Mr. Tom Gets Around

Auckland->Rotorua->Whakapapa Village->Wellington->Napier->Gisborn->Tauranga

With my Canadian sidekick named Alex, I set off to discover the riches of the lesser known lesser tourist visited island. Well, that what everyone says “Go to the South Island”. Regardless, with an early start of 8am and shopping done by 930ish, we headed down highway 1 outta Auckland. Finally on the road again, the Subaru impreza 93′ which I have borrowed for the time being from Snowys bro Mike was humming away at a steady pace of 100k’s.The average speed in NZ is lower do to bends in the road, or so they say. The car, which had proven quiet the hassle in the days prior, with getting a warrant of fitness(WOF) and rego(license plates) was now not exactly street legal, but as being a bit of a risk taker, was road worthy to me at least for the short trip that is. Later of-course this would prove to bite me back.

After a brief discussion to our trip plans we decided on Rotorua for the first nite. With early starts come early arrivals. As we entered town we were distracted by a massive low cloud, but then quickly realized that is was a sort of steam rising from the ground. We parked and had a look around at the spitting hot mud and techno colorings of the mineral pools. For me the best part was the smell, good old fashion sulfer. A couple of boyish flashbacks to smoke-bombs and chemistry class in high school came up as the sulfer smell stayed with us for the next few hours. We checked in at the Blue Lake Top 10 Holiday Park and scurried out for a wake around the Lake before supper. Alex got us into some trouble by picking a more adventurous route, which involved a bit of long legged climbing. Not really a big deal for me , but she manage to get herself in a jam about it. A tasty pasta dish was on the menu, as we had signed up to go rafting the next day. It was only to be 45 minutes of paddle-time but we would need our carbohydrates I figured.

Our 9:30 pick-up was even early.Tour guide and later Raft steerguy,Robbie, told us of all the volcano activity and mountains and such along the way to the rafting center. Pretty usual stuff, but good to know either-way, cause the rest of the van was quite quiet, all mentally focusing on the chaos that was waiting for us. At the center, we were first told to sign our life away. I’m always keen to sign without even reading, which was made easier, as it looked like more of a sign-up sheet then a sign-away form. Eitherway, your doing something where you could die or really hurt yourself and they are in no way responsible. They basiaclly just bring you down the river, get you as safe down as possible, but if something absolutly nutty happens, your on your own as far as death is concerned.

Right back to the Grade V-Rafting. Once, everyone was made to look a bit fat with a 5mm wetsuit, some sort of fleece-water rag against getting too cold, a life-vest, and a helmet. Oh, I made sure to test my helmet on Alex’s, which proved it to be adequate, or at least not breakable on minor impacts. So Robbie, gave us the run-down of commands we would have to know before touching the water. Basically some dry rafting, which is just silly, but ok, don’t want the raft to flip over or anything. So after everyone got em’ down we took the raft down Thur the farm fields and dipped it into the Kaituna River. We practiced our commands with some water this time and waited a bit for our partner raft to join us. It winded up being quiet busy on the River with two other companies also braving the gauntlet. As Robbie explained we would face 15 rapids. Two major ones, one of which dropped us a good 8 meters. “Wicked” I was thinking to myself. So the other ones were minor, small, splish- splashy ones, where not that much action happened. I had to even splash myself a bit to cool down enough from the baking sun. The views were decent as we moved down the river. Then Robbie warned us that the next one would be our practice for the big one. So we were told to get ready for the Brace position, which is everyone in the boat, cuddled up like Little Debbie Cakes in a box. Well, it was decently exciting and we made it through as the other boat watched. Robbie, must of lost a grip, cause it turns out, slammed into me on our way down. But it was more of a bump, and no biggie I said.

