Tongariro Crossing…AKA A Hiker’s Highway
Spent the night listening to Kiwis (!)- woke up early to catch the sunrise and a bumpy van ride to the beginning of The Tongariro Crossing. This is probably the most famous hiking trail in New Zealand…and I don’t doubt it. I’m pretty sure there were about 10,000 other hikers on that trail! If you look really closely at our pictures you’ll realize that those little dots are all people! It was still beautiful none the less…
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| From Road Trip & Far North |
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| From Road Trip & Far North |
The flying fox of death…
Our next and final assignment is a 4 day locum in Levin, about an hour north of Wellington on the East Coast of the North Island. Levin is a little farming community/beach town with THE COOLEST PLAYGROUND ON EARTH, or at least the coolest in the South hemisphere for sure! It’s called the Adventure Park and this place, I am sure, provides the doctors here with scores of injuries. And it’s free. With free BBQs and a little train that takes kids around it. There are multiple rope course type stations and a big wheel that spins inside a block of concrete. But the best feature of all is the double flying fox (T-bar zip line that you ride on). Who can resist a zipline? Especially one that seems like it was actually made for adults? Safe to say- I almost died. Literally. Most likely from the head trauma that neither Justin nor I saw coming. There I am, flying down the line…getting towards the end…slowly realizing that I am going REALLY FAST…seeing a look of panic start to develop on Justin’s face who is behind me on the other line…luckily I really didn’t see what was happening and when I got to the end, hit the tires on the line, somehow flipping up perpendicular to the ground, holding on for dear life, I somehow missed hitting my body, head, legs on the big end pole AND managed to stay on the T-bar. My back is totally sore and Justin was pretty sure I was going to seriously hurt myself. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty and I’m definite that I will not be trying that again anytime soon. Justin’s only saving grace was that his ass dragged along the ground, slowing him down before the end.
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| From Road Trip & Far North |
onto Christchurch
Had a leisurely brekkie and left Oamaru for Christchurch. Not too much to see along this coastline so we didn’t stop all that much. We did head into the harbour of Christchurch, somehow making it through the customs gate before sheepishly admitting to the guard that we had gone too far! We did get to see the Esperanza, a Greenpeace ship- painted with a beautiful rainbow on it! Our new friend Tonnie works in Christchurch and was nice enough to let us crash with her.
Auckland Symphony
Decided to be ‘cultured’ for a night and after making up a huge picnic dinner, went to the Auckland Domain for a night at the symphony. The highlight was definitely the laser light show set to a ‘Lord of the Rings Tribute’.
Road Trip- Raglan to Coromandel
5 days off in a row!!! Our first NZ roadtrip through the North Island…stay tuned.
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| From Road Trip – R… |
