Taupo

 Day 1 – Hitting the Slopes(ish) & Heading for Mordor!

We were leaving smelly egg town today and heading for Lake Taupo and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which was pretty much the centre of the north island.

Once again it was a two or three hour drive but a large section of the drive was right alongside the lake which made it pretty scenic.  Following our sat-nav we made it to the start of The Tongariro Alpine Walk which was a 7-8 hour hike right into Lord of the Rings territory.

As I walked around the car park finding very little information about the hike, Shell suggested that we went on further to a village with an information centre so as to prevent us falling down a volcano.  It also meant that we got some great photo’s of snow covered volcano’s along the way (NZ scenery is starting to hit the mark!).

Shell’s suggestion proved to be a sensible one as the guy at the information centre told us there was some snow ridges on the hike and we would need some proper snow gear to cross it as it had snowed another 6 inches overnight. There was also risk of avalanche so the conditions were only for experienced Alpine Hikers.  So as we did not have either the experience, or the equipment, he gave us a few suggestions on how we could fill our day up, including doing part of the hike.

First though, the info guy suggested that we went a further 10km up the road to Whakapapa Village where we could check out the ski slopes and get a chairlift to the top of it.  So we took his advice and were soon ascending the snow covered volcano in a chairlift to a café at the top.

We got a couple of nice coffee’s and a muffin and just sat there watching the skiers and snow-boarders doing their thing on the slopes, which was pretty cool as I had never actually been in a ski resort before.

It was time to think about doing the hike so we left the café and bumped into the Guns ‘n’ Roses couple that we had seen twice before, this time we had a chat with them to see if they were stalking us!!  We then caught the chairlift down the mountain with a brief scare for me (I don’t like cable cars!!) as it swang out very quickly.

Back at the bottom we jumped back in the car and headed for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which was just down the road a bit and then another 5-6km down an unsealed bumpy road.

Once at the car park we headed off for what we were told was a 3 hour round trip, we had been told we could get right in between the two volcano’s but to stop there or go on until we reached the snow ridge.

The walk was very pleasant with water streams/falls running alongside us and the two snow-capped volcanoes either side of us.  After about an hour or so we reached the place where it had been recommended to stop and return. So we stopped there and had our pack lunch sandwiches, took a few more photos of the old larva flows (this is where Mordor was Set) whilst we considered what to do next.

Other walkers were coming down the mountainside and on enquiring we were told the snow ridges were not that bad and passable, however they told us it was so misty up there that you could barely see anything worthwhile.

On reflection we thought the effort climbing up did not sound worth it so we turned back and followed the path back to the car park (no Mount Doom for us), doing very bad Gollem impressions.

Next we went to another place that had been recommended which was a crater lake about 20km up the road.  It wasn’t sign posted that greatly so after missing it as first we turned round and eventually found it at the side of the road.

It was supposed to be a short walk from the road, but ended up being about ½ hour up and down quite a steep track (I thought we’d done our walking for the day).  At the bottom we then got to see the craterlake which was fairly large, I would imagine it is very pretty when the sun is out and you can go swimming there on a hot day.

The final activity for the day was to visit a thermal hot spring area where you could take a dip in the volcanic waters.  We arrived there and as it was pretty overcast we thought we would look around the attached thermal park before plucking up the courage to take a dip.

We walked around the park and were once more entertained by boiling water pools, mud pools and sulphur gases coming out vents in the ground.  By the time we got back to the reception to enquire about the dip we were told they had problem with their plumbing and the pools were now closed as they were far too hot.

So as we could not take a rejuvenating dip we headed for our accommodation for the night which was in Taupo.  The location was nice as it was alongside the lake, but the accommodation was a bit more a backpacker hostel type of affair. However the receptionist did recommend their sister hotel around the corner for the cheapest beer in town and some cheap food.

As we had been pretty active today and did not feel like cooking for ourselves we thought we would check out the sister hostel.  It was another backpacker type affair but quite lively and had quite a nice vibe about it so we decided to stay for their meal and beer deal for around £5 each, which is about the best deal we have found so far in NZ.

Dinner was Chili, rice, nacho’s and a beer which was OK, but not as good as mine!  After dinner we stayed for a couple more jugs of beer before heading back for the night.

It was a shame that we had only planned on one night here as there seemed to be quite a few activities to do and the scenery was really pretty, but we had already booked a trip for the next day so would have to move on.