Some weekends around Taupo

Hi, it's Evelyn. My posts have become so infrequent that I feel I should identify myself when posting :) I wouldn't want Tom getting the credit for my amazing thoughts and commentary! 

Since we have finished our South Island adventures, we have spent some time continuing to explore the areas closer to home. The scenery is still amazing and we definitely don't want the boys to get out of the habit of hiking :)

We often pass, on the drive between Taupo and Rotorua, a sign for Rainbow Mountain. We've never been able to stop en route, so we decided to make a dedicated trip to visit and hike to the top. 

This is the view towards the beginning of the hike. Lots of bush and lots of ferns.

Here's a lovely crater pool we passed on our way. Yes, the area is volcanic, and the minerals here make the water such a pretty color.

Here and below you can see why it is called Rainbow Mountain. If you've been keeping up with your blog reading, you'll guess that this color on the rock is produced by lichen.

Here's a view from the top of the mountain. You can see the highway winding its way through the hills. These hillsides are yellow, as it is summer. I can't stop commenting on all the yellow, dry lawns we pass in our neighborhood. I love that - even though water is free in New Zealand, nobody wastes it watering their lawns in the summer!

Another view from the top. We met a forest ranger in the fire tower who let us come up and enjoy the views and showed us how he communicates with other rangers about the location of any smoke that he may see. You can see a photo of us on his facebook page: rainbowmountain lookout

The Ironman race in Taupo is a pretty big annual event. Lots of locals will volunteer for it and lots of locals actually race. It took place March 1st. Jasper and I were awake in the morning, around 7, and Jasper told me he saw a tornado in the water on the lake. We were actually just seeing the shadows of the swimmers - and we could see the kayaks in the lake as well. They looked like, well, like a tornado in the water. Here are some photos - it was an amazing sight.

See those tiny little swim-capped heads bobbing in the water?

We watched the elite racers come in around 3 pm. The female winner was American :) She ran in and Jasper got a high five from her! I volunteered at the medical tent after the race. The sweat laden, harrowing experience has confirmed for me that I will never compete in any endurance type race like this. Seriously, I never really had any doubts, but now I know for sure.

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There is a very pretty walk about ten minutes from our house in a very cool forest with lots of large trees. It reminded us of some hikes we do at home -- because we could hear the traffic from the highway sometimes :(

Amazing trees, right?

Aidan is so pleased with his selfie taking capabilities...

...but mom always does a better job capturing key moments with the camera

Turns out, like Winnie-the-Pooh, Jasper lives in a hollow tree.

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Tom and I spent a day without the kids visiting the buried village, a historical site, near the famous (in New Zealand) eruption of Tarawera that destroyed the pink and white terraces. It was great to spend some time just the two of us exploring.

The weather has gotten a bit cooler and our mountains got a little dusting! So pretty...

The nighttime views are pretty nice, too. This shot turned up mysteriously on our camera. My suspicion is that it was Aidan's doing.

This past weekend we went to a secret spot near the National Park to visit a very cool spring with some friends. Here are their children playing.

The pool is so deep, the color of the water is amazing - and you can see down to the bottom.

kids playing in the rocks around the pool

Here's the lot of us, hanging out

Later, those of us who wanted to went for a swim in the lake. This beach was awesome, the cliffs behind us were very dramatic. We had never been to this side of the lake before.

It was an awesome, lazy weekend day - with a perfect kiwi fish and chips ending! We feel lucky to have such amazing and generous friends.

South Island Trip 2 Day 5 - Fox Glacier

After we woke up at Franz Josef, we headed a little ways south to visit the other major glacier, Fox Glacier.  On the way, we stopped for breakfast and made a short walk around Lake Matheson, a lake renowned for its mirror-like surface and beautiful surroundings.

Here are the boys crossing the bridge over the small river that leaves the lake.

There were several strange mushrooms that we spotted during the walk.  Here is Jasper holding one of the blue-est.

