Amidst the volcanoes

That's right, the past few weeks have been involved heavily with volcanoes in one form or another. Currently I'm in an internet cafe in Taupo which is on the north coast of the lake of the same name. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand (about the size of Singapore) and was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions, including the most recent major eruption in 181 CE. One of the most violent eruptions in the last couple thousand years, this one is thought to be the cause of reports in Rome and China of the entire sky turning red.
Taupo is located on what is called the Central Plateau in the North Island and is one of a string of volcanoes, a number of which are still active- as we would soon learn....

After playing in the Ultimate tournament in Palmerston North, we took up WWOOFING in the city with a man named Rudyard and his rather large cat Maddie. A doctor specializing in infectious disease, Rudyard, originally from the Philippines, spent 16 years living in New York before moving to New Zealand. We spent two weeks working on his yard and garden while exploring Palmerston (and watching a few movies). Palmerston North's claim to fame, in addition to being the home of Massey University, New Zealand's largest school, is overlooked by the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. We did take a drive up there. It was quite a different feeling standing directly below the massive turbine than observing it from a distance with the simple, ultra-modern look of the huge blade swinging with a hum.

Our favorite part of Palmerston was the Esplanade, which is a large, multi-use park. It has a very big playground with all kinds of fun toys, a mini-railroad, a bike track along the river, a cafe, a rose garden, croquet courts, an aviary, and is bordered by sports fields and a water park (including indoor pools which we took advantage of one day). We spent a couple days reading and playing on the playground there.

A week ago on Sunday we took the train three hours North to National Park, the tiny town which is the base of operations for trips into the Tongariro National Park- one of the first few National Parks in the World. The train ride gave great views of some spectacular scenery. Numerous times the train emerged from the hills onto a bridge hundreds of feet over the gorges and rivers below. We stayed the night at a backpackers in National Park; I took advantage of the indoor climbing wall.

The next day we were picked up by Te Maari and taken to her house for our next WWOOFING destination. They lived just a few miles down the road and have a great view of Mount Ruapehu in the National Park, which became more important as we woke up Wednesday to learn that the mountain had erupted the night before. It was a small eruption, but completely unexpected. One climber on the mountain was injured seriously and ash was spewed all over the top.

We stayed with Te Maari and her family for a week and really enjoyed our time. In addition to Te Maari and her husband, her daughter, son-in-law, and two year old granddaughter were also living there. Now usually, I have no problem dealing with children and they adjust to me pretty quickly, but it took me quite a while to break through with the granddaughter, Taiaria. When she wanted to she had more concentration than I could have imagined of someone her age. For the first two or three days her primary reaction to me was simply a blank stare, which she would hold despite anything I did, for almost a full minute at a time. Finally she did open up and in a big way while we played with a blanket and went from stand-off to laughing hysterically in no time, and this pattern would be repeated subsequently.

For work we did mostly gardening and a little painting. We got the chance to do Yoga with Te Maari, an instructor, and also learned a decent bit about Maori culture.

On Friday morning we set out and hitched a ride up here to Taupo where we checked into a backpackers for the weekend. We took the afternoon to hike up the Waikato River to the Huka Falls. The river network including the falls is a large source of New Zealand's hydro power and thermal as well as overall power for the North Island. Along the way we took a quick wade in a hot water stream, heated by the geothermal activity, very common in the area.

We spent two nights hanging around the town and cooking some good food: cheese ravioli with butter/sage sauce (thanks mom!) served with asparagus and omelettes with mushrooms, spinach, garlic herb cheese and sage.

Sunday we headed to our next destination, a retreat center just outside of the city and up a big hill. There are a number of other WWOOFERS here, which is great as I was definitely waiting impatiently for the chance to hang out with other young people. The WWOOFERS have our own self-contained housing and we eat together there. The first two days we've done cleaning and making beds to prepare for the next group that comes tomorrow, when we'll be on kitchen duty.

Always glad to hear from everyone,

Kia ora