Earthquake in Christchurch

The morning of February 22nd, Kearse and I decided to go to Manly Beach outside of Sydney. It's Kearse's last day in Australia, so I figured it be great to relax and soak up some sun before he goes back to the wintery States and his work training in New York. 

We boarded ferry to Manly just past noon, and when we disembarked at 1:00pm, we were met with terrible news of an earthquake hitting Christchurch. My first thought was, Wow they were just finally recovering from the earthquake in September... We stopped outside of a news stand and stood in a pack of people glued to the TV watching scenes of the earthquake's aftermath. 


Then it started to sink in, how horrible this earthquake was for the recovering Christchurch. It was the lunchtime hour when the earthquake struck at 12:50pm in the city center. At a mere 5 km deep, this earthquake caused buildings to pancake and crushed buses under falling pieces from the buildings. I kept hearing about streets and places in the news that Kearse and I had visited just six days before. I hated hearing a sentence "and bodies were pulled from a local youth hostel" as I remembered the hostel that Kearse and I stayed in- Base Backpackers that stood proudly in the shadow of the central cathedral and had just reopened, with scaffolding and construction still taking place, when Kearse and I arrived on Feb 3rd. Even more tragic, the top of Christchurch's central cathedral had crumbled. Christchurch is so proud of this cathedral, and it broke my heart to see this city's icon, and identity, in shambles. And this earthquake is apparently an aftershock of the earthquake back in September?? Unbelievable!

I was remembering the lovely weather and scenes we had had of Christchurch when Kearse mentioned that we should have been there today... rather than six days ago. Our original plan was to spend two weeks in Australia and two weeks in New Zealand. We were going to fly out of Christchurch to Sydney at 7pm on Feb 22nd so that Kearse could make his flight from Sydney to the U.S. on Feb 23rd. When Cyclone Yasi hit Cairns, we shuffled our plans and spent one week in Australia, two weeks in New Zealand, and then our final week in Australia again. Had it not been for Cyclone Yasi, we would have been returning our van to the rental company in the center of Christchurch at precisely 1pm. That is a very scary thought. I am so thankful for one natural disaster saving us from another. 

I am thinking back to my last couple of months, and I know that God has really been watching out for me. I spent a week in Egypt at the beginning of January, and two weeks after my trip the country fell into turmoil and political unrest, and all U.S. citizens were restricted from entering the country. For me to see this country when it was still at peace, and to return safely back in U.S., is a true blessing.

Torrential rainfall and floods in Brisbane, and rampant bush fires in Perth occurred days before our flight to Australia, while Cyclone Yasi hit Cairns the night before our flight to that very spot. Had we booked the flight one day earlier, we would gave been stuck right in the middle of the cyclone. But thanks to the cyclone, we avoided being in the heart of the most tragic natural disaster in New Zealand's history. I cannot thank God enough for our safety, and I am so blessed to have friends and family back home praying for the same. I love you all so much :)

I am also happy to hear that Ag's friend from Chicago who is working in Christchurch is safe. The two buildings next to her office building collapsed, and her friend was trapped in a building that was leaking gas for a while, but she is safe and okay. I am so thankful :)

The Wonderful World of Sydney

Sydney is so enchanting, I love it! I felt like I was flying home during our trip from Cairns to Sydney. Maybe its because this is a city familiar to me now, but whatever it is, I am loving it. We plan to spend the 21st and 22nd in Sydney hanging out with Hanna and Nina (who we met on our Ayer's Rock tour) before Kearse leaves to go back to the States on the 23rd.

Kearse and I spent the 21st wandering around Darling Harbor, which is right around the corner from Circular Quay (which is where the Opera House ad Harbor Bridge are located). Darling Harbor was... how do I say it?... Well, it was darling! It was so cute, and quaint, and beautiful. Lovely shops and restaurants along the water front, wide pedestrian boardwalks, a footbridge decorated with flowers and flags, and gorgeous yachts parked at the docks with the glistening buildings of Sydney's city center in the background. It was just lovely :)

Darling Harbor is also the home of the Sydney IMAX, the largest cinema screen in the world! So of course this meant that I had to go see an IMAX film, and I chose a documentary about the Hubble Telescope in 3D! I was in awe! Loved it!

