Brandon planned an amazing trip to New Zealand to celebrate my Birthday this month. We did a lot of hiking and exploring different filming sites for the Lord of the Rings movies. It was so fun, and the party kept going when we got back with mandatory 14 day self isolation due to the fact we had traveled overseas. Currently on day 6 and still going well. Both of us have plenty of work to do from home at the moment. Our grocery delivery service got pushed back a week, so is coming Tuesday, but Nerina was our savior and picked us up some fruit and veg. We has been living on Chinese take away until then. Got some Italian take away to spice it up. Read on below about our trip. 🙂

We flew into Wellington on the North Island of New Zealand and took a shuttle to Jucy to rent our car. We then drove north, to nearly the middle of the Island to Rahtihi, a tiny town in a mountainous area known for its skiing and hiking. We got in at 10pm, having stopped in Wellington for groceries, food for the hike, and sandwiches for lunch. New Zealand is actually even more strict than Australia about bringing food in, so we didn’t have anything with us. We settled in and woke up at 4am to drive to the street parking next to the end of the Tongariro Alpine Hike. We met up with a bus and our aggressive driver Dave to take us to the start of the hike. After some windy roads and fast driving, we got to the park when the sun was just lightening the sky. There even was TP at the first set of outhouses. The 19.4 km walk took us next to Mt. Ngauruhoe, then across Mt. Tongariro, both active volcanoes. In between, we got to see the Red Crater, the Emerald Lakes, and Blue Lake. These areas are all sacred to the indigenous people of NZ, the Maori. The hike was long and hard. But worth it! We packed well between our layers, food, water, juice, TP, and the rest of our gear. I only felt in danger at the top of the crest as we were walking on frosty rocks with drops on both sides down. It was quite windy and chilly in the shade and the frost did not help the wet rocks. A fall probably would not have killed you, but it would hurt a lot on all those rocks. And I, not being the most coordinated, felt that one bad step would send me over. But it was fine. We took it slow and had amazing weather. The day before had been too rainy and windy and they closed the hike. We actually had amazing weather every day we were in NZ- very unusual per the locals, they had a rainy summer. After all the hard work, climbing rocks and stairs, the way down took the longest; it was mainly a zig zag path down the mountain with an amazing view of Lakes Rotoaira and Lake Taupo. You could see steam/mist coming out of the other side of Mt. Tongariro from the volcanic activity happening below. We had kept a close eye on all the warnings leading up to this hike- weather and any activity happening. Thankfully, we had a great day for it! The last part of the hike was through a forest and then we had another 1.1 kms to the car. Our motivation phrase was that there was just a parkrun to go!! The second out house we stopped at had signs to see how you were doing- if you thought you could handle it or if you should turn back. The top one out of 5 was “pumped”, and the next one down, was “tired, but good.” We aimed to be “pumped” the whole time, but I think “tired, but good” won out. I was very thankful for my hiking boots; they saved my ankles on all the loose rock.

We headed back to our airbnb for showers and a nap after that intense hike. We got up and drove to a burger restaurant for dinner. They were delicious, but both of us were so tired, and our legs had been feeling it already on the hike. The next day, we got up and drove south east to the very edge of the North Island to a park called the Pinnacles. They filmed the Valley of the Dead from Return of the King in these natural rock formations. Since we didn’t do enough hiking the day before, we took the Ridge route on the way in and the creek bed on the way out for a 7 km total hike. It was really cool! Very unique area. We then came back to our Airbnb in Wellington and crashed for the night. The next day we got up and did parkrun, our second international one! (my third) We drove to Lower Hutt, outside of the city and ran along the Hutt River. We had more hiking planned and already had sore legs, so we didn’t push it on this parkrun. We drove to a nature park in Upper Hutt home to where they filmed Rivendell. A beautiful area in the shade of the hills with streams and waterfalls. We then stopped at a park where they filmed the Isengard Garden scene. We couldn’t find exactly where they filmed it; somewhere on the disc golf course. We then had lunch at a cute cafe in Upper Hutt, then did a driving tour of Wellington, until we had to turn our car in. We went up on the Hill for a view, past the botanical gardens, then through town, past Parliament and some museums.