יום שלישי, פברואר 06, 2007

Tongeraro circute - The Last Track

As you can already guess from the title of the post, we have been in another track, but this one is really the last one (according to Izick, it's the last one in New Zealand, so It's probably not the end of it...).
This track was quite different from all the other ones we have done so far.

Before I'll start telling you all about the track, I have to explain how we got there.

It all started when we've moved north to the North Island.
We took the ferry from Picton which is 2 hours car ride from Nelson, the last city we have been in the south island.

From Ride on the F...


We also took our car with us, on a trip at sea.

From Ride on the F...


From Ride on the F...


From Ride on the F...


From Ride on the F...


From Ride on the F...


It was a very big ferry and the ride was quite nice. For me it was a great ride, because for the first time I didn't got sea sick (maybe it was all thanks to the special bracelets I bought in Israel for that exact purpose...).

After 3.5 hours ride we arrive to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand (you learn new things every time you read this blog...).
We could feel right a way the different between this city and all the other cities we have been to so far. The city really looked like a big, modern, alive city (a miniature Manhattan). I was very surprised to see something like that in New Zealand.

From Wellington City


From Wellington City


We spent 2 days in Wellington. We went to the 'Te Papa' museum and to the botanic garden.

From Wellington City


The thing is that the north island is quite boring, so there isn't much to do here. This is why we left only 2 weeks to travel in this part of New Zealand.

From Wellington we drove 400 kilometers to National Park, a small township.

From On the way to...


From On the way to...


From On the way to...


From this town we took the track, not before we had another problem with our car. This time it was an ignition problem (another 120$ to the cost of the car).
Getting the car to the mechanic was quite an adventure this time. Since the car broke down 20 kilometers from where we were staying, and the place was quite small, we had to call the AA service (like SHGRIR in Israel). After more than 1 hour, someone arrived. He couldn't see what was the problem at that moment; and even if he could he had no extra parts or tools to fix it.So, he took a rope and connected the front of our car to the back of his car (he had no toeing equipment). We put our car in neutral and he just carry us all the way to his garage (50 Kilometers away). The ride was quite scary, since our wipers wasn't working and it was raining heavily and Izick had to control the car, so we want bump into the mechanic car. Finlay we arrived to his place and he gave us a ride back to our hostel.
After loosing our car we had the perfect time to go on a 3 day track, while our car is being fixed.

We didn't had much time to prepare to the track and we didn't had any bread. After some maneuvers we were ready to go on another track, and I was really hoping this will be my last one.

This track didn't had any bush or green mountain with snow, this time it was a volcanic mountains.

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


A real active volcano. This time there was no eruption so we can tell the story.

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


When we reached the top, 3 magnificent lakes were reveled to us (I think the pictures speaks for themselves).

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


After leaving those lakes we had another 2 hours walk in the dessert. It was really amazing to see something so different in New Zealand (so far all the views were the same: mountains covered with grass and forests).

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


The next 2 days we walked around the mountain (this is why it called Tongararo circuit). It was very beautiful seeing the 3 volcanic mountain in the area, every hour from a different side of it.

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


To Lavi, this track really was like walking in GVAOT GORAL (according to Izick).

From Tongerero Cir...


From Tongerero Cir...


When I finished the track I was so glad, since I knew that even thought it's not the last track in the whole trip, it's still the last one in New Zealand. And this is a real achievement for me. After 6 tracks in New Zealand, I must say that maybe at some times it was difficult or even frightening (for me), but this is the best way to taste the real New Zealand. And I recommend it to everyone who is thinking of coming here.

אין תגובות: