More Fun in the North

Two major highlights to note this week: Tongariro Alpine Crossing and the Biking Winery Tour.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 6-7 hour hike up a snow capped volcano, past thermal mountain top lakes, through some flat plains, through the “bush” as they call it, and through a forest. This hike is supposed to be the best one day hikes in NZ since the scenery is awesome, and I would definitely agree with that. At least for now. Angela got super excited to walk through the snow since they don’t get enough snow in Ireland for it to last. I was less thrilled with this, although it was still fun to trudge through some snow on the top of a mountain. As this walk was over a volcano, often the ground was steaming near the top and there were sulfurically scented thermal pools and craters at the top. The views were amazing! And for you LOTR fans, one of the mountains was Mt Doom. Even though we all know LOTR is my favorite movie ever, we decided not to take the LOTR tour.

The biking winery tour was a totally different experience, but similarly awesome. We went through this “On Yer Bike” company, and they basically provide us with bikes (that have adorable euro style baskets), a delicious packed lunch, maps, and helmets. Then we just head off through the country roads to all the different wineries. The roads were thankfully flat, and it was a gorgeous sunny day. Since it was labour day, it was actually not busy at all, so we were often the only ones at each winery. We stopped at 5 wineries, bought a couple bottles along the way, and even some chocolate at the last winery. We were definitely feeling good. On the way back to the bike company, we got a bit lost. Luckily, however, we were in NZ where people are extremely nice. So this family saw us biking out their window and thought, “oh, those poor girls are lost.” So their son hopped in his truck, picked us up, and took us back to the bike company. Yay for friendly kiwis. And that concluded our tour!

Another fun side note. One of our nights we stayed at this free campsite surrounded by sheep fields in the middle of nowhere. Usually at free camps there are lots of campervans similar to ours with similarly aged backpackers. At this camp, however, there were mostly actual RVs in clusters, and you could tell people had really set up shop there. Family reunion style. Angela said it looked like a Pike settlement (like Brad Pitt’s hood from the movie Snatch). Let’s just say it was pretty redneck. Everyone had dirt bikes, and they would throw a whole family on a dirt bike and bike around. They would even bike on over to the bathrooms. That morning I woke up to the lovely sound of sheep baaaing. Good times in the countryside.