As you know, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed all over New
Zealand, on both the North and South islands. We spent a day in the
Tongariro National Park where we got to see 2 volcanoes that were part
of the movies: Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Nguaurahoe (no idea how to pronounce
that one), the latter most resembling Mordor's Mt. Doom for all you
LoTR fans. There is also a 3rd volcano in the park, Mt.
Tongariro. All three are still active, in fact Mt. Ruapehu erupted in
September of 2007. There is a hike to the crater lake of this unsettled
volcano but my mother will be glad to know that we didn't put ourselves
in danger by going there. (We probably would have had we more time!) We
did do a bit of hiking through very different terrain...dry, brown, and
mostly flat...quite a change from what we have seen in our other NZ
tramps.
We had to move on a bit quicker then we would have liked because we had
booked our ferry tickets to the South Island for the 6th of January. We
made our way to Wellington, the capital of NZ and the most southern
city on the North Island. The Interislander Ferry would transport us to
the South Island where we would be spending a majority of our time
while in NZ. It was quite fun to drive our little Tortas onto the ferry
and then relax a few hours on this massive sea vessel. I think it was
the largest boat either of us have been on...the closest experience
we've had to being on a cruise ship! Okay, not quite like a cruise ship
as there was no pool, fancy dinners or all-you-can-eat buffets, but
there was a small movie theater, restaurant, and bar. We arrived into
Picton, a small town on the South Island, at night and in the
rain...not a good combination when you are camping and/or you have no
accomodation booked ahead of time! We had a really hard time finding a
place to stay, despite the fact that we had a tent. Most of the holiday
parks that offer tent sites were either closed for the night or full
and ALL the affordable backpacker lodges were also full. So, we decided
to really enjoy all that Tortas has to offer by spending the night in
the car. We found a quiet little residential street, put up some towels
to block the street light, and tried to make ourselves comfy! Try is
the key word there...let's just say that little Tortas is great for
driving, not for sleeping.
That there ended our time in Picton as the next morning we moved on to
our next exciting adventure...kayaking and hiking in Abel Tasman
National Park. More to come in the next blog!
Oh yes...in total for 8 days of driving on the North Island we tackled 1,017.5 miles in little Tortas. Did I forget to mention that gas is around $5 a gallon? Ouch!
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