Some random things that I also love:

1. Aussies do not say "How are you doing?" or "How is it going?". Instead, they say "How are you going?". Fascinating!

2. I have loved the nicknames that Kearse and I have received on this trip from fellow travelers. We became Team America on the Ayer's Rock Tour (this was a fun one that we carried with us for the rest of our trip). The Egyptain/Aussie girls on the Moreton Island day trip called us Georgia. And then Hanna enjoyed calling me Big Guns. Good times.

3. Most of the solo backpackers I have met during my trip have been women, which is so surprising! When Ag and I backpacked through Europe, all we met were dudes. But in AUS, all of the hostels are just loaded with girls. It's quite strange actually, but it is giving me confidence to set out on my own when Kearse leaves for the States.

The Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest

"Of the five hundred or so sites on the planet that qualify for World Heritage status (that is, a site of global historical or biological significance), only thirteen satisfy all four of UNESCO's criteria for listing, and of these special thirteen places, four-almost a third-are to be found in Australia. Moreover, two of these, the Great Barrier Reef and the wet tropics of Queensland, are right here. It is the only place in world, I believe, where two such consummate environments adjoin." -Bill Bryson, In A Sunburned Country


Kearse and I took off to Cairns in the north, looking forward to some more warm weather. Cairns reminded me of Florida... in that it is a super humid, short (as in height) little beach town with old looking buildings worn away by salt and wind. However, Cairns is famous for its location near the world's largest living organism- the Great Barrier Reef! Depending on which source you consult, the Great Barrier Reef covers anywhere from 280,000 to 344,000 square kilometers, and stretches anywhere from 1200 to 1600 miles from top to bottom (the length of the west coast of the United States. The Great Barrier Reef contains at least 1500 species of fish, 400 types of coral, and 4000 varieties of mollusks, but those are essentially just guesses as no one has ever attempted a comprehensive survey- must be too big a job.


So of course the Number One thing on our to-do list was to Scuba Dive at the Reef! We took a day trip out to the reef and had a fantastic time! While I'm a certified Scuba diver, Kearse had never dived before. Luckily, there are tours that give you a briefing, run through some of the important skills, and take you on introductory dives with a guide. It was so exciting that Kearse got to dive for the first time at the reef! He did three dives today, awesome!

As for me, the dive crew decided not to let me dive today... Apparently athletically-induced asthma is the most dangerous form of asthma to have when diving, and even though I've been off of an inhaler for a year, they said it wasn't enough time (haha and I told them two years... Oh well). So I got to snorkel... but it ended up being really amazing!



The benefits to snorkeling- you can explore the parts of the reef that are only a meter or two below the surface of the water, you can see more brilliant colors in the sunlight than at the depths the divers are at, you can listen to a snorkel guide talk about the fish, coral, and sea life that you are seeing, and if you really want to, you can dive down and swim with the scuba divers because they are only four to five meters deep the whole time (and of course I definitely dove down and swam with the scuba divers, it was Kearse's first time diving after all).

But wow I cannot even begin to name all of the awesome creatures and life that I saws at the reef. I can't even name 20% of what I laid my eyes on! I saw brain coral, fan coral, anemones, urchins, and sea cucumbers! I even stuck my hand in a huge purple clam the size of small car! I got to stare face-to-face with a moray eel, and follow a couple sea turtles on the surface. I swam above a school of squid (yum!), and through schools and schools of fish (which was my favorite part)! I also loved the way the light filtered through the water and danced along the coral. Captivating!

During my snorkel, I could see a lot of broken coral lying on the ocean floor, covered in sand. This was the damage done by Cyclone Yasi when it blew through the area two weeks before (remember that's why we went to New Zealand early and then back-tracked to Cairns).


I loved observing the huge and brilliantly colored and striped fish eating off of the coral- ah so many bright colors! Purple, blue, teal, yellow, turquoise, violet! It was so brilliant! I liked diving down and swimming in the canyons between shelves of reefs, and floating like a star fish above the super shallow parts, letting the waves move me across the reef. There were a few times were a just had to take a break from al of the snorkeling just to take it all in! This is awesome! Dad, you need to come to Cairns and do this ASAP! No worries, I'll come with you!

