Tongariro Alpine Crossing

I have been longing to get out into the beautiful untouched nature of New Zealand, to hike to places I have seen only on pictures, to what they call “Lord of The Rings” nature. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 19,4 km, 7-8 hours alpine trek around, along and over volcano’s. First along the base of Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom in Lord of The Rings!) and then climbing up to the rim of Mt Tongariro, across South Crater, then along Red Crater and down to Emerald Lakes before we made it all the way down to the valley where buses waiting to pick us up.

The track is said to be the number one best day hike in New Zealand. The scenery is stunningly beautiful. The sky was blue and it did not pour down for the first time in days, which  meant that some 400 people were waiting to go. Sophie and Sabrina from Denmark, Becky from England and I were  prepared for a long and strenuous day, equipped with water, food and rain coats in case the weather should change. We were a little concerned about the length of the hike but by the time we passed this sign, the spirits were high and nothing could make us turn around. 

South Crater

Mt Doom  

Red Crater

Half way!

 Emerald Lakes

Back at the YHA, exhausted and sore but utterly content and proud that we made it, grateful for having seen such wonders of nature, we enjoyed a glass of wine while watching the last sunrays color the snow covered top of Mt Ruapehu  - the not so extinct volcano that erupted last time in 2007. You can see it in the background behind the giant kiwi.

Sweet as...

New Zealand, North Island

Arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, two weeks ago to pouring rain. Obviously I didn't get to see much of the city though I bought a rain jacket and an umbrella and walked around downtown and up to Parnell, a nice area with cozy café's and fancy shops. I spent five days reading travel brochures and deciding on an itinerary for the coming two months and eventually booked a round trip for both north and south island on ‘Magic Bus’. This bus company never takes you directly to your place of destination but makes detours to show points of interest while the driver explains everything you need to know about his country, about the native Maori's or the Kiwi's, which is both the name of a flightless bird, a fruit and the people who live in New Zeland.  He also stops where there are activities, such as sand surfing on 300 meter tall dunes at Ninety Mile Beach. That was fun! Or he took us all the way up to the most northern point, Cape Reinga, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea in a clash of waters just north of the cape.

'Ninety Mile Beach' is flat and smooth at low tide and can be used as a highway. We drove for at least 60 kilometers at 100 km/hour before we turned off heading back to Auckland on the smaller winding roads. The landscape on the north island is rolling hills, lots of sheep and picturesque scenery.

There is vulcanic activity all over and frequent earthquakes. Boiling hot mud pools in Rotorua, steaming lakes and active geyser's. One of our stops was at Waitomo Caves, where we walked down under the grown to see glow worms and stalactites.   

Behind the kiwi warning sign, covered in clouds, you see the cone shaped vulcano, Mount Ngauruhoe also know as Mount Doom, named after the filmings of Lord Of The Rings. The mountain represents the endpoint of Frodo Baggins' quest to destroy the Ring. The chasm is the site where the One Ring was originally forged by the Dark Lord Sauron and the only place where it can be unmade.

Close to Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu is another vulcano, Mt. Tongariro. I am now here in the National Park to do the Tongariro Crossing, one the world's top ten best rated day hikes. If weather permits. We need sun and good conditions. Not strong winds and pouring rain like today. But I trust my luck and expect clear skies in the morning! The next blog shall show if the Weather Gods heard my prayers.

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

My last trip in Australia was a tour to Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas north of Cairns. It is hard to takes pictures of a rainforest, being so dense. Conveniently one can follow the  board walks and get an impression of the rich vegetation and swampy ground without getting wet feet and being blood-sucked by leaches or entangled in spider webs.  A popular place to stay overnight is Cape tribulation ‘where the rain forest meets the reef’.

On my very last day in Cairns I booked a day on a catamaran to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. The skies cleared in the morning and we took off at 8 am. 'Paradise Reef' where we had our first snorkeling trip, was much more colorful than I have seen before, totally clear water and lots of fish. Beautiful!

Our second stop to snorkel was at Michaelmas Cay, a small island which was brooding place for numerous birds. We were just finished with snorkeling when the weather changed and the horizon got darker, as usual displaying a great dramatic composition for a photograph so I asked the crew on the boat to bring me in the dingy to the beach to take a few pictures. All shot in less than 10 minutes – the sky went from blue to gray to almost black.

From Cairns I flew to Auckland, New Zealand, the next destination on my trip. On the flight 'Eat Pray Love' was playing. Inspired by the movie, I thought about the first part of my own trip and what it was all about. Lots of adventure and action, for sure. Getting rid of the stress I brought with me from busy little Holland. By doing all kinds of things. Not exactly relaxing though I did chill out whenever I was on a beach. I have no idea what New Zealand will bring, except for great hikes and stunning nature. Lord of The Rings kind of nature. More peaceful, I believe. Or stormy, who knows. Time to reflect.

