Hamilton - Tongariro

It was with no great regret that we left Hamilton, having lived there for 3 months we firmly established it as the bowels of New Zealand. Having said that, it is close to a lot of very nice places. With light hearts and a heavy car we headed south on State highway 1, New Zealands “longest and most significant road”. I don’t know who rates the significance of roads, but being a biologist now feels extremely worthwhile. We drove all the way to Huka falls. Huka falls is located high up the Waikato river. The Waikato, “New Zealands longest (no mention on significance) river”, begins on the side of Mt Ruapuhe (our destination for the night) it flows down into lake Taupo, “the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand”. Shortly after leaving Taupo lake the river is channeled through a gorge. This is called huka falls. In Hamilton the Waikato is a lazy greasy river, so it was nice to see it here, an electric blue colour, and much more appealing.

Huka "falls". The most news worthy event related to Huka falls was the discovery of the body of a cricket umpire bound at the ankles and wrists. A victim of some Auckland bondage dominatrix. Cricket and bondage are not often two words you write in the same sentence.

On to Taupo, a town not worth mentioning, on the shores of lake Taupo. There was a nice playground, and the toilets were expensive with very nicely perfumed soap. After driving a way out of Taupo the lake becomes much more beautiful. Agnes was a bit disappointed that you could see across to the other side despite it being New Zealands largest by surface water lake. When you consider that the lake is actually the crater of a volcano it becomes a bit more impressive I think. Taupo erupted sometime between 180 and 190 AD. It must have been a terrific eruption, strange weather events and celestial patterns were recorded in Chinese and Roman chronicals, both mentioning a red sky or a sky bursting into flame. Onwards to Tongariro national park. Or Mordor, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Mordor is actually a series of 3 volcanic peaks Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro (by now extinguished from all the rain we had). These are nearly 3000m high and from the postcards looked very impressive. We didn’t see them ourselves on account of the clouds/mist/rain. Our campsite was full of adventurers come to hike on and over the mountains. They are a hardcore bunch that eat super-hydrated foods and peanut butter straight from the jar. We had steak and potatos. It turned a few heads in the kitchen. Yes sir, there were a few unsatisfied noodle eaters going back to their tents this night. We went back to our heated cabin. Never felt so smug, even if it was thanks to Agnes.

We were the only ones out hiking with an umbrella this day

The next day, inspired by all the adventurers, we headed out for our own walk. It was really beautiful in a bleak sort of way. Hebe bushes dotted the landscape and were covered in white flowers. Thandi thought they were sheep and shouted BAA at them. And in New Zealand you can excuse her for thinking so. We walked to another waterfall (regular readers might spot a trend developing), Taranaki falls. I can’t remember why, with all the water falling from the sky, it seemed a good idea to see even more water fall over a rock. But it was excellent.

Our only glimpse of the the volcano!

The next day we headed for the bright lights of Wellington…

Finally some sunshine, and we even found a beach to have breakfast. This beach (Himatangi) was popular with 4x4 drivers. Couldnt really work out what they were doing, just driving up and down the beach. Kept Thandi busy though, she likes cars.