New Zealand 4 - Wellington to South Island

We left Taupo on Tuesday, Sept 23rd and headed south to Wellington. Windy Welly lived up to its nickname!

Wednesday was Te Papa day. Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand, the equivalent of the Smithsonian for the US. It was simply overwhelming. The building is as impressive as the exhibits, as you can see below.

Lots of beautiful Maori carvings and art. We took lots of pictures inside the museum, but not many are worth posting. Long exposures and focusing issues. I did have a lot of focus issues with the new camera. I don't know what it was focusing on many times. It would seem to pick out something on the very edge of the scene and make that sharply focused and ignore everything you were pointing it at!

One of the things we really enjoyed in New Zealand was all of the corrugated iron work. There were giant gumboots, statues, giant rabbits all made from corrugated iron. This station wagon even made it to Te Papa!

We took the cable car up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Short ride, but steep! It's a beautiful garden, full of tropical flowering plants, trees, and flowers.

From the top of the Cable Car platform, I took a nice panorama shot overlooking Wellington.

We only had a short stay in Wellington (2 nights). It clearly deserved more time. You would think that with 30 days to spend, we would have had more time, but it's surprising how fast it goes. On the 25th, we boarded an InterIsland Ferry to go to the South Island. The picture to the right is the ferry once it was docked in Picton on the South Island, but I couldn't get a good picture in Wellington when we boarded.

Here's the route we took from the North Island to the South Island. You loop out of Wellington's huge harbour and make a beeline for the fiords of the South Island. We were never out of sight of land. Once you get into the channels at the South Island, it's just a beautiful little cruise watching the world go by.

Cruising throught the channels between the islands.

We arrived in Picton Harbour, and as you can see, it was a gorgeous day.

We picked up our rental car, had a picnic lunch overlooking Picton Harbour, and then took off towards Motueka and the Able Tasman National Park. Below is a picture of the Queen Charlotte Drive from Picton to Nelson. You can't use the word "beautiful" enough in New Zealand.

Next, we tramp around in the Able Tasman National Park!

New Zealand 3 - Taupo-Rotorua-Tongariro Area

Welcome to the next part of our vacation to New Zealand. We left the Coromandel Peninsula on Sept-17th and drove down to about the middle of the North Island to Taupo located on Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is the crater of a huge volcano that erupted about 26,000 years ago. In the picture to the right, you can see some small white things floating in the water. They are volcanic rocks, which are so porous that they float. Annie is trying to skip one but they are too light. If you want to learn more about Lake Taupo, go here.


The lake is absolutely beautiful, at all times of the day. The town of Taupo is located on the northern shore of the lake, so you have these beautiful views across the lake of the Tongariro National Park. For the Lord of the Rings fans, the conical mountain just to the right of center in the picture below is the inspiration for Mount Doom in Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Lord of the Rings.



This is the view from our bach in Taupo in the evening. We couldn't see the lake well, but we had a great view of the mountains!

We took a hike down the Aratiatia River on the 18th, going to the Aratiatia Dam. It was a beautiful hike, that went along the river, up to some beautiful pastures, and through tropical areas (see the picture to the right of Annie). They opened the dam 3 times a day to provide water to the river below.

On the 19th, we went to Rotorua and visited Te Puia, which is a Maori Cultural Center in the middle of a geothermal area. It was $50 New Zealand per person but worth it. It was about $0.70 US dollars to the New Zealand dollar while we were there. The carvings were fantastic, and were everywhere. Before we left, we went to the gift shop to buy our souvenir of the trip. We wanted a carved Maori mask. It's now hanging in our living room along with the native souvenirs we have from other parts of the world.

In any Maori greeting, you have to go through a "haka", which is a challenge to visitors. The Maori group comes out and does a lot of shouting, facial gestures, and weapon-waving. Finally, one warrior comes forward and lays a small branch on the ground. If you pick up the branch, you are telling them you are coming on friendly terms. The New Zealand National Rugby team, the All Blacks, do a haka before every game, and it's pretty impressive! If you click on the link in the previous sentence, you get to the All Blacks Haka page, where there are some haka videos. The NZ Maori Team Haka at the bottom of the videos is pretty good.

Of course, being a woodworker, I had a great time in the wood carving shop. In the picture to the right, the craftsmen are carving a series of panels that are stunning. When they finish, they will put Paua shells in for eyes. Paua is an abolone and is highly prized for its colors. I bought a small bag of Paua shell pieces that I may try to use in some woodworking projects.

After getting culture, we went out and walked through the geothermal area. The smell was a little on the sulfur side, but worth it. Below is a panorama shot from above the geothermal area. It's amazing but all of this area of the North Island is a geothermal area. When you are hiking around, you run across areas where steam is venting out of the ground all over. They also use the geothermal power for electricity generation.

We went to another geothermal area called the Wai-O-Tapu. To the right and below is Champagne Lake. Beautiful colors caused by many different types of minerals from the vents. Hot water and steam were venting or bubbling up all over the place. I don't know how this compares to Yellowstone, but I plan on finding out one day!

Yet another geothermal area called Orakei Korako to the right and below. This pool is called the map of Africa, for obvious reasons. The terrace below was formed in about 166 AD by a particularly violent episode of geothermal activity.

After several days of smelling sulfur fumes, we needed some clear air to breathe! So we set off for the Tongariro National Park, to the south of Lake Taupo. It's amazing to go from bright sun and 80 degrees to snow in about an hour, but you can do that in New Zealand. Of course, Annie had to make a snow angel.

Then we went on a hike to the Taranaki Falls. We had a picnic lunch (picture to the right) with Mount Doom in the background! Taraniki Falls is the picture below.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the Taupo-Rotorua-Tongariro area. It's such a fantastic place. We leave you with one last shot of the National Park.

Next post, we travel from Taupo down to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.