New Zealand - Lake Taupo & Tongariro Crossing

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New Zealand - Lake Taupo and the Tongariro Crossing

13th - 17th January 2008

I was struggling to leave Rotorua ! There were so many things to do there and I was fast becoming an adrenaline junky.:jibber:jibber:jibber However, before I either maimed, killed or embarrased myself, bored poor Sylvia to death or emptied my bank account, we decided to move on.

Our next destination was to be Taupo which has a huge lake at its centre. It wasn’t so far away so we elected to take a leisurely ride there and stop at at least one attraction along the way. As had become the case in all my travels so far, the longer you stay somewhere, the longer it takes to pack everything away, and this morning was to be no exception. We finally left around noon if I remember correctly, late anyway !

As part and parcel of one of the Maori night we’d attended we’d been given gratis tickets to a geothermal area called Hells Gate, so named by George Bernard Shaw after a visit there back somewhere in the deep and distant past. After setting off from our camp site, we were soon there, however the signs at the attraction looked like they’d been erected in the 1980’s :rolleyes: and did little to encourage any geothermal enthusiasm or muster the necessary stamina for the fairly long walk around the site in the heat. :mad: (The proper ticket prices were around $25 !! - and we were glad not to have paid it !!) That said, once we were walking, there were one or two areas which were interesting to see and photograph. None-the-less, we spent no more than 90 mins there and that included our lunch !! …which was a corn cob cooked/boiled in geothermal steam. :augie

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Yes, the tickets were free ! Did we think there was any catch ? Nah !

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A few of the more interesting shots from Hells Gate.

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We set off again towards Taupo. The ride was very nice with many sweeping bends and as the day was getting on, the light became nicer and there were fewer vehicles to share the road with. :D Two unexpected attractions on the way were the Huka (water) Falls & an opportunity to view the World’s very first Geothermal Power station :potkettle from a vantage point quite a bit above the station itself. It was very impressive and had a longest pipeline of something like 5km which would expand/contract by around 1.5m :eek: depending on the temperature. We couldn’t stay too long as the vantage point was within the geothermal complex (secured by a gate) and due to be shut at any moment but we got a good enough look before kicking off again towards Taupo.

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Huka Falls, not the best of shots but the best I could get with the available light. It was beautiful.

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The Geothermal power station.

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What with stopping for this and that we eventually arrived at Taupo quite late and opted to settle at the first reasonable campsite we saw directions for. Once we settled in we were pleasantly surprised by how good the facilities were. In fact, if Carlsberg made campsite facilities, they would probably be these, probably the best campsite facilities in the World. :D :nod

Time was now of the essence as New Zealand’s restaurants share the similar bizarre closing times to Australia so we get genned up from our Hostess and set off for a local Pizza restaurant which turns out to be quite good, if expensive. We retire to our tent only to be kept awake by some late returners in a wooden hut next to our camp-spot. The floor was hollow in their hut so most of their movements were beautifully magnified ! :spitfire The following morning I moved our tent away from the hut to a more central position in the camping ‘avenue’, hoping that that would resolve any further sleeping issues during our stay.

We take breakfast and take a look around Taupo. One of the main ‘non-adrenaline’ attractions of the lake is a Moari carving on a rock wall adjacent to the water and therefore the only way to see it is by boat. Ordinarily we would have taken canoes but with Sylvia’s arm broken that was not an option so we chose to enjoy a sail on Erol Flynn’s old boat, Barbary, for later in the afternoon. (Errol Flynn was originally from Tasmania if you didn’t know.:augie :rolleyes:) We also planned our drop off & collection transport for an 18.5km trek we intended to do over the Tongariro crossing on the following day.

Returning for our sail on Errol Flynn’s boat we brought some cold beers along with us. :beerjug: The boat was a bit late setting off and had the previous owner as our skipper. He was a cheery-chappy and whilst a bit corny at times, was also quite funny. The wind was very low when we set off so the first half hour or so was achieved under diesel power, however once clear of the mainland the wind picked up and we were able to stay under wind power for most of the rest of our journey. The Maori carvings were interesting but had been made fairly recently and so any awe and wonder it may have generated in me as to their original meanings etc was a bit lost now. None-the-less, the carvings were impressive. After a reasonable viewing period we were about-sail and as we did, I opened up my now warm beer !! Hmm, niice.

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Errol's boat - The Barbary.

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The Moari carvings.

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After returning to the harbour we rode back to the campsite and got some dinner together. The following morning we were to be up early so we were early to bed and not in the mood to appreciate the three half-cut lads/young men playing video games & giggling quite late in the tent close to ours(which was next to the wooden hut from last night !!!. :spitfire:tears:spitfire:tears)As was becoming my thing now, after half an hour or so I went and had a word. They were sorry and would try and keep the noise down ! :rolleyes: Their attempt lasted for about 5 mins :rolleyes:, however within 15-30 mins they went to bed, so we were finally able to get to sleep.

The following morning we were up at around 04:45 and got our stuff together for our trek. We understood that our campsite fell out of the range of the Coach companies pick-up points so we had to ride into town and secure our helmets etc on the bike in a public car park, something I was loathed to do. (later we found out that there would have been ‘no problem’ with where we were staying !! :blast We thank the Information Centre in town for that !!:rolleyes:) Anyway we parked and manage to meet up with our bus ok.

