Having made it safely across the Cook Strait and back to the North Island, Nora and I made our way to a hostel in Wellington. We had a couple of pretty weird nights at really trashy hostels, pretty much the worst I’ve ever been in, but I don’t feel the need to recount that to all of you! Wellington certainly made up for this faux pas by being all around charming in every other way.
The next day, got some delicious Thai food (fried rice, mm!) and then we took a trip to the New Zealand Museum and checked out the WWI exhibit on the ANZAC troops who fought against the Turks in Africa. It was a brutally senseless battle with massive casualties on both sides and no strategic gains of any kind. Otherwise, we enjoyed checking out all the other facets of New Zealand history, from the Maori culture, the colonization, and the ongoing exploits of current day kiwis.
After a healthy dose of culturization, we swung by the supermarket, grabbed a couple bottles of wine, and went down to the waterfront to hang out for a bit and enjoy the wonderful weather.
The next day, after a particularly terrible stay at the Rosemere Hostel, we hopped on a train as far out of town as we could make it, for about $8 a piece. Having made it the first hour of the way, we then took to sticking out our thumbs to cover the rest of the distance. Our target, about 4 hours distant, was the Tongariro National Park, where we were all resupplied and ready to do the 70km “Round the Mountain” trail. You might recognize some of it, it’s where they shot the Mt. Doom scenes from Lord of the Rings.
So, soon after touching down in Paraparaumu, we walked down the highway and got just about the first car to stop and offer us a ride! The driver was a younger guy in his early 20s, with an unmistakably rural character. His use of slurs and slang was such that you might only see it once in some movie of what country New Zealand people talk about.
Despite the fact that his car almost ran out of gas (“C’mon you’re a Honda! You should be able to run on an oily rag!!” and who could forget– ” Row! ROW!!!”), told us about his time in jail after he robbed his ex-boss of money that he was owed, AND toted us along to a less-than-legal rendez-vous with a purveyor of plants, he did finally get us to the highway on the far side of Levin. We said our goodbyes, and Nora and I had a good laugh about all of the crazy BS that we had just gone through, while simultaneously thanking the stars that we were alive and free again.
There was another girl who showed up just after us, who was hitchhiking as well! It’s always nice to have some camraderie when hitching. She hitched up the road from us and got a ride pretty quick, and we were almost jealous, but just then, a huge semi truck pulled off and beckoned us in! Score! Who knows if he would’ve stopped had the girl not gotten the first car that passed by.
The fella behind the wheel of the truck was a true intellectual, seriously curious and wanting, craving to learn about so many different things. He was really a joy to ride with, and got us a good 2 hours more down the road, all the way to Waiouru. From here, we split ways, and it was about 2pm in the afternoon. We were making pretty good time, and we were already within eye-sight of the magnificent Mt. Ruapehu, the huge volcanic mountain that we would spend the next few days hiking around.
From here, we got a quick ride with a woman driving to her lifestyle block farm in Ohakune, and finally, a dad and his two young sons stopped and drove us all the way up the mountain to Whakapapa (pronounced “FAKAPAPA”)! Joyous day!
It was about 5PM, and after a fair amount of kicking around, we got started on the first leg around Mt. Ruapehu.
Finally, with the sun going down, we decided to camp right in the shadow of Mt. Doom, about 100m off trail so that no one would see us (you may or may not have had to pre-book campsites, but whatever! This is the wilderness, damnit. Get your pencil-pushing rules outta here!)
I spent a solid hour running up and down a big canyon near our camp looking for some trace of water, and finally made it back to Nora just before total darkness, with enough time to get my tent up before pulling out the headlamp. We made dinner, and enjoyed the rising of the Super Blood Wolf Moon! Badass!
They dropped us of in Turangi, where Nora and I stopped into a steakhouse for a burger dinner.
At last, it was time for us to say goodbye. Nora and I had been hiking together for over a month, so it was definitely an emotional moment. We had shared so many struggles and accomplishments and beautiful miles of trail! And now I had to make my own decisions! Damn!
We hugged, she put her old beat up boots in the trash at the countdown supermarket, and we parted ways. I immediately started walking towards the local campground, and she waved from her hitchhike’s car as they drove past.
