Volcano Country with some Wind on the Side

Monday 27th: Hike 11

Volcano-created Lake

Upper Tama Lake Part of Tongariro Range

Wow! What a day. It turned out differently from planned and expected. Twelve grueling miles, five hours non-stop in volcano country—an active volcano area—and we enjoyed every moment. Anyway, that’s what our editor says. After almost recovering from her recent illness, she ‘coughed’ at that volcano with vigor—she was intimidating. (Jenni intimidating?) Every time we felt our muscles crying out for relief, we looked to our editor and remembered to keep the mouth shut. If nothing else, we are learning, albeit slowly.
Edgy Editor
We reached Queenstown, the one town we can pronounce without hurting our mouths. We had come from Tutukaka, Wanaka, Te Anau and ‘camped’ there for Shabbos. The setting of the town ranks as one of the nicest we have seen anywhere. “Shall we compare thee to a summer’s day?” Probably not. We can only imagine the magnificence should it bask in a warm, cloudless day, for a change.
Pleased Jen's Returned

Shabbos ended at 10:30pm—we enjoyed every minute of it. We then flew north to Auckland, drove five hours south, passing through WhataWhata to arrive at Whakapapa Village, the trailhead for the famous Tongariro Pass. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip, a four-day tramp. However, man plans and G-d laughs. The weather has turned awkward in this region. Expectations are for winds on the mountaintop of 80-90 miles per hour with freezing temperatures. In case that is insufficient to deter us, the rainfall will be high. We canceled the tramp with reluctance.

Half-way up Mountain

Nevertheless, we did do part of the hike which, as mentioned earlier, was outstanding. We experienced craters, volcano-created lakes, steep climbs, wind, waterfalls, bog, forest, rocks and cliffs. It had everything. With Jen back in action and many rocky outcrops at cliff edges, we were able to enjoy ourselves immensely as well as show off again. Can life be better? Whenever we stand on mountaintops or cliffs, we think of a young man from San Diego who likes nothing better than to jump from mountains using para-sails, hang-gliders, bird wings? Sean Bradford from TD Ameritrade is a daredevil in the sky and a gentleman on the ground. Rather him than us.
How do you suppose that works?
No short-cut down
We had prepared for the tramp; we were raring to go. The ranger said, “Tuesday will be impossible. We advise you to cancel the hike. The weather is so bad that we are even offering refunds—something done only in exceptional circumstances”. We did not expect a refund for the three night sojourn but were happy to accept it. A while later, the conversation tone changed ever so slightly. “As the weather is not bad today, there can be no refund. It should be fine on Wednesday so there will be no refund for that day either. For Tuesday, you qualify for a refund but you have to be present at the office to get it.” Based on that logic, we ‘considered’ hiking five hours to the hut, running down in the 90 mile an hour winds and storm on the next day to claim the refund, then hiking on the third day back to the first and on to the second and third huts, some forty miles, in one day. The woman, embarrassed by the bureaucratic logic, allowed us a smile; we said that whatever worked for New Zealand would be just fine with us. Some things are the same universally.


Upper Tama Lake
With aching muscles, our spirits soaring, we left Tongariro Park and headed for Lake Taupo, the country’s largest. We still intend making a run at the Tongariro Crossing this week. However, the answer to that we think is ‘blowing in the wind’.

Cheers,
Jenni and her Windbag.