12/24/13
We
left the farm in Gisborne five days ago, bound for the city of Napier. It was sad to be leaving the thirteen
new German (and one French) friends that we had just made, but we were at the
same time excited to be heading for New Zealand’s most renowned wine country,
followed shortly thereafter by Taupo and the magnificent lake there, overlooked
by Mt. Doom.
On
our way out of town, we decided to stop and pay a visit to Cape Kidnapper’s…an
acclaimed Rélais & Chateaux luxury resort and golf course. I had hoped for a chance to play some
golf there, but that turned out to cost a staggering $500 per round, so we
settled for simple sightseeing and photo snapping. It was an easy settlement to make; the place was gorgeous,
surrounded by beautiful wooded hills and overlooking the bright blue ocean.
We
arrived midday in Napier and checked in to the Stables Lodge Backpackers
hostel, which was literally an old horse stable converted into surprisingly
comfortable boarding accommodations.
We quickly befriended a large group of Swedish girls, all of whom were
blonde, and of course another horde of friendly Germans. Our Swedish friend Simon was very happy
for the chance to again speak in his native language, which had grown a bit
rusty for him in the constant presence of us mono-linguistic Americans.
We
went out to a specialty wine shop that night to find ourselves some promising
looking bottles of local wine.
Kellogg selected a bottle of white that was called Middle Earth wine,
and I chose a blended red from the vineyard Alpha Domus. It proved to be a great choice; upon
the first sip, I thought the Alpha Domus may very well have been the most
balanced tasting wine I’d ever had.
Kellogg really liked his wine as well, and we drank both bottles that
night while hanging out with our newest German and Swedish friends.
The
next day we spent walking around the city of Napier, exploring. The place proved to be much more than
we had expected; it was fairly big, very clean, and had lovely parks and
boulevards scattered throughout town.
After we had strolled through what we figured to be the majority of
Napier’s city center, we decided it would be a good night to see the second
Anchorman movie, which had debuted only a day before. After expecting the film to be a serious letdown in
comparison to its predecessor, I was pleasantly surprised to find that, in my
opinion, it actually stood up to the Anchorman name…but this is not a blog for
reviewing American movies.
The
next morning we were on the road again, bound for the mini-adventureland of
Lake Taupo. We arrived there at
about three o’clock in the afternoon, stopping along the way as we usually do
for some photos of waterfalls and scenic lookouts.
We checked in to the Rainbow lodge, where we asked the innkeeper
for some recommendations as to how we might best spend our afternoon. He suggested a venue of hot pools,
admission to which happened to be free on that particular day, and we set out
on foot for the place at once. The
pools were surprisingly nice and very warm, though we were eventually driven
off by a ridiculous amount of little kids that had practically overrun the
place. After we’d gotten back to
the hostel and changed, we decided to try out Burger Fuel for dinner, which is
New Zealand’s counterpart to Five Guys or In ‘N Out and had been highly
recommended to us. The burgers
were all right, though no match for their American equivalents, and we were
horrified to find that a meal there cost us 24 New Zealand dollars. It was cool that they offered kumara
fries (a kumara is a bit like a sweet potato), but those turned out to be about
as disappointing as the prices.
The
next day, we opted to make the three hour hike out of town to the illustrious
Huka falls, which moves so much water that it pumps out 220,000 liters every
second. We had also happened to
run into our buddy Fabio and his girlfriend at the hostel, who we had met back
in Auckland, and he elected to tag along with us for the adventure. The walk was beautiful, the trail
hugging tight to the river the whole way, and we were awestruck by how crystal
clear the water was. We were also
delighted to find a small waterfall of steaming hot water along the way,
pouring out into the river and providing a natural little hot tub that was
perfect for taking a dip in. We even happened to see a guy wearing a cowboy hat floating down the river in a tube. That quite possibly made my day.
When
we finally arrived at the waterfall, we were astonished at its size and
power. I had thought the 220,000
liters per second figure really hard to believe, but upon seeing the waterfall
for myself, I was surprised that number wasn’t higher. The thing fills an Olympic sized
swimming pool every fifteen seconds.
On
our way back into town from the falls, we happened by a really cool hole-in-one
golf challenge in Taupo where you could win $10,000 for hitting an ace on a
small green that floated about 110 yards out into the lake. I gave it a shot, but it unfortunately
wasn’t my day that day. I did,
though, hit the green a bunch of times, which always got you another shot for
free. I was pretty happy just for
being able to continue smacking balls out into the water.
We
spent that night back at the hostel playing a card game with our friends that
deserves mention, called We Didn’t Playtest This At All. It’s an absolutely ridiculous game that
requires a special deck of cards, and I’m not sure if you can find them
anywhere besides the internet (it was introduced to us by a Swedish girl, who
had received the deck as a gift), but it’s as easy to learn as it is fun and I
think most anyone would enjoy it as much as we did.
We
checked out of the hostel the next morning, getting back on the road to head up
north to our old WWOOFing farm where we are spending Christmas with Graham and
Michelle. We stopped on the way in
the big city of Hamilton to find Christmas presents for our beloved hosts and
their son James, and we arrived here on the farm yesterday at two in the
afternoon. We’ve passed the time
lazily since we got back, me finishing my book, Kellogg watching Top Gear, and
Simon taking some lessons in Czech from the two other WWOOFers who are here and
hail from the Czech Republic.
Tomorrow we’ll be having a Kiwi kind of Christmas, and I’ll of course
dedicate another post to that experience after we’ve had it. Finding myself on the fourth page of
this entry, though, I feel quite sure you’ve heard enough of my babbling for
the time being.
Merry Christmas to readers
everywhere, your verbose friend,
Jack
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