After our dive/snorkel trip, we had an awesome dinner at this cute Greek restaurant near our hostel. This restaurant is so legit. It's owned and run by an old, plump Greek man who likes to give the girls hugs and kisses. The tables had stark white table clothes dressed in blue, just like the colors in Santorini. I had an incredible dinner of scallops, mussels, and huge prawns on a bed of spaghetti, yum yum yum! Oh yeah, and some baklava of course! I asked the owner about the dance where you throw plates, and he proceeded to throw plates at my feet until I got up and danced with him. Ten the waiters started getting other customers up from their tables and we formed a long Congo line and did the zombi dance with plates being thrown at our feet and yelling OPAAAA! It was fantastic! I really want to go to Greece!


The next day in Cairns, Kearse and I took a day trip to the Daintree Rainforest. It was really nothing spectacular, and kind of boring and very humid and sticky and uncomfortable. We stopped at a local ice cream shop though and tried flavors made from the local fruits, like supote (a chocolate flavor), wattle seed (a coffee flavor), mango, and banana. I think the best thing about the Daintree Rainforest are the facts: the Daintree is the oldest rainforest in the world at 350 million years old (the Amazon is only 30 million years old)! It is a remnant of the time when the world was a single landmass, and as the continents split up, the Daintree escaped the more dramatic changes of climate and orientation that spurred ecological change elsewhere. Consequently, there are plants out there-whole families of plants-that survived no where else, like hanging fig trees, mangroves with huge buttresses of roots, and tea leaves (I bought some Danitree Tea, so excited to try some back home)!

One of the plants in the Daintree Rainforest is called Gimpy Gimpy. "Gimpy" in the aboriginal's language means "pain", so when they say "pain" twice, you know they mean business. The Gimpy Gimpy is like poison ivy, but it doesn't leave red itchy bumps on your skin. Instead, when you brush up against the Gimpy Gimpy leaves, thousands of minute fibers bore into your skin, and the more you move, the deeper the fibers go until they rest on your nerves. These fibers are sensitive to temperature, so when you are hot (like when you are exercising and sweating) or when you are cold (like when you jump into a river), you feel the sharp stinging and burning of the Gimpy Gimpy. These burning effects are felt for four to six months after exposure to the Gimpy Gimpy!! Yikes!


In fact, in this one rainforest alone, there are more things that will kill you than anywhere else in Australia!! From Bill Bryson- "The cassowary is the flightless, man-sized bird with a razor claw on each foot with which it can slice you open in a deft and appallingly expansive manner; and the green tree snakes that dangle from branches and so blend into the foliage that you don't see them until they are clamped onto a facial extremity; the small but fearsomely poisonous blue-ringed octopus, whose caress is instant death; and the elegant but irritable numb ray, which moves through the water like a flying carpet discharging 220 volts of electricity into anything that troubles its progress; and the loathsome, sluggish stonefish, so called because it is indistinguishable from a rock, but with the difference that it has twelve spikes on its back that are sharp enough to pierce the sole of a sneaker, injecting the hapless sufferer with a myotoxin bearing a molecular weight of 150,000, which means pain beyond description followed shortly by muscular paralysis, respiratory depression, and cardiac palpitations. Then there are the feared box jellyfish and the dreaded saltwater crocodiles. The Daintree is also home to the celebrated, and extremely shy, tree kangaroo."

Australian Language and Influences

Here's a sentence I legitimately heard. It's in English, but good luck trying to understand it:

"I had a flat white for brekkie at Maccas in Brissie." Wow.

Some explanation:

Kearse has enlightened me on how Aussies order their coffee- you order a combination of two colors (black or white), two sizes (long or short), and two dimensions (flat or not). The most popular are "flat white" and "long black", and apparently the naming has to do with the amount of milk and foam in the coffee.

Aussies love to shorten words. These are my favorites that you hear in everyday conversation:

Brissie - Brisbane
Maccas - McDonald's
brekkie - breakfast
sunnies - sunglasses
runners - tennis shoes

And now for new words:

rubbish - trash
heaps - a lot
rock melon - cantaloupe
good tucker - bon appetite, enjoy your meal

I've also enjoyed dissecting the Aussie accent and pronunciation (which comes a lot from England):

1. At the end of a word, the "a" is pronounced "er", and the "er" is pronounce "a".

For example, a banana is a bananer. An idea is an idear. Our friend Nina is really Niner. Australia is Australier.

