New Zealand - the "one DOES simply walk into Mordor" edition

Previously, Ness and I explored some thermal stinkiness, visited an epic waterfall, and drove a really long way. Also, we stayed at a hotel that was far too posh for us, and we were the youngest people there by at least ten years.

We got up to be greeted by a gorgeous sunny morning. And, I discovered that if you were willing to stick your entire upper body (and your SLR) out of the window and twist around to the left, this was the view from our hotel room:

Not too shabby, huh? We kitted up, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to do a couple of short walks. We'd originally been planning to do a longer one, but the forecast was for the weather to get crappy by early afternoon, so we figured it was probably best to not set out on a walk that would require us to spend three hours walking in the pissing rain to get back to the hotel.

We figured we'd do the longest one first to make the most of the good weather, and so headed out to Taranaki Falls. The walk itself was pretty easy - a couple of biggish hills, but with proper steps and plenty of places to convince yourself that you were stopping to admire the view:

After a little over an hour, we reached the Falls. They were a lot more impressive than I'd anticipated and I kind of wished there'd been a path down to the bottom so that we could see exactly how cold the water was. I mean, water that clear tends to indicate snowmelt, but it looked SO NICE...

Hiking fashion is not like regular fashion

The walk back took us past Mount Doom Ngaurahoe and Mount Ruapehu but was generally less pleasant than the walk TO the falls, due largely to the lack of shade. Still, the views pretty much made up for it:

I still giggle every time I see this

When we got back to the hotel, we jumped straight in the car and headed a little further afield. We started out with a walk that was meant to take 20 minutes but in fact took us less than five. It wasn't particularly picturesque either, so it's hard to imagine it taking 20 minutes even if you loitered to look at the scenery.

So we headed on to the walk to Tawhai Falls. It was a lot smaller than Taranaki, but you could get right up close. We spent 20 minutes or so clambering about the rocks and just enjoying things before a couple of middle aged tourists appeared and we thought it best to head off.

And then we decided to walk the Ridge Track. That proved to be rather steeper than we were anticipating, and by the time we reached the top and its (apparent) panoramic views, it became abundantly clear that there was some very heavy rain approaching. So we hightailed it back down the ridge (overtaking an incredibly annoying group of French people who abruptly stopped talking when I overtook them with a "Pardon. Merci!" on the way) and arrived back at the hotel juuuuuuuuuuust as it started to pour.

After showering and generally de-hiking-ing, the rain was just as bad. So we grabbed some books and headed down to the lounge where we spent the rest of the afternoon partaking in tea, cheese and crackers, and cocktails (Black Forest hot chocolate? YES PLEASE).

This is not Black Forest hot chocolate. Obviously.

We also did laundry because we're rock and roll like that. I mean, what else do you do while in Mordor???

Next up, we go on a random roadtrip of randomness. Because we can.

K xx

New Zealand - the "what is that SMELL??" edition

Previously, Ness and I chased hobbits.

After leaving Hobbiton, we drove down to Rotorua, and arrived in time to abuse the hotel's free wifi, and discover that we could basically only get signal for said wifi if we sat on the bench of the kitchenette right next to the door. We walked into town for dinner and detoured past some hot springs for a little look, where we promptly discovered that hot springs smell like a combination of fart and wet dog with an unwelcome side of steam that means you're WALKING THROUGH STINKY CLOUDS OF STINKINESS. In short: ew.

Anyway, we had dinner (I had chicken strips because I'm a grown up), then wandered down towards the lake where we promptly froze to death from the wind and high tailed it back to the hotel. But not before admiring this cool church:

The following morning, we drove into town for breakfast, where I was presented with this BOWL of hot chocolate:

I'm a little sad it didn't have a lightning bolt scar...

Once we'd finished stuffing our faces, we jumped in the car and headed out to Rotorua's number one tourist attraction (according to TripAdvisor, at least) - the redwood forest. We picked one of the walking tracks that was an hour or so, and headed off into the forest. It was, excitingly, the one place in town that doesn't smell like wet dog farts, which I suspect is part of why it's so popular.

