Saturday 29^th. March. 

Supposedly easier day today, and being fit it is. 

Set off from the Chateau on foot on the Tama Lakes Track. Right at the start I meet a couple of young lads who are fairly beefy, which is a good thing as they are carrying small backpack like kayaks, that they are going to paddle on the first and lower of the two Tama Lakes. The signboard at the beginning says 2½ hours to Lower Tama Lake, and they reckon on about 1½ hours. This sets off a challenge in me, so I step out smartly but not pushing hard, and get there in 1 hour 40 minutes, and the lads take 2 hours. This walk would not be everyone’s cup of tea, as it is relatively flat, and 2½ hours on a Grey Gravel track, a few duckboards, and the odd set of steps, through pretty desolate terrain and vegetation, as can be seen from the following two photos of yesterday’s mountain, might be considered boring.

 

There is quite a vast area of this terrain between Tongariro and Ruapehu and surrounding them. There is quite a lot of tussock grass higher up, and heather mixed with other shrubs lower down. The only comparable place I can think of is Rannock Moor, but there you have water in abundance all the time; here you have none apart from the two Tama Crater Lakes, although the duckboarding and dry stream beds do suggest there are times when it must be a bit different.

I sit above the lake having a rest and a bite to eat to when the kayak boys will make it, and am surprised by the arrival instead, of a young lady with a giant backpack, very colourfully dressed as is often the case with Japanese and Chinese girls. I had not seen anyone on the track whenever I had looked back for the lads, but she had joined my track from the 4 day Tongariro Northern Circuit. 

 

Then the lads turn up and we both grab a photo.

 

The lads now have to take their kayaks down into the crater, which means that they will have to carry them up and out again, which I see them do, before the 2 hour carry out.

 

I then set off for the 40 minute walk to the higher Lake Tama, which you can see overshadowed by Mount Ngauruhoe in the photo below.

 

The young lady does the same, sensibly having left her big sack below, and I just have to have a photo; I also take one for her on her camera.

 

Roxie and Tiger overlooking Lower Lake Tama and Mount Ruapehu from the Upper Lake Tama

I go further round to the right and down into the crater where I suspect there will be a little beach behind that promontory that no one else is prepared to make the extra effort to get to, and go for a proper lunch and a swim. The water is cold, but not dangerously so, and although the sun is fairly hazy by now, that and a reasonably warm wind soon have me dry and warm again: Very Refreshing after a sweaty 2½ hour walk.

I soon climb back out of the crater, and see the boys making steady progress out of their crater, Kayak on back, but I am way ahead of them by then.

I diverge onto an alternate way back that takes in the Taranaki Waterfalls, and well worth it too. The 2 falls themselves are picturesque, and the stream goes down a little rift valley or gorge, and therefore has a completely different microclimate and vegetation to the surrounding arid moorland: very refreshing.

 

At the second fall I am surprised to catch up with Roxie again, so we walk on through the bush together with a German couple she met on her multi-day walk.

We chatter away and she giggles quite a lot at my conversation and tells me I’m funny; she has a great sense of humour, but is equally serious, intelligent and mature for someone in her late 20s. Roxie is Hong Kong Chinese, and a Travel Journalist for a Chinese Publication there, but has been living and working out of Australia for some time. This trip to New Zealand is a holiday for herself rather than work though.

We part at the end of the walk, but while I am sitting outside the Hotel Café I notice that she is trying to hitch a lift, so get in my car and take her to her accommodation in National Park Village 15 minutes down the road, where she insists on paying me with a cup of coffee and more conversation in the café. She knows that she is going in the blog, and you will note has already left a message, even before I have posted this. 

So after all I have done in the last 5 weeks, and 3 good walks in 3 days I feel as fit as a flea; how long will it last after I get home?  But this is my last, as tomorrow I drive to Auckland, where I have 3 days, and I now have to get into return home mode, hand the car back and sort out last minute shopping, washing, packing, and mentally prepare myself for the long flights.

This evening I meet Janet and David again and have Dinner with them. They live in Perth, and David is a retired Research Geoscientist who has worked for in University and the Government in the field of Semi Conductors and Solar Power, and Janet is a Community Nurse. They will travel to Auckland tomorrow, as will Roxie, by catching the train from National Park Village, which being on the railway line is very useful to Tongariro and its Tourists. 

