steveman518

Theme of the day: geothermal activity!

The next morning we checked out of the Holiday Inn Rotorua we headed over to the Countdown to grab breakfast and lunch for the day. One thing I really seem to like about grocery stores abroad is that grocery stores seem to carry a wide range of breakfast pastries. After the quick grocery store stop we headed out for a day of geothermal exploration. The initial plan was to go to Wai-O-Tapu to catch the geyser "eruption" at 10AM, but when my friend mentioned it I thought it was not a natural eruption (since geysers tend not to erupt like clockwork) and we ended up going to Waimangu Volcanic Valley instead. Waimangu isn't particularly popular even though there is a fair amount to see, but does have much less pathways. There had been some recent flooding, so some of the trails were closed and a boat ride on the lake nearby wasn't possible due to the high winds. That being said the walk itself wasn't particularly strenuous, but there was an optional walk up through the hills that provided some more views.

Breakfast


Trail


Frying pan lake






Optional trail


Lake


Black sawn


Diving


After coming back from the lake we made our way over to Wai-O-Tapu. Wai-O-Tapu has a number of trails, with three loops in all depending on how much you want to walk. Wai-O-Tapu is a much more popular tourist attraction compared to Waimangu, and as such is generally more developed. We finished off the rest of the morning at Wai-O-Tapu exploring its geothermal features.



Microterraces


Steam




Yellow


Afterwards we had the lunches that we had bought from the Countdown in Rotorua. I bought a steak pie, and it was generally ok considering it was a grocery store pie that had been sitting in the car for about 4 hours.



On the way out we stopped by the mud pools to see the bubbling mud.



Our third stop of the day was at Craters of the Moon. This area had one large loop and was generally filled with...craters. Just craters. It had rained a bit during the day, and the drive was highlighted by a rainbow taking up the sky to the left of the car throughout the ride there. Overall Craters of the Moon was the least exciting of the three given that features were mostly limited to craters.







Rainbow




Local wildlife


After sampling the variety of geothermal features, our final stop of the day was the town of Taupo. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town, and ended up finding the hole in one challenge, where you tried to hit a golf ball from a driving mat onto a wooden platform about 100 yards off the shore. I ended up hitting 1 out of 15 in a pre-dinner challenge.

Lake Taupo


Triathlon


Hole in One


McD's


For dinner we decided to settle for BurgerFuel. We had seen a bunch of them around, especially their Seoul Burger promotions, and decided to sample the local burger chain. I went for the CN Cheese burger with kumara fries. The burger was surprisingly good, though it seems that almost all meat in New Zealand is good.



After dinner we went to the Creel Lodge in Turangi to be closer to Tongariro National Park for the next day. The Lodge is a bit dated, but has all the basic amenities. The staff are very nice to do their best to be accommodating. After a long day of walking and driving a I had a well-deserved Magnum from the nearby New World grocery store.

Living room


Bedroom


Kitchen


Bathroom


Dessert

steveman518

Thanks for reading 757! Hopefully you have the chance to go back again and relive those memories

nequine

Just catching up and enjoying what you've posted so far.

How did you find the Quest Auckland? We'd heard that depending on what side of the building your room is, you are given earplugs because of the noise from the nearby student residence? We stayed at the Quest Christchurch and couldn't fault our stay there at all.

lamphs

Don't let anyone give you a hard time about your short trip to NZ. I did 5 days CHC and ZQN and look forward to a longer stay, including a similar drive between AKL and WEL.

steveman518

The plan for the next day was to complete the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of the more well known hikes in New Zealand. This is one of the more popular activities, and recently efforts have been made to slightly control access to the crossing. Beginning with the last summer season, cars could only park in the lot for no more than four hours at a time. For those interested in completing the crossing, which takes approximately 6 hours, you have to take a shuttle bus to the trailhead and be picked up again at the other end. Naturally, since we were going during the winter season, there don't weren't really many shuttle options, but it also seems that the parking limit is only enforced during the busy summer season, where lines for the restrooms on the trails have reportedly reached 30+ in length. During the winter season we probably saw a total of 30 people throughout half the day, and most of them were part of an organized group. During our visit the Mangatepopo car park was probably 10-20% full.

After parking, we set off into the park. The moment you arrive there are sweeping views with towering Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe in the background. The beginning portion is relatively low incline and the path was already visible in the late winter.











After a while of walking in the valley the trail really began to ascend. Now we didn't really have plans for this trek, other than perhaps reaching Emerald Lakes once we reached the mountain pass. Once we reached snow, however, those plans were put into jeopardy. While we had planned for a hike, we didn't exactly plan for a winter hike. Regardless during the ascent to the pass there are still gorgeous views of the mountains and surroundings.

