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tired and happy (to be dry)
Just a quick long and exhaustive (because hey, free internet) update from the antiquated guest computer at the Pukenui Lodge in National Park, where Britt and I are recuperating from hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit.
We got out of Devonport on December 24th and drove to Rotorua, where we checked into the "Funky Green Voyager" which is a "backpackers" - what I would call a hostel. Reasonably cheap room in a converted house across from the larger main hostel, our own bathroom, and a shared kitchen and living room. We were informed that if we wished to stay on Christmas, we'd have to contribute a dish from our national cuisine for the group potluck Christmas dinner, plus a $5 gift each for a random-draw exchange (that's $5 NZ, which is about $2.80, or very cheap indeed). I baked shortbread (yeah, not exactly American, but I figured it would be better than going to the McDonalds and getting a dozen Big Macs, and I know the recipe by heart) and we ended up with a bag of jellybeans and a small notebook in the exchange. The party was great with lots of awesome food, and champagne provided by the hostel owners - maybe 40 people, mostly in their 20s, from all countries: Austria, Germany, England, Japan, and a surprisingly large number of Israelis (who were delighted to be doing a Christmas!).
In Rotorua we visited Orakei Korako, a thermal park (geysers, bubbling pools, mineral formations, a lovely cave with a spring at the bottom) which had some really nifty things but was a little on the pricy side, and Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, same as above but with Maori culture thrown in, as the thermal features are part of the existing village. Interesting, but the guide seemed bored (she kept asking for questions, but when I asked one, she shrugged her shoulders stared at me as though I had been terribly rude) the performance a little perfunctory, and overall we got the feeling that the place had seen its glory days long ago. The best thermal park in my opinion is the city park, Kuirau Park, and it's free, to boot. Clear pools, mud pools, all steaming and bubbling, and a few nice pools with benches you can sit on and soak your feet! We liked it so much we went there twice.
From there we drove to Taupo, which is really a stunning lake (it's the big lake in the north-middle of the North Island, for those of you following along at home), and pulled off on the side of the road to walk down to a rocky beach. And not just any rock - pumice! Britt amused himself by skipping rocks and watching them float off. These pumice stones were ejected in the great eruption of Tongariro in the year 186. We spent the night in a motel north of the park (that had natural hot pools! yes! soak time!) and the next morning drove to the park office where we would start our hike, and bought our passes - it's very controlled as it's a popular hike. Camping's only allowed near the huts on the route, and they charge nearly as much to camp as to stay in a hut, but after seeing the huts and the number of people they cram in, I'm glad we camped.
Because the first day's hike was just 3 hours, we drove to the ski area on the north side of Mt. Ruapehu (one of the three volcanoes in the park, and the biggest one). We didn't take the scenic chairlift ride (it looked as though it was scenic for about 200 feet and then disappeared into the clouds) but walked around a little - weird to see ski houses on a barren volcanic slope. Looked very Mordor-ish. Still lots of snow on Ruapehu.
Then we returned to the visitor's center, packed our backpacks, and set out. And here I am going to punt on describing things - hopefully the photos will come out! Mostly the first day was spent discovering how very built up with wooden walkways and steps the trails are - and how very poorly engineered! The first day's trek goes across some very muddy terrain, very erosion-prone, and the trail improvement effort seemed to us to have been designed to combat the effects without addressing the actual drainage problem. Wooden steps were sited such that water pooled up behind, rather than being angled and drained so as to create water bars, and so on.
We had been warned by the hut warden (who amusingly gave the entire first several minutes of her speech in Maori before switching to English - and no, she was not even a Kiwi, but German!) that the dayhikers doing the Tongariro Crossing - what we were doing as the second day of our hike - were dropped off by buses beginning at 7am, and there might be several hundred of them, so we should get an early start to get ahead of them, and also to take advantage of the weather should it be good. (And it was perfect!) We were packed up and on the trail by 6:50, and we weren't the first, but it wasn't too bad.
At the saddle we dropped our packs, put together a small pack with warm clothes, some food, and water, and headed up Mount Doom - that is, Mount Ngauruhoe (roughly pronounced "Narrow-hoe-ee") which is the youngest of the volcanos in the park, first erupting about 2500 years ago, and most recently in 1975. It was a long and steep climb, but of course, lots of people were doing it, like climbing a Colorado 14er on a good day, 6-10 people on the summit at all times. From the summit (7520 ft) we could see not just the other two volcanic summits in the park, Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ruapehu, but also Mt. Taranaki some 85 miles to the west.
