Omori Lake House Turangi

... 1497;זמ 12;גד (Emerald Lakes). משם מקיף הטרק את האגם הכחול לכיוו 03; היריד 92; לנקוד 14; הסיום. ההליכ 92; לקראת הס ...

For the last couple of days we have been at Whanganui Bay (pronounced with a soft "f"). It is an impressive area even just for it's location alone. On the edge of Lake Taupo (the location of one of the world's largest modern volcano eruptions resulting in the formation of the lake), it is tucked away in a sheltered bay that produces some apparently stellar trout fishing. Brown and rainbow trout are stocked in the lake and where we were camped is at the mouth of a small stream ...

... in hot pools outside gauping at the lake in the privileged absence of children (there are separate "family" screaming pools for splashing and things). I chose to have a local mud treatment and a half-hour massage which also allowed me 45 minutes to poach myself to a nice shade of pink in the almost empty pools which ranged from a balmy 33°C up to a cooking temperature of 42°C. Following my slow simmering, I donned the world’s softest ...

Nach mein** tollen Zeit in New Plymouth habe ich fu** 2 Naechte bei Rolf und seinen Soehnen in Kaponga vorbeigeschaut. Am Samstag haben wir eine kleine Wand**ung auf den Mount Egmont gewagt. Es hat den ganzen Tag ueb** g**egnet, so auch bei uns**** Wand**ung durch eine Schlucht und reichlich Schnee- und and**en Matsch. D** Eisregen hat richtig auf d** Haut wehgetan und meine Schuhe und Hose waren **st 2 Tage spaet** trocken. Wir sind soeben noch mit dem letzten ...

Day Nine - Wai-O-Tapu and Craters Of The Moon
I got up early to have a swim in the heated outdoor pool, possibly with naturally heated water due to the region, then headed south to Wai-O-Tapu. This "Thermal Wonderland" has a geyser that is manually triggered with a soap-like substance to relieve the pressure between the ...

... whereabouts. We set off to Whakapapa (pronounced Fvuckapupa), where we get picked up for our trek, and bought some groceries (chocolate biscuits) from the imaginatively named town of National Park, on the way. The first sight you see getting towards Whakapapa (try keeping a straight face when the women in the info centre ways that 3 times in 1 sentence), ignoring the huge snowtoped ...

Nous partons pour le Park National de Tongariro... Nous sommes supposes faire le Tongariro crossing ce jour la (une rando de 7-8h qui est supposee etre la plus belle rando d'une journee du monde!!). Mais le temps n'est pas de notre cote et le crossing est ferme - c'est trop dangereux. Et donc on fait une pause en chemin pour aller se baigner dans des sources thermales a la place... Nous arrivons a Tongariro et le coucher du soleil sur les montagnes est superbe. Nous sommes au ...

... satisfying outing. On day two, although the cloud was down in the early morning, the weather forecast was reasonable. At 7 a.m. I caught the shuttle bus to the Tongariro Crossing start at Mangetapopo Road 20 minutes away. The first 7 km to Soda Springs are easy and on a well constructed track or board walk. After that the track got rougher and the climbing steeper as we ascended to around 1800 metres and the South Crater, A fairly level area with a floor of ...

... weather isn't supposed to get any better tomorrow, so instead of a trek taking in an amazing panorama including 3 volcanoes, we might be lucky to see each other!

What makes it worse is that the guy on reception here says that until a couple of days ago they'd had a month of unbroken glorious sunshine. JUST what we wanted to hear ...

... that was the only enjoyable part. Just as we started the ascent, it started pouring, my pants, my shirt, my pack were all completely soaked and had changed color before we had even been climbing for 15 minutes. The ascent went on for an hour and a half. Once we finally made the top, wheezing and shooting snot rockets from the cold, my head pounding from the sudden elevation shift, we walked along a part called the saddle, which leads up to the next crater. The saddle had at this ...