Our neighbor from the campground, with two boys had this comfortable bus.
We went to a dam close to Taupo where they open the gates every morning, I believe at 10 am to show how the river looks naturally with all it's rapids.
When we arrived at the Tongariro National Park it was cloudy and cold for being summer.
For all the "Lord of the rings" fans this was the location of:
Ithilien, Mordor and Gates of the Mordor
The park is centred on three active volcanoes: Tongariro (1,968 metres), Ruapehu (2,797 metres), and Ngauruhoe (2,290metres).
Kiwi is the national bird in New Zealand and is endangered as well. It is a very shy bird and hardly to be seen.
As the drive was longer than we expected we arrived in the afternoon at the information center. We got more information about different hikes and were to camp cheaply for the night. The "Top 10 Holiday" would have costed NZ$ 25 per person and the basic camp ground they told us was NZ$ 4 per person.
But before we went to the camp ground we wanted to do the " Taranaki Falls" walk. The walk is 6 km long and it is a leisurely walk with nice stops at the waterfall where the Wairer Stream plummets 20 meters into a boulder ring pool. Then you hiked down to the foot of the waterfall.
At dusk we were blessed with this beautiful sun set while having spaghetti with sauce for dinner.
After a very chilly night we got up quickly and a nice hot cup of tea to warm up and to get ready for our day hike. The plan was to drive to the start of the Tongariro Alpine Track and to tramp to the lakes and walk the same way back.
We drove with the car to the beginning of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Rahel, Robert and I started our walk at 8 am. Taylor did not feel so good after another sleepless night in the car and stayed behind to do the track by herself. The plan was to walk half the way up to the lakes and walk the same way back. The bus to get from one end to the other would have been NZ$ 25 per person.
The start of the trail was flat and sparse and full of people. Apparently 500 people a day walk this track during the summer month. After the flat part we had to clime quite a few stairs to get to the top.
Just before the top we had this amazing view as well as two boys getting naked. Trust me it was not that warm.
Soon we saw the volcanic scenery in its fullest beauty. We heard people saying that they could feel the heat under their boots and apparently when you fall and get your hands too long on the ground you can burn them.
Here is a lake with lake Taupo in the background.
View from the highest mountain down to more lakes. The trail was very loose and it was easier to run, slide down the trail than to walk down carefully. It was much fun.
In the top picture you can see Mt. "Doom" volcano.
Below Rahel and I in front of the largest lake. We had lunch there and if the sun was hiding and the wind was blowing it was freezing up there.
When we were at the top of the mountain we decided that we will not turn around and walk back, but finish the track. We were hoping to find a ride on the other side to get back to our car.
When we arrived at the bottom on the other side it was full of people waiting for the bus, not too many other cars were around, so we planned already that one person takes the bus and will pick up the others, when we saw a camper van moving. Robert run to ask the driver if they were by any chance driving back to the other car park. The women said no and Robert stayed at the car park to ask anybody who would approach their car. But there was nobody. After a while a girl approached him if he asked to get a lift. He said yes and was inquiring if a total of 3 people could come. She said yes. So Rahel and I run to join the camper van. Robert sat in the front with the mother and we sat in the back with the girl. We found out that they are from Colorado, she has been backpacking in Australia with a lot of hitch hiking. People always helped her and now was their term to help.she changed the mind of her mother. They drove the 20 minutes to the other car park and back to pick up her brothers who were still hiking. This was a wonderful experience and so nice of them.
When we were at the car park surprisingly Taylor was not there and waiting for another hour, she still had not come back. Robert started the hike again to look for her. Finally both came back and we were able to continued our trip.
We had to drive back to Taupo and continued east as we wanted to go to Napier to visit Sara. We used to live and work together with Sara in Aspen, Colorado in 2005 and 2006.
We arrived in Napier luckily earlier than expected and called Sara from a phone in a motel. 10 minutes later she came to pick us up. There we got to know James her boyfriend. As we were four people to accommodate, she kindly explained that we won't be able to stay at her apartment but with her parents. All of us, just amazing!
To be continued in the next blog entry.
If you would like to see more pictures, please see the below link:
Tongariro National Park
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