NP Part 1: Taranaki Falls and Tama Lakes

This weekend I had planned on backpacking the Tongariro Northern Circuit solo, probably my biggest adventure during my time in New Zealand. I haven't done a backpacking trip by myself before and the first day I was committed to doing at least 20km so this was going to be a real challenge for me. Due to terrible weather, I had to cancel my plans and figure out something else to do with three days in a tiny, tiny town! Here's how it went down.

When I arrived in National Park after a 6 hour bus ride from Auckland, the skies were cloudy but the weather was decent. I saw this neat sheep shearing statue from the bus!

I was feeling confident I could complete the hike. But when I checked in at my hostel, the plans changed quickly. The receptionist at Plateau Lodge (my hostel) informed me that the winds at the top of the mountain were gale force and that they were expecting large amounts of rain in the next two days. Normally from the hostel, you are able to see the major peaks (Mt. Ngauruhoe, Mt. Ruapehu, and Mt. Tongariro), but all I could see was a wall of clouds. In the meantime, I had a lovely dinner with one of my roommates, a chemical engineer from the UK, and rested up for the next day.

In the morning, I decided to go ahead and take the shuttle to Whakapapa (the start of the circuit) with my entire backpack full of gear just in case. As we drove closer to the mountain, the rain started pouring down. The winds were strong even at the visitor center which is at a much lower elevation. I realized I wouldn't be backpacking this weekend. What now?

A portion of the northern circuit leads past Taranaki Falls and to Tama Lakes (old craters full of really blue water), so I made a day of it. I started on the track to Taranaki falls. This portion is much more wooded than the rest of the track. The falls were beautiful! Not the tallest waterfall I've seen in NZ, but the volume of water coming off of it was impressive. (Please ignore my puffy pockets. I only brought one big bag so I had to stuff things in my pockets for my hikes instead haha).

The walk through the lowlands was actually really neat in the misty fog. For some portions of the track, I could only see about 50 m in front of me. At no point was I able to see the snowy peaks. They remained covered in clouds for my entire three days. But the colors of the bush and rock formations made for a lovely hike! I had to cross a stream at one point which would have been impossible to do without getting wet if I had my big pack.

I made it to Lower Tama Lake, and started the climb up to the Upper Lakes, but after seeing how the clouds obscured the view and talking to a couple who said they had to crawl on their hands and knees at the top to keep from blowing around, I decided to turn back. One blue lake was enough for me!

In Te Ao Maori, Tongariro is a very sacred and spiritual place, especially the mountain summits. Even though I wasn't able to reach the peaks, I did begin to understand the almost magic qualities of the landscape. Near the Tama Lakes, I decided to stop and just listen to the silence. Besides the wind, there were no other sounds, not even a bird in this weather. I can only imagine how beautiful the mountain and the silence would be if I did the entire tramp. But with no views, below freezing windchill, and winds strong enough to knock me to the ground, it ended up being the right decision.

After making my way back to the visitor center, I took my retro shuttle back to the village and checked into my new hostel. YHA Backpackers wasn't as nice as my other hostel, but at a quarter of the price and with an indoor climbing wall, it was worth saving some extra cash! My bunk room was tucked in behind the wall where that person is in the picture.