Julia and I woke up to a frosty Sunday morning, and headed to Jucy rentals to pick up our campervan. We were in a bit of a rush to get to Picton in time to catch 2:25 ferry to Wellington, so we drove back to the Ilam apartments and quickly loaded our suitcases into the back of the van. We were very excited to be driving a car with a functional stereo system that we could plug our ipods into! Just north of Christchurch, Julia had to slam on the brakes because of this:
As we drove around the Kaikoura region, there was snow on the hilltops, a remnant of the storm that had just passed through.
We also stopped again at the magical stream of baby seals, much to both of our delights.
We arrived right on time to get in line to load onto the ferry, and were informed that our ferry booking was for Monday instead of Sunday. In all of the confusion of changing our booking date, our ferry got booked for the wrong date. We got put in the standby line, in hopes that someone wouldn't show up for the ferry and we could take their place. 2:25 pm came and went, and the line still wasn't moving at all. 2:45 pm passed, still nothing. Finally we wandered to ask the car in front of us if they knew what was going on. Apparently the ferry was delayed an hour, and nobody told us. We were annoyed to be sitting waiting for a ferry for 2 hours that we might not even be able to get on.
Eventually, the ferry came, the line started moving, and they waved us on to the boat! We got lucky. The Sunday afternoon ferry was the first sailing in three days, since they were all cancelled during the storm.
I waved goodbye to the South Island as we left Picton.
The ride through the Marlborough Sounds was gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the sea was quite rough in the Cook Strait after we left the sounds, so I had to spend the majority of the trip out in the cold fresh air near the back of the boat to avoid getting too queasy. I did watch a beautiful sunset over the sounds, however.
In Wellington, we met a friend of Julia's, and she took us out to cheap Malaysian cuisine for dinner. We were quite hungry, so it was good. She took us to a car park by the sea, apparently the best place in Wellington to sleep. It had a public toilet only a minutes walk away, definitely a plus. There was a no camping sign, but she assured us that nobody patrolled the area and we would be fine. Just as we had settled down to sleep, we saw flashing lights out our window. A very nice parking warden politely told us that we were not allowed to camp there, but we could park anywhere on any random residential street. We were quite surprised that this was legal, and also that he didn't give us a ticket in the first place. He had a ticket in his hand as he was talking to us, but he never gave it to us. We drove along and found a place to park on the street, unfortunately not as near to the public toilet as the first place.
In the morning, we drove back to the car park by the toilet to make breakfast. We were loving the Jucy campervan. It came with everything, (minus a toilet): a bed that converted to a table and chairs for the day, pillows, a duvet, a fridge, plates and silverware, a sink with a large water tank, gas cooker, pots and pans, curtains to cover the windows, and plenty of storage space.
Unfortunately, none of the storage pockets were quite big enough for my extra-large bags. We had to stuff them into the front seat at night.
Here's our lovely dinner table:
...and flattened out into a bed for sleeping.
Since it was winter, we used our sleeping bags in addition to the duvet that came with the van.
Here's a view of the hillside in Wellington that we woke up to:
Since the weather was looking so lovely, we decided to climb Mt. Victoria for a view of the city.
We took the long walk up, even though there was a car park at the top that we could have driven to. There were great views of the city.
From there, we headed back down, and then to Te Papa, the famous Wellington museum. It was HUGE. We spent the entire afternoon there, and felt quite a lot of information overload by the end. We didn't even make it to the top two floors.
We spent another night on a random residential street, then drove to the public toilet again in the morning. After we finished our oatmeal, we headed northeast towards the Wairapa region to look around and check out a winery. We stopped at a random park along the way, and happened upon the set for Rivendell, from the Lord of the Rings.
Here is proof that I'm taller than a hobbit:
Apparently there are mountains northeast of Wellington, which we drove through along the way.
We stopped in Martinborough, famous for its wineries. We went to Palliser Estate for a bit of wine tasting. Both of us felt very inexperienced in terms of wine-tasting, but it was enjoyable*.
We found little bits of entertainment along the way, but eventually ended up at a DOC campsite in Tongariro National Park. We arrived in the dark, so we couldn't see the volcanoes looming over us, but we did see the snow on the ground. We bundled up nice and warm to sleep in our campervan for the night.
In the morning, we headed to Whakapapa (ffah-kuh-papa) Village to ask about trail conditions at the visitor's center. Conditions were good, and the weather was looking fantastic, so we headed onto the Tama Lakes track, which climbs to two crater lakes in between Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu.
The beginning of the track meandered through a lovely forest. It was a winter wonderland. Also very very icy.
And then arrived at Taranaki Falls, which cascaded over an old lava flow.
We then followed the track above the treeline. Ruapehu followed us.
Here is the Lower Tama Lake:
And here we are at the end! (Ngauruhoe in the background)
And another view of Ruapehu on the other side:
Best headstand photo yet:
We then followed the track back down.
Once we arrived back at Whakapapa Village, we got back in the car and headed towards Taupo. In Taupo. we searched for an obscure place to park our van, with no success. We pulled into a holiday park, and were informed that it was legal to park anywhere along the harbor for free. We were very surprised, but there were no signs that prohibited camping there, so we assumed that it was fine. And it was, as far as we know. There was no ticket on our car in the morning.
Julia did the Taupo bungee jump that morning. I was not interested in that much of an adrenaline rush, and I may have never made it off of the platform.
She had a great time though, and got her head dunked in the river at the bottom!
We wandered around the lakefront for a while, then stopped at a glass-blowing studio and watched the artists at work. Glass-blowing is an amazing art, very fast-paced. Molten glass has the consistency of honey, so they had to work very quickly before it melted away or solidified.
Finally, we headed up to Auckland. I dropped my oversized bags at Bea's house, and then we returned the campervan, right on time. Bea's dad came to pick me up, and then I said goodbye to Julia. Only a few more days in New Zealand! Can't believe it.
(*Note: we were very careful about our wine tasting/alcohol consumption followed by driving. We only had a very small amount of wine, probably equal to less than one drink.)