They are great company and Janet especially has a lively sense of humour and a beautiful engaging smile, and I enjoy their company tremendously, so very many thanks to them. This time I get a photo.

 

Friday 28^th. March. 

Today I climbed Mount Ruapehu the biggest volcano in the area 287 metres higher than Taranaki and the tallest mountain on the North Island, although the highest I reach is about 2700 metres.

First of all I drive higher up the mountain from the Chateau in Whakapapa Village up the very good two lane Bruce Road to Iwikau Village. This is New Zealand’s interpretation of an Alpine Ski Village: Wait till you see the photos.

 

They Ski all over the flank of this mountain, and the village is very small by European comparison, but there is a lot of car parking space, 2 chair lifts and 7 tows. The huts and chalets are well spread out in a desolate landscape of bare brown volcanic rock: I bet they are always desperately waiting for the snow.

 

The Village is at 1600 metres and the Tahurangi Peak of Ruapehu is 2797 metres, so I shun the chair lift where a bus load of school kids is queuing to board, and stomp up the rough access track below the lift. From the start of the second lift you alternate between the vehicle access track and a very rough walking track. I don’t linger where they have bulldozed the track below lava flows that look a bit precarious to me.

 

As I climb the track which wends its way beneath the lift I have friendly banter with the school kids overhead. As it is I nearly get to the top station before the last of them.

 

Looking back at Iwikau Village

At the top station there is a large modern café and a separate large classroom.

Unlike most walks in NZ there is very little indication of where to go, so I take the only obvious track up to the left, and in about an hour reach a col on the pinnacle ridge.

 

Tongariro and Ngauruhoe from Pinacle Ridge with the Tama craters between us.

In the first photo above you can see Pinnacle Ridge to the left where you emerge on the skyline from the chairlift couloir, and from there you walk up sometimes loose and rocky scree and scramble up some patches of good sound rock to the high point on the left skyline. From there you just follow the crater rim skyline round to the right. The furthest I got on the skyline crater rim is to the Col, as the way from there to the highest peak of the crater rim looked far too dangerous, loose scree over steep glacier or cliffs, followed by some serious steep knife edge climbing. However, from the Col there is a subsidiary ridge jutting out into the crater, leading to the Dome and I walked out to the Mountain Hut there. Contractors were working on the hut, but they had flown in by helicopter.



From the top you can see Taranaki above the clouds 85km. away 

 

Came down the Central Couloir

As I come down the last of the rocky couloir I catch up with a lady with wind-blown grey hair and bright red leggings, moving steadily and carefully towards the top station of the chairlift, and after the obligatory mountain greeting I swear that I had the tables turned on me for once, and she chatted me up, flirted almost, rather than my usual way. Janet was the last of a guided group that had come up the chairlift and then walked up to the Dome. I had crossed paths on my way there as they descended. I enjoyed her company, and as I was going to walk down, I left her to rejoin the group and her husband in the café, from where they would take the chairlift.

When I was well below the middle station I heard a yahoo and turned to see a pair of bright red leggings, and a couple of people waving from a chair behind me. I waved back, and the leggings were soon right overhead. I am pretty fit after all my time in NZ and I decided to see if I could beat the chairlift down, so I ran down the track in the way that mountaineers do, and was there to be introduced to David as they got off. We are all staying at Chateau Tongariro, and later I discover Janet sans bright red leggings, dressed smartly, hair nicely under control, looking very attractive with a lovely smile. I have coffee with Janet and David this evening, and will have dinner with them tomorrow evening, so now I have 3 Janet and David couples as friends.

Janet is a Kiwi who went travelling in in her youth and never got home after meeting David in his home Country Australia. They are taking the opportunity of having a holiday here after separately visiting their respective mothers in Nelson and Melbourne. More in tomorrow’ s post.



Thursday 27^th. March. 

Today the Tongariro Crossing: 19.4 km. 1000 metres ascent. 1400 metres descent.

It’s an early start as I am booked on the first shuttle bus of the day at 7.00am in the hope of getting ahead of the hordes. As I wait for the bus with fellow guests it is still dark, but the skies are clear and we can see the Southern Cross. There is frost on the cars and grass as dawn begins to break. There is no wind: Yet?

