Taupo…. but NOT the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

After one night in Wellington I made the long drive half the way up the North Island to a small village sitting on the southern shore of Lake Taupo. At first the drive was a fast but dull motorway, but after a couple of hours State Highway 1 – New Zealand’s main artery – turned into a regular road with one lane each way. At the same time it became scenic, passing through rolling hills and sheep farms. Sadly though there were no rest areas to stop and take pictures from. Then the road climbed and entered a plain of barren scrubland, with three majestic volcanoes towering in the distance. This was the so-called Desert Road and the mountains were in Tongariro National Park, my intended destination for a short walk later in the afternoon and a much bigger on the next day – I planned to do the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a moderately tough 20km hike through spectacular volcanic landscapes. I stopped to take pictures, noticing a strong wind as I left the car and that the tops of the mountains were shrouded in cloud.

When I reached my guest house, my host had bad news for me. The park authorities had closed the Alpine Crossing route due to forecast bad weather. I was surprised; the conditions at ground level looked good to me, but when I checked on the park’s website, I saw that on the mountains, there would be heavy rain, an average visibility of 20 metres, freezing cold and wind gusts of up to 150km/h. A little teddy would be blown all the way across the Pacific to South America, and even if I managed to stay on the ground I would not see anything. The Alpine Crossing was out of the question and even my short afternoon walk would be pointless. Somewhat disappointed, I went for a brief but pretty walk around the local area…..

….and then admired Lake Taupo from its shore. The lake was formed out of the caldera of a huge volcano that erupted around 1800 years ago.

The area remains highly volcanic to this day and just behind me I could see the first of many areas of geothermal activity that I would see over the coming days – the Steaming Cliffs.

The next day I changed plans and drove to Taupo, a town on the opposite side of the huge lake. My first stop were the Huka Falls, a very scenic spot where the Waikato River surges through a small channel.

The area around the falls was extremely pretty and I stopped to explore for a bit.

Next I drove further up river to the Aratiatia Dam, where the river narrows again. Usually the water level after the dam is quite low, but three times a day, water is released from the dam to surge down the canyon and create another set of rapids. I waited patiently until 2pm, camera in paw, and was rewarded with the sight of the transformation of a gentle stream into a raging torrent.

My next stop of the day was a geothermal area called the Craters of the Moon. I walked on a raised pathway over an area where hot steam hissed out of vents in the ground.

There were several small craters – results of a vent getting blocked, causing pressure to build and eventually an eruption of steam. It was an interesting walk and a good taster for some of the more famous volcanic sites I planned to visit later on my trip.

My final stop of the day was at some volcanic thermal baths. I soaked in 39C water for a pleasant hour, watching the clouds go by (I had spent most of the afternoon dodging heavy showers). I had expected to be ending the day exhausted but excited after a long hike through spectacular high-altitude volcanic scenery. Instead, I was chilling in hot water after several pleasant but short hikes. Maybe it was not such a bad outcome after all.

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