Volcanoes and Caves: Rotorua, Waitomo, and Tongariro

We left the Coromandel and drove along the Bay of Plenty before heading inland to Rotorua. Here is a bunch of volcanic/geothermal stuff, like spas and hot pools. And the whole town smells of sulfur. Lovely, really. We planned to do some walking around town, as this area is very Maori and you can visit some of the villages, but it was raining pretty good. We limited our visit to the local pub Pig & Whistle, where we got a giant sandwich, a cold Guinness (why was it cold?!?), and a blah house-made lager (Swine Lager). We attempted to understand the rugby highlights on the tvs, but really there are just some rules we don't quite get. Like the big push pile: why do they kick the ball? I thought it was for picking up and running. Whatever...

After our rainy stop in Rotorua we headed southwest and found a place to stay in Waitomo. This is yet another place that Hilary actually remembers, and we booked a cave tour with the company she used in 2003. The next day we got in their van and drove out to the cave, donned our wetsuits, and crawled in a hole. Waitomo apparently means "wet hole". The real claim to fame here are the glowworms, fly larvae with glowing poo that live in the caves. Our tour spent several hours underground and we visited several caverns with the glowworms, floated/swam around in the cold water in our super-thick wetsuits, and spent some time tubing down the dark passageways. It was a good time. No pictures of this, sorry.

After our complimentary hot shower, we booked it out of Waitomo to make it to Taupo and the Huka Honey Hive before it closed for the day. There we tasted lots of NZ varietal honey, including Manuka, Pohutakawa, Rata, and some other flowers I don't remember. We had actually picked up a 500g jar of Manuka honey in Tutukaka (at the gas station!) when we first arrived, and after the taste tests we decided it wasn't the best the islands have to offer. We got 1 kg of Rewarewa honey (it's apparently aka honeysuckle), which we decided we liked best. Then we moved on to the mead tasting. In addition to the apiary, there is a meadery affiliated with the shop and they have tons of different kinds of mead. Unfortunately, they limit the tasting to 3 samples, and each sample was about 1/4 oz, or not enough to really taste it. And you can imagine how long it takes to empty a bottle 1/4 oz at a time. We actually asked how long the bottles had been open (they tasted a little stale) and the tasting lady told us that they keep for months in the fridge after you open them. Perhaps our definition of "keep" is just different. The mead was unremarkable, though probably more due to the circumstances of the tasting than anything else. We didn't buy any. The highlight of our honey trip (besides our giant jar of honey) was the ice cream. We got a scoop of Pohutakawa honey ice cream, which was absolutely delicious.

After the Honey Hive kicked everyone out at closing, we finished our ice cream and drove down the east side of the lake. Nice lake, very wavy. We made our way down to Ohakune, apparently the carrot capitol of NZ. This adds carrots to the list of "something-capitols" we have visited, after kauri, kumara, and sheep shearing. The giant statues are kind of endearing. We got a site at the Top 10 Holiday Park there, which is pretty pimped out. They even have a "spa" and a gas grill. Fancy.

We had a down day since the weather on the mountains was rainy. Slept in, went to the supermarket, and had a couple of really great meals. Poached eggs on toast with chard and bacon and our Tamarillo vinegar; and grilled chicken with sage-spiked smashed kumara, grilled mushrooms, griddle bacon, and salad dressed with Tamarillo vinegar. We eat well.

Today we got ourselves up at 5:15am and made for Tongariro National Park. This park holds three active volcanoes: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu. Ngauruhoe is better known as Mt Doom from LOTR. There are lots of walking tracks, and we did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Hilary had also done this walk in 2003. This time Hil started from Mangatepopo (the place everyone starts at), thus our early start to try and beat the crowds. Aaron drove to Ketatahi (the other end) and started there; the car keys were swapped in the middle.  The 19.4 km trek took us each about 5 hours, Hilary a little less since she was going the easy direction (less vertical climb, more gentle slopes). It was a bit cloudy/foggy, but great hiking weather. Very good walk, though much more built up in the last several years with stairs and erosion-reducing rubber strips and boardwalks. Less exciting as a wilderness track that way, but it should last longer.