Tongariro National Park

  Whakapapa Village, North Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

EN:
Wellington is known in NZ for being very windy, and sure enough when we arrived we found very strong winds. We were still not sure we could extend our stay in NZ (we had about 1 week left), so we decided to head straight to the Tongariro National Park,

Tongariro National Park

since this was the southernmost place in North Island we were sure we wanted to visit. It was not possible to make it to Tongariro that day, so we stopped for the night at Mangaweka, the caravan park turned out to be quite basic (with no hot water in a very "natural" shower, we felt like we were back in Asia), but the location was superb, right by a river and some very high cliffs.

We only reached Whakapapa village in Tongariro NP around lunch time the next day. With its towering active volcanoes, Tongariro is definitelly one of NZ's most spectacular parks, it was used for Mordor and Mt. Doom in the film Lord of the Rings. The park offers excellent trekking, the most famous track is probably the 20km long Tongariro Crossing, reputably the best one day walk in NZ. As soon as we got settled down at the caravan park, we sorted out transportation for the Tongariro Crossing the next day. The walk starts at a different point than it finishes. Since we still had all afternoon free, we decided to do a few shorter walks around the village. We had walked probably 200m when it started to pour down,

Tongariro NP-Red Crater

  we were lucky we were still close, so we had no trouble going back to the caravan park. It rained all afternoon and into the evening. Since we were stuck in the van, we took some time to work on our log and sorted out other stuff, and we managed to extend our stay in NZ for another week. Unfortunately we could not extend our van rental with Explore More, so we had to book another van with Cheapa Campa for the rest of our stay, this meant we still had to go to Auckland by the 3rd of March as planned.

We were afraid the weather wouldn't improve for the walk, but when we woke up early next morning (we had to leave at 7am) the weather was fine. In fact, on our way to the start of the track, the bus driver told us that we were extremely lucky as the weather was supposed to be excellent that day, and it had been raining the whole week before that.

Tongariro NP-Emerald Lakes

Arriving at the track it became apparent that this would be no lonely walk, hundreds of people were already on their way and tons more were getting ready, the track was packed as far as we could see. The start at an altitude of 1100m and at its highest it reaches 1900m, it is quite steep at some points, particularly on the 1st 3rd of the way. We had been advised to be ready for cold conditions and rapid weather changes, so we were wearing several layers, but going up hill in the sun we soon were too warm and had to remove all layers but one. The scenery as you walk up the hill is truly amazing and unreal, almost out of this world, particularly when you reach the central crater and later the red crater, but you can better judge that from our picture album. In the end we took around 7 hours to complete the crossing, with many picture stops and a short lunch break, and despite all the people we enjoyed it very much, it was definitely one of the best, or even the best, walk we did during our entire trip. We could feel our legs and Eva was suffering from several blisters, but all that pain was definitely worth it. :-) We took a minibus back to the camp and slept really well that night.

CZ:
Ve Wllingtonu pekne foukalo, ostatne jako skoro porad. Jeste stale jsme nevedeli, jestli si muzeme prodlouzit nas pobyt na NZ,

Tongariro NP-Emerald Lakes

a tak jsme se radsi hned vydali smerem k narodnimu parku Tongariro NP, abysme to jeste stihli. Dost jsme se tesili, ale ten den uz jsme to nestihli a museli zaparkovat nekde po ceste. Ukotvili jsme v kempu Mangaweka, ktery nas prenesl zpet do Asie – sprcha plna ruznych breberek a plisne, tapla voda netekla atd., ale jinak hned pod kempem tekla reka a nad ni se tycily celkem obdivuhodne utesy, takze se nam tam nakonec docela libilo.

Rano nas cekal brzky start a kolem poledne jsme konecne dorazili do vesnice Whakapapa, ktera se stala nasi zakladnou pro zkoumani Tongarira. Tongariro NP je jednoznacne jednim z nejoblibenejsich mist na NZ, je to tu sama sopka a nektere kreace prirody byly pouzity ve filmech Pan prstenu (Mordor a Mt. Doom). Nejslavnejsi trasou je 20ti kilometrova “vychazka” zvana Tongariro Crossing a v pruvodci pisou, ze je to nejhezci jednodenni tura na celem NZ. Zacina ale jinde, nez konci, a tak jsme si

Tongariro NP-Mt Ngauruhoe ('Mount Doom')

hned v recepci kempu zajistili dopravu na rano. Jeste nam zbyvalo cele odpoledne a my se vydali na obhlidku okoli, nanestesti asi po 200m zacalo neskutecne lejt, takze jsme to zabalili a vratili se do kempu. Po zbytek dne jsme se venovali nasemu denicku a modlili se, aby se pocasi do druheho dne aspon trochu umoudrilo. Mezitim jsme si taky posunuli letenku o dalsi tyden a zajistili si karavan na stejnou dobu, bohuzel v Explore More uz nam nemohli prodlouzit najem naseho puvodniho vozitka, a tak jsme si pujcili ten samy model, ale od spolecnosti Cheapa Campa. Moc se nam to nehodilo, protoze to znamenalo, ze uz 3 brezna musime byt v Aucklandu a prehodit si auto, no ale nedalo se nic delat.

Rano jsme uz v 7 hodin opousteli kemp a razili autobusem na zacatek tury. Sice byla pekna kosa, ale slunicko svedomite svitilo (i kdyz se zatim jen tak povalovalo nad obzorem) a ridic autobusu nas ujistil, ze konecne po celem dlouhem tydnu prseni se nam udelalo hezky a melo by to vydrzet i po zbytek dne. Kdyz jsme dojeli na zacatek trasy, hned nam bylo jasne, ze se cestou rohodne nudit nebudem, jelikoz nam spolecnost bude tvorit asi tak dalsich tisic lidi. Trasa je to skutecne popularni. :-) Zacali jsme v nadmorske vysce 1100m a po nekolikahodinovem plazeni jsme dosahly nejvyssiho bodu trasy – 1900m.

Tongariro NP-Red Crater

Chvilema byly kopecky docela strme a cestou jsme postupne odhazovali slupky obleceni, ktere jsme na sebe uz rano nasoukali po varovani mistnich horalu, ze pocasi je tam nahore dost promenlive a muze se to vsechno pak osklive zvrtnout. Nam ale slunce palilo celou cestu a vylozene jsme si to uzivali. Je tu nadherna priroda a ty vulkany jsou proste neuveritelny, ale to se spis lepe posuzuje z fotek. Cestou jsme porad zastavovali a fotili a taky jsme si chvilku odpocali pri prestavce na obed, ktery jsme si nesli v batuzku. Celkem nam to trvalo 7 hodin a i pres ta kvanta lidi jsme se shodli na tom, ze to byla asi nejhezci prochazka, a to nejen na NZ. Sice nas pekne bolely nohy a ja byla samy puchejr, ale rozhodne to stalo za to utrpeni. :-) Minibusem jsme se vratili do kempu a tu noc jsme spali ja do vody hozeni.