New Zealand, Part 5 : Soggy Volcano aka Lake Taupo

Our next stop was Lake Taupo. The lake was formed when water filled the large caldera after an eruption. The volcano is still active. I always pictured volcanos looking something like this:

Turns out, they can look like this:

We had two days in Lake Taupo, and were able to stay at a pretty fancy hotel thanks to Michael's reward points. Turns out repeatedly staying at the Hampton Inn in Reno, can really rack up the points.

 We were in Taupo for Michael's birthday, which meant he was in charge--which meant we played tennis--which meant Michael lost on his birthday. Poor guy. The grass was really fun to play on. It slows down the ball a bit and is easier to run on. We also decided that since the room was free, we should splurge on something else. We went to a spa, with natural hot pools. Suddenly, we were getting mud wraps. I'm so happy that happened, since it will likely never happen again, and because of the hilarious conversation that happened afterword. It went something like this:

Michael: My neck feels great.
Sarah: Me too, just in time for camping.

And then, in unsion:

I was sooooo...COLD/HOT.

Yeah, the thermal mud wrap was torture for Michael, all he could think about was when are they going to scrape it off? And as soon as they took the mud off me, all I could think about was when are they going to put that warm mud back on? I'm freezing. 

It was funny and quite honeymoon-y.

We ran along the lake in the early morning. It was beautiful.

We passed about five older couples, and they all started smiling and nodding and, in one case clapping, when we would meet or run past them. Kiwis: highly supportive bunch. I think I could run longer/farther if elderly New Zealanders were lining my route, smiling and nodding.

The only part of the trip that I disliked was something called a "thermal park." This thermal park was the equivalent of a geologic miniature golf course. We walked along the path, and looked and mist rising out of various holes. Magical--and also something that you can find for free all over New Zealand.

This is the only picture we took there. Can you sense the sarcasm?

A few miles outside of the city, was Huka Falls. That water is such a pretty color, when it moves quickly like this.

 The water runs from the lake, through this rock channel, and shoots out below. There is a bridge running across the channel, which is where I took the video.

We hung out at the lake, but the swimming was kept to toes only. Michael probably would have loved to jump in the water mid-mud wrap, but it was too cold to be enjoyable otherwise.

Fancy birthday date. We accidentally packed clothes that matched a little too much... We were one step away from these Grand Canyon visitors and bird lovers:

 

(For a good time, google "matching couple travel outfit")

The next morning we set off on a driving adventure, that took us farther south. We met Mount Doom on the way and ended up staying in an odd Shakespearean-themed village (but that's a story for the next post). On our way out of town, we stopped to see the other side of the lake. Such a beautiful place. 

  

Balancer, extraordinaire. 

We liked it, despite what this picture suggests. 

New Zeland, Part 4: Waitomo Caving

We visited Waitomo caves with a local tour guide, who was either a very good actor or actually the nicest person I've ever met. After we told our group that we were on our honeymoon, he spent the rest of the trip trying to create "romantic" situations for us. As in, he would stand right behind us and say, "now, seems like an excellent time to kiss." Pretty funny. I told him about my caving adventures in Logan and some of the climbing I'd done. He thought it was pretty funny that the best way to find caving systems, is to make friends with geology professors. The caving in New Zealand, outside of the tours like we went on is very secretive too, since they have a similar problem that we do in the states: some guy dies, cave gets closed. Bummer.

Anyway, back to New Zealand. This tour was my favorite part of the trip--oddly enough, there are no real pictures of it. We had a few chances to take pictures at the mouth of the cave, but I have no real camera skills and I definetly didn't have a tripod, so I got a lot of grayish pictures.

 When we entered the cave, we needed headlamps and a big lantern, but after spending about an hour inside, we walked out with out lights. As our eyes adjusted, we started seeing all the glow worms (real name? glow maggots--but that doesn't sound great on posters). It was so pretty. We floated through a tunnel on a raft, surrounded by glowing things--pretty cool.

Oh yeah, when we left the cave we were still in New Zealand. Win.

 Lesser cave with some lights.

Here are some pictures that the tour company sent us after our visit. It's like they knew I wasn't a skilled photographer.

Here are the strings of glowing secretions. Gross and beautiful. 

Here's my picture:

(told ya: not an expert)

  

Raft heading down the tunnel, we were in complete darkness at this point. It was like flying through stars.

New Zealand, Part 3: Garden Party

We set off from Matamata for a drive through the country. We bought my mom some yarn from a sheep farm just off the road. The woman we bought yarn from might have been the oldest person I'd ever met. She was spinning wool, chatted with us about her sheep, and pointed out which bird calls were kiwis. 

Anybody feel like starting a sheep farm with me?

Happy sheepies.

We stopped in Hamilton to see the pretty gardens there. This huge public park managed by the city. It was both beautiful and free (a good combo).

 

This garden was supposed to look like a magic carpet. So pretty.  

Since I had been in the snow only a few days earlier, 

these gardens were an extra special kind of paradise. 

We drove on to the little town of Waitomo, which has 42 permanent residents throughout the year, but does a booming tourism business. This was our first night camping. I've done some camping in my life, but never next to a citrus tree surrounded by this kind of green. Camping in New Zealand is something between US National Parks and motor lodges, in that they are beautiful places...equipped with showers and electricity. It worked very well for us. I do like to shower, you know.

The local man who checked us into our campsite, convinced us to sign up for a tour of the caves by showing us pictures, like these:

Those caves were the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I'll pick up there in my next post. 

Sometimes, I think this blog series may have been a bad idea. When can we go back?

New Zealand, Part 2: A Journey that Lived Up to Expectations

I don't usually wake up at 6:00 am and skip around the room, but then again, I don't usually go to Hobbiton.

I 

Visiting Matamata would have been enough to smile about without all the Lord of the Rings nerdiness. What a beautiful place. That sign is in the middle of downtown Matamata, which means I ran across traffic to sit on the little wizard statue. Worth it.

 Here's Michael, welcoming you. He also has crackers and a man bag.

The drive to the set was beautiful. I'm fairly certain there are always big puffy clouds and that ridiculously green grass. All the sudden, we were walking through the path that Gandalf rides through. The other tour people walked right through, while I repeatedly squeezed Michael's arm and make a squeaky noise. It was so pretty.

"A wizard is never late." 

Here we are, looking huge. Some of the hobbit holes are sized for 3'8" hobbits and some are designed for people our size.

So pretty.  

I might need a sign like this for my front door. 

The tree at the top is fake. They had a real one for Lord of the Rings, but it changed too much, so they built one for The Hobbit. Looks pretty good to me. 

Looking down from Bag End. I wonder where the Sackville-Baggins live?

This is where Sam, Rosie, Goldilocks, and little Frodo live. What? You didn't know the names of the whole Gamgee family? Well, I'm cooler than you.

On the way to the Green Dragon.

 

He kind of does have hobbit feet, though. Have you ever seen Michael not wearing shoes? Me neither. 

 

We decided to have our next wedding in Hobbiton. You're all invited.

Michael started practicing dancing early. 

The only brew for the brave and true...

We learned that all the frogs had to be caught and removed from the pond, because they were too loud for filming. No frogs in middle earth. 

Sorry, Kermit. 

It was bigger and even more beautiful than I imagined it could be. It was also very fun to watch the movies when we got home, since it is such a concrete place to us now. My 13 year old heart was exploding, and my grown-up heart was pretty happy too.