New Zealand, Tongariro: Snow-Capped Mount Doom and Crater Lakes

Since we arrived late in the evening at the mountain village of Whakapapa, we stayed at the first place we came across that night, a holiday park just inside Tongariro National Park. The holiday park was set in a wooded area, which was a little eerie with it being dark and quiet outside. The air was very cool and we could tell that we had climbed to an elevation several hundred metres higher because we had driven through a large, thick cloud and found ourselves above the cloud when we parked ourselves at Whakapapa Holiday Park.

Our original intention was to stay at the side of the road somewhere or in a picnic area, so we could avoid having to pay for a night's accommodation. However, we found ourselves inside the national park and without that option before we realised it. The holiday park had some empty campervan power sites and we decided to plug in and take advantage of the power and heat we could turn on using the supplied power there. The office had closed a few hours earlier, so we ended up paying for the site in the morning, $34 NZD (that's around £13, or $26 USD), and when we paid the following morning, the congenial woman working at the holiday park office said we could leave our campervan parked there for the day whilst we explored the national park on foot.

The landscape had changed to something we would have expected on the surface of the moon, barring the water filling each of the two craters

In the morning, we woke early and the skies were completely clear of any cloud cover, even below us at the lower altitude where we had been immersed in thick clouds the day before. The weather was again marvellous and we were told at the national park information centre that the weather was going to hold out all morning and afternoon, a clear and perfect day for hiking. At that point, we had to pinch ourselves because we were granted amazing New Zealand weather yet again!

To prime ourselves for a day full of hiking, we had eaten some cereal inside our campervan and made peanut butter sandwiches to take with us for lunch later that day. The park ranger at the information centre told us about a good hike to Taranaki Falls and two crater lakes near Mount Ngauruhoe, which would take around six hours to get there and back. We both felt incredibly refreshed and eager for some exercise and decided to go for the 17 kilometre hike, which was about 10 miles in total. To be honest, we had initially planned to only walk to the first of the two crater lakes, but we decided an hour into our hike to go ahead and walk up to the second crater lake since the scenery and landscape around us was so beautiful.

With its mighty, active volcanoes, Tongariro National Park was one of New Zealand's most spectacular parks. It was the country's oldest national park, established in 1887, and a World Heritage site, and the status of the park was deemed two-fold, firstly for having been recognised as an area important for Maori cultural associations, and secondly for its outstanding volcanic features. Tongariro is one of only a handful of sites worldwide to be given dual World Heritage status.

Tongariro was a place of extremes and a great place to explore for a day. During our day-long hike, we passed herb fields, native forests, lakes and streams, as well as desert-like terrain and a dramatic volcanic landscape. Upon setting out, we made sure that we had a few important things with us to ensure the day went smoothly. The most important was extra layers of clothing, since we would be climbing several hundred more metres during the course of the day. Even with the sun shining, there was supposed to be a strong wind blowing across the valley we had planned to traverse and it was bound to get colder as we climbed to higher altitudes. We also brought plenty of water and food to ensure that we wouldn't starve or die of thirst along the way. Since New Zealand didn't have any snakes or other dangerous creatures, we were unafraid of this aspect of a long hike, and set out on the trailhead without a worry in the world.

The trail began near a large hotel that was a few minutes down the road from Whakapapa Holiday Park, and it wound along a wide open plain covered with a number of different native bushes and plants. We saw a lot of tall tussock grasses and several plants similar to those we saw in parts of the southwest United States during our road trip there at the end of the summer. The open land soon closed in and we were surrounded by a dense forested area running alongside a small river. The trail ran along the river and parts of it had us climbing up and down steps as the land gently climbed and descended.

Without worrying about seeing many animals, we focused on observing the "bush", or vegetation, around us. There were many interesting and unusual plants, including several types of ferns of small to large sizes. It was incredible to see the landscape change from an open, barren valley to a dense forest, and then again to a rugged, stepped volcanic plain when we exited the forest area. As we walked farther away from the river, trees disappeared and the vegetation consisted of low-lying bushes and grasses. There were many blooming flowers on the plants we saw, since our month in New Zealand was in the latter part of their spring season.

It took over an hour to reach our first major point of interest during the hike. Taranaki Falls was a large waterfall formed at a tall section of lava rock that had been pushed up during an earthquake, creating a huge ledge in the middle of the valley. The waterfall was quite a picturesque sight and we took a few minutes to soak in the scenery, without getting soaked, since we didn't walk underneath the fall like another group of tourists in front of us did. When we had had enough of the view, we carried on walking up and over a steep, rocky, barren hill to make our way closer to the crater lakes. All around us, we were granted amazing views of the landscape, with Mount Ngauruhoe looming closer and closer to us on one side, and Mount Ruapehu on the other.

The mountains in Tongariro National Park were used in the "Lord of the Rings" (LOTR) films, as the setting for Mordor. Mount Ngauruhoe, in particular, was used as Mount Doom and hopefully any LOTR film fans will recognise the mountain's shape when they look at our photo album for this journal entry. Our hike carried us closer and closer to Mount Ngauruhoe, but we were walking in the valley between the two mountains, and we had constant views of Mount Ruapehu from different angles as we walked.

