checked outside, and saw that the ominous clouds from yesterday had buggered off completely, and a beautiful sunrise was splatting all over the three whopping volcanos visible from the front window of the lodge. Despite the imminent arrival of the track bus, and me not being ready, my first instinct was to drop everything and rush out with my camera, rather than actually get packed up for the day. Happily though the bus was later than me, so all started well.
The Tongariro crossing is supposedly the "best day walk in NZ", and i'd find it hard to disagree, but i decided to enhance it still further with a side trip to the top of Mount Ngaurahoe (Which i've found out is pronounced Narra-hoe-ee), which is now my biggest mountain by 100 metres-ish. None of my wussy fellow passengers on the bus went for the summit, so it was left to me an a very friendly Hungarian Physician named Goran (Or something very similar), to tackle the peak, and we left out fellow (amateur) ramblers at the top of the first climb muttering stuff about us being "eejits" & "nutters". It was pretty hard work, and a tad steep at times, but we got to the top without too many problems and then enjoyed the incredible views and the sulphury whiffs coming from the still active crater. As it was a clear day, the views from the top were unbelievable, i'm sure we could see about as far as it's humanly possible to see, all the way over to Mount Taranaki in the south west corner of the North island for instance.
Goran started off down about 10mins earlier than me, almost a fatal error as it turned out. The descent of Ngaurahoe is far easier than the ascent, as you can ski/run down about 800metres of scree, all the way to the bottom of the cone. The only down side of this is that you tend to upset the odd large boulder here and there. I managed to do this right at the top, and a football sized boulder was sent careering down toward Goran at horrendous speed, bouncing merrily all the way down to the pass, narrowly missing his head by 10 metres. Which actually doesn't sound that close, but when you're Goran's head it's a bit too close. Anyway, hearty apologies were offered when i caught up with him, but he was fine about it, and we wandered off toward the red crater, comparing fruit picking experiences in the former Communist Hungary and KeriKeri - conclusion - Fuit picking is shit.
Mount Ngaurahoe from Mount Tongariro
All this arsing about, had once again made me late for the bus, which was leaving the other end of track at 4:30pm sharp, so with the energy i had left i jogged through the final crater of the walk, i think, breaking my camera in the process, but happily got to the bus in time, hurrah!
Which leaves me back at the Pukenui lodge, eating Pasta "N" Sauce, drinking Steinlager and watching Notting Hill.
Life. It's all good mate :oD
[Apologies if this post is too long / nauseating. But a great day, my first booze in ages and a free net connection are all partly to blame]