But "over here" is "over hea". Hmmmm.

2.  Omitting the letter "T", which as a Techie, I quite enjoy ;)

For example, forty is for-ee, party is par-ee, thirteen is thir-een, and tattoo is ta-oo.

3. The soft letter A. 

Instead of pronouncing "path" with a short "a" as in "at", it is pronounced with a long "a" as in "awe".

And on that note, I have found Australia to be a fusion of Britain and America. Their vivacity and optimism, casualness and informality, and comfort with strangers is distinctly American; however, they drive on the left, play cricket, drink afternoon tea, and adorn their streets with statues of Queen Victoria. Hmmm. 

I also find it fascinating that Aussies are obsessed with American movies, actors and actresses, reality TV shows (they watch the shows that I wouldn't dare watch back home), and American music, like "Born in the USA", and "Country Home", and "Calling Baton Rouge", not to mention all of the rap and pop music like Akon, T.I., Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus. 

One local girl in Cairns exclaimed to me, "You're American!? Do you know any famous people?" I had a lot fun telling her about meeting Michael Phelps, Apolo Anton Ohno, and T.I. at a Subway in Atlanta, as well as trick-or-treating at Chipper Jones's house. Oh yes, and Aussies (as well as other backpackers I've met along the way) find it a terrible tragedy that we have to "wait" until we're 21 to drink in America.

In terms of culture and lanaguage, Australia has a strange familiarity with the U.S... but it seems that they are trying too hard to be like us. Australia is a noticeably young country; they should embrace being Aussie rather than struggle with choosing between being British or American.

Surf's Up in Brisbane!

After having been in New Zealand for a couple weeks, arriving back in Australia was a bit strange. It almost felt like coming home, since it was a place I was familiar with. While New Zealand is small and fascinating, Australia is wide and unknown. Coming back to Australia didn't seem all that exciting after seeing the incredible landscape that New Zealand has to offer. However, I must say that I missed the Australian people- I find them much friendlier, funnier, more welcoming, and easier to understand than the Kiwis. Aussies tell me it's because the Kiwis have a chip on their shoulder about being seen as the younger step child to Australia and that NZ is still struggling to find their identity as a country. I'm not really sure of my take on this reasoning.

We arrived in Brisbane, and I found it quite different from Sydney. Brisbane was more humid and dirtier than Sydney. It lacked the magic  and youth that Sydney radiates. Brisbane seemed old, tired, and mundane. Where I was fascinated by watching the Sydneysiders commute to work, I was annoyed by the commotion in Brissie.

In wandering around the city, Kearse and I found some lively spots around the city's outdoor mall and along the river by some of the hotels, but otherwise Brisbane itself was quite plain. There was also no noticeable trace of the terrible floods that Brisbane experienced just weeks before our arrival when the Brisbane River banks completely overflowed. That's one thing about Australia- they deal with danger and destruction very very well. It comes with the territory.


We took an afternoon trip to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where I paid and arm and a leg to hold a koala- but it was totally worth it! One of those life-changing experiences :) The koalas were so cute, and much bigger than I imagined. Holding a koala was like holding a big ball of muscle! They are heavy, but so cuddly! Haha the one I was holding even pooped on me, apparently it's good luck. Who else can say that they've been pooped on by a koala?? 




We also wandered into a kangaroo reserve where I was able to befriend some roos and get some pets, photos, and kisses. It was magical!

Our second day in Brissie was Kearse's birthday! Happy birthday, travel mate! Since Kearse has a winter birthday in the States, I decided it'd be awesome to spend his birthday at the beach (it might be the only time he gets to go to the beach in February!). Sooooo we signed up for some surfing lessons! Woooooo!

We ended up being the only two signed up for the day, so we pretty much got one-on-one surf lessons with once Pro-Surfer and Billabong- sponsored Scott Dillon. Scott is the prime example of a surfing beach bum. He grew up in the lifestyle and loves to teach it to others. After his pro surfing career, Scott worked as a surf instructor for his friend's company. Scott decided he didn't like the way his friend wanted him to teach, so Scott started his own business less than a year ago- Beach Bum. Basically this means that Brandon and I got really good surf lessons, it was exciting!