Round Two folks. So after that we were all keen for the Big One, which after a few mini’s we reached. We lined up with two other rafts ahead of us, we would have to wait our turn. No biggie, Robbie explained the task at hand and we let go, giving out a big yell before we took our Brace position’s. I’m pretty sure the 8m drop was not mentioned before the Big One, but I knew it was more of a drop from looking ahead. With Alex in-front of me in the raft and trusty Robbie in the back, I was sure we’d make it through no hangups. So the drop came, we were Braced, and landed decently, hitting the water with liter’s of water all around us. The raft it appears made it out of the waterfall, but then was sucked back in. I’m pretty sure, I was on the wrong side of the waterfall for a bit there with Robbie trying to push the raft forward. As more and more water entered the back of the raft the front end started to slowly and then suddenly rise up and over our heads. This folks is where the raft flipped over and Robbie had told us to hold on as long as possible, with the air pockets under the raft, you could always breath. Well, I can tell you my first reaction to being under a raft near a waterfall is to let go. So I did and wound up just sort of the raft. Alex held on and was the only one including Robbie who was near the raft. The others had been pushed clear and where in the other raft. Robbie needed two attempts to get the raft flipped over. On his first attempt the carabeiner that held his rope snapped of. Either way is was definitely sweet as , to get in a swim on a rafting trip. Just seconds after I let go, I

was whisked away by the current to the bottom to be banged on a few rocks only to surface near our raft. I guess that’s why they make you wear the silly looking fleece-tops?, Right on for that one then.

Big cheers from the other raft, for providing them with a bit of entertainment as they called it. Later, the staff photographer said out raft was also the more photogenic one with at-least 25 more photos being taken during the whole get stuck and flip routine. Robbie was very proud, like a dad watching his son catch his first fish or score his first goal.

Well, not that I’ve gone into too much details on the rafting, which was awesome, I’ll have to crunch down the rest of the trip a bit.

Day 2 had us driving down to the Tongaririo National Park, past Lake Taupo & Turangi where we planned to do the famous Tongariro Crossing Tramp(trek/hike). The Crossing was a 6 1/2 hours hike in the end, maybe 8 hours for grandma and grandpa. We drove to the start and hitchhiked back in record-time. The trek covers 18kms and rises in elevation from about 1000m to 1900m. With a long decent at the end, where you really start to feel all the climbing you did that day. Don’ t worry about getting lost cause about 300 people do it a day and roughly 70,000 a year. We started a bit later at about 10:30, but kept a decent pace till lunch time. By face the best part is the Red Crater viewing and the emrald lakes area, where sulfur enters your airways, giving a smelly feeling to the whole experience.

Next stop, Wellington, where I was reunited with an old playing buddy, Willemijn. She and I played together when I was first starting to play outdoor ultimate in Utrecht with the UFO club. She’s been over in NZ since 2006 worlds in Perth. She’s enjoying it so much, she’s staying longer. We arranged to meet up later on the waterfront for drinks. This gave Alex and I plenty of time to scurry around the outskirts of Wellington, soaking up some beaches and hikes along our way down to city central. We meet up at the fancy Mac’s Brewery. She had arranged for us to stay with an ultimate buddy named Steve who would have a bit more space and was more centrally located. When we finally meet up, we chatted about old times and new times in NZ, also what Wellington was. A damn great city Steve had traveled and lived in much of the world and was still draw to Wellington. The next day we were to see central in the morning, meet up with Willy for lunch at the Bontanical Gardens and then drive the Wellington Coves to get a real sense of the city. Ofcourse no visit would be perfect without a bit of pick-up afterwards. Playing with the Crew team against the higher ranked SPY. Without a doubt it gave me a good look at the competition for the coming Mixed Nationals down in Christchurch.

Auckland is grand, worked a week down south near Waiki. Painting, digging, and basic handy man stuff. Was fun with Snowy and his bro(NZ for friend) Reagan as the paint hit the fan the days flew by. There where chickens, cats, dogs, a loud cockatoo and a funny mean looking Pig.We managed to make a massive bondfire and even get in a bit of possum hunting a bit of a local tradition. I found out , not like in australia where the possum is a protected species, in NZ they are a pest. I managed to startel on with a mighty blast from a double barreled shotgun. It had a bit of kick too it and as I found out, also a bit of a sensitive trigger. A double trigger for that matter. So after Casey(local dude)managed a kill hit on the possum, I was called in to clear the tree of the hanging possum. Again the shotgun had kick and as I opened up the barrels I could see smoke rising out of them, just like in the movies I thought to myself. I was told later possum tastes like chicken, but since we had pretty much burnt the carcus to a crispy black, it just wouldn’t taste much like any thing at all. The evenings highlight was the couch being torched in gasoline. As we watched the hotseat burn, we realized we had nowhere to sit, a minor problem.