Today we decided to explore south of the lake and take a trip around the mountains.
The drive took us through Turangi village and up to lake Rotoaira which was the site of a Maori village. From here there are some lovely views of Mt Tongariro across the lake.
The road up to the western ski area on Mt Ruhapehu takes you through moorland much like Scotland or Yorkshire in the UK. The weather was not at its clearest with intermittent showers – also reminiscent of the UK! There were some nice views of the three volcanos: Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu.
Here we can see Tongariro on the left and Ngauruhoe on the right…anyone recognise Mt. Doom?
The famous ‘Tongariro Crossing’ walk starts on hte East side of these mountains and passes over the top of Mt Tongariro in the centre, finishing not far from where this photo is taken. It is a challenging hike and can take 8-9 hours across the volcanic landscape. Something to train for!
A little further up the road we turned towards the Ruapehu ski fields. As you head towards the mountain you find the remarkable and striking French style hotel – Chateau Tongariro. This is definitely on our list of places to explore – probably a couple of days in the hotel and a trip to the summit on the gondola – when the weather is clear!
Unfortunately, the top of Ruapehu was lost in cloud on this day. From just below the ski village and lifts, the view to the west shows something of the landscape up on the Central Plateau. The light is constantly changing, highlighting some textures and hiding others as you watch.
From Ruapehu we headed south to a town called National Park. Strange name for a town but it was named for a stop on the Auckland – Wellington railway where visitors to the Tongariro national park disembarked! From National Park we looped south and east around the southern end of Ruapehu. This took as through some lovely countryside with a lot of dairy farming. It also has some impressive railway bridges over river gorges leading down off the mountains.
Unfortunately, not long after this the weather changed – again, and we headed back home via the central plateau main road in intermittent heavy rain. A great trip and certainly a source for future exploration.