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.