Taupo and the Tongariro Crossing

So this past weekend I went down south with some friends. Thursday night I went and picked up the car from the rental shop, only to find out it was manual, which led to the next forty five minutes consisting of teaching myself do drive stick, be it left handed, on the streets of Auckland. With that out of the way, it was off to Taupo.

From the top of Mt. Ngauruhoe, looking down towards Mt. Tongariro

The next day we did the Tongariro Crossing, an 18km hike that splits Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Tongariro. It's considered the best day hike in New Zealand, and it's hard to argue. My friend and I did a side trail up Mt. Ngauruhoe (2291 m), also known as Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings. One of the best parts was making our way down from the summit, where it's small, loose volcanic rock that you can literally run down. There was also some snow on the way down that we did some sledding on. The whole track is filled with volcanic and geothermal features, all offering full ranges of strange colors, leading to an other worldly feel to the land.

Emerald Lakes

Lake Rotoroa, with Lake Taupo behind

The next couple of days were spent exploring the town of Taupo, which sits right on Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ. We checked out Huka Falls, took advantage of some free honey samples at the Honey Hive, did some wine tasting at the local winery, and relaxed in some public thermal pools. It was nice to have a peaceful weekend outside of Auckland, getting on to the track before winter made it impassable and enjoying the last of the fall colors around Taupo.

The vineyard at the Huka Falls Resort

More Pictures...

Hello! I played around a little bit with a couple of photos from my tramping trip, so I thought I'd put them up...



Here's me taking in Mt. Aspiring. At 3033 meters, it's the tallest mountain in New Zealand outside of the Aoraki/Mount Cook region. As soon as I heard the name of this peak, I knew I wanted to get myself somewhere close enough for a good view at the least. This photo op also served as an excuse for a much needed break on my way up to the pylon.



And here's the view from atop Cascade Saddle looking back across West Matukituki valley to Rob Roy Peak.

Mid-Semester

So this is what I decided to do for my mid-semester break.... I flew down to Queenstown, hitchhiked for the first time through a couple of towns to the Raspberry Flat trailhead near Wanaka, and went on a six day tramp in Aspiring National Park. I hiked up the West Matukituki Valley on Saturday afternoon, and the next day I climbed up to French Ridge, where there were incredible views of the valley and close ups of huge glaciers and peaks. The next day I attempted the most difficult part of the tramp, a 1335 meter climb up the side of a mountain to a pylon, then from there to the Cascade Saddle, which boasts a thousand meter drop on one side and the beginning of the Dart Canyon on the other. I spent the next couple of nights at the Dart Hut campsite, walking around and mainly recovering from the previous couple of days. From there it was two more days of hiking until the trail head near Glenorchy.

View from the Pylon - Cascade Saddle in bottom right,
Dart Glacier in center, and Mt. Edward in upper left

After a little changing of plans, I made my way to Queenstown that night and celebrated my 21st with some guys I met on the trail. Not a bad place to celebrate it to say the least. I rode with those same guys to Te Anau first thing the next morning, where they dropped me off and I started the Kepler Track. The weather was poor, but it made for some amazing tramping through fresh snow, along mountain tops and ridges the entire second day of the tramp. The third day I hiked out to a carpark along the trail and was fortunate enough to hitch back to Queenstown that night.

Myself in the snow, with Spire Peak off in the distance

So that left me with one day to spend in Queenstown before flying back to Auckland on Monday. I decided to do the Nevis Bungy Jump, a 134 meter jump over a river near town. I'll let the video say the rest....

Afterward, I walked through the Queenstown Gardens for a little while before my flight and enjoyed the effects of Autumn. All and all, it was a great nine days on the trail, and a pretty descent finale at the end of it all.