Before our surf lessons, Scott drove us out to the Gold Coast, a city outside of Brisbane (I had no idea that Gold Coast was the name of a city... they even have their own airport). We visited the Queensland and New South Wales state line, saw the setting up for the Quiksilver Pro about to start in a week, and drove by some of the pro surf champions' favorite spots to surf (the names of these beaches escape me now, but I remember seeing the Snapper Rocks, which is a legendary surfing spot)!


Then we had our surf lessons at Fingalhead, a beach that is protected on both sides, so it's got nice waves most of the time. We learned about rip currents and how to identify them, and we learned how to spot good and bad waves, and that every wave is different. We did some skills on the beach and then hit the water. Brandon and I both stood up on our first try! It was really fun and a lot harder than I imagined. I have a newly found respect for surfers.

The hardest part of the day was getting back out to the ocean. Once you catch a wave in, you have to grab your board (ours were huge and heavy because they were beginner boards), and walk back out into the waves that are repeatedly pushing you backward. After two hours, this was exhausting. So at the beginning of the day I was so excited and thinking of signing up for a three day surf camp, and now I've changed my mind... Surfing was way fun, and the best part is definitely when you're standing up on the board, but by the end of the day, I had happily had enough. Waves and the ocean kind of scare me.


After our surf lesson, We had some chill time on the beach at Surfer's Paradise (another city), which I loved! It was pretty neat seeing the tall sky scraper right next to the sand. Unfortunately, the sea was really rough here because of the high tide today, so there were no surfers to watch. But that's ok- we got some yummy gelato! On the way back to Brissie, Scott let me have one of his CD's of Aussie surf tunes. Sweet!

For dinner, we went to an awesome BYO Thai restaurant in Brisbane's Chinatown district. We brought a bottle of wine and had some penang curry and coconut sticky rice (yuuum! It made me want to go back to Asia!). The restaurant's name was Bow Thai, which was perfectly fitting for Kearse on his birthday.


For our final day in Brisbane, Kearse and I took a day trip to Moreton Island, which is right off the eastern coast. Moreton Island is the third largest sand island in the world, with the two largest sand islands located on Australia's east coat as well- Fraser Island and the Whitsundays. So yeah Moreton Island is made completely of sand, and it has forests of trees that have grown on the dunes and in the valleys.


While on the island, we went sand boarding down one of the dunes (which was super fun but also kind of scary- haha the slope was so steep, and you just lay on a piece of plywood and hold up the front! Make sure to keep your sunglasses on and mouth closed)! After sand boarding, we cooled off in the ocean and then went for an ocean kayak. It was my first time trying out a kayak, and it was pretty neat and very enjoyable getting into a nice rhythm. Oh yeah, there were heaps of huntsman spiders all over the kayaks when we took them out of storage. Most were about the size of a half dollar (sick!), but there was one that was bigger than a tarantula! It was disgusting! Apparently they're poisonous, but not deadly, so I guess that makes it okay?

Moreton Island also has some ship wrecks that were purposefully sunken to protect the beach from waves and wind. These wrecks have become habitats for fish and other aquatic life, but since it was high tide, we were unable to go snorkeling here- the rips were too dangerous today.

Our guide Ian had an awesome saying of "Top Stuff!" He said it ALL THE TIME. Ian's parents came to Australia in the 1960s, and it only cost them ten pounds a piece because England was begging people to go colonize the continent. Ian also had a desk IT job in the city. He tired of the lifestyle and his weight gain, left the job, and is now a tour guide exploring all of the west and east coasts of Australia.

Overall, the trip to Moreton Island was slow-paced and not that exciting. It was more of a relaxing time I suppose. The fun part was meeting three Aussie girls from Sydney. Two are engineers (aeronautical and civil!), and the three of them now work for local TV stations. These girls were hilarious and fun to hang out with. The three of them were born in Australia but are all Egyptian, and they grew up together through their Egyptian school and church. It was nice talking with them about my recent travels to Egypt and the current politic unrest in Cairo, as well as getting some good recommendations on bars and pubs in Sydney.