The actual summit is a knob on an outer crater wall and it doesn't look much like a volcano from there. Most people just go there and backtrack; Britt wanted to follow a trail to a secondary summit he saw, so we did that, and then it looked like it would be easiest to go down a little slope and up to another ridge, and whoa, we found the crater! Very cool. We didn't go in. :-) Then we rock-glissaded down (past the hordes slogging up), had lunch, hefted our packs, and continued. Clearly we hadn't had enough punishment because we also dropped packs and hiked the much easier and shorter Mt. Tongariro summit, but by the time we got to the second hut we were pretty exhausted.
The hike really was remarkable, not just because of the huge volcanos looming above, but the stark and barren landscape. Not "pretty" but stunning. The craters and ridges are practically lunar, and then, boom, there are beautiful green lakes nestled in the bare rock. We also passed a couple of thermal vents, including one you could stand near and warm yourself - reminders of the volcanic nature of the area.
The third day we had to backtrack a bit to a junction, then crossed by another emerald pool and across a real Mordor-ish landscape, lava ridges and rocks twisted into varying shapes. Unfortunately it started to rain mid-afternoon, and it never let up. Toward the end of the day we crossed through several beech forests, which gave us some protection, but for much of the day it was pretty brutal. When we got to the hut we considered paying the upgrade fee to sleep inside, but it was already overcrowded with people who would have to sleep on the floor rather than bunks, and it just didn't seem like fun, so we set up the tent under some trees and it wasn't too bad - we were damp but not soaked, and we cooked in the tent which helped dry things out.
In the morning we had just enough sun to put things away, more or less, before it started to rain again. Which was a real shame, because we were hiking across the endless lava plain between Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, and it would have been very cool to see the big mountains towering above us, but all we saw was rain and cloud and our steamed-up eyeglasses. And more rain. And it was windy. And our rain gear is decent but I don't think anything can cope with five solid hours of pouring rain. So we arrived back at the car soaked through, tired, without having seen much on the last day other than one very nice waterfall.
And of course, now we are in the motel, and have had a nice dinner and a couple of beers each, and hey, it's cleared up, and look out the window at those big volcanos! I have to say, Mount Doom looks particularly picturesque. And I was right there on top of it!
ETA: Rotorua photos and Tongariro photos.
Tomorrow, laundry. And groceries. And Waitomo.
We got out of Devonport on December 24th and drove to Rotorua, where we checked into the "Funky Green Voyager" which is a "backpackers" - what I would call a hostel. Reasonably cheap room in a converted house across from the larger main hostel, our own bathroom, and a shared kitchen and living room. We were informed that if we wished to stay on Christmas, we'd have to contribute a dish from our national cuisine for the group potluck Christmas dinner, plus a $5 gift each for a random-draw exchange (that's $5 NZ, which is about $2.80, or very cheap indeed). I baked shortbread (yeah, not exactly American, but I figured it would be better than going to the McDonalds and getting a dozen Big Macs, and I know the recipe by heart) and we ended up with a bag of jellybeans and a small notebook in the exchange. The party was great with lots of awesome food, and champagne provided by the hostel owners - maybe 40 people, mostly in their 20s, from all countries: Austria, Germany, England, Japan, and a surprisingly large number of Israelis (who were delighted to be doing a Christmas!).
In Rotorua we visited Orakei Korako, a thermal park (geysers, bubbling pools, mineral formations, a lovely cave with a spring at the bottom) which had some really nifty things but was a little on the pricy side, and Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, same as above but with Maori culture thrown in, as the thermal features are part of the existing village. Interesting, but the guide seemed bored (she kept asking for questions, but when I asked one, she shrugged her shoulders stared at me as though I had been terribly rude) the performance a little perfunctory, and overall we got the feeling that the place had seen its glory days long ago. The best thermal park in my opinion is the city park, Kuirau Park, and it's free, to boot. Clear pools, mud pools, all steaming and bubbling, and a few nice pools with benches you can sit on and soak your feet! We liked it so much we went there twice.
From there we drove to Taupo, which is really a stunning lake (it's the big lake in the north-middle of the North Island, for those of you following along at home), and pulled off on the side of the road to walk down to a rocky beach. And not just any rock - pumice! Britt amused himself by skipping rocks and watching them float off. These pumice stones were ejected in the great eruption of Tongariro in the year 186. We spent the night in a motel north of the park (that had natural hot pools! yes! soak time!) and the next morning drove to the park office where we would start our hike, and bought our passes - it's very controlled as it's a popular hike. Camping's only allowed near the huts on the route, and they charge nearly as much to camp as to stay in a hut, but after seeing the huts and the number of people they cram in, I'm glad we camped.