The trees were pretty impressive, and the whole walk was gorgeous. Plus, the redwoods kept making me think of Redwoodian, which gave me squees.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Te Puia. After returning to the Kiwi House THREE TIMES, we finally got to see one moving around, and it was the greatest thing ever. I have no photos, sadly, because NOCTURNAL. But rest assured, kiwis are adorable and my second favourite thing ever (the first being red pandas, obviously).

We took the guided tour around the site, past gloopy mud pools and geysers and a recreated Maori village, to displays of Maori weaving and carving techniques.

Bloopy mud.

The whole thing was really well done, and we had plenty of time left to look around at our own pace between the tour and the Maori cultural performance, which included a haka, traditional songs, and poi dancing, which was pretty fabulous:

It was only 4.00 by the time we finished there, so we parked by the Rotorua Museum (which we didn't have time to go to, but the building is REALLY PRETTY), and wandered around the lake for a while.

Next time, we go to a fabulous cafe for breakfast, then head south in search of more stinkiness and a dirty great volcano.

K xx

30 Days of Photography - Day 23

The theme for Day 23 was sunflare. I had high hopes for taking some shots today, seeing as it was a gorgeous, sunny day in Melbourne. Buuuuuut we had a bunch of people over this afternoon, and I a) got distracted helping with the cooking, and b) flat out forgot. FAIL.

Thankfully, I remembered that I took a bunch of photos on a bushwalk we did way back at the start of September that I never showed you guys, so here:

I'm kind of obsessed with taking photos of dead trees. Dead trees are to me what abandoned houses are to Katie - kryptonite. I could quite happily fill entire memory cards with pictures of dead trees. I think I just like the textures of them!

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 2

Yesterday, I forked out $125 for a single textbook. Thankfully, it's the ONLY textbook for my entire Masters degree, so I guess it could be worse? Anyway, having to put that sizeable a dent in my savings on something so unexciting made me want to look at pretty things that are free.

And so I give you my favourite photos from last year: Natural Environment Edition.

January - Cliffs at Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

July - Nice dead tree on Mount Lofty, near Melbourne

Sometimes, you just need to make things monochrome.

I'm pretty sure I could fill an entire art gallery with just the pictures of dead trees that I have on my hard drive. I'm kind of a little bit obsessed with them... (See also: metal statue of dead tree in Part 1 of this series!!)

August - Sunset from the John Hancock Observatory, Chicago

I elbowed a small child out of the way for this shot.

September - Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Complete with insane rock climbers, if you look closely enough!

September - Part way up Pikes Peak, Colorado

It seems kind of Bronte-esque, to me

September - Seven Falls, Colorado

September - Central Park, New York

This is currently my desktop background

September - Guanella Pass, Colorado

September - Aspen trees on the Peak to Peak Highway, Colorado

This was the most amazing sea of trees I've ever seen

Which is your favourite? Does anyone else like dead trees as much as me? And do you know why textbooks are so sodding expensive??

K xx

Adventures and owies

That's right kids - contrary to what you may have been thinking, I'm not dead. I've just been crazy busy for the past week. I finished work on Tuesday, spent all day Wednesday cleaning (and nearly fell asleep at dinner with my parents), and packed the van and did more cleaning on Thursday. Which included giving myself a rather spectacular bruise on my left knee because I dropped my end of the (rather weighty CRT) TV, and used my knee to stop it smashing on the ground. We had the final inspection on Friday, followed by the 7.5 hour drive to Melbourne. Let me just say, the Hume Highway is REALLY. FREAKING. BORING... When the highlights of a drive that long are a town that's about 3 hours from the coast and which features a giant submarine, and a tree shaped like a chicken, you know it's dull.

After unloading the van and filling the garage up with all my junk really important stuff, I wound up going to stuff myself with pizza and watch the footy with my brother, C, and a bunch of his mates. Not actually AT the footy, you understand, because that was in Adelaide. But at one of C's mate's houses, which meant we could make really terrible jokes about the commentary and watch South Park during half time. SCORE!

