Crampons in Mordor

Well, the feedback we received from our last blog in which we asked you all to help us rename ourselves was an interesting test of audience participation to say the least! Hoping this would give you all the chance to name us something totally absurd and embarrasing...we quite looked forward to any and all responses. But with the remarkable number of suggestions adding up to a grand total of TWO, we were left with a rather small list of possibilties. I guess we'll keep on truckin' with the Global Prancers for now.

We last left off with our farewell to south island new zealand in what was two and a half months of travelling a remarkable island. Making our way through Cook Straight (the crossing between both islands) a few weeks back was actually really exciting to be heading towards a region we knew very little about. The north island represents almost 75% of new zealand's population and we were expecting a huge increase in people everywhere. We are pleased to report that, apart from the obviously large cities of Wellington, Hamilton, Auckland, etc., this hasn't been the case at all once travelling in the rural areas and we are currently loving our northern spin so far.

We spent four days in Wellington this time (as opposed to the 36 hours we spent there with John & Judy in early March) and tried to get a taste for all aspects of entertainment. First stop was the national museum's exhibition for Lord of the Rings. It was exceptionally entertaining and upon leaving the museum we lined up the next three days so we could watch one movie per day (comments to yourselves, please...). Having gotten the inside scope on how certain aspects of the films were shot and made we really enjoyed seeing these epic movies a second (or third for Tom) time. We also caught a hilarious play that has been modernly adapted by Steve Martin called "The Underpants." A little live music and several meals at some of Wellington's numerous cafes and restaurants and we felt pretty freakin' cosmopolitan by the end of our four days.

Our first post-Wellington stop was the wine region (seeing a trend here?) of Martinborough. The area has about 40 boutique wineries known mostly for making Pinot Noir. The vineyards are all very small and tight and everything is mostly hand-picked giving the wine makers exceptional fruit to make the delicate Pinot Noir. Most of the wineries view themselves as little rural French chateau wineries and only sell what they make. Several of the wineries had actually closed down for the season putting little signs out front saying, "sorry, all out of wine...next release in September." We did a few tastings, enjoyed a small farmers market and made our way to the college town of Palmerston North for the evening.

Our first main highlight of the north island was Tongariro National Park and we made our way there as soon as we could! We checked into a purpose built hostel with a rock climbing wall that caters to travellers that intend to do the famous one day Tongariro Crossing walk.

By far and away New Zealand's most famous one day walk (at the heat of busy season there can be in upwards of 500 people per day doing the crossing), the area is a volcanic region comprising some of the most remarkable terrain a person could ever want to see. Three major volcanoes in total, the Crossing takes you to the saddle between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe (used for Mt. Doom in LOTR) and is a pretty treachurous place during winter.

The area had recently received a major storm and the mountains were covered with snow at about 1000 meters. The walk is a 7 hour day with half of it above the 1000 meter mark. Upon arriving to Turangi and our hostel we met several people that were in a holding pattern waiting until the owners of the hostel gave the okay to head up the mountain. Two weeks prior a girl was caught out on the top and died from hypothermia. So as you can tell, despite its hugely popular status, the Tongariro Crossing is nothing to mess around with, especially in winter. Fortunatly for us, the hostel sent a lone guide up the mountain to check the situation since no one had attemted the Crossing this winter sesason. Luckily, the weather broke and we made our way towards the trail head with 4 other people and our gnarly guide of 60+ years.

The day started out relatively easy and about 45 minutes in we were hit with monster cold winds and we all went scrambling for our hats and gloves! We kept on climbing and met two seperate couples that had to turn around becuase the conditions were too rough up ahead.

Wondering if we should follow their U-turn, our trusty guide continued on and next thing we knew we had crampons attached to our boots and fighting 40~50mph winds at the top (1900 meters).

The conditions were so intense we were delirious as we were all enjoying the snowy puff men and women we must have looked like heading up and down the icy slopes.

We were the only group to make it over the top that day and it made for a rather remarkable experience...our own snowy playground for the entire day.

The summer landscape is much different as people often say it is the closest thing you can get to what it would be like if walking on the moon with the many craters, emerald lakes and geothermal areas.

So maybe someday we'll do the Crossing during summer and spot a few orcs in Mordor. It was obviously too cold for little Gollum as well! After the walk we enjoyed some grub and beer with our English friends, Dave and Kat.

Similar to us, they are out travelling for awhile and also do a blog on blogger. With all that in common, we enjoyed some great conversations. We also cleared up a problematic perception they held in that all Americans drink crap lite beer (the watery junk most europeans think we drink...Budweiser and Miller Lite). We assured them that many of us enjoy a much more sophisticated pallate rich with dark, brown ales that resemble something substantial going down as opposed to the drink-a-case-of-lite-low-cal-beer American. (sorry if any of you are miller lite, michelob ultra, etc. drinkers but seriously, how can you honestly say you like the taste of that junk?).

After Tongariro we headed for NZ's largest lake, Taupo. Hoping it wasn't too touristy, we made our way there for a 2 day browse of the geothermal region loaded with hot pools, geysers, craters and other thermal creations. "Craters of the Moon" was a fascinating display of these natural odor producing thermal wonderlands, releasing sulphuric cloud-like steam amongst the valleys.

Apart from the disgustingly dirty hostel we crashed at, the city is nice and gives you a long list of outdoor activities to partake in, some of them rating extremely high on the rambo-meter. Instead we opted for a much less heart throbbing sport: GOLF! We both "had a go" at the 110-yard floating island for our attempt at the "Great Hole in One Challenge"!!

Reworking our itinerary we headed for the east coast and yet another wine region...this time, Hawke's Bay. Known to many as the Bordeaux region of New Zealand, this area is, on average, much hotter than other part of NZ and therefore enjoys ideal conditions for big bold red wines. Settling into the Art Deco city of Napier, we explored the region with utter appreciation for the laidback way in which this area rolls.

A couple of days at the wineries and taking in the Da Vinci Code (better than the reviews in our opinion), we left ubruptly for the city of Hamilton (on the western side of the north island) to clear up our visitor permit extension. Then we are going to see if there are any wine regions left to explore in this great country!!!

Bye for now!