Roto-Vegas

Up until a few days ago, we'd been living in Rotorua for close to three months, and we recently realized that we've hardly said anything about it. Well, we'll give you the same introduction we were given to the city from our guide book as we traveled across the North Island en route to our new home: "You can smell Rotorua long before you see it." Awesome.

Fortunately, after years of living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the sulfur stench is one to which we we've grown accustomed. However, the strong whiff of eggs you experience when you pull into the parking area for Black Dragon Cauldron shocks less than the olfactory headbutt the same odor inspires when you open your door in the parking lot of the Countdown during your weekly grocery shopping, the difference spouting from the realization that you're living in a good size city that's been built atop a volcano.

Rotorua bears some similarities to northwest Wyoming in the area of geothermal activity. Lake Taupo, about an hour south, sits atop a large caldera (not a super-caldera, mind you), which erupts like clockwork every 1-2 thousand years. The last eruption, which occurred about 1800 years ago, is considered one of the most violent global eruptions of the last 5000 years, and correlating historical records in countries as far away as China and Italy report the sky turning red around the time of the eruption. Almost 2000 years later, you can still smell it. 

But the town isn't merely a smelly mud pot. It's a recreational wonderland situated ideally to explore some of the North Island's best offerings. And if one benefit exists to working in the hospitality industry, it's that we often have the opportunity to experience awesome activities for significant discounts, if not for free. Considering the abundance of such opportunities in our new neighborhood, we set out to take full advantage of the biz. The vast majority of these offerings were some form of hot-water-soaking-mud-bath-leave-you-smelling-like-hard-boiled-eggs-for-a-week activities, and there's not much to say about those. 

Sure, each spot was unique, impressive and enjoyable in its own way, but ultimately, we just sat there. However, a couple of our outings over the past few weeks have stood out as memorable experiences, starting with our reunion with our old South Island buds, Jess & Eli!

When we left Fox Glacier, we made preliminary plans to meet up in a few months. We left at the beginning of March, and their obligations had them remaining until the end of April. Once May arrived, they were on the road, and on their way to Auckland before flying back to the States, and they made time to stop in and see us for a few days!

On day one, we did a short hike out to Okere Falls (which is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world; more on that to come), and we had a nice stroll through Rotorua's expansive Redwood Forest. On day two, an event that all (or at least the boys of the group) had long anticipated: a trip to Hobbiton!

About an hour from Rotorua, just south of Matamata, sits the Alexander Farm, the site chosen to be transformed into the Shire, where today you can explore 3-4 dozen reasonably well preserved Hobbit holes. Both parties had long ago decided that we would pay a visit before we left the country, so on this fateful morn, we formed a caravan, queued up one of the movie soundtracks in each car, and set out for Westfarthing!

We had a pretty rainy day for our visit to the Shire, but we still had a great time listening to all sorts of inane LOTR trivia and barging into Bag End (on official party business, of course). Sadly, the end of the day also marked the end of our time with Eli and Jess in New Zealand, as they were heading off to Hamilton, the Coromandel, and finally Auckland to fly home. But we'll catch up with them in Missoula some day soon!

On our next weekend, we thought “Hey, remember that big waterfall we saw with Jess & Eli last week? We should see if we could can ride a boat over that!” One of our coworkers had told us about the rafting when we first arrived in the area, but until now we had forgotten about it. A few phone calls later, we were booked in for the next morning.

Although winter has arrived here, and we've experienced some near-freezing temperatures, we enjoyed a mild morning, a surprisingly beautiful float through native bush and the best whitewater rafting we've ever experienced. The climax of the trip was the aforementioned plunge over Okere Falls, a 7 meter vertical drop which, according to our safety disclaimers, results in the raft flipping over and everyone falling out roughly 5% of the time. As exhilarating as it was, we can't really say the fall was particularly enjoyable. We fell fast, collided with the pool below, completely submerged the raft and smashed our heads together. It hurt, but we got some great pictures out of it!

Our guides, Nigel from New Zealand and Stefan from Wales, had a blast intimidating and taking the piss out of everyone. No, they didn't ask us for urine samples, that's just a Kiwi colloquialism for making fun of us. Or maybe when you take the piss you're being made fun of. Or you're drunk. We haven't really figured it out. Either way, we ended that trip with empty bladders, figuratively.

You can check out the full album from the day here.

