Tongariro National Park

---

The weather had been lovely in Rotorua and we assumed that it would be similar in Tongariro National Park. Unfortunately by the time we got anywhere close to the park the drizzle had started. We stopped at Lake Taupo along the way for some food and to have a look at the lake itself. We also stopped at the spectacular Huka Falls. The sheer volume of water on these falls is close to 220,000 litres per second and incredible to see.

After filling up Cleatus we were back on the road and reached the wind and rain swept Tongariro National Park Village that evening. National Park is a tiny village on the central plateau of the North Island and as the name suggests, it is located close to Tongariro National Park.

This was our second and final attempt attempt at seeing Tongariro. We organised a room at the hostel. The girl there told us that the Tongariro crossing ( A world famous day long walk in the park) was out for us as we would need equipment to deal with ice so we decided to do a shorter walk weather pending. That evening we had a couple of beers by the huge fire in Scnapps bar next door to the hostel. After eating we hit the hay.

The following day we were shocked to find (contrary to weather forecast) that while still very cold the sun was shining. We got up nice and early and drove to Whakapapa which is sort of base camp for any walks in the park and also a jump off point for skiing in the area.

We decided to do the Tama Lakes walk and set off straight away. We passed the Taranaki Falls along the route which were nice. The walk was tough enough and involved crossing lots of little streams and muddy ponds.

The views of snow capped Tongariro Mountain and Ngauruhoe Mountain (Also used as Mount Doom in Lord of The Rings) were spectacular. The weather got colder as we went higher and soon we were walking on icy rocks with snow falling around us. The lower Tama lake was spectacular and we spent some time there.

After that we climbed for the guts of 40 minutes to get to the upper Tama lake but unfortunately the weather got progessively worse and our visibility went down to zero so we decided to turn back. We walked back the same route as we had taken, spotting Mount Ruapehu in the distance. The views along the course of the morning were amazing as the pictures testify. All in all the walk took about 5 hours to complete.

Once back down and after a quick change at the tourist centre we were back on the road.

Next Stop Paihia via Hamilton...

---

Photos

Ciaran On Our Trek
At Taranaki Falls