Tongariro National Park--Whakapapa Village

Mt. Ruapehu and first glimpse of Chateau

On Wednesday afternoon, March 31, we drove about 2 hours directly south from Otorohanga to Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park. We were eager to do some more hiking so booked four nights in the area. The first two nights we stayed at the Chateau Tongariro--a definite splurge. The Chateau, finished in 1929, is an elegant hotel of Georgian architecture that has four stories plus basement. It was styled after the Canadian Resort on Lake Louise in Banff and is really lovely. It had that gracious old hotel feel complete with a man playing the grand piano nightly in the middle of the immense lobby.

In Tongariro National Park, THE walk to do is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a one way 6-8 hour hike of 11-12 miles. You have to arrange drop-off and/or pickup depending on where you are staying. It is a very popular hike and you can easily encounter hundreds of people doing it in a day. You can even buy a T-shirt proclaiming that you did it! We were hoping to hike without so much hoopla and with fewer people although I must admit a longing for one of the T-shirts….

We opted for the Tama Lakes Tramping Track, a 6 hour hike of 10-11 miles. Thursday morning, after some confusion about the starting place, we set out on a path just behind the hotel. It was a gloriously sunny day with a cool breeze and wonderful visibility. The Tama Lakes “occupy old explosion craters on the Tama Saddle.” The well traveled trail winds up and down across “rolling tussock country and alpine herb fields ”, has views of the majestic Mt. Ruapehu and ominous Mt. Ngauruhoe, crosses the Wairere Stream, and brings you to the first lake.

At that point a loose gravel track climbs steeply to a long high saddle and, after a final uphill push, to a view of the upper lake. We ate our picnic lunch overlooking the upper lake with views to Mt. Ngauruhoe, a.k.a. Mt. Doom in LOTR. We shared the top with a handful of other people. We pinched ourselves that we were actually there.

Tama Saddle on way down--can you see San?

On the long hike back we encountered large flocks of finches feeding and swooping through the hillside scrub. At the river, we descended a different path taking a long rugged stairway down to see the Taranaki Falls and hike along the stream.

After a lengthy hike through a beech forest, we broke out with our hotel in sight. In the lobby, we put our feet up and treated ourselves to a tall glasses of very cold beer while gazing out the huge windows to views of where we had hiked. The tramp could not have been better.






That night we dressed for dinner (a first, I think, on this trip) to eat in the Chateau’s very formal dining room. I did say it was a splurge.