Northland! ...etc

Hello! It was a couple of weeks ago that I was fortunate to have a five day weekend for Easter, so a group of us traveled around the oh so appropriately named Northland, which pretty much consists of all the land North of Auckland. We drove up the east coast and stayed at an area called Bay of Islands for the first couple nights in the town of Pahia. We took a sailing trip around the bay which allowed us to hike around an island, snorkel, and kayak a little. Easter morning we walked through the dark to see the sunrise from a lookout point above the bay, 'twas well worth it.

Pahia, Bay of Islands

After we got tired of Pahia, we drove up the east coast a little more, cut across towards the middle just a little, and began the drive up the sliver of land leading to Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga is not technically the northernmost point of New Zealand, but it might as well be. We went up there for sunset and the drive alone was worth it, but the views from the point with the clouds and the sun and the lighthouse were pretty spectacular as well.

Cape Reinga

The next day we went Sand Surfing! We rented some less than stellar body boards from a gas station and drove to a place called Te Paki Reserve, where the sign read 'Giant Sand Dunes'! It was tiring and scary because the dunes really were giant, so it took a lot of effort to get up them and a tiny bit of time to get down them. Next we spent some time relaxing at Ninety Mile Beach (which just so happens to be sixty miles long), and although we weren't really allowed to, we drove our rental along the beach for 20km or so. Driving 100 km/h on the sand offered a surprisingly comparable adrenaline rush to that of the sand dunes!

Ninety Mile Beach

Last but certainly not least, can you make your mustache stand straight up? Well I can, and I think that means it's time for a little trim, yes, a trim.

Rotovegas

So a couple of weekends ago now I had the chance to travel about three hours south of Auckland to Rotorua. It get's its nickname of Rotovegas from all of the expensive tourist attractions that are available here. I'll admit to taking part in one of these: Zorbing. The experience is as strange as the name, and Ihad way too low of expectations going in. Somehow the act of rolling down a huge grassy hill while being thrown around inside a gigantic plastic ball with water inside ended up being a good time.



This is what happens at the end of Zorbing, I like to call if the birthing process, slightly awkward but easily the most comedic part of the whole thing. While in Rotorua I was also able to experience a hangi, which is a traditional Maori meal where they cook our food in the ground, as well as show us their village and perform dances for us. We also drove and hiked out to a free thermal creek one night, which was scary but more than worth it. And we visited a thermal reserve called "Hell's Gates", which was sweet because I've never been around any thermal activity before, let alone an abundance of it in one place. There were also some cool mountain lakes and forests right around the city, as well as some good small town live music at night that rounded out the weekend well.

Tiritiri Matangi Island

Well it was about a month and a half ago now that I had the chance to visit a little island called Tiritiri Matangi. It's a native bird and tree conservatory. We were able to walk through dense tropical forest and explore some rocky beaches with cliffs and hollows created by the tide. It's a great little escape to nature a short ferry's ride from Auckland, and oh yeah, we saw a Little Blue Penguin too!

Clouds!

The Island Lighthouse (1864)

...and Fisherman's Bay.

Hello New Zealand

So it was exactly a month and a day ago that I left Southern California, and one day less than a month since I arrived in New Zealand. Oh and by the way, happy rarest date of the year today. Well, I've met a ton of unique people from several different countries all over the world, which currently works out to be too many Americans and not yet enough Kiwis. I've gone through one orientation already and am almost finishing up another, but was fortunate enough to have a three week break to travel around the South Island between the two. Here are some notable spots we stayed and things we experienced: Overlander Train, Wellington, Ferry through Marlborough Sound, Kayaking in Kaetiritiri, Hanmer Springs, Dunedin and Tunnel Beach, Catlins Forest, Te Anau, Fiordland National Park, Routeburn Track, Queenstown, Puzzling World in Wanaka, Mt. Aspiring National Park, Franz Joseph Glacier, Arthur's Pass, and Christchurch. Of course the details of the trip are the best part, but that's just a little too much for me. I'll throw in details as I put up more pictures, which will most likely be sporadic.

