Tongariro Crossing

Yesterday I hiked the Tongariro Crossing, which is supposed to be the most spectacular day-walk in New Zealand. The walk goes along all sorts of volcanic craters and amazing sulphuric hot springs and lakes. I would love to be able to tell you just how amazing and beautiful it was and how I've never seen views like those before, but it rained through most of the walk and the majority of my views were blankets of fog in all directions. After climbing up for an hour and half the winds were strong enough that I had to make a choice between crouching down or being blown over. Needless to say, I was unable to take a peek at the edge of the crater and examine it's depth. If I did, I would be in the crater right now instead of writing this blog. Fortunately, I did get a fabulous glimpse of the Emerald Lakes, which are a striking, vibrant green and just came out of nowhere. You could smell the sulphur much sooner than you could see the lakes. By the end of the day, the sun made an appearance, my pants dried and we were so far from the craters that it was hopeless. But seeing the Emerald Lakes made it all worth it. Though I don't have a picture to show you...

In other news, this is my new blog for obvious reasons. Jen should have her new blog up and running soon. I think. She's at a new WWOOF host in Northland, and I presume it depends on whether or not they have internet access. She's WWOOFing at a huge cattle farm. I'm leaving National Park today to go WWOOFing at a Lavender Farm. Doesn't that just show how different we are.