Our first glimpse of the lake through the trees.  You can already see how sharp the reflection is in the water.

Super blue mushrooms, in situ:

Here are some native flax plants growing in the marshy area at the edge of the lake.

And a cool reflection:

The boys and Evelyn, admiring the view:

If it were a bit less cloudy, you'd be able to see the tallest mountain in New Zealand, Aoraki, in this photo, but it is still a cool shot down the lake into the Southern Alps.

Another one, with more lake:

A rare photo of us all together.  We had passed a hitchhiker on our way to the lake, but we didn't stop to pick her up.  Hitching is actually legal in New Zealand.  At the end of the lake, we ran into her.  She was from Singapore and was in the middle of a long trip through New Zealand.  We apologized for not picking her up and then made her take our photo.

The boys, in the woods:

A few more cool photos of the lake:

Resting:

More blue mushrooms.  Crazy, right?

Fox Glacier is similar in many ways to Franz Josef - it is a large glacier that has been retreating over the last three hundred years or so, so there is a walk from the car park up the impressive valley the ice carved out of the mountains until you reach the terminal face of the glacier.

Before the cool photos of the walk to the glacier, though, another entry in the continuing photo essay Perils of Stickman.  In this installment, Stickman is washed away by a surge wave created by ice falling from the front of the glacier into the river that runs from its base out to the ocean.

Here is the river.  Doesn't look too dangerous in this photo, but there are plenty of signs that tell you to steer clear.

Again, the cliff faces of the valley were staggering.

Again, Stickman and his Continuing Perils.  Here, Stickman is pelted to death by smaller rocks.  Notice the smaller sign beneath - No stopping!  Stickman, I believe, is being punished by the Gods for stopping.  The message is clear - do not stop or rocks will fall on your head.

Here are the rocks that could fall on your head.  Landslides like this one were in evidence all around us.  That and the "no stopping!" signs made us a little nervous.

Still, the views were amazing.  I stopped to take this picture and got yelled at by Jasper.  No stopping!

Jasper and Aidan, hugging on the far side of the no stopping zone.

More landslides:

A stream that fed the glacial river.  So pretty!

Jasper, admiring the stream:

Another cool stream and more red lichen-covered rocks.

The hike:

The terminal glacial face!  The view of Fox Glacier was actually more impressive than the view of Franz Josef, mostly because it felt a bit more like you were looking straight into the face of the ice wall.

Here is a dramatic photo of the glacier coming out of the mountains and into the valley.

At the bottom of the glacier, the ice was dirty with gravel and dust.  You can see the river emerging from beneath the ice sheet.

What does the Fox Glacier say?

Pow Pow Pow Pow Pow Pa-Pow!

Japser, encouraged by his grandfather, high-fives the man who is telling you not to pass the safety barriers if you value your life.

Another glacier photo:

More Stickman.  In this scene, Stickman is saved from certain death from giant chunks of ice falling from the glacier, only to be swept down the river into the ocean and to his doom.  I'm not sure SurgeWave written in white on yellow without a space really conveys the sense of danger intended by this sign, though it could be a cool name for a band.

One last photo of the river as we hiked back down to our car:

We continued on our way south along the coast, stopping late in the day at Knight's Point.  Here are a few photos of the rocks were once part of the point before they were eroded away:

We were staying in Haast, but we decided to continue past and eat dinner at a place called Port Jackson, the true end of the highway.  It feels a bit like the end of the world - there is almost nothing out there except a tiny fish-and-chips restaurant that operates out of a trailer.  We had dinner there, taking refuge from the extremely aggressive sand flies that harassed us many times that day whenever we got out of our car near water.  The most exciting part of our trip to Jackson was encountering a penguin, in this case a yellow-crested Fiordland Penguin.  This was the third or fourth species of penguin we've seen in the wild since coming to New Zealand.

Finally, we retired to our little bed and breakfast in Haast: