Mud Pool NZ

All I could think of was 'Lord of the Rings', the movie and it's animated character, 'Smeagol'. I think he emerges out of mud pool in the movie if I am right. The place was nothing like we imagined. It was on my mom's top list, that amazing.

Wai-O-Tapu in Maori is 'scared water' and it is an active geothermal which we could smell it from a distance. We were heading to Rotorua for a place similar to this and were only 27km away but we decided to turn around for we knew we would be late to get back to Hamilton. So, we stopped by at Waiotapu. The area had many hot springs and boiling pools. Mud pool may be the favourite place in North island. For me, it was Taupo but spluttering mud makes you think every non living thing is living too, in a way. The belching holes burp, spit and hiccups just like kids would do and it was amazing, nothing like you have seen before. If you were to be alone which I was for a while and it was a different world with sound effects of plopping and belching and hissing..

We also found a 'secret spot'. The place is known as 'Secret Spot' but the secret's obviously well out. I think it would be a nice place to come with candles at night, so cozy and peace although very close to the road. A nice spot to relax on the journey between Taupo & Rotorua. We would go into the stream but it was filled with some drunken swimmers and we decided not to go in.

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Mt Ruapehu NZ

After a very warm night in a small town of Waiouru, we headed to Whakapapa Village, located at the base of the access road to Whakapapa ski field on the western side of Mt Ruapehu. Whakappa is one of two commercial ski fields of Mt Ruapehu, the other one is Turoa on the southern slope. Whakapapa, the larger. Well, we made a full round of Tongariro National Park, it just took us couple of days.

We had a plan to ski but unfortunately there wasn't enough snow yet. The season is generally from June to October depending upon ski condition. I guess we were only two weeks early. Had there been more snow, there would have been more snow ball throwers. We didnt mind though, we had snow ball throwing game season for a while and sat by the pristine looking mountain pond.

The mountain was all brown although half covered with white snow and I wondered why. So, I found out Mt Ruapehu is one of the world's most active volcanoes and the largest active volcano in New Zealand. It is also the highest point in the North Island but I couldn't tell how high we were at. Well, we could have seen the eruption too looking at the frequency of eruption the mountain had, it looked like it is the time again. Unfortunately, it didn't happen and we didn't have to run.

Whakapapa Village

Waiouru NZ

After a nice and relaxing afternoon in the hot stream of Taupo, we  headed to Whakhapapa Village. Well, that's what we intended to but ended up to this small town, Waiouru.

The state highway we took just before we reached this place was a 'Desert Road', literally a desert highway. We could see nothing, hardly any cars passing by, no plants or animals, nothing living but deserted. It was about 35km through Rangipo desert to Turangi which is the southern end of Lake Taupo. We thought we would get to nothing but when we saw this small cluster of a police station, petrol station, half a dozen of cafe/restaurants along the highway, there was a sigh of relief. I went in to a small cafe just opposite the petrol station and asked this chinese lady working in a kitchen how much a small container of rice would cost. She said 10 bucks and she gave me this look like 10 bucks for a container of rice is cheap. "Where on earth am I in?", I talked to myself. Anyway, there were motels in the town, two of them. One had a big sign on the front door saying, they are closed on Sundays. Since it was late, we had nowhere to go but this only motel in the town. 

So, this 75 year old english owner of the motel helped us, get the rooms heat up pretty quick and also with other things. After he is done with everything, he gave my dad a compliment; he goes, " I dont normally do this sir, but your daughters are beautiful. I wish I was in 30's." We three sisters couldn't help but laugh, out loud, really loud. We roar the town in this case. Haha!

The roads would be foggy most of the time, when it is not, it's colorful.

By the time we stopped for this birdy, it was gone miles away.

Sheep and more sheep, everywhere you go.

Waiouru Motel

Morning view from the motel window.

Spa Thermal Park NZ

It is called Otumuheke Stream, meaning hot river, a great place to relax and soak in an open air hot springs. Amazing as it sounds, there were a series of small natural hot pools from a hot stream. The thermal Spa Park with natural hot pools from a hot stream which ultimately mixes with cold water of the Waikato river. 