The shuttle bus service also act as safety advisors and watchdog. Dave the driver checks the forecast on mobile phone and warns that 65 km/hour winds are expected. The windchill forecast had been minus 8˚C, but with clear skies the sun will mitigate that. If low cloud and rain were forecast they would have shut the service down, but he books us in, and we will be booked out on our return; any not accounted for at the end of the day will be searched for.

In ½ an hour we are at the start, there are a lot of cars and a handful of small buses in the car park: There are a lot of buses in this business, and they all will of course keep shuttling back and forth to here for an hour or two, and then later in the day do so from the pickup point.

Dawn has broken but the sun is behind Mount Tongariro and at 1120 metres it is cold as we set off, but there is still no wind.

We are heading for the col at a distance of 6km. and height of 1660 metres, through a very sparsely vegetated landscape.

 

As we climb we can look back to the west and see the other big volcano, Mount Taranaki: 85 miles away.

 

We then drop down into the South Crater where there is sign of vegetation trying to take hold, and the colours from black to white and every conceivable variation of grey, brown and ochre is quite staggeringly beautiful: this place must be an artists dream. Towering over us to the south is the black, grey and red cone of Mount Ngauruhoe at 2287 metres, which some people climb. It looks like a giant slag heap, so after my experience on Taranaki I have no intention of following them, but I was told a couple of days later that it was not as bad as Taranaki. The wind begins to hit as we climb the ridge formed by the South Crater Rim and a few people are turning back or on hands and knees: not really necessary.

I take the opportunity to climb Mount Tongariro itself at 1967 metres, a relatively gentle ascent, and very rewarding as a climb, and for the views.

Mount Tongariro  from the South Crater Ridge

Having returned from Mount Tongariro the wind increases as we follow the ridge formed by the Red Crater and then descend the Central Crater Ridge to the Emerald and Blue Lakes. The wind is at its strongest here and the descent ridge you see in the photo is a serious piece of scree. The wind caught me out once mid step, and a ball bearing bit of scree had me down again, but I was prepared for such eventualities, so no problem.

 

 

Looking down the descent from the Red Crater

 

Looking back at the descent from the highest point of the Red Crater

Ngauruhoe in the Background

As we climb out of the Central Crater, the wind drops again. Just before the descent proper there is a Red Flashing Beacon and a sign saying that if it is flashing there is new volcanic activity and you must turn back to the start: 11 km. and that ridge to reclimb! It is being closely monitored, and the authorities are ready to close the track at a moment’s notice. Thank God they are only doing a test and a survey. It is now 7km. to the finish as we skirt the North Crater and start the final descent to 760 metres through increasing vegetation from sparse grass, to struggling brush, to small White Beech Bush.

I have now fallen into step and conversation with Philipp Stangl a young German Doctor. He and his wife have 9 weeks Maternity & Paternity Leave between them, and are spending it all in a campervan in New Zealand. She and their now 2 sons are doing a smaller round the lake walk a few kilometres away. 

A little way down I notice a pair of nice pink small gloves that look as though they have only recently been left, and as everyone does this walk in this direction, I pick them up to see if we, who are moving quite fast, can catch the owner. Two hundred metres further on a young couple ask us to take their photo with their camera (a very common occurrence in NZ) and it turns out that Lauren is the owner of the gloves: so once again I come to a maiden’s rescue. Also another coincidence, Lauren and Dan are from Nottingham, and Dan is a parachutist who has skydived from Hibaldstow Club on my neighbour’s farm, and therefore knows Baldrick (ref: Blackadder) who works at the Club – real name Shane –  and who is my Stockman’s son.

 

 

Lauren and Dan

We pass between 2 areas of volcanic activity

This is the most recent that closed the Track for a while in 2012

 

Philip Stangl at the end of the walk just before I catch the bus back home.

 

Also on the Track that day were 2 guests from the Chateau who befriended me at Dinner and invited me to have coffee with them afterwards: when you are travelling singly this happens all the time. Nancy & Stephen are from Vancouver and I enjoy their company tremendously as we chatter away a couple of hours; especially as Nancy is very pretty and has a captivating smile. Nancy is a nurse and Stephen works in the development of wind energy sites. Stephen climbed the conical volcano Mount Ngauruhoe, leaving Nancy to fill the time pottering about. Had I known I could have kept her company. I also wish I had taken their photo for this Blog. They are going to look at the Blog, so very many thanks Stephen and Nancy, and Best Wishes.

