Our second day in Taupo we took a day bus down to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This was where a lot of the Lord of the Rings was filmed. Maybe the part with the eye?? Neither of us are huge Lord of the Rings fans, so we weren’t sure, but it was a great hike nonetheless. Total of about 6 hours. A good 2 hours straight up the mountains and then a good 2 hours straight down with little bits of flat ground in between. We are still feeling the pain in our legs. That downward hike is not so nice on the knees or the shins.
But the hike was beautiful. Very strange the way it would be completely clear and then within seconds the fog would take over and you couldn’t see more than 2 feet in front of you. Check out this picture… seriously, 2 seconds and the fog took over. AND COLD!! At the top of the mountain ridge we were freezing. But it was all worth it being outside for an entire day getting some long overdue exercise.
The Red Crater and Emerald Lakes were beautiful. The lakes smelled like sulfur but they were a vivid turquoise color and the rocks surrounding them were hot to the touch from the volcano.
We caught a bus that night after the hike, or I guess early morning (1am) from Taupo to Wellington and jumped immediately onto the fairy to the south island. We picked up our car... Sunny. Sunny is actually the model of the Nissan (we have never heard of it before), but we thought it also a good fit for his name as well. He is a great little car and besides having to drive on the opposite side of the road and circle around a ton of round-a-bouts, we love it! Alana is the primary driver since Suzy left her ID at home and she has already hit 2 curbs, but what can you expect from having to drive on the other side of the road?!?! Don’t worry, we have full insurance :)
We are staying in Blenheim at the Grapevines hostel. They are very cute. The owner lives in the house connected to them. It is a great home away from home. AND we went to our first grocery store last night. A month and a half since we have been in one of those. We had a hay day picking out our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We might stick to eating out as it seems a bit cheaper for us. It is nice to be in true civilization again though. You definitely take it for granted until you are in Southeast Asia for a month eating noodles and rice.
We went wine tasting today in the Marlborough region right in Blenheim. Beautiful vineyards all over the place. We visited three vineyards and one Schnapps tasting: Mount Riley, Wither Hills, Bouldevines, and Prenzel (Schnapps). At the Wither Hills Vineyard they actually had a row of each grape they harvest for people to walk around and try. You can just pick the grapes right off the vines. It was so fun tasting the difference between all the grapes. Their Chardonnay here is outstanding. Nothing like we have in America. And the Pinot Noir is fabulous too. Pinot Noir grows the best here because of the climate so the next time you are looking for a really good red wine, try New Zealand’s Pinot Noir!
Our last stop was at Prenzels. The whole place was full of different Schnapps and you could choose as many as you liked to taste. The butterscotch and peppermint and the melon were all amazing. We also tried some flavored Brandy. It was good, but neither of us are fans of Brandy so we kept mostly to the Schnapps selection. If only we had enough room in our bags to bring home samples for everyone... guess you will just have to come and try it for yourselves.
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