We changed at toilets near the parking bay and walked down to the park bear foot, everyone seemed doing the same. As much we enjoyed walking bear foot on luscious grass of the Thermal park, we enjoyed soaking in the hot pools equally, we kept moving from one to another. As the stream merges onto the Waikato river, temperature varied when hot stream mixes with cold river water. The merging with the mighty Waikato River created a wonderful free swimming hole. It would be a great place to plunge into in summer. We found some were into it, despite the chilly weather. Well, I wanted to as well after the hot spring soaking, but the place seemed to be crowded with some young lads with tattoos and their dogs and there came my hesitation. Well, I will next time, if I make it. It was one of those serene places you see in the movies where couples walk into it and there comes a musical loop. 

The last thing we three cousins did at the park was, swing onto the rope. It was definitely a great fun but didn't beat the hot stream, No.

This is where I'd love to go again. 

Open air hot spring

Watch it or Lose it.

Cold water river mixes with hot stream

We should have one of these at home. 'The Swing'

Huka Falls NZ

Huka Falls didnt seem to be far away but it took us about two and half hours drive from Hamilton. It wasn't that hard to find the place except that we took couple of wrong turn. We got there eventually. Woah, the rushing water of Huka Falls, gave me goosebumps whilst crossing over the bridge for a look out. It felt like I've been to this place, like many a times. Sure I have in my dreams. Deja vu moments I guess. 'Huka' is the Maori name of the falls and it means 'foam'. It make sense for it looked like white foam over crystal blue with rapids flowing through the rock face of Waikato river. People should have put more thought into while naming these hands too, not that I don't like my name but curious. The data says, the flow volume of the falls approaches 220,000 litres per second, this could fill two Olympic sized swimming pools per second. I would have loved watching people spin onto the falls but I missed it. People hopping on Hukafalls jet for a spin, salute!  That would have been really scary.

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Hamilton NZ

Colorful Hamilton

After our first night in Auckland city, we headed north, Hamilton was our first pit stop. We didn't do much on the day besides picnicking by the pond at Hamilton garden, one of the Waikato region's most visited tourist attractions. There's something for everyone at the garden, for us, the swings. Dad hesitated to move ahead for he was tired, so did mom. After walking into hundreds, we finally found one hotel with the last remaining perfectly fitting family size room. We didn't realise the current status of the city with two on-going concerts. 
We loved our stay so much, we did come back to Hamilton to check-in into the same hotel for our final night.  Loved the city!

Three heads trying to figure out where to go next. Too many head, too many maps.

Auckland city tower.

Darling Harbour

I've wondered many a times why the name Darling Harbour? I had in my mind, harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney for you to take your darling to. I wikipedia just to find out it was named after a Lieutenant, Darling, his last name apparently. I like the way how mind's been set up anyway. I will stick with it. Darling Harbour is one of the great waterfront tourism destinations and it is equally recreation-ed by locals because of its proximity and variety of dining options and funky nightclubs. We spent couple of hours in and around Darling Harbour. Mom wanted Malaysian for dinner and dad mo:mo. We dined at China-Town where I was almost fooled by this Chinese restaurant owner when she said my card declined. I didnt realise it's April first. We finished off with delicious emperor puffs (one of those things people love queuing up and be served through a window) and egg tart.

Lahana Kirtipur

As much dad mom love taking me to mandirs, they like local eateries too. Upon finishing mom's shopping, we headed to Kirtipur. This time it was uncle's recommendation and no doubt it was worth every bite. The word Newa Lahana means Newa Civilization and the place was pretty obvious to its name, preserving Newari culture. A must place, if you want to taste of authentic newari dishes. 