Wednesday 26^th. March. 

Drive down to Whakapapa in Tongariro National Park, via Cambridge and Lake Taupo. 

Travelling on the usual fast (100 km/h = 60 mph and is the Max Speed in NZ; as everyone drives at this speed, including the lorries, it all runs very smoothly) gently winding roads, in the usual but slightly different farming and bush scenery, makes for pleasant driving yet again, and even though I am on State Highway one the road is moderately empty at first, and after most traffic peels off to Rotorua, very empty the rest of the way.

I stop off for a restorative coffee and a small volcanic valley walk at Wairakei.

 

This is near the very large valley where they collect volcanic steam and transport it through a line of very large pipes to a power station.

 

And this is not on the scale of Rotorua, which I probably won’t get to compare as my time is now running out.

I stop off to see the Huka Falls through which Lake Taupo drains. Lake Taupo is very big, there is a lot of water: very impressive, and if you fell in you would not survive.

 

 

At Lake Taupo I get my first view Tongariro in the distance. Lake Taupo is a giant blue lake, and Taupo a very large holiday destination for Kiwis as well as overseas tourists; the lakefront drive is motel after motel after motel, all with vacancy signs: the season is definitely winding down.

 

 

Getting nearer I stop off at the site of historic former Maori Village Opotaka on Lake Rotoaira for a closer photo of Tongariro.

 

 

The Tongariro Crossing comes down the big gully to the right of the picture, between the two steaming vents, the left of which is new and residual from the recent volcanic activity in 2012, which closed the crossing for a while. 

And yes those are black swans: they are everywhere in quantity in NZ.

Circling around to the right and getting closer. Note Heather in Bloom: Another European import brought in with the extensive forestry in the area? 

 

Mount Tongariro at 1967 metres is the highest point on the left of the photo, and the giant Volcanic Ash Cone of Mount Ngauruhoe at 2287 is on the right. The crossing starts with a 600 metre ascent to the col between the two.

Mount Ruapehu at 2797 is 10 km. south of Ngauruhoe with Whakapapa Village where I hope to find accommodation nestling on its lower flank.

 

As I drive the final km. to Whakapapa I get my first glimpse of The Chateau Tongoriro: very impressive.

 

 

I run around the accommodation, and in the end decide to take the soft option, and book into the Chateau for 4 nights: I know this is going to cost me, but I am going to enjoy it.

 

I take advice on the Crossing from the DOC Visitor Centre. The wind has been strong today, rocking the car as I drove, and I am advised for tomorrow of clear skies, but very strong winds, and cold too, windchill factor -8˚C, and to leave it till the day after, but other people are given the OK by different staff, so I am going tomorrow unless the forecast is worse in the morning.

Tuesday 25^th. March.

Having updated and published the last 2 days posts this morning, and tidied up my packing a bit, and tidied myself up a bit too for my visit to Om, I open the curtains at to find fog: it had rained fairly heavy at some time in the night, so I felt vindicated in coming up here to Hamilton early.

Early morning I drove round to see Om, who I last saw in 67 (If you haven’t read yesterday’s post you will need to do so for an explanation) about ¼ hour drive from my motel, which I had chosen as it is on the route out to Rotorua, and Tongariro.

I remembered him as a tall slim young man, but I see he is not much taller than me, which means he was positively thin in those days, but very strong and fit as a tennis player: These days he plays golf a couple of times a week, something he took up when he came to NZ from Fiji after the coup in 1987, and watches cricket.

 

He was also a very intelligent and strong minded character. He had started as an Inspector in the Fijian Department of Labour, and had risen to a level where he was mediating in labour/employer disputes when I knew him. With the Department he came to London and Oxford in 69 for further education.

We had always thought of him as a confirmed Batchelor, but of course, although he was a bit older than me, he was still a young man then, and he married Kuar in 1971, the same year that Rosey and I got married, and they have 2 sons, one in New Zealand, one in London.

Over the next two decades he rose to the position of third in the Department, travelling the World widely for the Government of Fiji, and represented Fiji on Labour and Union Matters in the United Nations. He was destined to be head of the Department but for the Military Coup in 1987. It was a bloodless coup, but he and the family were held at gunpoint for a short time, by soldiers just wanting to show that they had the power. There is an irony here, as Om’s Brother had been a soldier in the Fijian Army: He now lives in London.

