In the Land of the Ring

There is a region on this planet called the Ring of the Fire. It is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It is a direct result of plate tectonics and the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. A tiny part of the Ring of Fire goes through New Zealand. Is it a coincidence that The Lord of the Rings was filmed here?

In December 2012 I was with my friend in the cinema in Krakow watching Hobbit. Sitting in the comfortable chair I was staring at screen watching those never-ending brown plains, dark caves, pure untouched forests, green hills and mountains covered with snow. I didn’t pay attention to the plot, all what I could see was breathtaking landscapes and a magical land that is on the other side of the globe. 

In less than a year from that moment I was walking through the streets of Sydney and by chance I noticed one poster on the bus stop. It was a picture advertising New Zealand with a sentence on it: ‘Tomorrow all of this will be yours to explore’ and ‘Every day a different story, 100% Pure New Zealand’. The destiny wanted that I had already in my pocket a ticket to New Zealand for that very next day. I’ve got a thrill on my body. Was it another coincidence or destiny? 

In New Zealand I started my trip in Auckland walking around the city and staying in gigantic hostel with hundreds of tourists from Europe or rather to be more accurate from Germany. When I was studying in Valencia I heard more often Arabic language on the streets, in Alaska Spanish at work and in Auckland German in hostels. I think I won’t be wrong telling that 80% backpackers you can find in New Zealand are from Germany. Well, at least I had a good chance to practice my German there J

I didn’t have a plan or places I wanted to visit in New Zealand. All was kind of random and unplanned and all I knew is that in the following week I am going to meet my friend that I have worked together with many years ago and I haven’t seen for several years. She was supposed to come few days later so in a meantime I decided to go to Waitomo to see one of the most spectacular caves in the World. What is so spectacular about this cave? It is not the biggest or the deepest one but has got something that makes it so unique. This is a small worm. One inch long or even less worm that lives inside the cave in the complete darkness. Do you think I crossed the whole World to watch a small bug….? Well, it might sound ridiculous but this warm was one of the best things I have ever seen. Let me explain why!

You take a tour to enter the cave. Super expensive one as everything in New Zealand. I paid around 200 NZD for seeing a worm??? Yeap, when I saw the prices I really thought for a while that I am crazy. Or maybe I just spent too much time on the Sun…. Probably both of them cause I paid it and couple of minutes later I was putting on some special clothes designed for walking inside the caves. Together with four other people we drove for a couple of minutes to the place where all was going to start. There you are practicing sliding down the rope on some meadow on the middle of nowhere and then a guide is taking some board off the ground and showing you a hole in the ground. Well… that was not what I was expecting and paid 200 NZD… right? 

You slide down the rope about 25 meters in the total darkness through the small tube, tunnel, or rather chimney. You continue the tour zipping the rope inside the cave over the water, then swim the inside cave river, climb underground waterfall to finish the whole tour by sitting on aired tube and coming back with the river flow. And where is that worm that I paid so much to see? It’s everywhere! There are millions of glowworms above your head. By entering the cave we woke them up, movement of our bodies created a small wind that made them glow. And now try to imagine that you are tired, wet and hungry after 3 hours tour and you are sitting on the aired black tube, floating down the river in the complete darkness inside the cave, and all what you can see are millions of glowworms, it’s like the Milky Way inside the cave just one meter above your head. It’s like touching the stars that are blinking just for you for a hundreds of meters of the stream. If you think about the most romantic place ever it is right here. Underground, hidden in the middle of nowhere under the light green meadow. 

I continued my trip hitchhiking alone to Rotorua, and then together with my friend to Wai-o-tapu, Taupo, Turangi, Whakatane and back to Taupo. We were trying to do the Tongariro Alpine crossing but the weather in spring time can be very moody here so this needs to wait for my next visit to the Middle-earth. We stuck for 3 days in Turangi hoping the weather gets better and instead we met amazing people. Some of them we met again on the South Island. On North Island we managed to get to White Island, an active volcano just 1 day after its eruption, so the whole island was covered with fresh, yellow-green-ish layer and stinky sulfur smell. 

We crossed the straits between North and South island by ferry watching whales passing by. On South Island we rented a car and visited amazing places. Walking by the shore in Abel Tasman National Park, having fun during concert in Nelson, dancing Haka on the road in the middle of nowhere, hiking some mountains near Wanaka, jogging by the sunset in Westport, enjoying splashing water on the Pancake cliffs, walking on the shrinking glaciers in Fox Glacier, getting soaked on the boat in Milford Sound watching hundreds of waterfalls or watching Lord of The Rings and Hobbit in local hostels with a view to those places through the window and much more. Pure New Zealand experience and one is true. My dreams came true on this trip, I could see by myself places I was only dreaming a year before. I did more than that! I visited Hobbiton and did some hang-gliding in Queenstown even though I am scared to death of heights. I crossed New Zealand from North to South without plan or preparation but as J.R.R. Tolkien said: "Not all those who wander are lost".