That was the question that Bob asked last night as we started winding down. As it turns out it was more important than it sounds. Our land cruising routine has been that I (Ann) am the captain and the navigator. Bob steers the vehicle to the locations I choose. Perfect, right?

One place we had to stop at was Whakapapa. Why, just because the Kiwis pronounce the "WH" as "FF". Figure it out.

So far this has worked well. I book our next hotel, send the confirmation to Bob’s email and navigate using our maps. I choose our next location based on several travel guides, local brochures that are available everywhere (all provided by the NZ government at no cost to the local establishments to promote tourism), and suggestions gathered from friends and tourism offices.

Our next stop was to be Wanganui, a city close to the southwest coast as way to break up the longer trip to Wellington. But when Bob tried to find the hotel on the Google map he kept getting directed to a city smack in the middle of the southern half of the island! What? Why does Google keep showing our hotel in Taihape?

Mickey, the owner of the Discovery Lodge we were checking out of, came to our rescue. These tourism folks are incredibly knowledgable about their country and so happy to help. Turns out that the motel was most likely listed incorrectly on the booking site but Mickey was not only able to direct us to it but told us she thought it was a better direction to go.

And she was right! We ended up in beautiful rolling farm country lined with groves of aspen trees and defined by sudden gorges. At one point we came to a fork in the road and Bob commented that he felt like we were in a Robert Frost poem. We took the road less travelled and stopped numerous times to try to capture the beautiful scenes. Hopefully when we post some of them you will agree that we found the best route. And less travelled…we came across one tractor moving between fields and two sheep that had escaped and were frantically trying to find their way home.

So here we are in the self-proclaimed gumboot capital of New Zealand, having missed the annual gumboot throwing contest by a mere week! Sometimes the planning just works!

The road less travelled...

...turned out to be an amazing find...

...so glad we "went the wrong way".

This morning, we were up at 0500 getting ready to hike the Tongariro crossing. A 22 kilometer round trip or a little more than 12 miles, and over 3000 vertical feet up (then another 3000 feet back, ouch!) through volcano country.

Headlamps at "oh dark whatever..."

The volcanos here have erupted as recently as 1975 and part of the far end of the trail is closed right now due to detected activity of some kind this past November.

Fortunately our motel/lodge was only five minutes down the road from the turn out. We planned to leave at 0545 in order to get one of the few parking spots-once they are gone you can only get there by shuttle. Add another ten minutes for missing it in the dark and backtracking then fifteen minutes up a dirt road to the trailhead and our start time ended up being 0615. Also known as “zero-dark-fifteen”. Fortunately we had headlamps, since even with the full moon and cloudless sky, the trail over volcanic earth can be treacherous and easily bend an ankle of the unwary.

The landscape was almost surreal. Moonscape might just as well describe it, except in the first third of the hike where there is some scrubby, but stunningly beautiful vegetation with small streams running through. Not that we could see much. Our headlamps lit the trail but not much else for the first 45 minutes as we hiked in the moonlight, eagerly anticipating sunrise over the high ridge we were looking to summit.

The moonset behind us while sun is coming up over the ridge

As we ascended the first ridge, the sun greeted us for a glorious day of treking

This is a very popular hike in NZ. People come from all over the world to do it. Lonely Planet describes it as: “…one of New Zealand’s life changing experiences”. Actually having done it, neither Ann nor I can disagree. It was amazing.

Anyway, today was no exception to the international appeal. We ran across folks from Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Wales, US, and more.

As the darkness started to turn to dawn, we switched off the headlamps and enjoyed the early morning light. That’s when Ann saw it! A Teddy Bear fallen by the side of the trail, almost hidden by the vegetation! Upon seeing it she vaulted forward and scooped it up. “Someone’s lost it!”, she exclaimed. My response: “Set it on a rock and they will find it on the way back (grumble, grumble…)”. And she did. Carefully setting the Teddy Bear up on the rock so it would have a good view of the surroundings and it’s owners might easily find him later in the day.

But…it didn’t end there. As we contined up our climb, Ann became more and more concerned that the Teddy Bear was very special to someone out hiking with us on this day. Soon we caught up with a small group in front of us. Ann earnestly asked them as soon as we were in range: “Have you lost a Teddy Bear?”. Well…you might imagine the response. They looked at us rather oddly, picked up their pace and replied: “Nooo”

So for the next ten minutes we debated the significance of the ‘Teddy’ until coming across a couple of young women who had stopped to rest. Before I could stop her, Ann again blurted out: “Have you lost a Teddy Bear?”. As I was thinking: “Have you lost your mind!?”, one of the women exclaimed: “Oh my God, Crumpy’s gone!!”.