(Oh, and speaking of really terrible jokes, there are two fish sitting in a tank. One turns to the other and says "So, how do you drive this thing?". C told that on Friday night, and as terrible as it is, I'm milking it for all it's worth!)

Over the weekend, I went crazy and wound up going bushwalking. Twice. Saturday was a trip out to Werribee Gorge with Ness and Jamie (Also? Chrome's spellcheck is telling me that Werribee should be spelled 'Werewolf'. AWESOME). Seeing as how I had NO idea where any of my clothes were (other than "somewhere in a box in the garage"), I wore my most appropriate outfit - jeans and a t-shirt that has puffy sleeves and little hearts all over it. And yes, it's TOTALLY necessary to have puffy sleeves on your shirt while bushwalking. Didn't you know? ;) I did manage to locate my hiking boots though, so at least my footwear was appropriate!

Werribee Gorge

Werribee River

Taken by Jamie, who's not too lazy to stand up during lunchtime like I am a much better photographer than me

Oh, and if you DO go to Werribee Gorge? The park map that's available online shows the unsealed roads in the same colour as the contour lines... #whosegeniusideawasthat

Then on Sunday, I went out to the Christmas Hills with my parents and one of their friends for a jaunt up Mt Lofty. There were nice views:

And dead trees which led me to play with monochrome mode:

And weird fungus:

And then I fell on my arse. To be fair, it was going down a hill that was covered in slick mud and a whole lot of moss. But I still went out walking with a group containing two people with Seniors cards and *I* was the one who fell down. Nice work, Kirsti...

But it was all okay, because we went out for lunch in Yarra Glen afterwards. Pear cider and a steak sandwich makes any Sunday afternoon better!

How've you guys been while I've been off gallivanting about the countryside?!

K xx

Central Australia Part 3 - Kata Tjuta

Yeah, yeah. I'm a slacker, I know. Let's get into part 3 of the saga. So we left Uluru at like 8.45am, which was an incredibly depressing realisation. Nothing like having walked ten ks by that time of day to make you feel exhausted! So from Uluru, we headed down the road to Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas. And while we were on the way, we got hit with the most godawful collection of songs. Yes, our tour leader decided that we needed exposure to some "classic Aussie hits"...

The list of doom included 'Pub with No Beer', 'G'day G'day', and the obligatory 'Down Under'. But as the list went on, it got progressively worse. We moved from "classic Aussie hits" to "crap they teach you in primary school" - when we hit 'Click Go the Shears' followed by 'Bound for Botany Bay', I was about ready to jump out of the bus window. Thankfully, we got to Kata Tjuta, and the torture stopped.

When we got there, it was time for yet another walk. *sigh* This time, it was into Walpa Gorge.

The start of the walk looked quite a lot like it belonged in Jordan or somewhere similar, in my opinion!

Sara, as you can see, was thrilled by our second walk of the day:

As we got further into the gorge, it became less like something that had escaped from the Middle East:

This bit was pretty cool - more of the black algae that grows where water runs during the rains:

And here's the end of the gorge. Honestly, while it was impressive and all, it was rather a let-down after having spent two hours walking around Uluru!

The view back towards the plain below wasn't too shabby:

It was pretty nice to see the sky this blue though after the previous day of epic rainingness:

On the way back to Uluru for lunch, we stopped off at a viewing platform where you can see the whole of Kata Tjuta from the one site, which is FAR more impressive than the view you get from up close:

And off to the right, you can see clear across to Uluru:

After a quick stop there to take photos, it was back to the campsite at Uluru for lunch. And from there, it was a sad and dull four or five hour drive back to Alice Springs. Good Lord, but it was long and painful... Although I suppose it can't really be avoided!

Anyway, Kata Tjuta is spectacular, but unlike Uluru, loses some of its impressiveness the closer you get to it. But from a distance? Totally worth the gazillions of hours of driving!

K xx