National Park Village Hotels - Reviews and Rates

From Waitomo, we headed towards National Park Village for a Help X placement. The village is not nearly as exciting as it sounds, but its super close to the famous Tongariro Crossing so we really wanted to stay there in hopes of getting a chance at doing the Crossing. Actually the main picture for this blog was scooped from Google and is the Eme...

May 16, 2009 Well folks - me again - not so many updates these days - and let that be testiment to the hectic schedule no Stray - awesomely hectic. I just don't get an hour to myself to update this thing - and that's a good thing. In fact - ni a rush right now as there its 7 in the evening here and the bus has picked up new people today who I'd ...

Gotta get this down while I'm still all jazzed about it!!! So here it was, my big challenge. I was SO prepared it's.. well, its downright embarrassing prolly. Here is what I had in my pack for 7 hours of hiking: 4 PB+J sammiches 2 carrots 1 can of tuna + crackers a bag of trail mix a candy bar 3 water bottles a pair of sweat pants lil first aid ...

29-03: De bus die ons naar het startpunt van de Tongariro Crossing bracht vertrok om 7:15. Ik had m'n spul al ingepakt en m'n brood al gesmeerd dus ik kon zo uit bed de bus in. De route (19 km) zou zo'n 8 uur in beslag nemen, met lange pauzes was ik na 6 uur toch echt bij het eindpunt. Onderweg veel moois gezien, blauwe meren en gaten waar zwave...

We stayed overnight at the base of the three volcanoes. It was very, very cold. Had to "hire" an extra blanket. Got to about -4 c. Slept in: 2 shirts, sweater, jacket, sweatshirt, pj pants, jeans, and 2 paris of socks. Spent the next day hiking through ice and mud for about 6 hours. Went up to the lower lake, which had a beautiful, weird blue co...

Hey, sorry for a long delay in another entry. I have to pay 3 bucks for 30 minutes of internet so I don't get on much here. I made it down to The Crossing Backpackers in Erua which is inside Tongariro National Park. This place is a big snowboarding hangout which isn't really for me. The people are really cool though. The work is simply enough, j...

Wednesday, February 14 Wellington to National Park Village We hate to tear ourselves away from the friendly folks and the lovely bay views of Moana Lodge, but we must be on our way north. Today is a drive through agricultural and grazing lands. We notice that there are more fruit and vegetable stands here on the North Island. The sheep and lambs...