We were very impressed with the coach company as you can hire boots/walking pole/rucksacks and buy water and a few other essential items you may have forgotten on the bus. :thumb2:thumb2:thumb2 A great service with very pleasant, informative & humorous staff which aided the monotony of the journey. :thumb2:thumb2:thumb2 Although the ‘main trekking event’ is the Tongariro crossing, it is possible to summit a dormant volcano(Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings) as a side trek. We were warned it was for the fittest and not to be undertaken light-heartedly. With our general condition and Sylvia’s broken arm, this was never a possibility for us.

After arriving, you could see the ‘Volcanoists’ :bow:bow:bow as they sped off at a very rapid pace so as not to miss the last bus back at 16:30 and having to pay a $200 taxi fare !! Whilst we knew we weren’t in the best shape :hide I was surprised as to how many people over took us. This walk really did attract the fitter trekker. We were none-the-less doing ok we thought. The main concern always being Sylvia’s arm if she were to slip. Half way a path named as the ‘Devils staircase’ we stopped for a rest and a brief snack. From there on up it was to be very steep and followed some very narrow, slippery paths which were potentially quite hazardous. :eek: Sylvia took her time and so avoided any mishaps and we finally got to the top. The view was worth the sweat and we enjoyed looking at the many features of the landscape. Orginally we’d planned to have lunch here but it was exposed and quite chilly so we decided to descend to an area called the ’Emerald Lakes’ which we could see were in the sun.

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One of our first views of the volcano, Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings.

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Sylvia survives the first main ascent of the Devils Staircase.

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...as does this lardy !!

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A view from the top of the staircase.......

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....along with a bizzare warning !!!

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Those near the top already.....

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Some views from the top.

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Ahhh, it is the irritating Mr Bond again, his childish attempts to penetrate your volcano will not be tolerated Mr Scaramanga !!

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Some more views from the top on the other side.

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The whole descent to the lakes were a nightmare for Sylvia as none of the ground was stable. It was a combination of deep gravel and rock on a steep slope which most people found a challenge, let a lone having to contend with the prospect of falling over with a broken arm. With a little help from me and a steady descent from Sylvia, we finally made it unscathed to the Emerald Lakes where we enjoyed our lunch accompanied by the delightful smell/stench of sulphur(bad eggs for the uninitiated !!).

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The Emerald lakes.

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The descent path to the Emerald Lakes..... :yikes

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What awaits a careless foot off the side of the gravel track.

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...and finally lunch by one of the Emerald lakes.

However as we were just finishing up I did some calculations as to our position/walking time and discovered we were only just about at half-way with less than half the time to complete the trek in time for the collection bus. At first I couldn’t believe my calculations at first :nenau as there were a fair number of people still about, however we obviously didn’t know their collection arrangements. I hurridly got us together and we set off again with both of us still a bit confused as to how this had come about :nenau, especially as we’d taken the earliest bus to the starting point. None-the-less, watches and maps don’t lie so we took our position seriously and set about with a good pace.

We only had to make one more ascent after lunch and then it was all down hill and so we were looking forward to an easier walk.

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Some views crossing to our final ascent and the ascent itself.

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A small sandstorm whilst crossing to our final ascent point.

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Sylvia caught in the storm.

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Initially it was, but the descent is actually a larger height difference than the ascent due to the positioning of the start and finish areas relative to the summit, and as a result had us extremely tired after a few hours of treading down some very steep steps.

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A few views from our long and tiring descent down.

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We finally made it back to our collection point with about 20-30 mins to spare, which was a relief as we were tired, very tired !!!

Due to another series of events, our bus driver took off without us taking a small group to meet another bus which was on the way to where we were to save some time, which meant we had to wait further still, which was just as well for some of the ‘Volcanoists’ :bow:bow:bow as they arrived some 10-15 mins after the bus collection dead-line. The ‘Volcanoists’ were very-fit-in-their-twenties-something-or-others :bow:bow:bow. If Sylvia and I were knackered, these guys looked like they should have been hooked up to a ventilator as they were totally and utterly exhausted. A Belgian couple, around the same age as Sylvia and I tried to make fun of their condition in comparison to ours for their age, BUT none of us had done the Volcano, and I told him so, none-the-less, he continued to try and mock them. He was a prize Wally :rolleyes: -I was surprised to find such ignorance.

Eventually our bus & driver returned and we all set off back to Taupo. Our Volcanoists sleeping pretty well from the time their shoes were off and their backs hit the seats. :sleep :sleep

On getting back to Taupo, I was relieved to see the bike & our helmets all in one piece and we rode back to our camp-site and made ourselves a well-deserved dinner.

We slept like logs :sleep and woke up feeling like the logs had slept on us. We were a bit more rested but very stiff. Originally we’d planned to move on today but this was no longer an option. In fact, it was all we could do to wander around like lost Daleks. When I realised we were both brain dead as well as physically incapacitated, I found it very funny. In the end I did a bit of web preparation and we relaxed for the remainder of the day.

The following day we packed up and set off for Matamata, a famous site for Lord of the Rings.

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A few views of Lake Taupo as we leave.

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Mike.
 


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