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New Zealand Trip

Taupo to Tongariro National Park

Just before we left Taupo, we got a last chance to see Lake Taupo, and its famous "floating stones". It is just the same stones girls use to exfoliate their feet skin : pumice. It was strange, but cool. The photo on the left is one of the side walk we did in Taupo.

The main purpose of that day was to do one of the best one-day walk you can do in New Zealand : the Tongariro Crossing. But the weather didn't like the idea, and as it was really cloudy we couldn't do it as the track goes through the mountains and it is easy to get lost when it is foggy. Instead we did two smaller walks that day, including a walk around lake Rotopounamu.

The second walk we did was the Taranaki Falls one, a two hours loop around the Whakapapa village ( village in the middle of the National Park ). We really felt in the country of the Lord of the Rings in this walk, as the landscapes were similar to the ones seen in the first movie.

PHOTOS

This was a pleasant walk, with everchanging landscapes, though it was raining that day, as said above.

The Tongariro Crossing

As we couldn't do the walk the day before, I decided with two mates to stay one more day if the weather was better the next day : that's what happened ! Because the day before we couldn't see much as it was dark and cloudy, in the morning it was a big surprise for everybody to discover some huge snowy summits everywhere around. Kind of magic I would say, like an invitation.

That's how we decided to go for the supposedly 8 hours walk. As usual we arrived late as we missed the last bus, so we had to keep a quick pace at the beginning not to miss the bus at the end of the track.

The walk was a pure delight : it started with wide desertic fields. Some streams were flowing here and there. Then the crossing itself started, with a really hard bit extremely steep : I had to use both hands and feet to climb up ! See the picture on the right : this is the track !

After this hard section we arrived in the crater of a volcanoe, which was more than impressive considering the size of the crater ( picture on the right ).

On the side several smaller craters were presents, one filled with water forming a lake.

Continuing the walk, we passed some more stunning volcanic landscapes, before we got to the summit. At that time at was actually alone as I walked way faster than my mates. The red color of the stone can be explained by the ongoing volcanic activity in that region ( remember, it is not far away from Rotorua )

Just after passing the summit, or to be correct the highest point of the walk ( there is a side walk to the summit, Mt Tongariro ), we got a really nice view of the Emerald Lakes, due to their color.

I couldn't resist to the temptation of taking a picture of this thin strip of earth between two of the numerous lakes. On the way down it was still desertic, but the colors were differents, and so was the general atmosphere.

Looking back, it was even more magnificient to see what we just crossind from afar. A couple of minutes later the soil and the vegetation changed again, becoming more green, and heaps of hills running down the main valley.

As you can see the track is very curved, which makes it way longer to get to a point which seems to be close from you. The picture on the right shows the Blue Lake down the valley.

Passing the last hut, some last remnants of the volcanic activity could be observed, coloring in red and yellow the stones around. And few kilometers later we suddently reached the rainforest, for the last section of the walk.

In total this walk took me 5 hours, without really rushing. I highly recommend it to anybody travelling around the North Island.

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