Magnetic Island Wildlife

Koala's are so cute. But why do they grab your boob when you hold him? According to the ranger, 'Because he can get away with it…'

These animals are from the Koala Sanctuary in Bungalow Bay Village on Magnetic Island.

Big crocodile. No intentions to cuddle him but I did hold a smaller one!

Believe me or not - I held a Python! Scary creature but soft and smooth.. and not so difficult once you get the 'feeling' of it. 

So why not try to handle the bigger one? Of course by now I felt like a real snake woman.

  

Lorikeets

On the last morning I went horseback riding in the bush, on the beach in Horse Shoe Bay and in the sea. I didn't bring my camera so Guerin has been so kind as to let me post one of her. My back flip wasn't worth posting anyways. It splashed a great deal and I got wet, that's all I know :-)

Whitsunday Islands

Waltzing Matilda is a beautiful 16 meter, 40 ton cruising yacht sailing the Whitsundays. She accommodates 14 guests, the skipper and a cook. As usual I was lucky having blue skies - it had poured down heavily all the way from Heron Island to Airlie Beach – a 10 hour trip with the train.

The first day we sailed to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island where there is good snorkeling on the fringing reef. Plenty of fish – and unfortunately also plenty of ‘stingers’ or tiny box jelly fish whose meters long tentacles are poisonous enough to kill a human. For the couple of months the stinger season lasts, you are better off wearing a full body stinger suit when entering the water. Being used to the tame waters of Holland and Denmark, I had no idea how dangerous the sea can be. It seems like the tiniest creatures have the most poison so we are not talking sharks at all.

This batfish is very harmless, tough. Especially when you spot it from the boat.

After a full day at sea we anchored in a sheltered bay for the night, poured a glass a of wine and watched the sunset while our cook prepared dinner.

Next morning at 7 am we headed for the famous White Haven Beach on Whitsunday Island, the beach that draws 130.000 visitors a year, the beach that is depicted on the postcards.  I didn’t get the perfect shot for only one reason - one that is hard to influence – the tide. But if you haven’t been there yourself, you’ll probably find these couple of photo’s good enough. The ‘perfect’ shot  is taken at low tide when most of the sand is exposed and we got there between low and high tide.

The pristine white silica sand is so fine and white that it looks and feels like flour. Needless to say, it was not hard to spend the remainder of the morning cooling off in the crystal clear water. We had not brought any stinger suits so we stayed close to the shore … and found it slightly exciting.

Another day in a flash-packer’s life J

Heron Island - Part 2

The beaches on Heron Island are stunning white and mostly empty since there are no day tourists this far out from the mainland. Only the people who stay at the resort. One can walk around the island in less than an hour. There is always something to look at. Lots of birds, coral, giant clams and sea cucumbers at low tide and at high tide the reef sharks and stingrays coming in close to the beach to feed on smaller fish. There is also lots of poisonous life in the water. One of the small cones has a nasty sting with enough poison to kill a human being.

Since this small coral cay is situated right on the reef, by low tide you can walk ankle deep in water all the way out to the drop off where the deep blue ocean begins and the waves crush.

Giant clams come in beautiful colors, purple, blue, turquoise, pink.

Being a Chiropractic Neurologist I just had to take a picture of this coral. And yes, the offiicial name is Brain Coral.

Heron Island is all about turtles! This time of the year Loggerhead and Green Turtles come up on the beach to lay their eggs. Every night or early morning during high tide they seek up to the highest point and dig a hole with their front fins, big enough to fit themselves.

Then they dig a 50 cm deep vase formed hole with their back fins where they lay 100-120 white eggs, the size of ping pong balls. When they are done they cover up the eggs with sand and return to the sea. About two months later the eggs break and the little turtle hatchlings run out to the sea.  A grown up turtle is not mature until she is 30-40 years old. She always returns to the exact same island and spot she was born herself to lay eggs. And that after having been roaming oceans or thousands of miles! I didn’t know about the turtle laying eggs when I booked the four nights at Heron Island but what a nice surprise!

And off she goes. .. back to see, not even looking back once.

This big one returned to sea too late when the tide was low and got trapped behind some rocks. She’d have to wait for the next high tide to come. However she was gone a couple of hours later so she must have chosen to make the strenuous crawl over the rocks.

This big one returned to sea too late when the tide was low and got trapped behind some rocks. She’d have to wait for the next high tide to come. However she was gone a couple of hours later so she must have chosen to make the strenuous crawl over the rocks.