Mount Ngauruhoe


Snack


Mount Tongariro


Ascent with a couple of Spaniards


Mount Tongariro


Eventually we reached a landing below the main pass, where we decided that it would probably not be a good idea to keep ascending. At that point the ground was starting to become more icy, and the couple of organized groups we did run into there had the full winter gear including crampons and ice axes. They were also pausing at the landing to put their gear on and practice sliding down a hill and stopping with the axes. Since we didn't really prepare and bring that kind of gear with us, we enjoyed the landing for a while before heading back down to the bottom; unfortunately we did not make it to the Emerald Lakes on the other side.

Landing


Final ascent to the pass




Group preparing to ascend Mount Ngauruhoe


Snack on the way down


So I tried these partially rehydrated peaches, and they just kind of were nasty. Go fresh or dried, but not this in between crap...




Our trek complete, all that was left for the day was the long drive down to Wellington. Like other routes, this route had many very scenic areas, though with relatively few lookout points. The roads here were especially winding, especially with all the hills and mountains in the area.

A lookout point


Eventually we made our way to Wellington and the new DoubleTree that had recently opened inside an old building. Most of the hotel is very new and clean, but they kept the old elevators that added a bit of charm. Rooms and bathrooms in the hotel are very large and well-appointed, continuing my experiences of new non-US DoubleTrees being nice. I would say that the only thing that I didn't like was that the agent at the front desk tried to sell me breakfast instead of providing it as an elite benefit...

Room


Bathroom


Wellington CBD isn't exactly bustling, but we settled on going to Curry Heaven for dinner. The food was very good, though I made the mistake of ordering a very spicy dinner and slightly struggled through the dinner.

Chaat


To be honest I don't remember what we ordered, but I think I ordered a rogan josh with lamb and she ordered a saag of some sort. All I remember is that holy crap this was spicy. And what dinner isn't complete without a garlic naan...



After dinner I dropped the trusty Mazda 3 that had carried us for 850 kms (528 miles) over the course of the last 3 days off at the airport before returning to the hotel. Since Wellington is like much of New Zealand and is generally pretty sleepy in the evenings, we didn't really go out afterwards. Instead I finished writing my postcards to send out before returning home.

steveman518

Thanks for the kind comments nequine. I just looked at the academic calendar and turns out that our stay in Auckland coincided with the mid-semester break, so noise was generally not an issue. We weren't proactively offered ear plugs either. The hotel itself is serviceable without much standing out good or bad. One thing of note is that it seems that their double beds are two twin beds put together

Yeah I definitely wish that I could take more time to see NZ, but I suppose that's why we hope for another trip! Thanks for reading!

nequine

Yes that was like ours in Christchurch.

Fantastic scenery there - we bypassed going that route in favour of going to Napier in case the road was closed due to snow.

steveman518

On this final day of the trip I had about half the day in Wellington before returning back home. After the standard DoubleTree breakfast, we set off for a walk around town, beginning with the harbor and making our way to the Parliament building aka the beehive.

Across the harbor




Look familiar?


Penguin


And Seals


Train station


Beehive




Afterwards we made our way over to the Wellington botanical gardens. Since it was late winter it was a little chilly and there weren't that many people there, making it a peaceful visit. The garden sits above the CDB, allowing for views around the city.

Highway 1


Pool




CBD




Afterwards we took the cable car back down to the CBD, enjoying a quick lunch at Smith the Grocer before it was time to head to the airport to begin the return trip.



Car interior


Tunnel artwork


out of focus roti wrap

steveman518

Winter can definitely be tricky-I'd like to go back when it's either a bit warmer or prepare for a cold hike so I can go through the entire pass

samwise6222

Gorgeous pics. Thank you for the TR!

steveman518

The journey to Wellington international airport was a relatively easy ride on the 91. One thing I did notice with regards to NZ is how automated their check-in process is. Even at WLG there were so many kiosks and I was able to check in and tag my bag without interacting with a single staff member. While many of the regional flights (particularly turboprops) do not require security screening, my flight to AKL was aboard a jet and thus required a security screening. Regardless of what side of security you're on, there really isn't much going on at the airport except stare out the windows, and I did as much while trying to follow the Penn State vs Pitt game on my phone. After a short delay for our late inbound aircraft our flight to Auckland was ready to board.



NZ 436
WLG-AKL
Airbus 320
23D

Boarding for this flight occurred through both doors, though boarding through the front door for half the plane was done through the jet bridge, whereas boarding for the back half of us meant taking the stairs down to the apron and walking up the boarding stairs set up at the rear door. What made the situation worse was after the initial queue boarded then the door to the apron was closed and the latecomers boarded through the front door, resulting in a hot mess in the back of the plane where some folks were trying to go forwards and others backwards. Additionally there was some more chaos once one of the passengers on the flight realized they had boarded the incorrect flight and were trying to figure out how to offload themselves in the middle of all this. So far so good...

