Napier and Tongariro

Feb 17 – Napier

We slept late this morning and were the last to leave the campsite. We weren't in a rush so that was fine by us. We drove towards Napier and turned off at the first winery we saw. Esk Valley Estates was a very large winery. The guy who served our tastings was very friendly and we got to try quite a few different wines. They were pretty good but nothing caught our fancy. We headed into the town and took a nice walk along the harbour. Then we went into the town center which is known for it's Art Deco buildings. We saw quite a few people dressed up strangely and as it turns out it is Art Deco weekend so there were tons of 1930's cars about and many people were dressed in 30's clothes. We was quite an interesting day to be in Napier. I went into a cool bead store that had tons of beads but they were pretty overpriced. I did pick up a couple of Paua Shell pieces. We had a wander around the town center and stopped in to Opossum World. Opossum World was interesting... they had stuffed birds and showcased their songs while stuffed opossums were stealing their eggs. I guess it was bringing attention to the negative impact that opossums have on the native birds of New Zealand. There was internet in the town center so we checked on the weather in Tongariro and it turned out only tomorrow was supposed to be nice all week. We decided we needed to take advantage of this little window of opportunity. We stopped into Pak 'n' Save for some groceries then started the 3hr drive to Tongariro. Our drive turned into a torrential down pour with a little bit of thunder and lightning thrown into the mix. This gave me heart palpitations thinking it would be like this tomorrow. We arrived in Tongariro National Park around 7pm and started the arduous task of finding transport for the crossing. There were a few options that took you from the hostel to the start of the crossing, picked you up at the end and took you back to the hostel for $30pp. We eventually, after stopping into 3 different places and calling two others, found a company that will take you from the car park at the end to the beginning and you just walk back to your car for $25pp. We had the ingenious idea of dropping one of us off at the start then the other taking the car to the end and grabbing the shuttle back so we only have to pay for one way. After sorting that we went to the DOC site nearby and made a late dinner. The rain was letting up though so it was looking up for the weather tomorrow. I guess we'll find out at 4:30am when our wake up call is.

People dressed up for Art Deco Weekend

One of the many old cars

Feb 18 – Tongariro Alpine Crossing

The alarm going off at 4:30am sucked! We got our little packs organized, lunches ready and headed out in the dark. While we drove to the start I made peanut butter and banana sandwiches for our breakfast. Once at the beginning we decided I should drive to the end since I had been looking at the map and knew more or less where to go. I drove speedily to the end to make it in time for the 6am pick up. The shuttle was there when I arrived and I was able to snag one of the few parking spots. Once in the van I ate my peanut butter and banana sandwich and chatted with the an older American couple. We waited a few extra minutes so another couple could climb aboard. They were Canadians too. We arrived back at the beginning just as the sun rose around 6:45am. It was quite foggy out and we couldn't see too much of the landscape yet. We started our walk and the landscape was quite barren, with scrubby bushes and volcanic rocks. The clouds were covering the mountains and that made me a little apprehensive about the visibility but luckily as we walked the sky started to clear. It started off with a fairly benign incline until we hit Soda Springs, after that it was very uphill. There were numerous stairs until we reached the foot of Mt Ngaruruhoe more commonly known as Mt Doom. Many of the clouds had cleared by this point but there were still some moving over the mountains and obscuring our view. All you had to do though was wait a few minutes and the scene changed into a spectacular picture. From Mt Ngauruhoe we walked cross the south crater. The crater looked very alien and barren much like the lunar surface. The sun had popped out at some point and had us cooking in our layers. Shortly after shedding some we were layering back up as a very frigged wind was blowing. We had a very vertical climb to the highest point of the crossing at 1887m. We had ascended 800m from our start point. The view up there was incredible. Beau and I balanced our handy dandy bending leg tripod on the sign and got a picture with us and Mt Doom. You can take side trips to the top of Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro but I felt that a 6-8 hr hike was plenty without adding on a couple 2-3 hr side trips. From the the red crater, the top, we descended a slippery scree slope to the Emerald Ponds. The ponds are amazing shades of green due to their high sulphur content. They are also geothermal and not safe for swimming. We headed across the central crater to the Blue Lake. The lake was a lovely turquoise blue. There was only a brief up hill then most of the rest of the hike was down. There were a crazy amount of switch backs that zigged and zagged you down the other side of the crossing. Most of our hike down was through scrub land again with some larger plants thrown into the mix. At one point the whole ecosystem changed and it became rainforesty with ferns, mosses, trees, puddles and mud. It was pretty wet in so we were dodging lots of mucky spots. After descending over 1000m we finally reached the car at about 1:15pm. We had taken lunch with us but never felt like stopping for it, we did have lots of snacks though. We slumped into our camp chairs, shucked our shoes and had our lunch. Man did it feel good. We decided to head into Taupo and made a scenic look out stop along the way. We stopped lake side at one picnic area and went for a much needed swim. It was refreshing. While trying to get into town there was some sort of charity relay race going on all along the highway. It slowed down traffic some but it was good to see so many people out although I don't know what the relay was for. We checked out 4 different motorcamps in town and were shocked and appalled at all the prices. We settled on the cheapest one which didn't have a free pool or spa but showers were included and that was the main thing for us. We had some dinner and got cleaned up, the shower felt very good. We got to watch the finale of X-Factor Australia which we had started watching in Christchurch.

Mt Doom/ Mt Ngaruruhoe

Emerald Ponds

Blue Lake

Looking down on Lake Taupo from the Crossing

A pretty waterfall near the end