mount doomed
the tongorriro crossing, an apparently arduous walk through mordor, is known as the best one day hike in new zealand: this grandiose title presumably refers to the one day a year that the weather is clear enough to afford the kind of stunning views a traverse of the saddle between two volcanoes should provide. every single person i've met who has done the walk has said that it would probably have been spectacular if they could see anything past the cloud, and, despite the forecast saying it would be clear all morning, i have to join that disheartened band. i'm sure the peaks were stunning behind all that grey, but who knows.
the landscape was very different to the lush green vegetation i've come to associate with the fertile land that usually surrounds volcanoes, being a dry, arid wasteland filled with rocks of various hues, notably a mordoresque wall of vivid red. the emerald lakes were also pretty enough i suppose. the hike itself however was just not challenging: after a steepish 45 minute scramble up the rather flatteringly titled devil's staircase, the rest of the 17km were basically a very slow, very easy, and very crowded, amble back downhill. they should just make it a shorter, more interesting, loop track, not a seven hour sunday school stroll.
so another much hyped new zealand attraction turns out to be a damp squib: i don't know who does pr for the tourist board but they are geniuses, and presumably sleeping with the editor of lonely planet.
taupo
taupo is a pleasant, if touristy, town dominated by the colossal lake taupo, a water filled volcanic crater big enough to accommodate all of singapore. i'm going to be here for a few days, and, lazing on the banks as the sun set over the lake, it seemed like a good decision. i've been joined here by rory and emily, the crazy young scots from christchurch, and eyelash and andy from rotorua. after talking about it for two days, eyelash, andy and i, with rory in tow, went for a curry on monday night: we were sick of noodles and pasta and wanted a proper blow out meal. it was nothing compared to a lea vale banquet, but it still hit the spot.
today has been a slightly blacker day, mainly because my camera has died. it's still under warranty, but that's not much good to me when i need it to function now. it's another example of how difficult it is to get official things sorted out from abroad, and generally hassle that i could do without. it's also been grey and rainy all day which sucks. i did go to another climbing wall though, which was as fantastic as the last time: i am so hooked! hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow, as i'm getting up at 5am to do the tongorriro crossing, the 20km walk through mordor... the track is free but they still scam money out of you with an exorbitant shuttle fee: unavoidable, but annoying as hell. boo new zealand, shame on you.
kiwi kristmas
christmas went off big: rotorua is basically quite empty, but fortunately as time wore on more and more sound people crept out of the woodwork. first up was alish (eyelash to me), a lovely, if loud, irish girl who was in my dorm. we decided to go to the xmas bbq and see how things panned out and were not disappointed... there were not huge numbers of people there, but every single individual was an absolute pleasure; from andy, the sunburnt scouser (red not blue, sweet as!), to helen, the non stop talking kiwi who had walked out on her happy clappy folks in the morning (her mum makes them sing happy birthday to jesus) because they kept telling her she was en route to hell, to dave the yank, who'd never seen a christmas cracker so tried to unwrap his (you may have had to be there, but at the time it was eye wateringly hilarious), to a couple of sound dutch guys (chris and dan you mudernirkers!), and tom, the friendliest japanese man in the world.
all us christmas orphans were happily reminisicing about long boozy noels of past, and cursing the fact that you are not allowed to buy alcohol on public hoidays in new zealand... we'd had a few beers with our sausages, but they'd run out pretty quickly, and your man gareth wasn't opening the bar till six, so a long day stretched out ahead. xmas in the sunshine is a bizarre experience: to be honest your mind doesn't register the fact that it's december until it's given the visual slap of a santa hat or some tinsel. taking advantage of the good weather, we went to the park to throw a rugby ball (sweet) and a frisbee (stupid yanks) about for a few hours, whilst checking out the bubbling water and mud that rotorua, awash with geothermal activity, is famous for.
it was especially nice talking to andy and eyelash, who are both very well travelled, and both feel exactly the same about this place as me: having come with high expectations due to reports from friends, they're equally shocked by the prices, and disappointed by what's on offer. it's nice to know that i'm not some malcontent freak, but it does just heighten my disillusionment with this place.
at 6pm the bar opened... gareth let us have two for one beers and free pool all night, and the inevitable happened, as the ten of us overran the bar. cue long games of killer, christmas songs and karaoke, bad singing and dancing, and general festive frolics. it was an awesome xmas, better than i could have ever hoped for... the only thing is that it was the first time i really got into the christmas spirit: normally we start in november, so i have a whole month's worth of silliness bursting inside me that i'm going to have to repress till next year. thank god for xmas cheese on my mp3 player.
boxing day morning was grey, as was my head. still, i dragged myself out of bed to go to a maori and geothermal reserve with eyelash and the dutch guys. you turn up, pay your money, and get shepherded off on the guided tour: it was insane, just like being at school, with lots of warnings not to to stand up in the trains or wander off. i kept expecting to get told off for talking! the geysers and bubbling mud were pretty impressive, a first for me (which is a first for nz), but the maori cultural show was pure comedy: the young guys doing it kept struggling not to crack up at the absurdity of it all, the fake challenges and singing and dancing, whilst all the while happy japanese and israelis thought they were having some totally authentic experience. it was fun enough, but maori culture must be greater then some disneyfied stage act: god knows where to find it though, there's too much money to be made in mcmaori to allow access to the real thing.
i was keen to check out the climbing wall here, but it's closed, so a night in the polynesian spa is looming before i head out to taupo tomorrow. it's been a good few days, again because of the people, and most of them are actually heading in the same direction as me, so the craic should continue for a while longer.
