Nettles Goes to Mount Doom!!!

Hi everyone, here are pictures of my first field trip around the Ruapehu Valley. We hiked up mount Raupehu, a good 2600 metres high. The first leg we took ski lifts but we had to climb the summit (near crater lake) for a good few hours. The terrain was pretty rocky, and part of the climb involved walking through snow and ice, pretty tiring, especially at altitude, I was soooooo tired. Getting to the top was great, a lunch break and photo session later we went down to the crater lake to investigate. It has recently been breached, causing a massive lahar (mudslide) to slip down the other side of the valley, the lahar reached miles down, and totally flooded some areas with mud. Luckily there are procedures in place to ensure that people are evacuated in time. The lake (in the picture behind me) was about 28 degrees on that day (it was about that hot on the day, I got sunburnt!) and there was sulfur streaming through it making it a nice blue/green colour.

It was a pretty amazing hike and the next day we did part of the Tongariro crossing which is a famous day hike here, following beautiful mountains and volcanoes. During the walk you can see the old lava flows where there have been recent (1975) eruptions. Mount Ngauruhoe (said as Narahoeie) erupted 45 times in the 20th Century. Its the very last picture. It was also the volcano known as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, so pretty cool to have seen it from the top. Its possible to climb it, but its really steep, and the mountain I climbed was bad enough!

As you can see some pretty amazing scenery. I'm hoping to be in the area again soon, to maybe pick up some more tracks or just enjoy the countryside and the views. I'm not planning to hike up any more mountains soon though, one is enough for me at the moment!

Last a short video of us mucking around on the glacier!


Netty x

Blog Update

First of all, I had to incude a picture of Tim (oldest with the cat) and Oskar (with the umbrella). They are my 'roomies' but are very sweet, as you can see, like posing sweet for the camera!

The next piccie is another roomie, a native praying mantis that I spotted climbing up the lamp shade. Isnt it lovely?! There is also a South African species that was introduced in 1978, although I am not sure if it was legally introduced or not. NZ has very strict biosecurity. You can't enter the country if you have anything that looks like mud on your shoe, and don't ever say you live on a farm (actually if you do you should......). I also decided to include a picture of a cicada. They are little noise creatures that make 'jungle' sounds all day, harmless really, it makes me feel like I'm on a tropical island! They are quite pretty as far as bugs go. But then I do like insects. I'm going to find myself a NZ fauna book sometime and get looking into whats over here, its fascinating knowing there are so many different things out here.

I was also told a story about why there are so many British birds here but I dont know if its true or not (perhaps Louise Hussey might know????). Apparently some Shakespeare lover decided that all the birds ever mentioned in his writings should be introduced into New Zealand and thats how they all got here. It would sort of explain why I've spotted so many British birds, I dont think somehow that they could migrate all the way here, and seeing as NZ used to be part of the Antartic, there doesnt seem to be any other explaination, but if someone knows I'd like to know please!!!
Well that just about ends my little update, will keep you informed after my field trip this weekend coming, hopefully it will be nice weather!!!

Weekend in Wellie!

Hello folks, Heres an update on my 3rd weekend in Wellie. This weekend has been beautiful, with the sun out shining and a great atmosphere in town. It was the dragon boat and jet boat racing, so I thought I would walk into the city and check it out. First I took a few piccies on the way in, as the sea looked so calm and serene. Spotted this guy fishing, I'm walking along Oriental Parade, which is a nice walk along the edge of the city, you can see the city skycrapers in the background (click on the image to make it bigger). Then I took a little stroll along the beach, its an artificial beach, the sand was imported from the south island, but who cares! A beach is a beach and I dipped my toe into the pretty cold sea water.

That was kinda nice for a while, but I continued on until I got into town. It was pretty crowded along where the racing was taking place, and then I spotted some sting rays in the shallows! I took out my camera and filmed them!

After that I watched one of the dragon boat races but I didn't stay out too long as there were lots of stalls and things to see, so I wondered off and had a nice time in the city!



The last picture is just to show you how steep it gets in some places. This house has its own cable car to take you up the steep slope to your house!