White Island - again!

Okay, I can't help but post too many pictures about our second--and this time, successful--trip to Whakatane and into the Bay of Plenty to White Island volcano. I LOVE VOLCANOES! This time, the sea was WAY calmer and we got there without sea sickness.

The crew motored us to shore in groups in a dinghy. (Check out the low rainbow behind the boat!)

And we got decked out in our helmets and gas masks and headed toward the crater(s).

The sulfur deposits were INCREDIBLE.

As was the opportunity to get this close to the main crater of an active volcano.

The colors and the scenery were just so beautiful.

And the ruins of the sulfur mining operation that used to exist here lent an even eerier feeling to the island.

On the way home, we saw schools of these amazing, bright blue fish, plus several bottle nose dolphins. No pictures of those, unfortunately, but a nice view of the volcano as we motored away from it, back to the mainland...

Volcano Row

From Wellington we headed deeper into the North Island. There's a huge amount of volcanic and geothermal activity in the central highlands of the North Island, which means that I definitely wanted to go there. 

Unfortunately, we had a run of bad weather here. Rain forced us to ditch the canoe trip we'd hoped to do. And we'd booked a GrabOne (NZ's version of Groupon) for a two-night stay in the carrot-crazy town of Ohakune that included transport to and from NZ's most iconic day hike: the Tongariro Crossing (through the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park)...but alas, on the day we were scheduled for, the weather was uncooperative. So we took the consolation prize of mountain biking the Old Coach Road, which historically connected the railroad that ran south from Auckland and north from Welly in a section of the country that for a long time was too challenging to run the actual rails through. It turned out to be a pretty fun trip...

...also featuring what we were told are the only two curved viaducts in the southern hemisphere. Though I think SR enjoyed flying down narrow, rock-and-root-strewn paths at unsafe speeds more than I did. :)

Continuing along Volcano Row from Ohakune, we made our way to Taupo, where the geothermal action got serious. I took this walk through a magical fern-laden valley that had steam rising from geothermal hotspots, literally everywhere.

We also checked out lovely Huka Falls.

Next stop, Rotorua, where we found an entire city existing in a setting like that geothermal valley I'd seen near Taupo. There's a big public park that is just full of steam vents and these bubbling mud pools and geothermal terracing...incredible!

One fun result of this is that there are natural hot spring pools everywhere in the city...

...including at the hostel we stayed at. I never got used to how so many people just have these potentially dangerous steam vents springing up in their yards, their streets, their parks, everywhere. Do they sometimes just bust up into people's living rooms? Do the residents of Rotorua have geothermal vent insurance like Californians have earthquake insurance?

It was also fun to see the Maori culture more strongly represented in Rotorua--and really everywhere in the North Island we've seen so far, compared to the South (which is much more sparsely inhabited anyway).

Rotorua also has more black swans (imported from Australia) than you could possible throw stale bread at.

Still following volcanic action eastward, we made a quick diversion to Te Puka, the kiwifruit capitol of NZ (and therefore...the world!) I think this is the first time I've ever seen a kiwi tree!

But our real destination was the coast along the Bay of Plenty, where we stopped to appreciate the beach at Ohope...

...and then embarked upon a day trip that I've been looking forward to for about 15 years. Not long after I graduated from college, the alumnae magazine started a column featuring various study abroad programs. I read one about studying abroad in NZ (which sounded SO EXOTIC to me at the time) that included a description of taking a boat to the country's only active marine volcano, where you had to don a gas mask to walk around, plus a hard hat to protect you from anything the volcano might decide to spit at you. In other words: heaven. It's called White Island and these day trips to visit it are still run from the coastal town of Whakatane. So we got on a boat with about thirty other people and headed out of the harbor...

...into the open ocean. That's when things went wrong. The water was so choppy that even SR got seasick for the first time in his life. I'd guess about half the people on the boat were puking into paper bags the whole 1.5-hr trip out there. I only managed to keep the vomit at bay by keeping my eyes closed and focusing very hard on keeping my breakfast down. When we FINALLY got out to the island, this is sadly the closest we were able to get. I snapped this picture...

...and then started throwing up as the waves rocked us all over the place. So I closed my eyes again and kept them shut for the next 3 hours, as they tried waiting for the winds to calm down and then finally gave up and we went back to Whakatane. They said it only happens a couple days a year, but sometimes the wind just doesn't cooperate and they aren't able to land for the hike/tour. Such a bummer! So we decided to keep heading north in hopes of calmer, warmer weather....

Toya Bungkah / Batur volcano

Our next Bali stop was the town of Toya Bungkah, nestled at the base of Bali's most active volcano, Batur. This is the view from up on the rim of a more ancient caldera, where the town of Batur moved to when it was repeatedly destroyed by the lava flows that you can see down in the valley.

 

Toya Bungkah is on the other side of Batur, which has (so far at least) been spared from lava flow during eruptions. It sits on a small lake (also called Batur). We made our home for three days at a simple guesthouse with this fantastic view and an equally fantastic name: Under the Volcano III.

Let me tell you, this was a blissful place to be. Maybe due to the higher elevation, it felt markedly cooler and less humid up here than down on the coasts, and the nights were cool enough that I (gasp) could put on long sleeves for the first time in a few weeks. It's kind of shocking how fast days can pass when you just eat breakfast (banana pancakes with honey and local coffee), play some Yahtzee (SR has invented "metaYahtzee," our new obsession), eat some lunch at Volcano I (owned by another branch of the Volcano III family; you wouldn't think that Hershey's syrup in avocado puree would be tasty, but you'd be wrong)...

...wander around the town, where there was a soccer game every single evening...

...and then have some fried rice for dinner before a solid nine hours of sleep. What more could one ask for?

