The weather forecast for this one did not change much over the Queen’s birthday weekend. Showers and gale force wind from the Northwest in exposed places. Saturday was always going to be the best day weather wise over the three days, and indeed it was.
Our trip plan was day one start from Whakapapa to the Tama Lakes, on route to Waihohonu hut. Day two, Waihohonu to Mangatepopo hut. Day three Mangatepopo hut return to Whakapapa and return to Takapuna.
Four of us keen and excited set of early on Saturday morning for our first destination, the Tama lakes. We started at the road end of Ngauruhoe terrace, which gave us a clear view ahead of the impressive 2287-meter, Mount Ngauruhoe. It was not long before we passed through a small enclave of beech tree forest and onto the tussock covered, vast looking open central plateau of Tongariro national park. The track to the Tama Lakes, as you can imagine was a very well-maintained benched track, of about 7 kilometres to the Tama lakes.
Arriving at an elevated view above the lower Tama lake. The catchment area, looked as if it was low on water, but it was at its normal level with a vast flat dry lake bed in the foreground, some of it in shade. The alpine plants on the banks surrounding the lake, were of red rustic and sporadic tinges of green colour’s bathed in the early morning rising sunlight. Stopping for a short time would make you cold, so we put on extra layers and made sure we had the appropriate gear, dumped our packs, as it made little or no sense to take them on the climb to the upper Tama lake.
It was not long before we had walked the first and steepest part of the ascent, before we were on a ridge with great views on either side, and just one more small climb to the top, and there we were elevated once more but this time it was the upper Tama lake that we had fixed our eyes upon. A somewhat bigger lake than the lower Tama, it gave us views of Mount Ngauruhoe, Mount Tama and hiding itself in the background under cloud, we had the tiniest peek of Mount Ruapehu’s summit intermittently. The Tama lakes interestingly occupy six craters that were created 10,000 years ago in an explosive period. It was getting windy and cold at the upper Tama, and it was not long before we were vacating the lakes before the main body of day walkers were arriving.
We headed back to the Tama lakes junction and soon were off the benched track heading to the east on a well-marked route towards Waihohonu hut. On the way we would drop into small gulley’s, that I would have guessed were formed by lava flows from Ruapehu long ago, the colour’s and numerous types of alpine plants and succulents in these small gully’s were like demarcation lines in the vast plateau, some areas we come to were of river sand like a desert and bare of plant life altogether and the odd small splattering of beach forests.As we pressed on further in the far distance, the Kaimanawa range came into view. We were nearing Waihohonu hut when we had to make the short detour to visit the old Waihohonu hut, the oldest hut in the park, built in 1904 there she was a red corrugated iron clad hut sitting nostalgically in a small clearing, one could just imagine it could tell a numerous story of times past, at one stage the stagecoach used to stop there. Looking at the graffiti carved into the front door, I could see some dating back to the 1940s and as far back as 1917. Ten more minutes on and some twenty-one kilometres later we arrived at the new and spacious Waihohonu hut at about 1.45pm in time for a late lunch, and to get a bed for the night. It did not take long to see why DOC had built a spacious hut, as other trampers started to arrive in large numbers, so much so that soon there were no more beds left and noticeably short on floor space to sleep on, we counted at least fifty odd people in the dining room, lucky we had grabbed our bunks early on.
The next day we awoke to a clouded morning and drizzle with no improvement on the latest local mountain forecast. We had to decide whether to push on further or abandon our original plan and return to Whakapapa. We had a few different alternative scenarios in mind, but they would involve a rather big last day and a late departure for the bus’s return to Auckland. With our safety at the forefront of our decision and the fact that we were not going to see too much at a higher altitude, we decided the thought of a hot shower and the company of the other parties at the lodge was very appealing.
So, we made our way back at a rather splendid pace via the Taranaki falls for a quick visit and admire the impressive volume of water coming over the falls from above. When you have a rainy and clouded day in Tongariro national park there is always something to do and sitting in the local hotel for lunch we were starting to feel very cosy and settled. We knew we had to vacate it and do a little extra trip, or we would have been self-incarcerated for the rest of the day.
So, we were off to view the Silica rapids. It was a return to the lodge to gear up, and we were off power walking ourselves toward the silica rapids and what a great trip it had to offer, into the beach forest we went and up to a boarded track over a large wetland and follow the stream onto the silica rapids. Absolutely a fine and most interesting site, rainwater and snow melts sink though fissures deep in the rocks and magma below, and basically picks up escaping gas from below, and now buoyant rises along a fault or large crack and absorbs minerals of silica and aluminium, then bubbles up to the surface through a spring at the base of a lava flow. It coats the surface of the rapids with a creamy white alumino-silica deposit up to three centimetres thick, giving it a look possibly like the pink and white terraces? But on a much smaller scale.
It was then a return to our lodgings for a hot shower, fine dining, and a comfy bed for the night before the journey back to Takapuna the next morning. In all a great adventure. A big thank you to Roz for organizing such an epic trip. Our expert drivers, Arletta and Craig.
