The Search for Mount Frank

November 25, 2014April 2, 2017 / Robin Busalacchi / Leave a comment

: Ever since we arrived in Taupo, Frank has been obsessed with this mountain.

: We can see it from our porch just over the neighbor’s house…

: and when we take the 3-minute walk to the lake.

: “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.”

: The drive through Tongariro National Park was beautiful.

: Near Frank’s mountain is Mt Ngauruhoe. It’s an active perfect cone volcano, famous for appearing as Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings movies. At 2,287 meters high, it last erupted in 1977.

: Frank’s Mt Ruapehu is the world’s most active volcano and New Zealand’s largest. The highest of its three peaks is 2,797 meters.

: The large summit crater contains a lake but tours to see it can’t begin until the snow melts. The mountain is getting closer…

: Current volcano status is restless. The lake inside the crater is about 30 degrees celcius with mild tremors. But no worries, the eruptions are generally mild.

: At the base of the mountain is the elegant Chateau Tongariro, built during the roaring 20’s. We had a nice lunch here.

: One of the two ski resorts, Whakapapa Village, allowed Frank the best chance to get up close and personal — a man and his mountain finally united.

The perfect birthday at Orakei Korako

November 24, 2014April 2, 2017 / Robin Busalacchi / Leave a comment

Awoken by an emoji-filled “Happy Birthday” text from Andy and a yummy flat white from Frank; and ending with nice long chats with Nick and Jenny, a wonderful dinner and a stunning Lake Taupo sunset, I could not have had a nicer birthday! The weather was picture perfect — 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Frank and I spent the day at a magical place, the Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park.

It was a short 40-minute drive from Taupo. We took the ferry across Lake Ohakuri and did a 2-hour hike around the park. The rainbow of colors, the geysers and the steam from thousands of hot springs reminded me a little of Yellowstone but with caves and much different foliage (i.e. palm trees).

: You take the ferry across Lake Ohakuri. The water is very warm.

: The wooden walkway crosses the Emerald Terrace where mineral-based golds and oranges mix with whites and browns in a rainbow of colours.

: Ruatapa Cave

: The water was boiling.

: I can still hear the mud bubbling up – so cool!

: We had noticed large pipes along the highways and discovered that New Zealanders use the steam to create electricity!

: We had dinner at a lovely Lake Taupo cafe called Victoria’s.

: I usually don’t post pics of food unless it’s a food post but it was soooo good.

: Desserts were fantastic. No birthday cake for me though — I’m on this pannacotta kick!

: Another beautiful Lake Taupo sunset,

: you can never see too many of these.

: It looks like a front may be moving in but we will see what tomorrow brings. Cheers!

Kia Ora New Zealand!

November 23, 2014April 2, 2017 / Robin Busalacchi / Leave a comment

Kia Ora or hello New Zealand! We arrived here late Thursday night. The bags are unpacked, the phones and internet are connected (as you can see), and we’ve located the grocery store, a church and a place for Frank to swim.

Our home for the month is the charming “Little Black Bach” (pronounced “batch”). Bachs are small holiday homes. This one is in Wharewaka, a small suburb overlooking Lake Taupo — a whole different world after the hustle and bustle of Melbourne!

Lake Taupo is in the middle of the North Island. It is New Zealand’s largest lake — 120 miles around, and was formed by debris descending and creating a hole after one of the earth’s most intense volcanic eruptions! We can see the lake from our place and can walk to the edge in about 3 minutes. The nearest city is Taupo, which is ten minutes away by car. It has a population of 23,000 people and pretty much everything we need.

: Kia Ora New Zealand!

: We landed in Auckland and drove 3-1/2 hours.

: We will spend a month in Wharewaka, 5 minutes south of Taupo.

: Our “Little Black Bach”

: The view from our porch…

: of Lake Taupo.

: It’s huge, about 120 miles around…

: The lake was formed by descending volcanic material after an eruption that was 100x greater than Mt St. Helens.

: The area surrounding us is rolling hills and then the mountains.

: Lots of space for sheep (39 million sheep equating to ten per person!)…

: …and cattle.

: We are chasing the end of spring as we travel south…

: and again, just beautiful!

: These yellow flowers are blooming everywhere.

: I noticed this in Australia, too. The webs are kind of weird – random and relaxed, kind of like I expect this leg of the trip to be!

: The CBD of Taupo is a little smaller than Melbourne’s(!) but has everything we will need for a relaxing month exploring New Zealand’s North Island.

The challenges of travel

November 23, 2014August 28, 2018 / Robin Busalacchi / Leave a comment

We arrived in Lake Taupo late Thursday night after what should have been a short day of travel. Because we didn’t have a set flight out, Melbourne airport staff told us we couldn’t fly into New Zealand. They said we would be turned away at NZ customs and deported, plus that airline would get a $10,000 fine for allowing us to fly! We had to purchase two tickets (refundable since we still aren’t certain of exact dates or even where we are going after NZ).

This was in addition to us having to repack our bags, making sure there was <23kg in each larger bag and <7kg in our carry-ons. Can you tell me why it makes a difference? Weight is weight. I don’t understand why it has to be distributed a certain way — other than the fact that the airlines wants to charge for extra bags. Couldn’t they look at the total and divide by number of persons flying?

Frank took care of the tickets while I repacked and weighed, repacked and weighed. We thought we were good when we realized the agent screwed up our ticket — Christchurch to Auckland instead of Christchurch out of the country! Of course, we missed our flight but a helpful agent put us on the next one without any additional charges, thank you very much. When we got to New Zealand, did anyone inquire whether we had a return flight out of New Zealand? Um, no.

All in all, we were only delayed about 4 hours — more of an irritation than anything else. Traveling has its challenges, but the rewards make it more than worthwhile. If this is the biggest hassle of this trip, knock on wood, we will consider ourselves lucky. Because really, how can anyone complain? We’re in New Zealand!!!

Waltzing Wanderers

Not all who wander are lost.

New Zealand

The Search for Mount Frank

The perfect birthday at Orakei Korako

Kia Ora New Zealand!

The challenges of travel