National Park

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We get up and buy individual boxes of cereal and some milk at the front desk for breakfast. We go into the shared kitchen and eat our breakfast with an older couple that is here for a few days and hoping for the weather to clear so they can do a scenic flight over the mountains.
We catch the shuttle to Whakapapa and notice that several skiers and snowboarders are getting on the shuttle. As we approach the visitor center we decide to ride the shuttle up to the ski base area to see what it is like. Since it is an hour until the shuttle goes back down the mountain we have to spend an hour at the ski base area. Of course we are terribly tempted to rent skis and take a few runs although the conditions are really poor and the entire top of the mountain is shrouded in clouds. As we assess the situation we realize we don’t have hats or gloves and our better sense prevails. We decide that we just can’t ski today but regret not being better prepared.
We go down to the visitor center and the DOC person tells us that not only are the tracks we wanted to take full of snow at their higher elevations, there are no views from the tracks. We learn that the first skiing took place on Mt. Ruapehu in 1913. It is an active volcano that last erupted in September 1995 and several times in decade’s prior. They have a volcano warning system and warn you to get to higher-level structures if the alarms sound so you won’t be trapped in valleys if there are lava flows. We decide to take a two-hour day hike to a waterfall.
There is an interesting hotel, built in 1929, called The Chateau in the area and we decide to go there for lunch before we start the hike. It reminds us a little of the Chateau at Lake Louise although not that spectacular, but it is the original building unlike the Chateau at Lake Louise which burned down and was rebuilt a few times. We have lunch, take some pictures including Mt. Ngauruhoe which is the mountain used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Mount Doom in Mordor. Most of the Mordor filming was done in this area but the NZ government made them tear down all the sets to return everything to its natural state.
Our hike to the waterfall is a good hike with nice weather along the way. We decide that we will try to get transport tomorrow to a trailhead on the Wanganui river that is a three day, two night hike in huts. You also have to be picked up at the end of the hike by jet boat. It is not our first choice but at least will be a hut hike before we start south. We get to our motel about 5:00 pm and the desk person calls the transport service but has to leave a message. The desk person comes to our room about 6:30 pm to tell us that the transport service called back and the track along Wanganui river had developed a slide area that was under repair, so we can’t go on that track either. Hiking in Tangario National Park is not working out for us, so we decide that tomorrow we will ski.
We go to a café for dinner that is locally owned and the owner’s daughter, also our waitress, gives us a little family history. The family leaves National Park in the summer and goes to Mammoth Mountain in California for their ski season. After our meal, a lady approaches us and says she heard our accent and would like to chat with us for a while. We invite her to sit down and learn she is from Auckland. Her family has been skiing Whakapapa since before she was born. She is quite a character, seems to be from a wealthy family and is very interested in discussing our politics. We have a lively conversation with her and decide to leave about 10:30 pm so they can close the restaurant.

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