Obligatory legroom shot


Interior


There's not really much to say for the short one hour flight from WLG to AKL. There was a short beverage and snack service, where I finally had my first Cookie Time cookie, and the overhead monitors had some kind of trivia going on, with hard candies being passed out right before our descent. Overall nothing out of the ordinary.

Cookie Time


After arriving in AKL I grabbed my bag and headed over to the international terminal to check in for my return flight to SEA. Once again I went through the whole automated process, and after customs headed over to the Strata lounge. Overall the Strata lounge is a pretty decent lounge, with good food offerings, though seating was a bit limited given that it was before all of the overnight departures to the US and Asia. The food offerings consisted of four hot dishes, two soups, two types of pies, salads, cheese and meats, and desserts. I remember the gnocchi and lamb ragout being pretty good in particular. The lounge is also fairly large and spacious, since it does accept lounge membership cards and is the contract lounge for a fair number of airlines.

Food Offerings


Finally got around to some L&P


The one criticism I have of the lounge is of the bathroom and showers. The bathrooms themselves are all individual rooms, but there are only 5 of them, including the two shower rooms, and there were always lines for them. The shower rooms were first come, first served, and towels could be requested from the front desk. This does mean that the shower isn't proactively cleaned between uses; instead being cleaned periodically by the staff. I managed to get lucky with the shower room and there was one immediately available when I wanted one.

Shower room


I eventually made my way over to the far reaches of the international terminal for USA departures, upon which I was asked the usual security questions. Unfortunately boarding was delayed, and as such I was stuck near a couple of toddlers trying to break one of the vending machines in the boarding area. Eventually we were able to board for the return to the USA.

NZ 8
AKL-SFO
Boeing 777-300ER
55C

Since NZ goes 10-across in their 777s, this was going to be a bit tight, especially since this flight was almost completely full. Thankfully the folks next to me were relatively skinny and we were able to at least not be uncomfortable.

Obligatory legroom shot


Cabin. Look how narrow these seats are...


Shortly after takeoff dinner was served, and I went with the "beef with rice" option. The meal came with a potato salad, roll, cheese and crackers, and ice cream.

Dinner


After dinner I napped on and off through the rest of the night until the breakfast service. Now I know that the breakfast meal on a flight isn't usually the most substantial of all meals, but this probably takes the cake for one of the weakest if not the weakest long-haul breakfast I have ever seen on a plane:



That little bag of cereal was so small that it wasn't worth pouring it out and I just opened it and poured it directly into my mouth instead. Needless to say I was a little grumpy after that "meal". After arriving at SFO I cleared customs and security and had a more substantial bite to eat at the Centurion Lounge before boarding my final flight.

UA 2161
SFO-SEA
Boeing 737-800
36F

The original flight that I had booked had a 3 hour connection, but United ended up cancelling that flight (lol UA retreating from SEA) and putting me on a flight 2 hours later. Of course it wouldn't be United if there wasn't an aircraft swap late and shuffling around everyone's seats. Unfortunately I ended up next to a big and odorous academic in the middle seat next to me who basically draped his jacket over most of all three seats over the flight. Now most of you who are in academia (or went to college really) know that there are always subgroups of individuals who don't seem to understand personal hygiene (particularly some of my fellow STEM folks...), so that was a somewhat not quite so enjoyable experience...

Obligatory legroom shot


Home


Thanks everyone for following along. Until next time!

steveman518

Thank you samwise6222.

fotographer

What a wonderful and informative report, dont know how you did in in coach....
Glad you enjoyed it.

kevincrumbs

I've never flown them but I've always regarded NZ highly due to other people's reports and such. I would agree with you that even compared to most pathetic airline breakfasts, this was is particularly pathetic, especially on a TPAC.

Thanks for the TR, I really enjoyed following along.

steveman518

Thank you for the kind comments fotographer. I definitely enjoyed New Zealand and hope that you also have the opportunity to do so.
I've been flying Y my entire life-my experiences in international long-haul J/F have been limited so far, so I just make do and try to focus on the experience once I've arrived at my destination, though that gets harder by the year with more 10-across 777s and 9-across 787s... I find that it helps me a lot that I'm short, skinny, and young so I'm generally less pressed for space than most, but of course not all of us are like that.

Thanks for reading kevincrunbs. From what I've read people tend to enjoy NZ's premium product, and from what I've read I would have to agree (herringbone seating aside), especially compared to what the US3 fly to AKL. I think NZ is also uniquely positioned geographically such that compared to their competition no one seems to really rail on their 10-across 777 Y product, particularly compared to the UA/AC boards.