There is a veggie and fruit shop next door where the prices don't seem too bad. We found dinner of gnocchi and veggies, which turned out super delicious.
Today, we decided to take the train to Blackheath. From there we walked about 7k down a road to a spectacular look out. We had heard the "hanging rock" was there, so we searched for that, which was just a short trail away. We climbed out onto it to get an amazing view of the valley. A bit freaky, but very neat. The walk was tiring, but we finally didn't have to walk up or down any stairs.
We were thinking of going out for dinner, but then Joe mentioned making nachos. So, we found corn chips (surprisingly, Doritoes makes plain, salted chips), some beans, cheese, lettuce, olives, an avocado and a tomato. They were super yummy. :D
-Miranda
A better photo of the same type of parrot.
Purty waterfall.
The hanging rock. Joe is on the left. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good photos of it since I can't see what I'm taking a photo of.
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This morning we got up, packed and headed for Central Station. We rode the train to Katoomba and found a hostel to stay at. Unfortunately, their private rooms were all booked, but the dorm we're in is really quiet. Their internet is free and they have free breakfast in the morning, so that will be a nice change.
Once we got set up, we headed to Echo Point where the start of walks into the valley and into the national park are. The hike really wasn't long, but you had to walk down stairs that went down the valley wall. They were super steep. There were apparently 900 steps. That was just going down. The trail was very pretty and had a view of a gorgeous waterfall.
From there we reached the place to head back up the valley wall. We could cheat and take the sky tram, but we decided to take the Furber Stairs instead. There were some beautiful sites along the way, so even though it was pretty tough, we're definitely glad we went that route. Along the trail we ended up seeing a few parrots. They were bright red with blue on the tail, head and wings. We also got to see (and hear) Black Cockatoos. Very fun.
After we completed the hike (it took us 3.5 hours), we headed back into town to find dinner. The Thai restaurant we found was very good. They didn't include rice with their meals, which was a little odd, but it was still delicious.
-Miranda
A view of the Three Sisters. They're a main land formation in this area of the park.
A small section of the stairs on the way back up. Some of the stairs were metal, but most were carved directly out of the stone wall.
;)
Some more stairs. If you click on the photo and then look near the patch of sunshine, you might be able to see two red spots. Those are parrots. ;) That's what I get for breaking my camera.
An amusing sign telling us which way the trail goes.
Another view of the Three Sisters while the sun was working on setting.
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After the library, we headed towards a campground in Totaranui. It's huge! It can fit 850 campers, or so the DOC book claims. We had a relaxing evening and decided to do a section of the Abel Tasman coastal hike the next morning. One option was the whole loop, which would have been around 20k, part of it going up to around 450 meters. Otherwise, we could hitchhike to the start and hike back to the campground.
We found a ride pretty quickly, so we started hiking. It was a bit more up and down than I was expecting, but it was still a very nice hike. Most of it was in the forest and it had some great views of the coast and some beaches. We made the hike in 4 hours. It was around 13k total.
From there we headed back into Takaka to use the library's internet for an hour. Our goal from there was to maybe get to a free DOC site, but it was looking a little far and we were due for a shower, so we stopped in Motueka at a holiday park and are staying here for the night. It's super packed because the fruit pickers of the season are here, but a shower is definitely nice.
-Miranda
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We woke up this morning to frost and ice covering the windows... We had purchased hats and gloves the day before just because information on the hike we were going to do mentioned you should have them. We figured we would probably need them on the South Island anyway. Boy are we sure glad we picked them up. In the middle of the night we had to put the hats on to keep so much heat from escaping out of our heads.
Our plan for the day was the Tongariro Alpine Pass. It's a day hike that typically takes 7-8 hours. It's 19.4 km (12 miles) with about 2500 ft up and 3600 feet back down. When we arrived at the parking lot, there were a lot of people there. Some shuttles (read buses) pulled up not long after us, so we tried to get started before them. The train of people was pretty crazy, but through the hike, we did manage to space out a bit.
We definitely saw the inspiration for Mordor and got to see 'Mount Doom' up close. The walk back down was quite painful on the knees, but the hike was great. There were beautiful sites along the way, including some 'emerald lakes'. Unfortunately, my camera's battery was basically dead, so I didn't get to take nearly as many photos as I wanted to, but maybe that was a good thing in the end. Now we can say that we have walked through Mordor. :D
Here's a link to a map of the hike: http://www.tongariroalpinecrossing.com/
-Miranda
Start of the hike.
Mt Ngauruhoe ('Mount Doom')
Emerald Lakes.
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We were picked up last night from the airport by our host. The view from our room is of the city and is pretty amazing. Lucas and his mother are very nice and fun. They're both basically vegans. We had fun chatting with them quite a bit last night.
This morning, we headed out to get breakfast. Unfortunately, the house is up quite a hill. We walked a mile down and found a small grocery store and a cute cafe. We had breakfast at the cafe, walked around a little bit, then headed back to the supermarket, back up the hill in the hot sun, and home.
We were due for our second Twinrix shot (Hep A and Hep B shot in one) so I called a travel clinic that was a little under 2 miles away. They could get us in at 2. We headed back out and hoofed it down there. We each got our shot and decided to walk around and explore some. We walked down to the beach and over to Waikiki before starting to work our way back, finding dinner along the way. We ended up walking around 13-14 miles today total. We're hurting pretty good.
-Miranda
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