Grey Skies Are Gonna' Clear Up...

Norch here, which means the worst and possible end to our trip is currently underway: Krissy is driving. All those who thought her last posting depicting my European style driving abilities (or lack of), rest assured, Krissy is no better. Dare I say she quite possibly could be worse if basing my judgment on the 12 minutes it took for her to start the car (to her defense, the steering wheel is placed on the right hand side of the vehicle making it much more difficult to locate). In hopes not to see the cruel ending what will inevitably be a head on collision involving our Honda and a sheep (since there are roughly 40 million in the country - 10 times the human population), I have decided to bury my head into this laptop until Krissy impression of an Asian-American (woman) driver has ceased.

 　
New Zealand, the land of changing climate and topography; one hour you can be in a desert surrounded by patches of snow and the next in a temperate forest in a dry heat. New Zealand is the worlds youngest country (physically) and you can tell just by driving it. It seems the land has not yet decided what it wants to become; a luscious tropical paradise similar to the Gold Coast of Australia or a rolling hillside filled with mountains and valleys similar to Ireland. To suffice both worldly desires - New Zealand has become both and much more.

Appropriately enough, our first encounter of the attractions New Zealand has to offer is it's geothermal activity. It's appropriate in a sense because this is exactly how New Zealand itself began - through growth by volcano, similarly to Hawaii. Driving through the North Island, you can literally see the volcanic steam arising out of vents in much of the region. In fact, there are so many geothermal vents, fissure and heated pools that New Zealand is yet to sell each feature off to commercialize them - yet. Most of the really popular geothermal pools such as Wai-o-tapu are pretty expensive to get into but luckily for us (me), we (Krissy) did some research on some cheaper options such as Kerosene Creek (pic. below) which is a warm spring somewhat in the middle of nowhere.

　

After driving a bit further south past Rotorua and Taupo, we came to Tongariro Crossing, a famous mountain pass that is frequently tramped. Regarded for it's difficulty and beauty, the pass is a major tourist spot. Unfortunately, after two days of waiting, the weather never cleared and the pass was impassable, so we ventured southward.

After 5 days in the north, we were completely tired of the rain and cold, so we packed up our gear and headed south. We may plan on heading back up north to take on the stubborn island later in our trip.

Our shot in the dark attempt at nice weather panned out right from the start of our South Island adventure. After a crazy late night drive to our campsite down what has to be one of the steepest and windiest roads on earth, we found a beautiful site along the water in the Marlborough Sound. When we woke, the clouds parted and the sun came out, what a great start!



More postings to follow very soon!