We left the B&B in Rotorua after hearing our host Vivian's life story. She was born in Maylasia to a big family and her Grandfather gave her away when she was little but her Mom and siblings brought her home and hid her from Grandfather for 3 months. We stopped in Turangi, a small village to get deli sandwiches for our picnic lunch and then continued on to the Taumarunui region. The Maori culture is evident in the names of the towns and mountains.
Today we toured Tongariro, our first National Park in NZ and the oldest NP in the country. It has been designated a World Dual Heritage Site. This park has 3 active Volcanic Mountains in its boundaries-yikes. One of the volcanoes is in Whakapapa Village which in the winter, people ski down the slopes of the Volcano. We were planning on riding the Gondola up to the top but the topography was all just black volcanic rock-not very pretty and the Gondola did not go all the way to the top, so we chose to go tramping instead. We are slowly learning the language of New Zealand: hiking is tramping & trails are treks.
The trek we chose, led us to the gorgeous Taranaki Waterfall. It tumbles 20 m over the edge of a 15,000 year old lava flow. We tramped 4.5 miles and loved the tundra, ancient forest and glacier streams. In the distance we saw snow capped mountain peaks.
For the last 3 years, we had been booked to stay in the Chateau Tongariro right in the park at the foot of Mount Tongariro but alas 2 days prior to our arrival, they closed unexpectedly due to seismic activity. I guess since the Chateau is surrounded by 3 active Volcanic Mountains, it's something to take seriously. Our trusty Tour Company quickly found us new accommodations but they were not up to our high standards and not anything like the Chateau. We stayed at Snow Haven in the ski village of Ohakune but I don't think the rooms had been stayed in since ski season. There were cobwebs and a moldy fragrance-luckily it was for only 1 night. This ski village has 1,000 permanent residents but in the winter, they entertain 10,000 skiers! We learned another new term: Whoop/Whoop means in the boon docks.
In the morning, Jeri had gotten up early and found an adorable park called the Ohakune Carrot Adventure Park. It was a short walk from Snow Haven so she came back and got us all to see it. The park was created by volunteers and donations. We had fun posing with the vegetables.
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