Advertisement
It's been a long time away from cheap internet...
Leaving Wellington a week ago I took the bus to Napier, at the southern end of Hawkes Bay. A large portion of the town was destroyed in the 1930s, and reconstructed in Art Deco style, for which the town is now famed.
Other than admiring the architecture and tasting the wine, there isn't much to do in Napier. Fortunately I met up again with German friend Petra, who was driving up to Taupo the next day with a free passenger seat.
We were now entering the active volcanic part of New Zealand which I have read about. Lake Taupo is in fact the giant caldera of a supervolcano, which erupted nearly 2000 years ago and was powerful enough for both the Romans and Chinese to record its effects. Wairakei Geothermal park directly to the north is full of thermal vents, boiling mud pools and geysers, and also a large geothermal power plant.
Petra and I have been travelling together for the past week with the intention of doing a four day walk in Tongariro National Park. Travelling in the car, it's been an opportunity to visit lots of places that I
Napier Seafront
Bluff Hill and the promenade would never have seen on foot, or public transport.
The Tongariro mountains consist of three active volcanic peaks; Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. Covered by Mountain Beech forest, Alpine tussock, and on the higher slopes, bare volcanic rocks, a deep red in colour. A lot of the filming for The Lord of the Rings was done in the Tongariro National Park, and there are signs everywhere for 'official location tours', but you could easily tell the places they used for Ithilien and Mordor, when the weather conditions were right.
We were relying on good weather for the Tongariro Crossing and the four day Great Walk, as travel becomes difficult, and even dangerous in snow and high winds. Unfortunately winter came fast and without warning - wind speeds of 70-80kph and heavy snowfall on the mountain meant we would have to wait.
Leaving Taupo, and civilisation, and headed past the mountain range to the ski village of Ohakune to wait for things to calm down a little. We stayed in Ohakune for a day as Petra was looking for a winter job on the ski slopes. We took a drive up the mountain road to the snowline (the first snow
Many Meetings
Dinner at YHA Napier with Petra and new friend Marc I've seen for a long time!), and walked to three spectacular waterfalls, their discharge augmented by meltwater.
With still no improvement in the weather we drove back up the western side of the mountains, and spent the night in Whakapapa village, right under the mountains, hoping that we could find a window in which to just attempt the Crossing in one day. The weather here was so bad that Petra, who had been sleeping in the car the whole time, paid for the expensive($25) and basic (no bedding or kitchen utensils) hostel accommodation there.
I made an excursion that evening out onto the mountainside in the driving rain and snow to see white Silica deposits on the river, more busy waterfalls, dense native forest and bleak alpine bogs. It was all very gloomy and atmospheric in the last light of the day.
The next morning brought no improvement in the weather, so we decided to leave Whakapapa and give up on the crossing. Like Caradhras defeated The Fellowship of the Ring, so we were turned back by the natural forces at work on Mt. Tongariro.
Determined to still make the most of the day, we walked 2 hours to
Taranaki falls and 20 mins to Tawhai falls before leaving the National Park and staying overnight in Turangi.
Of Turangi I don't have much to say. It served as a convenient stop in between Whakapapa and Taupo when night fell, but I was glad to be leaving in the morning. Someone in Kaikoura recommended I visit there instead of Taupo. I'm not sure why - it sits some distance back from the southern edge of the lake, and there is nothing there besides the most basic of services. In summer it is busy with trout fishermen, but last night it was like a ghost town. It did mean having a dorm room to myself however.
So now we're back in Taupo, and it's time for me and Petra to resume our separate adventures at a very different pace. It's been fun to take things slow and explore every back road, but I feel ready to move North on my own, to Rotorua and beyond (that means I haven't decided yet)...
Observations:
Indian myna birds: Those same pests I saw in Australia are here too, living in town centres like pigeons but not so numerous, and prettier.
Lake Taupo
Just a little shag in the foreground Heather: I was surprised to see my old friend
Calluna vulgaris growing all over the mountainsides. Apparently some English bloke decided to start a heather moor here for grouse shooting. Fortunately the grouse never survived, but the heather can be seen growing amongst the native tussock.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.07s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb