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Ohakune Top 10 Holiday Park, Ohakune, North Island, New Zealand. 2745km

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Kiwi Word of the day: Tramping – Hiking.

On Wednesday morning the weather was kind of iffy, but we decided not to hang around Taupo any longer and drove down towards Tongariro. We took the turn to Whakapapa village, which is a year round attraction, ski in winter, tramping in summer. After Shir and Orr napped along the way, and after lunch in the visitor center parking lot, we embarked on a hike to Taranaki Falls.

The 6km circular hike reaches a nice waterfall after ploughing through volcanic landscape, with the ominous Mount Ngauruhoe volcano looming in the distance. It was cloudy when we started our walk, so we took raincoats just in case. Turns out that the weather got warmer and sunnier and by the time we got back we all were a bit sunburned because we didn’t bring our hats and sunscreen. The hike was pleasant and Orr and Shir walked for parts of the way. The stroller was their main means of transport though. At the halfway point Shir did walk down and up the stairs leading to the bottom of the falls. Orr enjoyed the luxury of my shoulders.

After the hike we drove south another 45 minutes to the Top 10 campground in Ohakune where we stayed a week earlier. We got a good site right next to the playground and the kitchen, and the kids immediately felt at home. After a week of waiting for good weather, and hoping it will finally improve, I decided to do the famous Tongariro Crossing tramp in the morning.

The Tongariro Crossing is considered New Zealand’s best one day tramp. It is long, 18km, with several steep climbs, but the rewards walking among volcanoes, craters, emerald pools, and on clear days beautiful views afar. The hike is so popular that on some days two thousand people do the track. Over 20 companies provide shuttle services from nearby towns. I wanted to escape the crowds so I signed up for the earliest possible shuttle.

I got up early today and took a shuttle to the Mangatepopo road, which is the starting point of the hike. I started walking at 7:15am and was pleased to see that there were relatively few hikers around. The sky was partly sunny and I crossed my fingers hoping it will remain that way for the rest of the day. At 8am in Soda Springs all still OK. But as I am climbing to the saddle between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe, low clouds start creeping in.

A side trip up Mount Ngauruhoe is a 3 hour deal (on top of the 18km hike) but is supposed to be spectacular. By the way, this is the famous Mount Doom from the “Lord of the Rings” movie. Although it was getting cloudy, I decided to go for it, hoping that at the top it will be all clear. Most of the cursed climb up this volcano was hard and slippery, with visibility limited by the cloud that I was in. I could only see 25 meters ahead, but I did not want to stop once I started up. It took 2 long hours to get to the top (a 600 meter climb to 2290m) and just as I reached the crater rim the sky cleared up. I was able to peak inside the deep snow filled crater. I could also see the top of Mount Ruapohoe (another volcano) in the distance. But alas, 5 minutes of grace is all I got before I was covered in clouds again. I spent another 20 minutes on top eating a hearty lunch and then slip and slid down back to the track. By the way, Ngauruhoe last hiccupped one year ago.

The rest of the day was cloudy and grey, detracting slightly from the beauty of the hike. Nonetheless, it was very impressive to march between craters. I reached the red crater and was able to look down at its beautifully oxidized (rusty) walls but in the 30 seconds it took me to get my camera out of the backpack, it got all covered with clouds and gone.

The emerald pools further down the trail were gorgeous. It was getting a bit late and I still had a ways to go, so I put on turbo and started to pass all the people in front of me on the trail.

The last bit down the mountain was through a lush rainforest that was still muddy and moist from the last week of rains. I never saw trees whose entire bark was so green from the moss. Same for large swathes of boulders and rocks by the stream the trail passed. Beautiful.

The hike lasted just under 9 hours and I can’t remember the last time I walked so much, but it was a great experience and I highly recommend it, just find a sunny day!

Good Night,

-Hemi

 

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 4:49 am and is filed under Big Trip, New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.