Wortel Kiwi: July 2013

The journey of some Wortel Kiwi members to Mt. Ruapehu with our special guest from Malang - Indonesia: Donny Harry's family. The plan was made in only 3 days before we actually implemented it. 'Twas a really wonderful journey, since none of us was actually been to a snowy mountain. Unforgettable moment for us, we might consider to go there again with the complete members, hopefully (of course with better plan and preparation). Travelling while capturing moments is the best thing in every single trip.

It was already 3pm and rainy quite heavily and also the Metrolink bus nuisance was so troublesome. Yeah, we had a plan to Mt. Ruapehu along with my best friend who just came from Indonesia with his family. Donny is the name of my friend; Ayik and Reno are his wife and son respectively. That afternoon we went to Onehunga by train to collect Reno’s Kathmandu jacket that left behind on the 277 bus the night prior to accident. I was so amazed by the reality that the NZ bus officers still kept it and no one on the bus deliberately took it.

No car, no plan, and no preparation whatsoever and it had already been 4pm. Thankfully Wahyel, a lady from Padang, with aid from her boss, got a rent car. A big and strong one: Toyota Prado, haha. Then we headed back to Liz’s house to prepare ourselves for the trip. We didn't just prepare some warm clothing, but also food, especially chips and fried noodle for Reno (in case he’s gonna cry in the middle of the trip; that was Wahyel’s idea, which was really genius). It was already 8pm yet we haven’t been ready. Oh well, typical Indonesian (just joking XD). Then we have quite late dinner in KFC. ‘Twas really nice though. After finishing our dinner, I got to call the Taumarunui Holiday Parks as we need an accommodation for a night before hiking to Mt. Ruapehu the next morning.

the view from our accommodation

a countryside on the way to Mt. Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu

We have imagined that it will be really cold down there, since it’s 4,5 hours driving down the North Island. Well, we were wrong, especially me (Irna). We have prepared the worst like really warm clothes, parka and wool socks. It turned to be quite warm, we even could walk around the holiday park in the middle of the night with only a layer of shirt and a jacket (as same as in Auckland).

The vacation was nice, we only needed to change the driver once (from Wahyel to me). However, there were some occasions that made our vacation a bit not good. We feel really sorry for Donny for sitting at the back of the car along the way, which was uncomfortable, since the seats at the back were really packed. That’s why we needed to stop a while for resting and smoking in the middle of nowhere, really dark in the forest. Luckily there were 2 trucks (the ones that looked like Optimus Prime in Transformers) that accompanied us. Irna was a bit scared since she’s the one that does not really like darkness. Back to the trucks, Wahyel and Ayik were really excited to take picture with one of those. Once again I (Irna) feel really sorry for I’m not used to use a Nikon camera in taking photographs. It turned to be defocused.

After done stretching and so, we continued our journey to the holiday parks. Again, we were unfortunate for the map showed us that the holiday parks is around state highway 4, right where we stopped the car, but we couldn’t see any existence of it. Worse, we didn’t have any internet connection back then. Then we made 2 calls to the owner of the accommodation. Unluckily, he had no idea where we were. He thought that we were not in the town yet, then he guided us to continue driving until we reach the city centre. Later we called him again straight away after we reached the town. Then he told us to go straight the road until about 800 m out of the central after crossing a big bridge, the destination was on the right. Lucky we got there. I straight away met the owner to pay and took the key. The room was nice and warm really. We really loved the room, nice facilities too.

After had a chat for a while (narcism picture-taking session too), we went to bed (not literally me (Irna); she still needed to read the map of the North Island as well as find tourist attractions around Mt. Ruapehu). Well, she couldn’t sleep well. She slept really late (even after Mas Andi snored, LOL!) yet she woke up very early in the morning. She woke other people up after she finished taking a shower. We planned to head to Mt. Ruapehu around 7 am in the morning. Well, as we have predicted, we went there at 8.30 am. Again, we got lost in the middle of the journey even Irna has asked the way to get there to the owner of the holiday parks, when she returned the key of the room. We should turn right but we went straight, which made us turned back until we reached another city centre. We then thought to visit the i-Site to ask the information how to get to Mt Ruapehu ski field. Afterwards, we went there directly. Good for us that all ski routes were open. Furthermore, the weather was really nice and warm (yet very bright).

guess what? it's Mordor..Mt. Tongariro~

trying to catch the clouds?just don't jump =D

sitting on a rock with such a grateful view, how amazing Don!

Tik..tok..tik..tok..minutes before we finally saw the snowy mountain. We even made a video during the journey. We all praised our God after seeing an amazing scene of the mountain, we really thank God for the wonderful scenery. We all finally saw snow (literally ice). Then we stopped over a while for photo session (narcism too, LOL!). Then we continued to go to the parking lot in the foot of Mt. Ruapehu. Another photo hunting is a must! Then we got back to routine: a cup of coffee and hot chips.

Ayik, Reno and Wahyel were walking to the café before us (as you know that we are the photo freaks, it took a while for us stopping over a place for hunting; we just love capturing moments). We finally met each other in the café. We then noticed that Ayik, Reno and Wahyel have been on the gondola, flying around the ski field (which was so scary for me!!). After filling our tummies with heaps of chips, Reno was crying for hopping on the gondola again. At that time, Ayik was quite fatigue to hop on the gondola again. As a result, she asked me to accompany Reno to catch the gondola, which in turn……Irna was pushed to hop on as well. Oh please, she told that she’s sick of height..hello, she’s totally scared and she doesn’t want to hop on there, which was really funny. Well, I kept pushing her. Finally she took it as a practice: how to train her fear (as I said).

To be honest, she was really scared when the gondola reached a certain height up the mountain. There was no wind, but it felt really dry that made her eyes watery (I took it as she was crying of scared, in fact she was not. She said honestly that she was not crying). Well, her hands were shaking, totally shaking. This made me laughing very loudly, very very loudly. It seemed that I was really satisfied of watching such a funny scene of Irna being scared and looked like she was crying of fear. Right after finishing the gondola journey, she ran away to the table and sat there quietly (looked really scared), whilst I was laughing happily, evil laugh (Irna might hate me so much!!!). Then we waited for Wahyel who played snowboard there before we went home.

a good field to train your fear (fear of height)

On the way home, we passed Lake Taupo, which was truly stunning in terms of vista and coziness. Along the road we passed, you can enjoy lake view that I deem as one of other places must be seen before we die. Unfortunately, I got stomachache when our journey got to this beautiful spot. This ruined the enjoyment to completely get a thrill out of the view. Taking rest along with refuel adjoining Lake Taupo was what we did before continuing the journey back home via Tauranga.

Accompanied only by GPS and courage, it was a bold decision, because we didn’t even expect that Lake Taupo – Tauranga would be a long winding road. Otherwise, it was a great escapade since it compensated with the changeless view and experience along the road. Irna’s dizziness when we arrived in Tauranga was the evidence the character of road we encountered. Tauranga’s Lamb Kebab slightly wiped our fatigue off, the most delicate and tastiest lamb kebab I ever tasted.

This journey taught me one essential thing that life is wondrous more than you realize if you are surrounded with beautiful people and feelings of gratitude.

Our moments: