Tongariro Day 3 and travel to Wellington

December 9th, 2002 at 12:00am

I really hate when I get behind in the journal during times when there are so many good stories to tell.

Ok, going back to the Tongariro Circuit – the third and final day of the loop brought fog, rain, and more winds which was not exactly the best weather for enjoying the scenery, but I still enjoyed the walk out of the park. There were about 15-20 people staying in the Waihahouna Hut on the second night, so I wanted to get up early and be on the trail to avoid seeing any people during my hike. I was the first one out at 6:15am and didn’t see any other hikers for the first 3 hours. Since there were no views with the fog and it was raining rather heavily at times I can’t say the walk was anything special, but I still enjoyed being out in the wilderness so it was ok. I got out to the road early, just before 12 noon, and got 2 hitches out to National Park (that’s the town of National Park) which was about 10 miles from the trailhead. There I showered and repacked my bag then ate lunch before deciding how I’d try to get to Wellington.

The train was leaving at 2pm and cost $70 NZ; the bus at 2:30pm for $50 NZ. Thought about it and decided I’d try to hitch-hike first and if I couldn’t get a ride by 2:30 I’d take the bus. So I went out to the road and luckily it stopped raining at that time and I stuck out the’ol thumb.

Not too much traffic on the road.

I waited about 10 minutes with no luck and then I saw this car pull over and drop off a guy with a backpack on the side of the road. Turns out I had seen him at the trailhead about an hour before so I knew he was probably hitching to Wellington because he mentioned it earlier. He was. We decided to try our luck together since usually people will pick up a guy and a girl more easily.

While waiting for a lift we chatted a bit – his name was Greg and he was from South Africa.

Didn’t take long at all and we got a ride. Two local teenage guys with their dog picked us up. They weren’t going all the way to Wellington but they offered a lift for as far as they were going which turned out to be about a 2-hour ride. We were thrilled!

Greg and I sat in the backseat with our backpacks in our laps and the dog (named Toes) on our backpacks while the guys BLARED Eminem. It was comical. The driver wasn’t talkative at all; in fact the only thing he said the entire ride was to Greg when he said’don’t you think you need a haircut’, but his friend was really friendly and chatted with us a bit. The funniest thing (besides the rap music) was that Toes kept farting the whole time and although no one actually said anything about it we all put our windows down from time to time to get some breathable air.

So, about 2 hours later the Eminem boys dropped us off at an off-the-map town in the middle of nowhere on Highway 1. And it was raining again. Not an easy task to try to get a ride in the rain and I can’t blame anyone for not picking us up – within minutes we looked like 2 wet rats with 2 wet backpacks.

But we got lucky. In only about 10 minutes a guy pulled over and as luck would have it he was going all the way to Wellington! I was SO happy to get out of the cold rain.

This guy was Korean and going to the university in Wellington and had been driving for 6 hours already from Auckland in a rental car and he was clearly bored and just happy to have company. It seemed so normal after the Eminem and farting dog! The next 2 hours flew by as we talked and relaxed our way to Wellington. The guy was even nice enough to drive us to the door of the hostel where we wanted to stay – what a bonus!!

All in all we hitched over 350 km in one day which is a huge accomplishment. Greg and I were both really excited to be at our destination. There was still room in the yard of the hostel for more tents so we each bought a tentsite (for $12 NZ) and set up our tents (in the rain, still!). By that time it was already 8:30pm and I was so tired after hiking in the morning and all the rest of it and I struggled to stay up in the common room and be social for a bit before crashing in my tent for the night.

Yesterday it rained ALL DAY in Wellington and there was nothing better to do but shop. I went in and out of all the many outfitter shops in town and bought some more gear I needed for trekking. I spent the evening at the hostel with Greg and a woman from Holland and we laughed about how I bought too much – that it wouldn’t even fit in my one-person tent and I told them about the one fleece I bought with a diagonal zip-tee front that I started calling my Star Trek shirt. Ok I think maybe you had to be there.

Today I ventured back into the big city (pop 180,000 I think so not really but it is the capital of New Zealand) and I went to the famous Te Papa National Museum which is a FREE museum. It is really a good museum actually which houses exhibits of NZ history, culture, geography, wildlife, and art. Lots to see. And I returned the Star Trek shirt after decided that I couldn’t live up to it’s reputation.

Then, a miracle happened. The sun came out! For the first time in four days! So I went back to the hostel and layed out all of my wet gear on the deck outside to dry in the sun. Just enough time to get everything dry before packing it all away again to set off to catch the ferry. I caught the 5:30pm ferry from the North Island to the South Island. It’s a 3-hour ride and I’m on the ferry right now and I think we’re about 2/3 of the way there. Greg is on the boat too, somewhere, and is also heading to the south for tramping. The South Island is much more famous for it’s mountains and scenery and tramping than the North Island so I’m really looking forward to seeing it! Actually we’ve made our way into the Marlborough Sound and it is absolutely breathtaking already.

Should be camping out tonight and then heading for some south island tramping tomorrow!

View of the valley below from the Ketatahi Hut

Day 2 followed the moonscape of the massive lava flows

Walking through the beech forest

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,New Zealand,Tongariro