Passing Through Mordor

Dad and I awoke to find that all the rain in New Zealand had decided to pour on our location. I had hoped to go on a hike, but the wind was howling and the rain just wouldn't let up. As we packed to leave there was a break. So we checked out quickly and ran to the Taranaki Falls trailhead. 

This is the view from above Taranaki Falls

After an hour of walking, we came to the falls. Chris had let us know about this one. It is a waterfall you can walk behind, which I did. (I'm the blue speck on the right hand side of the waterfall.) I would recommend that if you are going to walk behind a waterfall on a windy, cold day, wear waterproof pants. I only had jeans, so I remained wet the rest of the hike.

The whole area is simultaneously beautiful and haunting. And with such heavy mist, it felt like we were walking through Tolkien's world.

 

Although the mist was enjoyable, it did obscure the view of all the mountains the entire time we were in the area. So Dad and I drove up Bruce Road up to the ski area to have a look higher up the mountain. Turns out the higher you go, the worst the visibility.

I wanted to take pictures of my Smaug socks in Mordor. We got about two pictures before large, cold raindrops suddenly started to pelt us. A quick retreat was made back the the heated car.

 Photo credit to Dad.

We drove north, skirting along the east side of Lake Taupo. I'd never seen the lake, but had always wanted to. The eruption that created the lake apparently spewed so much ash into the air, the Romans and Chinese noted the change in the color of the sky.

After lunch in Taupo, we drove to Raglan to stay with my Dad's childhood friend. Bit of the Raglan area looked eerily similar to the mountains back home. The only difference was that there were more cows in the area.

Tunnel Gully

Mum told me that I hadn't put any coffee pictures from the trip on my blog and she was rather disappointed. Last time I was in New Zealand I had a coffee picture nearly every other post. So this one is for you, Mum. 

We started our last day in Wellington by going to Cafe Du Parc. I had a mochaccino. Dad and Chris had cappuccinos. Mochaccions always seem to come with marshmallows and cappuccinos don't. I gave Chris my marshmallows.

Last time I was here I had the eggs benedict, but I ate it before I took a picture. I remembered to get a picture this time. It was really good. We were trying to figure out how they prepare their eggs. The eggs look like dabs of whipped cream. And the centers are left in a glorious semi-soild state.

After breakfast we went to Tunnel Gully. Here we've got a Kahikatea full of Nest Epiphytes, colloquially known as widow makers.

They are called widow makers in reference to what would happen if it fell on you. They are quite large. This widow maker lived in a Hinau tree. It was really funny watching Chris trying to identify the tree. He said, "I know what it isn't, but I don't know what it is." Of course of all the trees in this forest, for some reason this one had it's name on a plate that was tacked to the trunk.

There were all sorts of beautiful bits along the hike. We stopped by this waterfall for a short while. I'm giving my best Lord of the Dance impression.

Photo Credit to Chris

At the end of the hike we stopped by the old, abandoned train tunnel. This tunnel was incredibly long. And dark. Very, very dark. We all took turns talking about what kinds of scary things might be in it. I secretly imagined I was Frodo in Shelob's lair. I'm glad I'm not Frodo. It would have been quite frightening if Shelob had shown up.

Spirit Guides

The next morning at Yosemite, Natalie discovered this amazing view right behind our tent cabin. I enjoyed the sun for a little bit before we all had breakfast.

After breakfast we started on another hike. We past right by this doe and her three fawns. It's rather unusual to see a doe with more than two, but all of them looked healthy. I even got a picture of one of the fawns nursing.

On our way up to Vernal Falls, I was taking pictures and nearly stepped on this guy. He actually frightened me a little. I wasn't expecting to turn around and have another little spirit guide staring up at me. He kind of reminded me of Scooter since I'm pretty sure he was begging for food.

The Mist Trail was pretty slick, but it afforded us a lovely view of Vernal Falls. The way the mist was being pushed around at the base of the falls is indescribable. You really have to see it yourself. It was a little hard on my camera, though. I kept having to wipe off my lens.

At the top of the falls there were two baby squirrels playing with each other. The rock was pretty steep, so they would wrestle around and roll downwards, then pause to run back up and wrestle some more.

Instead of descending the million steps that we had climbed up, Mum, Natalie and I decided to take a bit of the John Muir Trail. We climbed a bunch, decided that we might be going the wrong direction and descended. After asking a park ranger we found that we had been going the right way and climbed again. I got a little cranky about going up, down, and up again. Eventually we got to the top and saw Nevada Falls.

It was pretty late by the time we finally headed home. I really love seeing all the orchards around the Escalon and Manteca area, especially when the sky is on fire.

Old Man Of The Mountain

The rain had been pretty heavy for awhile, but it cleared up for just long enough that I was able to go on a hike with my parents the other day.

We went to a place that was once an old orchard. It has long since been abandoned.

I didn't even know the trees still produced fruit until this hike. Mum picked up a couple apples and brought them home.

Mum and Dad were quite patient while I was taking pictures. (Dad is wearing one of my bear hats)

The hike has lots of downhill near the beginning, which means there is lots of uphill later on. I hardly noticed it. I just kept running from mushroom to mushroom all the way up.

Mum said it was the easiest hike she had done in awhile because there were so many stops on the way up.

The rain made several beautiful waterfalls.

And the old man of the mountain appeared.