One of my favorite quotes from these girls when we were sand boarding on the dunes- "They say no one touches these places for years... Spread out guys! Touch as much sand as you can!" Absolutely hilarious. 

Kaikoura

Today is February 14th! Happy birthday to my awesome Grandpa! I'm sending you 80 big hugs from Down Under! Also a happy birthday to my puppy, Lilly, who turned 12 today! Oh yeah and happy Valentine's Day.

Brandon and I woke up at 5:00 this morning and bid a sad farewell to the Discovery Center and to Mount Ngauruhoe. We had a long drive ahead of us all the way down the North Island to Wellington, catch the three hour ferry to Picton on the South Island, and then drive to Kaikoura. Kaikoura is known for being a marine life hot spot due to the nearby continental shelf that is home to thousands of sea creatures!


The road from Picton to Kaikoura winds along the east coast of the south island. Just outside of Kaikoura around 6:30pm we started seeing some seals on the rocks right by the road! All of a sudden we came upon a whole seal colony, right on the rocks right next to the road! We pulled over and stopped here for a while, watching the sleeping adult seals and the playful little ones! So adorable!

Afterward we had an awesome seafood dinner! Kearse had salmon, and I had this fish called... Orange something, I sadly can't remember the name, but it was so tasty and just melted in your mouth! Mmmm!

The next morning we went SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS!!!!! This was something I was just dying to do during our trip! Ah it was so incredible!! What a fantastic way to spend our last full day in New Zealand!

We put on these awesome wetsuits to prepare for the 17 degree water (brrrrr!), we even got fancy wetsuit hoods! We are going to be swimming with the Dusky Dolphin, which is known as the most acrobatic of the dolphin species and can even do backflips! There are several pods of these wild dolphins that call the Kaikoura area their home. I was looking at pictures of the dolphin pods before our swim, and I honestly didn't believe we'd be swimming with as many that were in the pictures. Of course, each day is different, as these dolphins are completely wild animals. The boat drivers do not attract them with food or sounds underwater, they simply use their knowledge and experience to go out and find the dolphins each day. Some trips see 10 dolphins, some trips see hundreds, others thousands!! Can you imagine??


Well what an experience! I indeed got to swim with hundreds of wild dolphins! It was unbelievable! The boat found some pods of dolphins after about half an hour, and literally dropped us right into the middle of the pod. Since the dolphins are wild, you have to swim toward them, make them interested in you, and play with them :) so fun! The boat captain gives you some tips, like making noises in your snorkel and swimming in circles, haha and it really worked.

My favorite tactic was diving down with the dolphins! You could see them swim right at you, close enough to touch. There were times when i was surrounded by more than ten dolphins! I even got to see mama dolphins with their little babies! 

I also liked when a dolphin would start swimming circles around me, and I'd spin around and around in the water to keep up, holding eye contact with the dolphin. It was amazing to be so close to these amazing creatures (dolphins are my favorite animals)! I also loved when I would be playing with the dolphins and a few would jump right over me! Incredible! 


I've got some awesome videos of the dolphin pods and the dolphins jumping. No swimming footage or pictures, but it was definitely a fun play time! Life dream of swimming with dolphins fulfilled! And it was even better than I ever could have imagined? Kaikoura is definitely the place to go for the best experience- it's the only place in the world that is home to this many dolphins!

As this was our last day in New Zealand, we had a lazy lunch by the beach after our dolphin swim, and then hit the road to get our van back to Christchurch before 5pm. We had to return it to Road Runner Rentals... Sounds a bit dodgy! All in all, we drove 3200 km through New Zealand in 11 days? Woooo Go Team America!

After returning the van, we relaxing in the sunny and quaint city center in Christchurch and had a celebratory dinner at an awesome pub we found when we first arrived in Christchurch. Then we grabbed a late night bus to the airport, where I met a guy who flies C130's down to Antarctica for the U.S. Air Force. (Mom, no comments about boyfriend potential please, I'm getting sick of those). Transporting mainly cargo and scientists, New Zealand is the USAF's base for flying to Antarctica. These C130's are painted orange instead of gray so that they can be seen in the snow if they go down. These planes also have skis for landing on the ice! Since all structures built in Antarctica must be removable, building a concrete runway on the ice is out of the question. 

