A Busy Day at Tongariro National Park

New Zealand Travelog #29
Whakapapa, NZ - Tue, 16 Apr 2024, 4pm

Today we've visited Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. I'm writing a summary of the day right now rather than a trail-by-trail blog because with us having managed 3 hikes plus numerous hop-out-and-take-pictures stops today the latter would span at least 5 journals with photos and would take a few days to publish.

We visited two areas Tongariro. For lack of better obvious names I'll call them the Turoa area and the Whakapapa area. First along the road to Turoa we:

• Started from The Hobbit Motor Lodge in Ohakune
• Got to the trailhead for Waitonga Falls but it was already cloudy and started raining and decided not to do this 4km hike... yet.
• Saw a falls from the roadside we initially thought was Waitonga Falls but wasn't.
• Drove to the top of the road at Turoa, where we got above one layer of clouds and caught a few glimpses through the upper cloud layer of 2,797 m (9,177 ft) tall Mount Ruapehu, an active volcano and the tallest mountain on New Zealand's North Island. We also saw a bonus waterfalls near road's end.
• Came back down the road into the cloud layer and hiked Mangawhero Falls (Golem’s pool).
• Thought again about hiking Waitonga Falls but when the rain intensified as we reached the trailhead decided instead to try our luck elsewhere.

We then drove back down through Ohakune and looped around the west side of the park to reenter via the Whakapapa road. Then we:

• Happily caught clear weather on western flank of the mountain. We could see clouds were still hanging heavily over its southern flank.
• Hiked Taranaki Falls.
• Drove all the way up to road's end at Whakapapa, catching several glimpses of the mountain's triple peak and seeing a bonus waterfalls along the way.
• Came back down the road and hiked Tawhai Falls— which is also called Gollum's Pool. I swear, if they try to stick Gollum's name on one more thing in this park they should just rename the damn park to Nasty Hobbitses, We Hates Them National Park.

Yes, it's been a busy day! More blogs with photos will come once I'm caught up with the rest of the trip.

Update: And after all this we still had time for a soak in a natural spring hot tub at our hotel before dinner!

Update 2: added links to other journal entries as I posted them.

Hot Springs and Bug Swatting

New Zealand Travelog #30
Turangi, NZ - Tue, 16 Apr 2024, 10pm

It was a good, long day today hiking in Tongariro National Park. But not too long; we finished in time to get to our next place for the night before sunset. Though maybe that's more a function of not having to drive a few hundred km than anything else. 😂

Tonight we're at an old-fashioned motor court hotel seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Yes, that was also kind of the description for the Hobbit Motor Lodge last night, but this one's even more old-fashion and even more middle-of-nowhere seeming.



How old-fashioned is it? Well, aside from the 1950s vintage construction (or is it even older?) with a single storey building where you park directly in front of your door— oh, and we're in room 1; there are only, like, 8 rooms here— check out this old-timey key. This thing looks like it comes straight of the 1930s... and likely wasn't even considered modern technology back then.



The furnishings inside are tastefully newer. We're talking at least 1960s style, here. And things work (unlike the Hobbit Motor Lodge) and are clean. Our cozy bedroom is through the door to the right of the sofa. The small bed on the far right of the photo is a spare single. We used it as a bench unpacking and repacking our bags.

And that little table by the window... well, that's where we ate dinner. We drove into town, 7km away, bought food from a couple of take-aways and beer/sodas from the town's one grocery store, and came back to the room to eat. The lights in the room were harsh (damn 1970s style fluorescents) so we ate by the (yellow) light of the porch light outside. How romantic.

Oh, but dinner was after this little number....



This is the reason we booked this little, old-timey, out-of-the-way motor court. Natural hot springs pools. The hotel's small patch of land includes a natural hot springs that is piped into four semi-private bathing pools.

"Are they clothing optional?" I asked the proprietor.

"Well, there's 4 tubs, 3 are open one's closed, and only 3 rooms let for the night, so whether or not they're shared is up to you," he said with a smile. Hawk thought we joking around, but I could math well enough to know the answer was "Yes". (There's actually a math thing called The First Pigeon-Hole Principle that applies here.)

Bug Swatting

Ah, yes. I'm sure this is the part from the journal's entry you were all waiting for. Bug swatting. Not just that but vigorous bug swatting!

Part of this little motor court's old-timey-ness is that it was built apparently in the age before window screens. Or central fans. The proprietor aired it out during the day by leaving a few of the windows and the front door open all day. That mean there were bugs inside. And as we stayed up late this evening catching up on things on our computer, those bugs all started congregating on the walls and ceiling about the one little light on in our bedroom.

I hate bugs. I especially hate bugs next to where I'm sleeping. I started swatting them with my shoe. It was pretty easy as there were so many congregated together. At first I could often get two with one swat. But others would fly off and come back later. For at least 45 minutes I got up every few minutes to pound the walls and ceiling. *Thump*. *Thump* *thump*.

"I'm surprised our next door neighbor hasn't complained," Hawk quipped. Maybe he/she/they were out at the hot spring.

After the first few swats I considered how I wasn't really angry at the bugs— though they were absolutely the targets of my vigor— but at the proprietor who'd left the door open all day to let them in. So I started smearing when I swatted. 🤢 I decided I would leave as many bug-corpses on the wall as possible to show the proprietor the consequences of his action.

I hope he had to spend 15 minutes scrubbing. 😷

I hope he doesn't charge us an extra cleaning fee. 🤣