Tongariro National Park I (Day 7)

It's the main reason why people visit this area - to visit the Tongariro National Park (TNP), which is the oldest national park in NZ which is awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO.

The TNP has 3 main mountains, namely Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe (ie Mt Doom in LOTR movies) and Mt Ruapehu, as well as lakes and craters.

(Click for bigger view)

Day 7: Our intention was do to the 6- to 9-hour Tongariro Crossing so that we can get to see views like this:



But when we got to the visitor centre at Whakapapa Village, the weather was like this :


And the weather forecast for the next day was - wind speeds of 70km/hr at Tongariro!

Hence, there was no chance for us to do the Tongariro Crossing, but I can't say I was extremely disappointed.

With our usual dilly-dally pattern, plus taking photos, getting side-tracked, etc. I won't be surprised if the walk will take us 10 hours to complete. Ten hours leh! Don't play, play!


(After lunch at Ohakune) Even with wet weather on this day, our two friends still wanted to do the 2 hour trail walk, but I wasn't too crazy about walking in the rain (even with a rain coat) and chose to wait for them at the visitor centre. The SO was game at first, but changed his mind when the rain got heavier.


So our friends took off, but after a very short start, decided to give up the idea and turned back to the visitor centre.


Warning on the notice board of visitor centre


The mountains at TNP turn into a popular ski resort in winter - I didn't know one can ski in NZ.

More on TNP to come...