Now that we are at the airport, we are joining several other backpackers for a night on the airport floor (it's not as sketchy as it sounds, there are lots of people doing it. There are even showers in the airport. Apparently it's the thing to do in Christchurch). I am so sad to be leaving New Zealand. It is such a beautiful country. The next morning we will catch an early early flight back to Australia. Brisbane, here we come! 

Mount Ngauruhoe Summit and Tongariro Alpine Crossing

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

The Tongariro Crossing was amazing!! Summiting Mount Doom was beyond brilliant! It was an absolutely exhilarating experience! Wow was it INCREDIBLE! 

Mom and Dad, you HAVE to go to New Zealand and hike the Tongariro Crossing! You would love it!


We began the morning in the dark and the cold. My hands were numb during the first half hour of our hike, and the silhouette of Mount Doom loomed darkly in the distance, backlit by the ever slowly rising sun.

It took Kearse and I an hour and a half to reach the saddle, which is making great time. The last shuttle to pick up the hikers at the end of the Crossing is at 4:30pm, which gave us a little over ten hours to do the entire crossing and the summit. I was worried we'd be pressed for time, so we trucked through the beginning ascent of the hike. By the time we reached the saddle (where you make the turn to climb Mt. Doom), the sun was just beginning to peek over the ridge.

We took a short break at the base of Mt. Doom to study the mountain side, develop a rough plan for getting to the top, eating a snakc, tightening our shoes and gear, and getting pumped up for the climb. 


The climb up was definitely challenging- physically and mentally. But gosh was it FUN! I loved climbing on all fours, hand over foot, picking my way through the rocks, using my arms just as much, if not more, than my legs. As the climb got steeper and trickier, I started to remind myself to keep three points of contact with the mountain face at all times (climbing a mountain this steep without ropes was a bit unnerving). Basically my process was- grab a rock, test its stability, plan a foothold, go for the foothold and hoist, then look up and sight ahead to plan my next move and check my direction up the mountain. 

There's no other way to say it, I got such a high from climbing the face of the volcano. This was a feeling that I hadn't had since swimming at Tech. It was like that extra burst of energy you get toward the end of an really tough set in the pool where you think you have nothing left but then you pull out this energy from somewhere deep inside you.

I took some photo and refueling breaks on the way up, but I had so much adrenaline that I didn't feel tired. It was exhilarating! I just couldn't stop thinking- How can it get any better than this?! Now I definitely know that my inner adrenaline junkie needs to spend over an hour scaling a mountain side rather than a doing three second bungy jump. 


The weather during our climb was amazingly perfect! Clear blue sky and fresh crisp air with the clouds stuck down low in the valley and the sun not yet burning high in the sky was pure perfection! I got some great shots of the steeply angled scree and volcanic rock. Literaly we were climbing on rocks that had churned within the earth and exploded out of the crater opening years and years ago. Bright red rocks mixed with dark black ones, ah it was so fascinating. 


We had some amazing views on the way up of the Tongariro Crossing and Mount Tongariro's Crater Plateau, South Crater, and Blue Lake (which we later got to see up close). We were way above the clouds during our climb, and there's nothing like looking down on a blanket of white when you're NOT in an airplane.


It took us an hour and a half to pick our way to the top. The last 100 meters was made up of extremely loose bright red rock that was just terrible to climb through. Oh but summiting was such a great feeling! The top snuck up on me so fast. All of a sudden I looked up and saw straight across the summit and into the gaping caldera of Mount Doom. The first thought in my mind- Does it get any better than this? ("it" as in, life, adventure, thrill, how can it get any better? This is amazing!). The second thought in my mind- Okay you can breathe now. Haha New Zealand had once again literally taken my breath away with its beauty.


Gosh staring down into the crater of an active volcano was unreal. The crater was huge and so deep! Rocks and scree filled the middle, and you can just imagine those boulders being hurled kilometers into the sky during an explosion. The wide brim of the crater was all red rock, and then inside of the crater all black rock. The crater also made for a really nice echo and it was cool to yell and throw rocks inside of it! Too bad I didn't have a ring to throw in like Frodo! 