We were welcomed by an ornate gate with a big signage of "Lahana" followed by a stone paved trail with hanging pieces all the way. Fascinating as it was, the trail led us to Lahana museum. Pretty amazed with what we saw we had to go check how the popular Lahana restaurant looked like.  The four storied concrete building wasn't that appealing. However, we did climb up to the rooftop and asked if they were serving any thing extra. We decided to go back to the museum for its more authentic environment, to see people at work and food of-course! The view was spectacle as the place had this open wall and the seating arrangement was simple yet very comfy on coushions. We started with a "samey baji" set and the plates kept coming until we could no more. Every dish was a delicacy and every bite, divine. Yum! I said yum with every bite. The dish I liked the most was "Sapumhichha" (liquid bone marrow encased in stomach lining). It was juicy and succulent,  nothing like I've ever tasted, "Quati" comes second which I gobbled all my own. That gave me bad tonsillitis but again not as bad as from the last tour. I was on bed for two weeks and more not of tonsillitis but allergy.

We stopped by at Bagh Bhairav mandir for a brief look out.

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Surkhet

It wasnt on our bucket list but we had a day more to spare and hence, Surkhet, three hours away from Kohalpur. We passed through Bardia National Park once again and therefore the check-points. Surkhet is in Bheri zone of Mid-western region. The valley includes Birendranagar, which spreads around 50 sq km and it is 600km from Kathmandu. It was pretty warm again compared to Nepalgunj/Kohalpur, foggy throughout.

The first thing we did after the meet ups at Surkhet was to climb Ghantaghar. The perfect timing allowed us to see the sun set. It was 360' view from the top. One could see the valley and further. Next, was panipuri and chaat, highly recommended by Pabrita (one of the ex-students of Rajya aunty). A brief walk to Birendranagar bazaar and it was getting dark already. We were dropped off to Shila (Rajya aunty's friend) aunty's place and the fun began. I have never seen Rajya aunty cook, never in my life and she did at Shila aunty's place (Shila aunty being a vegetarian). Amazing!

Sunset from Surkhet ghantaghar

I am this most of the time.  c: Rajya aunty

Surkhet Ghantaghar

Rajya fupu's cooking (finally)

Babai, on the way to Surkhet

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Nepalgunj

Nepalgunj, our final pit for the day. Nepalgunj is a municipality in Banke district and is a border with India. I didnt expect Nepalgunj to be so chaotic. It could be the construction work, but there were too many on the road and off too. Perhaps it will be a better place in future with better roads as one can see where it's heading to. One of my wish list was a tanga (horse cab) ride in Nepalgunj, popular mode of transportation in and around the city. It is fun to ride as to my past experience, but passing through the chaos now, I was more concerned about the haze of dust covering the city. Although chaotic, I absolutely loved the view of  the sun setting. I somehow managed to film it from inside.

I wouldn't recommend Nepaljung, perhaps in a couple of years the construction will be over and will be   ok to go around but Rupedia, a big No, never. 

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Harnawa-Bardia

After lunch at Chisapani, we headed to Harnawa, one of the five buffer zones, community forest of Bardia National Park. Buffer zone surrounds Bardia National park and is created to preserve the natural resources and for the conservation of wildlife. Buffer zone covers around 327 km of forests and private surrounding lands, Harwana is one of them. Harnawa is a beautiful small village surrounded by forest, 5km off the main highway. We were welcomed by Yamkala's (Rajya aunty's ex-student) mom dad, soda came first followed by fresh buffalo milk, they had two of them. Although mid-winter, the place was pretty warm and it was a sunny day. I absolutely loved the place, everything about it. 

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Karnali Bridge

Elephant ride at Bardia National Park and we headed to Karnali bridge as we didnt get a chance to walk past the bridge the day before, also for the lunch. 

Karnali bridge is over Karnali river and hence the name, the longest river between Kailali district and Bardiya district of western Nepal. It is the second of its kind in Asia. The nearest city of Karnali bridge is Chisapani which is the entry point of far-western region.  This single-pillar asymmetric suspension bridge is unique in design and is 500km from Kathmandu and lies in Mahendra highway, the longest highway of Nepal. 

Walking on the bridge was a blown away experience meaning it was terribly windy. We walked in a row holding hands. Rajya aunty and Muna aunty were more concerned about this five year old and I, my mobile. I didnt want it to be blown away as I managed to take few pictures. We walked past the bridge and to the same place we had our lunch yesterday at Chisapani. I guess those fish were freshly caught from the Karnali river. Glad we returned, as they say do not return without tasting the fish at Chisapani.

