The Cube

Here's the recap of travel, or rather it serve as an index page for easier tracking.

Pre-travel
Breakdown of travel days and links to accommodations.


Auckland
Day 1 - Walkabout in Auckland


Coromandel
Day 2 - Kayaked to Cathedral Cove, dug at Hot Water Beach and finished with dinner at Squids Bar.


Waitomo
Day 3 - Checking out the glow worms and Christmas dinner at Roselands Restaurant.


Rotorua / Matamata
Day 4 and 5
 - Met a very gorgeous Max at Kuirau Park, round Lake Rotorua and Redwoods Treewalk
 - Traditional hāngi feast at Mitai Māori Village
 - Food in Rotorua
 - "Went" home to Hobbiton


Rotorua / Taupo
Day 6 - Awed by geysers in Te Puia, then Huka Falls before arriving at Taupo.
Day 7 - My first long hike at Tongariro Alpine Crossing


Taupo / Wellington
Day 8 - Road trip from Taupo to Wellington


Wellington
Day 9 - Ending our North Island adventures in the capital city.



Side note: Can you see little green person on the traffic light? 

The capital city of New Zealand is known as the Windy Wellington, said to be the world's windiest city. The few people I know who came from Wellington have one thing in common. They always think the weather is too warm, even in Melbourne winter. Growing up in Wellington must given them ample of training to withstand the cold weather.

The Chinese character doesn't match the English name...

Soft shell crab taco

Clam chowder in a jar ($10)

Chipotle Slaw - to pretend that we didn't neglect our veges

500g Blue swimmer crab with The classic: chilli garlic butter finished w lemon and parsley ($50)

1/2 pound of prawns: king prawns in a lemongrass & chilli tomato sauce w coriander, spring onion & crispy shallots ($25)

Moroccan spiced calamari ($16)

Bucket Fountain

Mt Ruapehu

Longest driving day of the trip. According to Google map, it takes about 4 hrs 39 minutes but I am sure the actual trip took longer. As Little P drove us out of Taupo, we were treated with sight of Mt Ruapehu along the way. Little P told us that people come to Mt Ruapehu for skiing in winter. The photo above was taken in late December, to be exact, 30th December last year.

We had pit stops and there were a lot of eating activities in the car. Our first pit stop was to look for a toilet, just 45 minutes out of Taupo and we stumbled on the National Trout Centre.

National Trout Centre
I was reminded by my fellow travel mates to make a public announcement that the centre carries some similar souvenir as other shops but at a cheaper price. Fact is the trout centre offers much more than souvenirs of course. One could fish there, see some fishes and learn about trouts and water ecology. One needs to pay for an entrance fee but of course, souvenir shop is excluded from this.

Spot the fishes!

After another 45 minutes drive (according to Google map), we arrived at Waiouru. Such a coincidence, we definitely didn't time to stop every 45 minutes.

Waiouru
Waiouru is a small town and has a main attraction of Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum which we didn't go at all. It also host a camp of the New Zealand Army. Instead, we went to this very interesting pen cafe.




We were told that there are 250,000 pens collected by Jim over 20 years and about 90,000 of them are hanging. Interesting but food is forgettable.




After fueled by food, we persisted little longer than 45 minutes. I really don't remember the exact time we took but Google said after 1 hr 20 minutes, we stopped for evening tea, at Unforgetabulls. Haha.

Bulls
This town is big on puns! The town is named after James Bull and was initially called Bull Town. It had a change of name but renamed back to Bulls.


 It has a slogan of "a town like no udder" and the puns extend to library, toilets, etc. It also come with a cute little nook for photo taking. MMC made the newlyweds posed on the bench.



We needed to top up on my sugar and caffeine level, so some ice coffees and pancakes. As you can see from the photo, it is old school type of pancake.


The cafe also stocked up on cheesy packaging sugar sachets.


Little P then brought us to Wellington without making any more pit stop. We were in good time for dinner ;)

Oh and the twilight zone feel Pen Cafe's toilet came with inspirational quote.



Side note: Craving for a lamb burger with blue cheese, complete with chips of course. 

I first saw this when I googled for things to do in North Island NZ. Then I read about it and thought, maybe it is beyond me. After that, I saw MMC included this in the first draft of itinerary. What followed was me trying to climb the steps at work during lunch time. It could hardly be considered as training, there are only 23 floors and I wasn't even running up and down. I was going up and down leisurely in my work clothes but had sneakers though.

My biggest fear was there is no giving up midway as there is no other way out except the chopper for emergency and I am trying to avoid that happening (hence the steps climbing). Some people made up their lack of stamina with great determination but I have no redeeming values when it comes to exercise. Not only my stamina is crap, I am not very good in motivating myself. Haha.. but I do know that I do not want to get off the crossing with an emergency chopper. That said, I am glad I went for it, and this is probably my favourite activity in our NZ trip, along with the kayaking. No, I am not an adrenaline junkie. I am more of a sloth if anything.

On the way to the start of hike

Tongariro Alpine Crossing (TAC) is 19.4 km. The walking time depends on one's pace, weather condition, stops for photos, etc but estimate will take take 5-8 hour. We took 7 hours 25 minutes.

We prepared our food the night before, lunch and snacks consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, a hard-boiled egg, chocolates and muesli bar. I also carried two 1.25 litres water bottles. I only have a small pack and my stamina is non existence, I left dslr but am glad I am now on S7 rather than iPhone 4 due to photo quality. Ha!


After we were dropped off with a parting message of "Please don't do stupid things" in front of the staff who works there, we started our walk. Haha... I certainly hope he knew we were joking, because there were news about people underestimated the weather and hike resulted in the needing rescues. [Read: my concern over me needing chopper assistance. A very valid concern.]

Mangatepopo Valley to Soda Springs
MMC recorded our timing but I don't have them, and obviously I'm a newbie and recording timing for each leg had not crossed my mind at all. Haha.. I only know we have to finished in 8 hours so Little P and Y didn't have to wait for us. Apparently this is the easiest stretch but I could feel tightness over my right calf so it took me awhile to walk comfortably on this flat-ish stretch.




Soda Springs to South Crater
Soon after Soda Springs, it was a consistent uphill track. I thought this section of the track is known as the Devil's Staircase but MMC said it was only that most steep part (see photo below, the one where the hikers get rope to hold on to). Regardless, fancy name but very apt. I find the track before this rope bit was tougher. I stopped many times trying to let my lungs and heart catch up. I am sure MMC would have made a better timing if she didn't have to wait for me. At this point, I can picture myself in Lord of the Rings pilgrimage to drop the ring. I counted my lucky stars that there weren't any orcs.

Devil's Staircase

Looking down from where I stood

Looking up from when I stood

We came down from there!

We were not lost

Blue Lake

Ketetahi Shelter to Ketetahi Bus Park
Definitely the case of so near yet so far because even this stretch will take about 2 hours.

We finished our food ration here but definitely could eat more. MMC and I were talking about steak and all sorts of food we want to eat. Food motivation was real!