The rafting probably ranks at the top of the list for our Rotorua activities, but we've done all sorts of other fun stuff. When we first arrived there, we were treated to a Maori cultural show & dinner, where 20 or so loincloth-clad warriors with face tattoos perform a haka (which is the inspiration for probably the most intimidating pre-game ritual in all international sports), explain a lot about Maori history and tradition, and finally serve everyone an earth-cooked hangi feast. A few weeks later, we went on a canopy tour, which is an elevated series of zip-lines through a preserved patch of virgin forest, mixed with a series of interpretive talks about native flora and fauna and local conservation efforts. And we've soaked in mud and all manner of hot smelly substances.

Other than our weekend outings, we lived and worked at a beautiful huge lodge outside of town. All hospitality work is generally the same, so that part of our lives was just business as usual. However, the lodge sits on a beautiful piece of farm land, and we had lots of great critters to play with everyday. We had a donkey (Merlin), a fence-hopping goat (Lili), two kune kune pigs (Grumpus & Rumpus), cows (Bessie and Roxanne), four chickens (unnamed) and an obnoxiously spoiled but loveable Labrador, Sonny. We enjoyed our time there, but have since moved on to one last exploratory mission to the Northland!

And now friends, we have neared the end of our time in New Zealand! We had very few plans when we embarked on this adventure, and figured we would just follow our instincts and trust our intuition to tell us where and when to go. Though we've had a handful of challenges and headaches, our outlook has served us well, partially because of our willingness to take some plunges, and largely because of the remarkable kindness and generosity of some of the Kiwis we've been so fortunate to meet. But now, our gaze has been turned back to the Rocky Mountains. We've got a few gaps to fill in, so stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion! 

Volcano Love Triangle

Since we'd arrived on the North Island, we've been eyeballing one of it's most famous walks: the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The nineteen kilometer walk starts just north of the ski village of Whakapapa, heads east to a saddle between Ngauruhoe (aka Orodruin aka Mount Doom) and Mount Tongariro, and then descends to the north towards Lake Rotoaira. Little did we know (because little homework do we ever do) that the Crossing had been closed since November 2012 following an eruption of Tongariro, which we learned is a volcano, which we learned is a mountain that breathes fire and closes trails. However, we learned all of this after we made our plans, and none of it mattered anyway.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, the weather rarely encouraged outdoor endeavors, so when we saw a few clear days on the horizon, we asked for the time off and started making plans. This is when we learned about the eruption, and then immediately learned that the day we had requested off to do the hike was going to be the official re-opening day of the trail! Huzzah! This meant that the trail was likely to be crowded (and it was), but we would be among the first allowed to complete the full crossing in 6 months.

On the morning of our hike, the air was cold and the sky was crystal clear. The locals told us it was one of the best days the park had seen in months. We were shuttled out to the trailhead early in the morning, just in time for a special reopening ceremony. The heads of the local Maori tribe came out to bless the mountains, and some Department of Conversation officials came out to be boring.

The mountains of Tongariro are tapu (sacred) to the Maori people, and during the ceremony, one of the tribal leaders tol us their legend of the mountains. Long ago, seven mountains surrounded the area south of Lake Taupo. All were powerful warrior mountains, except for the beautiful Pihanga. One day, Taranaki and Tongariro, two volcano warriors, engaged in an epic battle for the favor of Pihanga. Tongariro came out victorious, and Taranaki threw a tantrum as he retreated to the west coast, tearing up the North Island on his way, forming the gorges and canyons of the Whanganui River before he finally took a break on the west coast, where he sits all alone today, in Egmont National Park, likely plotting his revenge.

Taranaki, planning his payback, or "pullin' a Dantès" as the kids say these days.

After a great story like that, listening to the DOC talk about all the cool government stuff they were planning on rolling out over the next 150 years was pretty dry, but eventually, they sent us off. We held back for a few minutes to let the crowds disperse a little bit, and up we went!

We don't have loads to say about the hike itself. We enjoyed a beautiful day. The views were spectacular for most of the day, and after the first hour or so, the crowds had thinned enough that we didn't feel so much like we were on a cattle drive. Shortly after the saddle, which was nearly the highest and coldest part of the hike, some clouds finally started to move in, but not before we had plenty of opportunity to enjoy expansive views of the wide valleys on both sides of the mountains.

Not since the Fiordlands had we really had an opportunity to wander up into the mountains, so we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day in one of the North Island's finest alpine environments. Next up, we'll tell you all about how we've familiarized ourselves with Rotorua and some of the great recreational opportunities in our backyard!