Roadtrip!

I've been staying with my friends, Chris and Mara, in Nelson for the past couple nights. I met Chris at the first research station I volunteered at. He's a Brit, but he's lived and worked and volunteered in New Zealand for the past couple years or so. Mara is his girlfriend. She lives and works in Nelson. Chris just came back to the country from Australia the other day. I met Mara in Christchurch and then we picked Chris up at the airport. We spent the next two days driving back up to Nelson.

We made several stops along the way. This is me infront of a braided river wearing a merino wool sweater and eating a toffee pop. Kiwi as. The weather was perfect.

This is actually a rushing river with snow-capped mountains in the background and huge hills on either side with a natural hotspring pool right at the edge of the river. This place was so incredible. It was warm enough out to splash around in the cold river then hop into the hot pools, but cool enough to enjoy the heat of the water. There were two big pools, one warm, one warmer. You could dig your hands and feet into the hot sand at the bottom. We spent time in both of them. What a cool place to stop. I love hanging out with the locals who know all the interesting places!

Mara and I in the big hotpool. The river is actually at the same water level of the pool, but the pool is deeper for some reason.

Driving over the mountains from the east side of the South Island where Christchurch is located, to the northwest side where Nelson is located is just incredible. The views are amazing and there are so many places to stop and see interesting things. This is one waterfall we hiked up to. It's very tall, hard to tell from this picture, unfortunately.

Chris and Mara on the bridge over the sluice near Springs Falls. We stopped and stayed at the Department of Conservation house for the night.

Another waterfall we stopped at the next day. I think this one is called Mariua Falls, something like that.

This morning I left Nelson bright and early at 7:30 am. I'm in Hokitika now. It's a cool little town on the Tasman Sea. The hostel I'm staying in is very nice. More of a hotel than a hostel. I'll write more later!

Taupo!

I suppose I should add some words.

I took this picture out the window of the bus on my way from Rotorua to Taupo. The landscape of the North Island is literally shaped by agriculture - sheep farming. You can see how all of the rolling hills have groves worn along their sides. These were all created from the millions and billions of sheep who have grazed across this country.


Taupo is on the side of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo. The Waikato River flows into Lake Taupo. The river has this beautiful turquiose water. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it. This isn't even a very good example, but I liked these trees growing in the river.


Taupo is known as the place to bungey jump in NZ. This is where my cousin, Jonathan, went to bungy jump (he had the t-shirt). I don't jump off tall things, but I watched for quite awhile. People make really weird/funny sounds when they jump off a cliff. One girl kept screaming as she swung around and as they collected her with the boat below and as she was dropped off on shore. This jump is about 50 m.

I hiked all along the Waikato and went to see the great Huka Falls. I read that this is one of the most visited areas in NZ. It's got nothing on Niagara. I had a conversation about waterfalls with a German-speaking guy I met. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out that he was asking me about Niagara because the German accent makes it sound like Knee-a-Gar-a, or something. Anyway, I figured it out and told him all about the place.

While I was hiking back from the Huka Falls, I came across a hotwater swimming hole. The water was really warm. Even though it was quite cool out (about 12 degrees that day) there were quite a few poeple swimming. As I walked along the river, I thought I would feel to see if the water a little further up was warm. I went down to the riverside and slipped and slid into the water. It was not warm. I was pretty embarrassed, but I knew I'd dry off quickly because the sun was out and the wind was dry, and there wasn't anyone around to really see me. OF course, as soon as I got back to the trail, I ran right into a guy I had met in Alice Springs in Australia. He laughed at me for falling into the river. Thought I was going to get away with it, but not in this small world. By the time I finished chatting with him I was dry and headed off to catch my bus.


Some sheep.
The red tiki at Taupo.