Day 8: January 8, Tongariro National Park, NZ

Tongariro National Park is NZ’s oldest park and the only one with dual World Heritage designation, for the historical and cultural Maorian importance and the volcanic features.  It is almost 200,000 acres with three active volcanos, Tongariro, Ruahepu and Ngauruhoe, all between 8,000-9,000 feet.  It’s the only place on the North Island with a year round snow cover making for good skiing in winter and excellent hiking in summer.  The volcanos have erupted as recently as 2012 and there have been over 60 eruptions since 1945. There’s a crater lake at the peak of Mount Ruahepu, which is the highest point on the North Island of NZ.

I write all this because my view today was of my hotel room.  I was meant to do the the 19 km Tongariro Crossing today, but high winds and pouring rains caused the Parks people to cancel all attempts. So with little else to do, I watched the rain out my window, read a book, spent a fair amount of time on iMessage, charged all my electronics, washed out a few pair of undies and am basically waiting for it to be time for a glass of wine!  While I am disappointed, I have had a week of early rising, so enjoyed sleeping in and relaxing a bit.  I hope to have time in the morning for another short hike in the park before getting the train at midday tomorrow for Wellington.

Despite my real view today (see photos below), I have a few of what I might have seen had I actually done the crossing, courtesy of my nephew Kevin who did do it late in 2015.  So he kindly sent me some photos so that I can pretend that I had that amazing experience.  The Pollyanna in me says that now I have an excuse to come back to NZ, to do the things I wasn’t able to fit into this trip, and from the conversations I’ve had, and the maps I’ve looked at, it seems that there’s much more to experience in this small, beautiful country.