The Mountain Behind Our House

Hello, all - Tom here.  Yesterday, we decided to hike the mountain behind our house.  There are serious mountains across the lake (mostly volcanoes) that we can see through our bedroom window, but there is also a small mountain behind our house, kind of overlooking Taupo.  We just east of the town center (which is on the east coast of a bay in the northeast corner of the lake).  There is a small road that leads to the base of the mountain only about 10 km from our house, a ten-minute drive.  If you are like me, if you see a small mountain that close to you every single day, you start thinking, "I'd like to be on top of that mountain."

Here is the mountain on the Google Maps.

We asked a friend about the mountain, and he said he'd hiked it with his family and it was a good hike, though it feels a bit like trespassing on private land at the beginning and it is actually sacred Maori land, so you are only allowed to hike at the kindness of the local Maori.  We decided it sounded like a plan.

We prepared by buying M&Ms, of course.  Like everything else here, the M&Ms are different:

Gray M&Ms?  Who thought that was a good idea?  They also taste different - Jasper called them more "chocolate-y."

Here is the sign that tells you to behave:

Here is the view of the mountain from the base:

Here is where it looks like you are trespassing:

See the fence?  And the cows?  Next step is to scale the fence, but first Jasper expresses his concern over our instructions:

And now we do what the sign says:

We had to do that a few times, wandering through cow pastures (carefully).  You can see another fence crossing here:

The cows were alternately prosaic and epic:

We ascended the first cow-riddled rise and already had a good view back to the lake:

The volcanoes, btw, are on the left edge of that photo.  The lake is actually a crater lake from a massive explosion 27,000 years ago.  That explosion threw out 750 cu km of ash and pumice.  For comparison, Krakatoa in 1883 put only 8 cu km of ash into the atmosphere.  Lake Taupo is a big lake.

Here are two photos of pensive children, considering the hike before them:

Here is the end of the pasture part of the hike.  The grass is already long and you can see the trees coming:

Before we left the clear area, I took a panoramic photo of Taupo.  It is not a big city (23,000 people) and there aren't any tall buildings:

From here, it felt a little bit like hiking through a jungle.  Here are assorted hiking/views/jungle photos:

It took us about 2.25 hours to get to the top.  That was a bit longer than we anticipated, but the kids were troopers.

Here are some photos from the top:

You can see Taupo through the V of the mountains in that last photo.

Here is a photo along the ridge.  You can see a rocky outcrop - I walked out to that point while the kids rested with their mother:

Here is Aidan, "resting":

Here is a view back to the summit from the rocky outcrop:

 It was so cold in the shade that frost had persisted into the afternoon.  Evelyn found some cool ice crystals that had formed in the sandy soil at the top:

Jasper was less interested in geology and more interested in his iPod:

We hustled down the mountain.  I took a few artful jungle photos.  Please resist downloading these photos and entering them in nature-photo competitions.  They will win, but that would be stealing.

That was our hike up our mountain.  I will feel good looking at it now, being able to say to myself that I've been on top of it.  I told the kids to feel the same way.

To close, here is a video from the top:

Disco with Saveloys

Why, hello there!

We left home weeks ago and have finally gotten settled in our new home in Taupo, Waikato, New Zealand. There's so much to catch up on - but we'll just start with today - in media res :)

There was a disco at the Hilltop School and both boys attended. The "disco" was during school for Jasper's class and shortly after school for Aidan's. Jasper was psyched he got to wear pj's at school and Aidan's theme was "Hippies and Nerds." Here's what we came up with:

You can guess which he chose.

We were told that the children would have saveloys on a roll (what???) and lemonade as a special treat at the disco. Here's a pic of a saveloy:

Aidan says they taste about as good as they look. He had dinner when he got home. Jasper said, "They're like a hot dog with red stuff wrapped around it."

The disco really was a dance party -they played dance music, they had a smoke machine, there were glow sticks for purchase - and all the little kids bopped around and drank their lemonade. Aidan single handedly purchased and consumed 3 candy bars. It sounds like everyone had a great time.

I know everyone's really looking forward to photos. We had one full week of pouring rain, though - remember it's winter here -- so we've really just had one weekend to look around -- so more photos soon, but for now:

This was upon our arrival in the airport

So we were amazed at the color of the yolks in their eggs - they are really orange-y yellow.  Our favorite breakfast place in Wellington was called Floridita's. The boys still talk about it.

The ceremonial canoes kept in Wellington. Jasper speaks their language.

Of course, we had to visit the Weta cave.

Aidan doesn't know yet to be scared of Gollum. Tom, on the other hand....

Some friends we made in Wellington. Two of the other doctors who were attending the  orientation program in Wellington were there with their families. Tom made friends with their spouses and we spent some time hanging out together.

The best sculpture on Cuba Street in Wellington is called "The Bucket."

Our first visit to the Hilltop School!

First day! In uniforms!

This is the view from the school - on a cloudy day. We'll get a better photo later.

The view from our house, looking over the lake and the mountains beyond. You can see the snow on the big one.

Some photos from our first hike around the Tongariro River, in the town where I work, Turangi.

Some photos we took on our drive back - this is my drive to and from work, around Lake Taupo:

The boys are playing with their DS's in the car while Tom and I get out, walk a bit, sigh at the sunset, and joke about the kiwi who's driven off with our abandoned children. And how our children wouldn't notice that they're being driven by a stranger till their DS's run out of charge.

The next day we went to see them open the gates at the dam a little bit. They do this for 15 minutes a few times a day. I'm not sure why. There's a pretty dramatic change in the water level.

Near Huka Falls

OK - that catches us up :)
We are hoping to hike the mountain behind our house this weekend and maybe bathe in some thermal pools. Will post again soon!!