TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK (10/08/09 & 11/08/09)
Our original plan was to do the famous New Zealand hike the Tongariro Crossing over the mountains of the national park. However when we tried to arrange the trip there was a weather warning for severe ice and avalanches. Not particularly wanting to die buried in snow quite yet we went for the safe (and easy) option of getting a sightseeing pass at Whakapapa ski field and riding the ski lifts to the top. The mountain views from the top were absolutely spectacular.
Adam was much more excited than Liz since he has never been sking and has never been in snow like this. In fact his only real experience of snow is the inch of grey sludge that falls one day a year in England and makes all the buses stop running.
The topmost peaks of Mount Ruapehu.
We managed to stay warm (just) by putting on almost every piece of clothing we have with us.
Whilst the top of the mountain was lit by bright sunlight the valley below was still covered in a thick fog. As we looked, however, the cloud lowered slightly revealing the top of the active volcanic peak of Mount Ngauruhoe.
Mount Ngauruhoe was made famous by film maker Peter Jackson when he used it as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was filmed in the summer when the mountain is black rock and free from snow.
Not wanting to waste his first visit to such amazing thick snow Adam persuaded Liz to swallow her pride and hire a sledge. Just because we were sharing our small slope mostly with three year olds made it no less fun.
Avoiding killing a small child with a speeding sledge meant occasionally crashing it.
A little more persuasion got Liz at the top of the hill herself.
She enjoyed it a lot more than she thought and went straight back up.
A bit chilly without proper snow clothing we decided to grab the ski lift and head back down. For some reason we didn't have to queue for the downward lifts.
Leaving the bright blue sky and sunshine behind we descended into the thick fog of the valley.
Luckily after leaving the valley at the base of the mountains and heading for the coast we managed once again to escape the fog and found sunshine at the beach near the town of Whanganui. The beaches on most of the west coast of the North Island are covered in black volcanic sand, creating a strikingly different effect to the white sand we are used to.
Despite the picturesque combination of the black beach and stream running into the sea it would appear from the smell that the stream had picked up more than pebbles on it's journey through miles of farmland inhabited by sheep and cows. Oh well, you can't have everything...
No comments:
Post a Comment