The highlight of the visit, and the impetus for choosing this particular town as a base for a few days, was the pre-dawn, two-hour climb from the village to the top of Batur volcano to watch the sun rise. That's the neighboring island of Lombok (and its own, incredibly massive volcano) that you can see on the horizon, there.

Once light, along with a good hundred other people (mostly Balinese, which surprised me in a good way), we enjoyed the views of the crater rim and, on the other side of the lake, Abung mountain and (the larger shadow behind it) another volcano called Agung.

After our guide cooked us breakfast (a hard-boiled egg and cooked banana between two pieces of white bread--that was a new one for me) over a vent of the volcano, we set off on the very narrow rim of Batur to check out the caldera from a different angle.

We descended on the opposite, less steep side, where you can see the secondary and tertiary calderas of Batur, as well as the lava flows over where Batur village used to be. (The rim at the top of the picture is where I was standing when I took the first shot in this post.)

There's even a colony of macaque monkeys living right up there in the danger zone.

The end of our walk took us down through local gardens...

...and rice paddies...

...back to Toya Bungkah and our days of leisure there. If I ever withdraw my life savings from the bank and seemingly disappear off the face of the planet, this village is probably one of the places you should check for me.

Masaya

Though part of me was bummed, I did succeed in leaving Little Corn Island on my second attempt. In an amusing last-hour twist, the motorboat from Little Corn to Big Corn (where the planes depart from) ran out of gas as we approached the island and they couldn't make it to the dock and had to just pull up on the closest beach and have us jump out into the surf. One of the boat guys had a cell phone and called a taxi driver he knew, who alerted all the rest of them, and all the taxis had raced from the dock to the beach and were waiting for us there. Hilarious. And so I made it to the airport and onto a plane and waved goodbye to Big Corn...

 

...enjoyed the little puddle-jumping ride...

...and on the way in for a landing in Managua, got a great view of my final Nicaraguan destination: Masaya--or at least the volcano that dominates the landscape of the town.

It was kind of strange and disorienting to be in a normal city again, with honking car horns and so many people, after the idyllic quiet of Little Corn. Also, Masaya isn't a place where many tourists actually stay, so it was surprising (after the relatively touristy places I've visited so far) to have to search for a hostel, an internet connection, etc. But I really enjoyed wandering the ENORMOUS local market, feeling like the only Gringo in miles.

And it was a lovely walk at sunset to and along the promenade area overlooking Lake Masaya.

That cloud-looking stuff just above the horizon is not actually clouds, but smoke from Masaya volcano, which is the main reason I came to Masaya.

So the next morning, the guide I'd found while wandering around town the afternoon before picked me up and we headed into the park to gaze down into the mouth of the beast.

There is no way anyone would be allowed to get this close to the main crater of an active composite volcano in the States, which made it even more fun. But seriously, when the wind changed direction and the sulfur fumes blew my way, my lungs burned so bad I had to just hold my breath until some fresh air came along. Apparently, on evening tours as it starts to get dark, you can see the red of the lava glowing down in the crater. There were no night tours available while I was in town, though, so I had to just use my imagination.

The view across the countryside was clear and gorgeous, though.

And my guide Sergio occasionally took a break from trying to upsell me future tours to show me some really cool things, like this "cotton fruit" (at least that's what he says it's called!):

Back in town, we headed back to the promenade so he could show me what the volcano looks like from that angle. I think he felt bad that our volcano walk was not all he had promised (apparently they were closing the park for the afternoon...something to do with Russians in helicopters?...and as we were driving out, we saw a lot of very clean, well-coifed gringos that appeared to be a film crew on their way in, driving fancy Jeep convertibles...though I guess it doesn't take much to be cleaner and more well-coiffed than I) and was so enthusiastic about the promenade that I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd seen it the evening before.

And so with that, I say a very temporary farewell as I head back Stateside to regroup. Sad to leave Nicaragua, a country I've LOVED getting to know and fully intend to return to as soon as the travel gods permit. But I'll be seeing you again very soon, as I fly to Australia in the middle of March, for a whole new set of adventures to catalogue. Perhaps there will be some posts between now and then; otherwise, I'll catch you Down Under...

Cerro Negro

Yet another great thing about Leon (and another reason so many people stay longer than intended--wish we could, too!) is that it is SURROUNDED by volcanoes, and there are all kinds of trips you can take to various ones for various activities. Next time I come to Nicaragua, I'm going to leave time for the overnight trip that lets you watch sunset, camp, and then watch the sun rise from a volcano rim. This time, we did the more standard volcano daytrip from Leon: volcano boarding!

 

It's basically sledding, but down an active volcano called Cerro Negro.



 

First you have to climb up it, carrying your (unfortunately heavy) sled, protective gear, and lots of water. That was the least fun part.

But the ample reward was the incredible views along the way and from the top--including of other volcanoes in the region, fumaroles of Cerro Negro, and the main crater.

Once we'd taken all the pictures we could take and were tiring of the crazy wind and relentless sun, we donned our lovely protective suits, gloves, and goggles (and, for me, a very attractive hat, too!)...

...and down we went!

They had a radar gun to clock everyone's speed, and I went a measly 30 km or so, but that was fast enough for me, and I loved it. At the bottom, we all looked like we'd just finished a day of work in the coal mines.

During a picnic lunch at the visitor's center, we got to see an iguana farm (don't get attached; these guys are going to be dinner for some appreciative Nicaraguan)...

...and bond more with the great group of people who were on the adventure with us. I just LOVE being around travelers.

We all had so much fun that we made plans to meet up again that evening and hang out together. We thought it was hilarious that among us, there were (from left to right), Jason Statham, Jimmy Fallon, and Christian Bale look-alikes. Lots of digital space wasted on photos like this.