The landscape changed, as it often did during our trek, as we climbed up and descended several hills along the way to the crater lakes. There was one section of our walk where the ground was covered in a soft, grey and spongy substance that must have been some kind of moss growing on the ground. In that section, there were very few plants, and those that were there only stood a foot or so tall. Even later into our hike, the vegetation on the ground thinned out almost completely and we walked along sections covered with rocks and thin, short grass.

With Mount Ngauruhoe in sight, we trudged onwards and upwards towards the crater lakes. The incredible bodies of water were within large volcanic craters at high elevations. When we reached the first of the two, Lower Tama Lake, our eyes took in an enormous crater in front of us filled with clear, bright blue water that had come from mountain runoff, as snow melted whilst the season progressed. For the last hour of walking before arriving at Lower Tama Lake, we had tramped (Kiwis used the word "tramping" instead of hiking or trekking) along a river bed, and we were happy there were no flash floods during our day out. There was evidence all along the river bed of previous flash floods, with large, heavily eroded and washed out sections of the bed being as much as three or four feet deep.

The crater had formed from a violent volcanic eruption. The two mountains in the national park were still active volcanoes and, in fact, one month before we visited the park, Mount Ngauruhoe had experienced a small eruption during which a climber ended up losing his leg. Lower Tama Lake was calm and looked stunning between the two large, snow-capped mountains inside the national park. With the size of the crater being so enormous, it was hard to imagine the force that built up underneath the earth's surface before it exploded, creating the massive crater that stands there today.

Wind had picked up as we arrived at the lake, and it continued to get worse during our hike to Upper Tama Lake. We continued along the crater's edge, a saddle of land that was narrow with very steep drops on either side of us, stretching hundreds of feet down. The wind was incredibly strong whilst we walked along the saddle, and we were fortunate not to have been blown off the mountain at that point. With the wind and steep climb requiring all of our last energy reserves, the last half hour walk to Upper Tama Lake was very difficult, but extremely worth the effort, once we saw what was waiting for us at the top of the saddle.

The landscape had changed to something we would have expected on the surface of the moon, barring the water filling each of the two craters. At one point, the winds were so strong that we were pushed to the edge of the walkway, and we really had to concentrate on where we were walking in case we slipped and fell on the loose stones that made up the surface of the ground we trekked along. It wasn't unheard of for people to injure themselves on even fall off the side of the crater's rim during the hike, so we took extra caution. Upper Tama Lake was even bigger than Lower Tama Lake, and was shaped like a big "U", while the former was shaped like a circle. The water inside the second crater was equally clear and blue, and we were impressed with the view.

To give hikers a break from the strong winds, an open-air shelter had been built by the national park. We sat down in the shelter, which was a round wall of boulders and smaller stones put in place to block the wind, and we looked out over the crater lake, enjoying the peace and tranquillity of the setting. The shelter provided some respite from the persistent winds and also enabled hikers some safety at the top of the saddle. Spending a few minutes inside the shelter allowed us to catch our breath and work up the energy for the hike back down the saddle and to Lower Tama Lake before continuing the long return to Taranaki Falls and the start of the trail.

Stopping for lunch was something we both decided to do after seeing the two crater lakes. We waited until we were back at the lower lake to eat our sandwiches. We had brought a couple of snack/nutrition bars and finished them off a little bit later in the afternoon. During our time walking around the rockier portion of the mountain, we sometimes found it difficult to see the path because the ground appearance was similar everywhere. Climbing down the mountain, we discovered that the trail was much steeper than it had seemed climbing up, and we occasionally slipped on loose stones covering the ground, which was a little scary with the wind blowing hard at us during the descent.

After eating, we continued walking and the vegetation started to reappear around us. The walk back was good and we had no problems, but we started feeling really tired after walking an hour or so from Lower Tama Lake. By that point, we had walked around four hours and we knew that we had a couple more hours to go. The path was easy to follow down the mountain and across the valley, but there were a few hills that we had to climb up and over to get back to the start of the trail, and that was hard with tired legs. As soon as we saw some of the buildings at the edge of Whakapapa Village, we knew we were getting close to the finish and we began to discuss how much of a great experience the hike had been for us that day.

As soon as we left the trail and stepped onto the asphalt road leading back to the holiday park where our campervan was parked, we caught a second wind - probably really a tenth or eleventh wind by that point in the day - and hurried back to the vehicle. If you have read our other New Zealand entries, you may know that we have named our campervan, but we haven't mentioned his/her name in this journal entry, and if you want to find out what the name was, you'll just have to go back and read a previous journal entry or one of the next few that we write.

Feeling totally exhausted, we rested our poor legs for a short while in the campervan whilst planning our next route. Once we were ready to move, before Kyle's legs seized up where he couldn't drive, we said goodbye - Dan literally spoke the word out loud - to the national park and continued travelling south in the North Island towards Wellington. Before reaching New Zealand's capital city, though, we wanted to check out the adventure thrill rides at Mokai Gravity Canyon, mainly the world's fastest flying fox. A flying fox, for anyone who doesn't know, is a long zipline, or steel cable, under which riders hang and are thrust along at very high speeds.

Mokai Canyon was located halfway between Tongariro National Park and Wellington, but the distance was not far with New Zealand being a small country. The drive only took a couple of hours, but it was dark by the time we arrived near Mokai Gravity Canyon and we decided to make camp at a quiet picnic area a couple of miles from the turning we needed to take from the highway to head towards the flying fox. That night, the weather turned a bit colder and we ended up getting to sleep early so we could set out early the next morning.