Another Shoulder of Mt. Ruapehu, Another Surprise Waterfall

[canyonwalker]

I've said it many times now in a bunch of blogs, our day-long visit to Tongariro National Park in New Zealand last month was a packed one. ...Of course, the reason I've said that many times is that there are so many things to write about! And here's yet another.

As we returned from our beautiful hike to Taranaki Falls both Hawk and I were admiring the far-off views of Mt. Ruapehu. Clouds were still circling its 9,177 ft (2,797 m) summit but there were often clear views to the mountain's distinctive triple peak.



"How about we drive up the road and see what kind of views we can find?" I proposed.

"Sure," Hawk answered, "As long as we leave time for hiking Tawhai Falls." Tawhai would be the the fourth waterfall track on our list for the day.

So we drove up the road, stopping at multiple pull-outs along the way to appreciate the scenery. Though in the photo above I had not pulled over the car over to the side but merely held my phone out the window with a one-hand grip to take a picture. 😅



As with our visit to Turoa on the southern flank of the mountain this morning, the road ends at a ski resort. Though this one, Whakapapa Village, was operating. ...Not for skiing, because as you can see in the photo there's only snow at the very top of the mountain, and even there it's only spotty. But at least here the ski lift was operating... to take visitors to a restaurant a little higher up the mountain than road's end.

Another similarity between Turoa and Whakapapa was that we spotted a waterfall on the way up. This one was quite distant from the road, though, so we passed it quickly on the way up intending to check it out more carefully on the way down.



Indeed this waterfall is distant from the road. Distances can be hard to estimate in wide-open landscapes like this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a solid mile from the closest vista point along the road. The photos above and below I made using a telephoto lens on my camera.



Yet another similarity between this roadtrip and the one earlier in the day is that the road was almost empty. Each time we saw only a few other cars. The relative solitude up here was pleasantly surprising after how crowded the parking at the previous trailhead was.

Comments

[canyonwalker]

There's almost always adjustment to color in the photos I post. I adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation to taste. That said, the sky is intense blue at higher elevations. Also, the air was very clear up there on the day we visited.

[some_other_dave]

We sometimes get skies like that in the Bay Area in the summer. I've also seen similar ones up in Portland OR. I refer to them as "so blue they ache".