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'Baby' World Tour - Part 3
The 'Baby' World Tour (Part 3)
Tongariro
Wed Jan 17th
Today (Midday) I leave Rosemere hostel for a couple of nights to drive (a hired
car) 200 miles north up to a place called Tongariro National Park. My destination
is a volcanic mountainous area. This area rises from an upland plateau Tussock
landscape. These mountains also serve as one of New Zealand's main ski resorts
in the winter. I am going up to do a well-known 16km walk called the Tongariro
Crossing. I've been told and read that it's well worth doing.
It urks me a bit that I have to splash out $60 a day for the car plus petrol.
Having said that, that's the going rate, and anyway the train is $80 one way.
I'm just tight. To travel is to spend. It would be all too easy to stay in Wellington
accumulating money but not seeing any of this wonderful country. That's what
I keep telling myself. So off I go.
The automatic car takes some getting used to. It feels weird not having the
old gear stick. I practice for a while in a back street. Approaching traffic
lights in Wellington I nearly end up through the windscreen when I forget that
the break only acts as the clutch when the car is stationary, not when on the
move!
The hostel is actually jam-packed full of Germans. I think Germany must be empty
at the moment. They're all over here!
When at last i feel confident i set off on the long journey up SH1. 3 lanes
either side give way to 1 lane each way 'A road' style. The road moves out of
the Wellington region. SH1 starts to enter into what kiwis term 'the green stuff'
or to those in the UK, the countryside. Rolling hilly terrain here reminds me
a bit of the view of The Howgills and the Shap hills on the Cumbrian section
of the M6. This range is called the Tararua Range, the hills stripped of their
trees.
As the road flattens out further north I get distant views of the Ruahine Range.
They look big and imposing and densely tree covered with the higher peaks obscured
by cloud.
At a crossroads town called Bulls 150 km north of Wellington, i stop to check
I hadn't left my 'rough guide' book back at the hostel. Somehow between getting
out of the front door of the car and opening the boot I manage to lose the car
keys for 30 minutes only to discover they were in the boot all the time. This
causes great amusement amongst a couple of onlookers.
North of Bulls i begin to encounter a lot of sheep. Now I really do begin to
feel at home. The scenery and climate feel very British. Only the occasional
native tree fern forest, the North Island's volcanic ridged fields and the distinctive
antipodean wooden porch houses set it apart from UK.
As the road climbs so tussock grass appears and a wide plateau emerges with
incredible views towards Mount Ruapehu, still snow capped even in the New Zealand
summer. At a town called Wairuri there are signs indicating when there are road
closures due to bad weather. I reckon in winter it must get cold and bleak up
here.
I get to the youth hostel late afternoon. It has been a long drive. I feel a
bit cream crackered. I'm staying at a tiny settlement called 'National park'.
The 'rough guide' book describes this place as 'overwhelmingly drab. A dispiriting
collection of A-Frame chalets sprouting from a scrubby plain of pines, eucalyptuses
and flax, with only the superb views of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe to lend
it any grace'. This is a fair assessment. National Park does however have a
good youth hostel built, bizarrely enough, around a collection of indoor climbing
walls, a nice little feature. I hire a single room for the night. There's a
slight smell of must in the room but I soon get used to it. The bed feels comfy,
almost luxurious after 8-bed dorm sleeping for the last week and a bit.
The kitchen is a hive of activity. Again, there is many Germans. Also Swiss,
U.S. Spanish, English, Australian. Out of the kitchen window is a great view
of Mount Ruapehu rising above the plateau. Ruapehu erupted as recently as 1996
ejecting ash miles into the atmosphere. Let's hope it doesn't go up tomorrow.
Then a Swiss lad in the hostel informs everyone there's a great view of the
Comet Mcnaught.
I go around the back. In the clear evening sky, with the sun setting and the
sky glowing amber in places is what looks like a star leaving a long silvery
trail in its wake. Apparently the next time we'll see Comet Mcnaught is about
25,000 years time. Soon after I retire to bed.
Thurs Jan 18th
30 or more of us get the 7.15am bus to the start of the walk at Mangatepopo
Hut This takes about 30 minutes. The guy at the youth hostel had told us to
slap plenty of sunscreen on. I wear a white foreign legion style cap kindly
lent by my Dad before i set off. This cap protects the ole' neck from getting
a UV battering. The coach climbs out of the fog to the start of the walk. I
get chatting with a couple from Alice Springs. They tell me about the Alice
Springs region. About its unique landscape and wildlife.
It's lovely to start the walk early with the sun low in the sky. It's cool as
well in the shadows. We climb through the early morning up fractured black lava
flows towards the Mongatepopo saddle. Here there are many people resting up.
The views are incredible. You can see all the way over to the snow-capped Mount
Taranaki, miles to the west.
At this stage i am half tempted to climb the black cinder cone named Mount Ngauruhoe
nearby, as i can see other walkers heading up its steep sides. Only problem
is it's an-extra 600 metres of climbing and I get paranoid that I'll miss the
bus at the end of the walk. Mount Ngauruhoe is, by the way, the mountain you
can see on my first album. I reassure myself that it'll be there for next time
(hopefully) and crack on with the rest of the walk.
The walk is clearly marked, so it is never dangerous. That shouldn't underestimate
the power and scale of the place though. Lunar like, we head across a huge flat
sandy crater that must be getting on for 500 metres wide in places. Then we
climb out of this crater and get onto a ridge that looks down on a chaotic rock
strewn prehistoric landscape, steam rising from red, crimson, white and black
craters far below. There is a real whiff of rotten eggs in the air. The whole
panorama is a wee bit mind-blowing and primeval. We descend towards striking
opaque and turquoise pools skidding down the loose stones and continue on through
another crater with a wide expansive flattened floor. After climbing out of
that one we come across a solitary upland lake, glistening a vivid turquoise
in the bright sun.
Mount Ruapehu , early morning on the start of the Tongar
The volcanic cone of Mt Ngauruhoe in the background.
Tongariro. Impressive volcanic desert landscape.
My Dad's Foreign Legion style hat does the trick.
Remarkable colour those lakes.
Opaque and turquoise lakes.
A weird looking volcanic boulder in a desolate landscape.
Tongariro
On the long descent, views of Lake Taupo and Lake Rotoaira keep the spirits
up. Then we pass a Dept Of Conservation Hut and down into native bush and end
the walk knackered but well chuffed that it had kept sunny and clear. A memorable
day and a walk I would highly recommend.
On the bus back to the hostel I get chatting to a striking dark haired lass
from Cardiff. She has been travelling through India (which she describes as
a real culture shock) and Australia where she had been teaching diving at the
Barrier Reef and finishing off in NZ. She is ready for home after 6 months travelling
describing it as a "long enough time away."
In the eveving i retire to bed early after sinking a few cheeky beers. I have
to be up at 5am to get the hire car back to Wellington for 10am.
