In the Shadow of Three Volcanoes

Once this morning’s blog entry was completed and we finished getting ready, we went into Town Centre of Turangi to grab some breakfast at¬¬ the Mustard Seed Café. We both ordered a plate of bacon eggs Benedict and I had some apple and feijoa juice. The breakfast was decent enough but a little expensive. That’s likely because there’s a surcharge on meals at restaurants, etc, on public holidays.

We got on the road and headed to Tongariro National Park. This is a spot that I really wanted to see last time but wasn’t able to due to the terrible weather. Then, it was cold and very rainy but today’s weather was absolutely perfect – wonderfully warm with a bright sunshine and long, fluffy white clouds. The main reason for seeing it, other than its natural beautiful and the fact they’re active volcanoes with regular geothermal activity, is that one of the three volcanoes in the park was used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as Mount Doom. It’s also a rare example of the iconic conical volcano. Quick tidbit: A few times Jacob said Mt. Doom, I heard Mountain Doom, which I found very amusing.

The drive to Tongariro National Park was lovely with the last bits of greenery turning into low shrub brush. The blue skies made for perfect visibility of the surrounding hills and later the three volcanoes, Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu. The latter two easily steal the show. We stopped several times along the road to take pictures of all sides and finally ended up at Whakapapa Village. Here we stopped at the Visitor’s Center were we spoke with a park ranger to see which trail would give us the best views of Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) and decided upon a 2+ hour loop called the Taranaki Falls trail. The trail was everything the ranger said it would be with periods of openness through the low shrub brush which moved into cool forests with lots of moss covered trees and fern covered ground. As the well graveled trail winded through the hills it often met up with rocky stream that we either crossed or walked beside. There were several falls along the way but the most spectacular, of course, were the Taranaki Falls themselves, another perfect plunge waterfall but this time only 20 metres high.

At the top of the falls, we had a fantastic view of Mt. Ngaupahue and Mt. Ruapohe and stopped to enjoy the warm sunshine. We likely took far more pictures than we needed but better to have more than less, right? Afterwards, we winded through some ancient lava flows and down the rest of the loop back into Whakapapa Village to pick up our car. We drove a fairly quick stretch down to the small town of Ohakune, which is nestled amid lots of lush farmland and fields dotted with wooly sheep. We quickly secured a room at the Rima Park Lodge, which has both private units and hostel accommodations. This is the cheapest room we’ve had so far but the room is in a small building that only has two rooms to begin with, so it’s very quiet and private. Plus, it was great perk that the owner’s brother that checked us in was super nice. He gave us a dinner recommendation to a place nearby called the Matterhorn. That place was closed due to a private function which happened to be an American Muscle car club gathering. This meant that much to Jacob’s delight almost all the parking spots outside were filled with all kinds of muscle cars in pristine condition. I don’t know enough about cars to tell you anything about the types but just ask Jacob and I’m sure he’d tell you all about them.

So, since the Matterhorn wasn’t available, the place had another restaurant called the Powderkeg, which is where we ended up for dinner. It had a great ski lodge décor since the area around here is known for its skiing in the winter. We sat at the bar and order some drinks while we waited for our food. We both tried a popular North Island beer called Tui. It’s labeled as an East India Pale Ale but I’ve never liked any pale ale I’ve found back home. This was incredibly easy to drink, which is saying a lot from a non-beer drinker. Our food took awhile to come to us at the bar but it was pretty good when it did appear. Jacob had a nice big burger and I had a chickpea burger, which seems to be the veggie burger option. I like them!

Now we’re back at the room, trying to get some sleep and since the space heater is finally working, it’s a little easier.