Om decided to leave Fiji, and emigrated straight away to New Zealand, helped by having wide international contacts. He found work for 15 years in the HR Department of ECNZ the National Power Generator in Hamilton, where he now lives in retirement. Again ironically, he has done contract work for Fiji with paid travel there most years until retirement.

It was good to see him and we got on as though 47 years had never intervened, putting the world to right in many cases, both of us having surprising similarities in character and viewpoint.

He told me that Fiji is quite stable for those who stayed, but probably 25% of Asian population had left after the coup. But he found the inequality of wealth in Fijian Ethnic and Asian Society distressing; as also the rest of the world. He thought however that I should revisit Fiji, so maybe I will.

Om had some Yaqona (pronounced Yangona) and made us a bowl for old time’s sake, and whilst having it we hoped that one day he, Peter and I might get together and do the same. Yaqona is known as Kava in other parts of the Pacific, and is the national drink of Fiji. It is always on hand for evening get-togethers in Fijian society, and there is an elaborate ceremony involved in its making and drinking (Google it if you want to know more) It used to be in every office in Fiji in those days, and the slang for it is Grog. It is made by grinding the root to a fine powder in a pestle which is then infused in water from a fabric bag liberally squeezed during the ceremony.

It looks like muddy water, and tastes like muddy water, albeit peppery. Large quantities drunk don’t intoxicate, but do leave the mouth numb; more importantly it leaves the legs so numb they don’t move on command.

Kuar made us a lovely authentic Curry Lunch with Roti (Chapati), the like I haven’t had since leaving Fiji.

 

Leaving Om and Kuar after lunch I took their advice, and that of The Rough Guide, and went for a gentle relaxing afternoon stroll round Hamilton City Gardens. In both cases the advice is well given.

The gardens are extensive, and elaborately laid out, with a big visitor centre. The main attraction though, is an intense central section, which tells the history of world gardening through many ages, in a kind of giant maze layout, where each style is represented in a branch of its own. There are 13 different gardens in this section alone.

I particularly liked the Tropical, Maori, Italian, Indian, Herb and Japanese Gardens. The Japanese Garden of Contemplation brings back memories of discussion of Zen with Claire and Terry: the two of you will be delighted to hear no doubt.

 

 

Tropical Garden

 

Maori Garden

 



 

Italian Garden

 

 

 

Indian Garden

 



 

 

Japanese Garden

 

 

 Japanese Zen Garden

 

 

All this alongside the wide gently flowing Waikato River

Monday 24^th. March. 

The weather forecast for Tongariro, Taupo and Rotorua area is not good, so I decide to drive some 300 km. north to Hamilton to drop in on an acquaintance from Fiji in 66/67. Om Singh was more of a friend of my contemporary Peter Spain, who for all of his 2 years as a VSO in Fiji lived in the same Government Batchelor Quarters as Om. I was only in those quarters for about a month whilst on a temporary job for my VSO placement, but Peter was fairly insistent on my looking in on Om. Peter had seen quite a bit of him last year because Om had been in London visiting his brother who lives not too far away from Peter. 

My original intention had been to drop in on my way to Auckland, my final destination prior to my departure from NZ, but with the weather forecast as it is, and me now feeling that I need a holiday from the holiday, it seemed a reasonable plan.

As I drive north a couple of very heavy squalls come in off the sea. The windscreen wipers barely cope, and at one stage a lorry in front that is about the same grey colour as the road completely disappears before my eyes. Fortunately they don’t last very long and further north the cloud breaks and the sea and sky turn blue. 

Enjoyable driving on the usual, winding, not too busy roads; varying vegetation from bush to parched grassland of varying degree of hilliness. More and bigger Tree Ferns.

 

I have a guide book to drives in NZ, and this trip is one of them, so I visit a couple of the 10 attractions listed, taking a side trip to the following.

Marokopa Falls

 

Mangapohue Natural Bridge. A rock arch left after the river carved out a tunnel in soft limestone.

There are lots of big tourist caves in the area, with buses parked outside, but I shun those.

Head up to Hamilton and find a decent cheap motel, where I have time to catch up with myself and sort out the packing of my luggage which is getting a bit out of hand: can’t find things, and dirty clothing mixed with clean not a good idea.