We wandered around the summit for about an hour. You could see the Tama Lakes on the other side of the volcano, which is something you don't get to see from the Crossing, so it was pretty neat to get to see those. We got an incredible view of Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Doom's tiny little glacier. I also stuck my face into the steam vents- haha the steam was warm, wet, and smelled like sulfur, kind of like being in a sticky sauna. Nice! 

It took us a little over thirty minutes to run down the scree of sand, rock, and rubble. It was crazy how we spent so much time getting up but got down in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, I was at the base of Mount Doom, emptying out my shoes and examining my cuts and scrapes, still in disbelief that we had climbed to the very top. 

I must say that standing at the base of Mount Doom (and even seeing pictures of Mt. Doom) knowing that I had climbed it is one of the coolest feelings ever. However, it doesn't beat the feeling of actually standing at the top! What accomplishment, and all before 11am!

So now all we had in front of us was the remaining 14 km of the Tongariro Crossing! Lovely :) We walked through the dry South Crater and then up to the Red Crater at the highest elevation of the track (except of course Mount Doom). We took a break for lunch where I was so hot I could hardly eat. There wasn't a bit of shade on this section of the crossing, since we were walking along volcanos. The only vegetation here was moss. Haha there were no restrooms either, and finding some privacy was impossible (no trees or boulders and it was too dangerous to deviate from the trail), so it looks like I'm holding it most of the trip! 


After lunch we walked down to the Emerald Lakes (craters filled with brilliantly turquoise water), then up to the blue lake, which is a huge caldera filled with water! It was awesome! After the blue lake, the remaining couple of hours were all downhill, yay! We descended through some intense Lord of the Rings looking territory- large rolling green hills littered with gray and lack volcanic boulders smothered in bright green moss. It was way cool! 


It was also really neat how the vegetation changed from high up until getting to the car park. We saw only moss, rocks, and alpine scrub at the top of the Crossing and at the Summit. As we descended the vegetation changed to short brown grass, to shin high tussock, to knee high bushes, to shoulder high bushes, to trees just above head, and then to walking in a lush podocarp forest! So neat! We also got a lovely view of Lake Taupo on the way down, and we walked by the Ketehari hot springs and a warm water river flowing from the mountain side.

We finished the Crossing at 4:00 and had some time to kill before our 4:30 shuttle back to camp, so we soaked our feet in the freezing cold river at the base of the Crossing, it was glorious! All in all we spent 10 hours at Tongariro. The Mount Ngauruhoe Summit took us 3.5 hours (1.5 hours up, 1.5 hours at summit, 0.5 hours down), and the Tongariro Crossing took us 6.5 hours (1.5 hours to the saddle, 5 hours to finish the remaining 14 km after the summit including lunch and a zillion photo stops). Mount Doom was definitely the highlight of the day, and I'm so thankful for the fantastic weather that we had- clear blue skies, great visibility, low winds. 

My overall feelings at the end of the day- sheer exhilaration, happiness, and a feeling of being just so blessed at having shared in God's creation in this way. He is such an artist. 


Now I have thoughts going through my head about how in the world I will be able to return to my life in the States and start work. How can sitting in a conference room as a consultant compare to scaling the face of a volcano? How do I keep these adventures and these moments priorities in my life? I love these feelings I have- the momentum, the adrenaline, the happiness, the beauty. The feeling of being on top of the world, above the clouds.

I loved the closing decent with the view of Lake Taupo, the changing vegetation, and the shady ending in the forest. It was a great reward! Now my worries from the night before seem so lame, but that's exactly why I wrote them down- so that I could go back and read them and reflect on them I suppose. It wasn't as much of a "crossing" as I thought it would be. I don't have this feeling of moving into another phase of life or becoming a different person... but this experience is still powerful in its own way. It's powerful in that I have this yearning for more. More adventure, more thrill, more travel, more experiences. Today has caused me to ask so many more questions of myself in figuring out who I am and discerning the path that God has chosen for me. Yes, I'm looking forward to my work in the US- perhaps it is a stepping stone to finding something really fulfilling. I'm in awe that we did the summit and the crossing, but I don't have this final feeling of accomplishment... Haha let's do more!