Because the first day's hike was just 3 hours, we drove to the ski area on the north side of Mt. Ruapehu (one of the three volcanoes in the park, and the biggest one). We didn't take the scenic chairlift ride (it looked as though it was scenic for about 200 feet and then disappeared into the clouds) but walked around a little - weird to see ski houses on a barren volcanic slope. Looked very Mordor-ish. Still lots of snow on Ruapehu.
Then we returned to the visitor's center, packed our backpacks, and set out. And here I am going to punt on describing things - hopefully the photos will come out! Mostly the first day was spent discovering how very built up with wooden walkways and steps the trails are - and how very poorly engineered! The first day's trek goes across some very muddy terrain, very erosion-prone, and the trail improvement effort seemed to us to have been designed to combat the effects without addressing the actual drainage problem. Wooden steps were sited such that water pooled up behind, rather than being angled and drained so as to create water bars, and so on.
We had been warned by the hut warden (who amusingly gave the entire first several minutes of her speech in Maori before switching to English - and no, she was not even a Kiwi, but German!) that the dayhikers doing the Tongariro Crossing - what we were doing as the second day of our hike - were dropped off by buses beginning at 7am, and there might be several hundred of them, so we should get an early start to get ahead of them, and also to take advantage of the weather should it be good. (And it was perfect!) We were packed up and on the trail by 6:50, and we weren't the first, but it wasn't too bad.
At the saddle we dropped our packs, put together a small pack with warm clothes, some food, and water, and headed up Mount Doom - that is, Mount Ngauruhoe (roughly pronounced "Narrow-hoe-ee") which is the youngest of the volcanos in the park, first erupting about 2500 years ago, and most recently in 1975. It was a long and steep climb, but of course, lots of people were doing it, like climbing a Colorado 14er on a good day, 6-10 people on the summit at all times. From the summit (7520 ft) we could see not just the other two volcanic summits in the park, Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ruapehu, but also Mt. Taranaki some 85 miles to the west.
The actual summit is a knob on an outer crater wall and it doesn't look much like a volcano from there. Most people just go there and backtrack; Britt wanted to follow a trail to a secondary summit he saw, so we did that, and then it looked like it would be easiest to go down a little slope and up to another ridge, and whoa, we found the crater! Very cool. We didn't go in. :-) Then we rock-glissaded down (past the hordes slogging up), had lunch, hefted our packs, and continued. Clearly we hadn't had enough punishment because we also dropped packs and hiked the much easier and shorter Mt. Tongariro summit, but by the time we got to the second hut we were pretty exhausted.
The hike really was remarkable, not just because of the huge volcanos looming above, but the stark and barren landscape. Not "pretty" but stunning. The craters and ridges are practically lunar, and then, boom, there are beautiful green lakes nestled in the bare rock. We also passed a couple of thermal vents, including one you could stand near and warm yourself - reminders of the volcanic nature of the area.
The third day we had to backtrack a bit to a junction, then crossed by another emerald pool and across a real Mordor-ish landscape, lava ridges and rocks twisted into varying shapes. Unfortunately it started to rain mid-afternoon, and it never let up. Toward the end of the day we crossed through several beech forests, which gave us some protection, but for much of the day it was pretty brutal. When we got to the hut we considered paying the upgrade fee to sleep inside, but it was already overcrowded with people who would have to sleep on the floor rather than bunks, and it just didn't seem like fun, so we set up the tent under some trees and it wasn't too bad - we were damp but not soaked, and we cooked in the tent which helped dry things out.
In the morning we had just enough sun to put things away, more or less, before it started to rain again. Which was a real shame, because we were hiking across the endless lava plain between Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, and it would have been very cool to see the big mountains towering above us, but all we saw was rain and cloud and our steamed-up eyeglasses. And more rain. And it was windy. And our rain gear is decent but I don't think anything can cope with five solid hours of pouring rain. So we arrived back at the car soaked through, tired, without having seen much on the last day other than one very nice waterfall.
And of course, now we are in the motel, and have had a nice dinner and a couple of beers each, and hey, it's cleared up, and look out the window at those big volcanos! I have to say, Mount Doom looks particularly picturesque. And I was right there on top of it!
ETA: Rotorua photos and Tongariro photos.
Tomorrow, laundry. And groceries. And Waitomo.