2006/05 NZ trip - Tongariro |
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Friday May 26th
A big surprise in the morning was that it wasn’t raining, yet. Our plan was to head for Tongariro national park and see what there was to see along the way. Just north of Taupo we saw a sign for Huka Falls, which turned out to be a great stop. The Waikato River comes down out of the mountains and roars though a narrow chute and then drops about 40 feet into a large blue pool. The water’s purity gives it a beautiful light blue tinge that tints the chute and the falls.
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Huka Falls (3.27) |
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At Huka, we saw a trail that led to “Craters of the Moon”. This is another 
thermal valley, full of springs and fumaroles, but this one is free! The whole valley is carpeted with vegetation and shrubs, and the steam seems to be coming out of everywhere. There are a few large holes belching out fumes and steam, but thousands of tiny ones, all over the valley. Most of this thermal activity is new. There is a geothermal plant just a few miles away and this has lowered the water table and caused the remaining water in the ground to boil even more. Since then there have a couple of eruptions, including one that destroyed the trails and boardwalk.
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Craters of the Moon (6.09) |
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The rain started shortly after we began our hike around the valley, so our pictures had to deal with rain and steam and fumes again. There are similarities to the geyser fields of Yellowstone, but the major difference is in the plants. In Yellowstone, there are just a few pine trees to be seen around the thermal features. In New Zealand, most of the undergrowth of shrubs seems to tolerate the fumes, and there are some weird plants and ferns that thrive on sulphurous acid and fumes and steam.
We stopped in Taupo for food and wine and also for wool. Sandie had to buy some and help the sheep’s economy along. Well, it’s better than buying rocks! After all this we were running out of time to get to Tongariro. We drove past Lake Taupo, a very large lake, which is probably beautiful on a summer’s day with blue sky, but to us was just a large, grey lake under a grey sky. We left the lake at Turangi and began climbing up into Tongariro national park, disappearing into the clouds at times.
Finally, we saw the turn up to Chateau Tongariro. We saw an elegant chateau lit up against the bulk of Mount Ruapehu. The mountain had streaks of snow but not enough yet for the skiers. The Chateau looked inviting but we were headed a couple of miles past it to the Whakapapa campground. “Camp anywhere”, said the lady at the campground office, “There are only four other campers here.” We found a spot above the Whakapapanui River. The rain didn’t seem much colder yet than Rotorua’s, but we were probably going to be grateful that we had a heater in the camper.
Saturday May 27th
Overnight the rain became much heavier, and we were now camping in our own personal lake above the river, which was now twice the size of the night before. I walked down to the visitor’s centre and found that the weather was likely to clear up in the afternoon. I also found that Lake Taupo is a volcanic crater, left behind by an enormous eruption about 5000 years ago, before anyone lived in New Zealand.
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Tongariro (3.57) |  |
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The mountain we were camped on is Ruapehu, New Zealand’s other active volcano (other than White Island). It last erupted in 1996. The weather forecast for the end of the week was heavy snow, and the beginning of the skiing season. Optimistically, I picked up a leaflet on Tongariro’s walks, and found a warning not to confuse directions and signs for Whakapapanui and Whakapapaito. As if we would!
The rain was bucketing down so we drove up the mountain to the ski resort, in 
the hope that we could get above the rain clouds, but that didn’t work as we just disappeared into the cloud. The terrain up there is mainly bare volcanic rock and snow, but a little lower down there is a whole ecosystem of alpine plants and mosses that thrive on the volcanic rock and the water. It was beautiful but hard to appreciate while walking ankle-deep in a downpour.
Eventually, we gave up on the upper mountain and drove back down to lower slopes where shrubs and trees can survive. I hiked down to Tawhai Falls, which was a roaring 
jet of muddy water, shaking the ground. Rain is good for waterfalls! This was a place for walking and climbing very carefully. Sandie chose to stay dry with her book of Sudoku puzzles.
The rain showed no signs of easing up so we decided to drive a loop route around the edge of the park to an area known as the Rangipo Desert. Anything “dry” or “desert” sounded really good at that point! It worked! The “desert” looked like it had just got a good soaking, but the brown terrain and scarcity of trees suggested that it was usually in the rain shadow of Ruapehu.
We had a few minutes of sunshine there, watching the clouds boiling around Ruapehu, and then we had to finish the loop and get back to camp. The loop took us between Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupo, two volcanic players in the past. We thought things might be livening up again as we smelled sulphur, but it turned out to be a nearby pulp mill. This area has many conifers that had turned to an autumn gold. They are similar to our Minnesota tamaracks, but more feathery, and we assume they are some form of larch tree, another European import.
Back at Whakapapa, we found, to our surprise, that it was still raining, and the river had doubled in size again.
Sunday May 28th
We had a dry night, but the rain started again as soon as I put my boots on for a walk. As it was only a fine drizzle, I ignored it and hiked up the Ridge Trail, which promised stupendous views of the two volcanoes, Ruapuhe and Ngauruhoe. However, as expected, all I could see was cloud in all directions. The Tongariro Crossing is one of New Zealand’s premier hikes, but we were too late in the season to attempt it, and of course the weather wasn’t cooperating either. Tongariro is also famous as the site of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings films. The initials “LOTR” appear in lots of tours, and the North Island was also the site for Hobbiton. It’s been such a boost to New Zealand’s tourism industry that I’m surprised they haven’t renamed Auckland as “Orcland”.