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Bardia National Park

A very good night sleep on a larger than a king size bed (could almost fit 10 people) and we woke up in the dark. One more time, it was local 'anda' egg (relatively smaller in size) and tea and we were ready to head off. Unfortunately, our vehicle wasn't. We had to push it back and forth for a while, even my five year brother was a helping hand. Our driver said it was his fault to turn off the vehicle with the lights on. Ah! well, we were on the highway in no time and off again about 12km on the gravel road to  Thakurdwara. We were ahead of time and we waited for GulabKali to appear. Elephant ride lasted about an hour. Not a quite ride like I had in Meghauli jungle, Chitwan for we had five year old brother on board but I expected to encounter more animals. Not luck our, the only different thing this time was reptiles including endangered long snouted gharial, marsh mugger crocodile and python. There were 7-8 pythons snuggled in the pit, apparently they were cold and would spread once the sun comes out as per our guide.

If I were to make it next time, I would do certainly do a jungle walk or a jeep safari and elephant ride in the evening as they say there is more possibility you will see a tiger hunt.

Chandni-Dodhara

So, our reserved vehicle picked us up seven in the morning. Our first turn was left, about 14km southwest along a dirt/gravel road from Mahendra highway to book an elephant/ride for tomorrow. We had to come back the same road, which killed about an hour time. Back to the highway, as we passed through Bardia National Park, we saw many wild animals from the park including white haired monkeys, dear, more monkeys and a group of crocodile sun bathing by the Babai river. Everytime we spotted one, I would ask the driver to stop. He wouldnt however, saying we are not allowed to, for they were many check points in between and he seemed scared. We continued our highway journey and stopped at Chisapani- Karnali bridge for lunch. Our driver knew where to stop by, meaning the food was amazing, very local yet delicious. We further continued to the west, Mahendranagar being our destination for the day. Mahendranagar is the most westerly border. Well, that was our aim, to reach the end. Mahendranagar is 5km east of the Indian border and 700km west of Kathmandu. We also passed through Shuklaphanta National Park.

Our driver recommended Chandani-Dodhara, also Rajya aunty, which is 12km away from Mahendranagar. We were a bit lost as there were too many roads and when we asked for direction,  we were told we were on the right track. We could have asked for a shorter route instead. Chandani Dodhara bridge, also known as Mahakali bridge is a suspension bridge over Mahakali river. It is in Kanchanpur district of Mahakali state, far western region of Nepal. It's a pedestrian suspension bridge over Mahakali river. However, we saw many motor bikes passed by and those horn blowing motorist (quite in hurry look like) were certainly annoying to pedestrians on the narrow bridge. The bridge is about 1496m in length, the longest suspension bridge of Nepal and links Nepalese living in Dodhara-Chandani of Kanchanpur district.

It was pretty windy and it started to rain as we escalated to the bridge. We went for samosa tea immediately after a short walk on the bridge. All fuelled up and we were ready to head back. We knew we had a long way to come back. Bahunpur, Bardia is where we had to come back to, Rajya aunty's ex-student Yamkala's place. It was almost 8pm in the rain and dark of course when we reached her place and we were very much welcomed with her local 'murghi ko jhol' (as she says) and dal bhat.

Kohalpur

Glad we covered 25 districts out of 75 on my last road trip with dad and Prakash uncle to the east, this time it was west we headed to. We made it to extreme east on my last tour and to the west this time. Kohalpur, our first pit, also became our junction to go back and forth. We didnt do much on the day we arrived, except that we went to mela and around. Despite the mela being agricultural, it was pretty loud and a crowded place for people to enjoy live concert. People were dancing loud. Well! the music was and so were audience. What I loved the most was this 'chaat' Basu uncle recommended. There came along his story of cycling long distance just for the sake of this 'chaat' during his time. I guess it was well deserved. It was yummy, quite different to what I've experienced so far. The road side was full on with food carts of savoury snacks like the one we tried, chaat and there were others.  Here's more-

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Kohalpur Mela

Kohalpur Kids

Local 'Chaat'