Turns out the young women were visiting from Wales and Crumpy was a fund-raising bear. For every documented mile he traveled, people would donate money to a charity. He’s been to Thailand and now New Zealand and thanks to Ann will have many more adventures and do more good for the Charity.

Score one for Saint Ann. We made two new friends today (three counting Crumpy).

Ann finds "Crumby"

...and Crumby is reunited with his owner

As for the rest of the trip-the weather was cloudless, the colors of the volcanos were amazing-reds, blacks, browns, yellows and more. We ended up having breakfast by “Emerald Lake” a part of one of the old craters. It was a stunning blue-green, with steam coming out of vents on the side. Our time on trail including a short stop for food: almost eight hours and my feet agree this was a long hike.

At the first summit

At the second summit before heading down to the lakes

Oh my!

The only problem with going down to the lakes...is going back up!

View of the lake area

Just....wow!

Volcano vent steaming in the background

Time to leave the danger zone

Mt Doom in The Hobbit, more commonly known as Mt Rupehu. This peak erupted as recently as 1978

An amazing landscape, an incredible adventure. 12 miles roundtrip and 6000 vertical feet (up and down)

All in all another amazing day in “Enzed”

Just finished a 30K mountain bike ride from Huka Falls to Aratiatia along the Waikato River.
Tomorrow-we’re heading for the alpine, cross country hike across the Tongariro pass
For tonight, aspirin and more wine…

Beautiful view coming into Lake Taupo area.

Mountain Biking down the Waikato River

Mt Bike, warm day, backpack. You know the drill

We had a really fun day today. It started with a six mile round trip hike through the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. In short, it is where a huge volcanic eruption occurred in the late 1800’s that essentially wiped out a six mile long area. All life/plants were completely wiped out. Today, it is lush terrain fully grown over by trees and ferns and marked by hot springs, several small lakes that are thermal fed and a huge lake at the end of the valley that the volcano created. The geology was fascinating and the hike was delightful.

Something like six miles through an area that was destroyed by volcanic activity 100 years ago. Today, it is a lush landscape completely with steam vents and hot springs

A steam vent over the sulphur spring

Steaming hot spring fed lake

The lake in the distance was our destination and the halfway point of the hike

After that, we still had time to go to Skyline Adventures to do the downhill luge run. Basically, you take a full size gondola up a hill, just like skiing in the Sierra’s. At the top you get in a very small three wheel cart and “bomb” down a luge run, complete with banked turns. How we kept from flying off the hill I’ll never know. We each did three runs, including the “Advanced” run. I dared Ann to keep up with me and you know what? She did!

Tomorrow-a Polynesian massage in the morning that Ann is giving me(us) for my birthday and then further south to Lake Taupo for a couple days.

Yes, that’s a place. We had a nice walk along the river in Hamilton this morning, then headed out to Rotorua. We’re now staying at The Artimis (a motor inn) for the next two days while we explore the geysers and other volcanic activity in this area. In general, it smells vaguely sulphuric most of the time.

BUT, that didn’t keep us out of the Belgian Bar for a beer and after walking past the Fat Dog, settling on a great Ceasar salad and wood fired pizza downtown.

Fat Dog! (Beer that is)

On our way here, we passed through Tirau, which is know for it's clever corrugated signs

The whole town is made of corrugated tin...

Even some of the stores are made from the stuff...

Yep, we finally left Charisma and got in the car to go south.

Today we drove four hours and are south of Auckland in a city called Hamilton. Seems like six hours when you’re on the wrong side of the road at 100 km/hour on a small two lane, flying what seems like just inches past huge trucks coming the other way that barely fit on the road. But we made it. We’re staying in a nice little motorcourt called the Colonial. Walked down the street for Sushi for dinner (after enjoying a couple of “Charismas” on our front porch-yes we brought essential supplies like rum and ginger beer) and now Ann is planning our next leg.

Heading south past Auckland

Our car at the Colonial Motel in HamiltonWe took a walk along the river in Hamilton. Beautiful town.

We took a walk along the river at Hamilton. Beautiful city.

The botanical gardens...

...botanical gardens were gorgeous...

...and an amazing attention to detail

We’ll see what tomorrow brings…we’re planning to be gone a week or so as we loop across the south end of the north island.