So now I'm living in an apartment in Auckland and attending the University here for the next four months. I don't start school until Monday March 3rd, which means I'm still currently on summer break. That sounds good to say at this time of year. Still everyday is filled with exploring new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new things. The next four months have a lot in store for me, I'll be posting words and pictures on here whenever I think it's worthwhile.

Here is the view of Mt. Momus from our second campsite on the Routeburn Track. I was just out taking pictures and was completely taken by surprise when the moon began to rise behind my subject.

And here is the view a short walk from our first night's campsite. That is Lake Mackenzie behind me with a couple of good lookin' peaks and clouds behind it. I've been places that compare in beauty, but it is difficult to say that I've ever experienced a landscape so vast.

The Moose

Hello. A couple of months ago I read "Into the Wild", a book by Jon Krakauer describing in detail the last years of the life of Chris McCandless. It's about a guy who graduates college, donates his life savings to charity, burns his cash, and lives life on the road for a couple years before heading up to his ultimate adventure of attempting to survive Alaska. It's inspiring because McCandless is such a positive, refreshing contrast to society, very similar to the lifestyle we are called to live, without ever citing Jesus as a reason.

Well, one day while he's hunting in Alaska he shoots himself a moose (I hope I see a moose in person sometime soon, I think I'd like them). Only problem is he struggles to preserve all of the meat and it ends up going to waste, well, to the wolves. McCandless describes this act of killing the wild animal without being able to make good use of it as, "The greatest tragedy of my life."

McCandless was reading through Henry Thoreau's Walden at the time. He marked a passage which included the lines, "The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you." Kind of harsh, but I think he's onto something here.

Now I'm not sure how biblical this mindset is, but it is hard to picture Jesus disagreeing with it. The fact is, we live in an obese nation, and being weary of eating any more than we need to can be a respectable habit to have. I understand the importance of feasts and celebrations with friends, but living in a country that consumes an absurd amount of food in proportion to its population, while we are all so aware of all those out there with very little, this mindset seems quite appropriate.

I want a Face (...in a girl)

So a lot of people like to read magazines like People and US. I flipped through one of my mom's People while I was in Yosemite with my family. I guess you can say I have a healthy disgust for those magazines now. Here's a little excerpt from something I wrote that night.

Every woman is so pretty and so close to perfect. I feel myself looking at them and wanting someone like them and that makes me sad. My ego leads me to want visual perfection in a woman. Looking at that magazine makes me sad. Sad because those women feel the need to do that, sad because many of them are prettier before the work, sad because everyone compares themselves to them, sad because people outside of that business have a lot of work done too, sad because I attach myself to pretty faces in Hollywood when they are simply not what they seem. I want a face to attach to that I know well, that I know where it came from and what it wants to be. I want a face that is happy with any uniqueness it may have, that is so natural that make up only enhances beauty, but does not add it and is not necessary. I want a face that is not the most attractive part of the person.

Happy Isles

changes

So it's always happening. Most of the time it's slow and small and we don't notice. Then every once in a while it's real big and real quick and knocks us over. Right now it's hard. I'm on my own though. That's new. Good things will come from it. I believe they will.

I went backpacking in Yosemite with my cousin a couple weeks ago. That place is good for me.

The Dominican

Hi. First off, I just wanted to put up some pictures. Second off, I had the opportunity to go to the Domican Republic last summer. Here are my favorite pictures from it. The first one is of my friend Ramon. He told me that I was welcome to return whenever I wanted, and that he would always be there. There's more great stuff about him, but for now here's what he looks like.

Ramon

Little Boy

Tiendas

Cinco Amigos (?)

Startin' Fresh!

So I'm currently in the middle of two books. First, West of Jesus by Steven Kotler and second, Franne and Zoe by J.D. Salinger. When I read a well-written book by a great author it makes me want to write something. To go along with that, I love photography and like the idea of being able to post my favorite pictures, whether I shot them or not. So here is a place where I get to write anything that might come to mind and post any photo that I might enjoy, and do them both whenever I want. Sounds good to me.