NZ 2011: #05. tongariro!

Woke up at 12pm today after a long night yesterday! It was super terrible, somehow the heater in our campervan wasn’t working and after an hour of sleep I woke up feeling super cold even though I was wrapped in the duvet and rolled up to a fetal position. ): I was really shivering uncontrollably and couldn’t even think or talk properly, and thank God darius was snoring and herny was so frustrated then I realized he was awake and he realized that my teeth were chattering. :/ jojo woke up soon after and apparently I heard from them later that they were so worried that they called the motorhome company to ask about the faulty heater and quickly researched for powered sites for us to camp in so we could use the electric heater.

After some time, herny somehow managed to fix the heater and found the heating spot – and FINALLY I felt so much alive. Placed my feet at the outlet and it even took like ten minutes before my toes finally warmed up. Gosh. And then we removed the cushion and all the warm air came from the floor and GOSH super shiok!

Went back to sleep after that at about 5 and then by the time we woke up it was already lunch time o.O and so we washed up, refilled our water supply, removed those grey water (aka. Used water from the sinks) andden started cooking brunch! Actually I don’t cook at all, I always ended up looking from the side and taking photos :/ hahaha. And plus today I had really bad cramps roars. But I wash the dishes! So uhhh not so unhelpful la. Haha.

clearing the waste water

Anyway! Brunch was soup abalone chicken noodles with mushrooms and eggs and fried mee with vege! Super nice! Loveeee the warm soup :) darius was beverage IC and so he made coffee for us too woots.

satisfying brunch

beverage ic and wash dishes ic.

And after cleaning up, we went back to refill more water (oh yes, the water point was difficult to access, we had to park properly such that our tubing could reach the tap! Then we spotted a “long-drop” toilet which was just a hut next to the tap and it was amazingly clean with toilet paper! Seriously I didn’t even think that someone would even maintain that campsite so I’m really surprised. Oh and these long drop toilets don’t have flush, so basically all your business goes somewhere I don’t know.

where we slept for the night

awesome sky!

After packing up it was already 3 plus. O.o so we decided to head to the nearby mountains for the Alpine Crossing walk andden our campervan got stuck!!! Roars. So after some troubleshooting and throwing of ideas herny started removing soil with his bare hands while jojo took over the wheel and together they saved the day heh. And so darius drove us to our next location and the drive was freaking amazing! The three peaks goshhhh. After reading lonely planet we realized that one of the peaks was Mordor from LOTR!! And it’s really, really amazing :D loves the snowcapped peaks!

an attempt to free our camper hahaha

i'm sorry nz!

So after parking at the space we started walking for an hour plus to a hut nearby while taking many many breathtaking photos of the mountains and talking rubbish, andden turned around to make sure we reach the camper before the sky turns dark. And GOSH the sunset was super beautiful! Too bad there were clouds so we couldn’t see fully. I had to run backwards to catch it la! But it was well worth it :)

hard at work

MORDORRRRRR.

wooots - very driveable roads!

niceeeeee.

kodak moment!

hahahaha

more lord of the rings stuff

can you spot the three of us?

trying to be archers

sunset!

So after that brief walk we went on our way to our next stop, waitomo (: along the way there which lasted for a about two hours plus, we visited two petrol stations to refill diesel and LPG and stocked up a little on food and stuff. Halfway through we saw a roadkill and darius dangerously swirved, scaring the shit out of me haha. But the road trip was fun! The three of us, darius herny and I were htht-ing and talking about various things and for the first time I’m a little bit more frank to them regarding something. But it was seriously a good conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed! (: I foresee many such times to come in the next few days.

Because there wasn’t any free DOC campsite at waitomo, we decided to head to the nearby town instead at te kuiti, where we found a free campsite with dumping grounds and a picnic area, and a public toilet 2km away! At first we were contemplating parking in one of the parking lots in town, but decided to try out the campground indicated on the map only to realize we had to pay for it -___- so we went back to the free camping area that we found earlier after (which until now I’m not sure whether it’s legal, but at least it looks like it is…) herny and I went to look around the area but couldn’t find anywhere better, then they tried to cook only to realize that the road isn’t leveled, and so jojo had to repark so we could cook properly.


And finally, they started cooking again while I researched for more possible places to stay, and had to mug all those guidebooks, brochures and free books we have! Roars. Oh yes and not to forget google maps and those nz websites, which turned out to be extremely useful. Finally settled a campground for the day after next. But tomorrow we’ll have to decide again depending on what the people tell us at the tourist information center!

Dinner was awesome! Finally had rice and jojo cooked this dish with chicken, mushroom and onion! Super goooooood stuff. Herny made cooked potatoes which were not bad! But would’ve been better if its mashed haha. And even though it seemed like reallllyyyy a lot we somehow managed to finish them! Amazing stuff!

dinner!

And immediately after dinner, we caught herny using the campervan toilet to do his big business, and as promised, the first person to do that will have to clear the toilet waste. YESSSSSSSSSSSSss. Hahahaha. Andden after he was done and after some wasting of time (THEY BULLY MEEEEEEE.) the rest of us three were saying how we will like shitting too. HAHA. Then stupid jojo said that since all of 3 of us wants to, why don’t we drive back to the public toilet to do so?!

AND SO WE DID. Herny drove us there somemore! Hahahah jojo couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that we were driving to the toilet just to shit -____- haha a little bit ridiculous, but when you have a vehicle it’s not surprising what stupid things you’ll do HAHA. But seriously, it’s an experience of a lifetime HEHE. Poor herny!

And now we’re back in the camp grounds and it’s time to sleeeeeeeeeeeep. It’s really warm now and my legs are burning. Hmmmmm.

Oh yes I took nice photos of the nightlights at te kuiti! Thank God for the tripod haha. Good night!

te kuiti.

+ guaishou's! :D