Days 91-92 - Lake Taupo - Tongariro Nat Park
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Tongariro,
New Zealand
Saturday, February 23, 2008
We are going to head to the Tongariro National Park anyway as we both want to see it. They did a lot of filming here for Lord of the rings films and we would like to see the scenery for ourselves. The highway towards Tongariro goes all the way around Lake Taupo - the lake is absolutely huge and very beautiful. We had only been on the road about twenty minutes when we came to a dead halt. We could see a bit cloud of black smoke in the distance and fire engines, police cars and an ambulance raced past us towards it. Traffic was stopped in both directions and everyone just got out of their cars and started chatting to each other, standing on the roadside. It looked like a really bad accident and we hoped no-one was badly hurt. A police car came down in the opposite direction and a woman stopped it to ask what was happening. There hadn't been an accident, a truck had set on fire and it was a chemical fire so they had to stop traffic while they cleaned up the road. At least nobody was hurt but we realised we could be here a while. We had been to the supermarket on our way here so we passed the time by making ourselves some chicken sandwiches and had a bit of a picnic in our van. We were stood motionless for about an hour and a half but then we were off again. The truck was absolutely gutted and there was foam everywhere. I suppose we have been lucky so far, all the travelling we have done here and in Australia and this is the first time we have been stood on the highway despite countless accidents that have closed the roads. Until today we have always seemed to have been in the right place at the right time.
It was not a long drive to the national park and it was very beautiful through the high mountains. The top of the mountains were covered with cloud but when the clouds moved, Mt Ngauruhoe is instantly recognisable as Mordor's Mount Doom from Lord of the rings, we were thrilled to see it. We stayed at the Discovery Lodge which is a nice campsite with basic facilities but has a restaurant and is the only park to have a view of all three volcanoes: Mt Ngauruhoe, Mt Ruapehu (also used in Lord of the rings) and Mt Tongariro. Unfortunately, the low cloud meant we only got glimpses of the tops of these (still active) volcanoes. We booked into the camp where we enquired about the crossing and discovered that all hope is not lost. The boss decides at 8pm tonight and we were told to come back then to hear the verdict.
The Tongariro crossing is reputedly the best one-day walk in New Zealand and gives spectacular views of the volcanoes, lakes, steaming vents and an active crater. It is a challenging seven hour hike with an ascent of about 1,800m and I really want to do it. A lot of the hikes here are longer than a day, camping overnight in huts along the track. This isn't really any good when we have a vehicle as we would have to be brought back to the starting point somehow and also the car parks at the start of the walks are not particularly safe. Thieves know that the owners of the cars are halfway up the mountain and won't be back for ages so break-in's are a problem. The crossing is just perfect for us as there is a bus at the campsite that takes us to the beginning of the track and picks us up at the end of it. This is also a good safety thing as all our names are registered and the driver is responsible for making sure that everyone he drops off is accounted for at the end, if not someone comes looking. I kept my fingers crossed as we waited for 8pm. The crossing has not gone ahead today however because it was too dangerous with the high winds.
I walked up at 8pm exactly and was told to meet here at 6.30am when the boss (who is also the driver) would decide. The wind seems to have dropped a bit and I had all my fingers and toes crossed for tomorrow. It was a cold night and we stayed curled up in the van for the evening and watched a DVD.
We were up at 5am the next morning and I prepared some sandwiches. I packed our little rucksack with some food, plenty of water and our waterproofs. We dressed ourselves in all the layers we had and it wasn't windy anymore so we were hopeful. It was just getting light when we walked up to the bus at 6.30am and there were a few people there, it total there was eleven of us that wanted to do it. We were told that it wasn't going ahead today because of low cloud, visibilty would be very poor up there. It would be pointless to do a hard hike and just take photo's of clouds but I can't hide my disappointment. Dean suggested we stick around until tomorrow and see how it looks then but I think it's not worth it to hang around and waste a day on the off-chance it might be okay. I just want to leave so we settled our bill and drove off to head for the coast for a few days. I will ring the ferry company and try to change our ferry booking for an earlier date. Maybe we will come back here one day and get another chance to do it, still - it is a shame.
