We took the Desert Highway to the National Park from Taupo. This gave some great of the volcanoes.
It also meant we arrived at the south of the National Park so had the chance to do the Waitonga Falls walk. This was mainly through woodland, but at the high point of the walk was above the treeline giving great views.
When we got to the falls, without scrambling across/through the stream there was no way to see the full drop.
And then a few miles up the road to Mangawhero Falls - Gollum's Pool. This was only a short walk but with amazing views.
We also passed a rather magnificent rail viaduct.
We booked into the highest hotel in New Zealand, Skotel Alpine Resort in Whakapapa for two nights. Whakapapa is effectively two villages - the ski village and the summer village with sod all amenities in either - but it turned into one of the most amazing places we visited.
We then spent around 2.5 hours on the Taranaki Falls walk. We walked anti clockwise first through eroded gulleys. This opened to impressive moorlands with views of Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe.
The falls have a 20m drop from an old lava field. The path gets close to the falls and the pool giving great views.
The path continued until it crossed Cascade Falls. These cut a small gorge through the rocks. The path was through woods and followed the stream downhill. This opened up to open moorland with great views of the abandoned chateau and Ruapehu.
Also a couple of random views of Ngauruhoe
The dawn was amazing. The photos from the car park of the hotel.
We were staying at a high altitude and at dawn we were looking down at the tops of the clouds!
We went for a slight detour to Tawhai Falls (Gollums Pool), Only a short walk from a small car park,
Sky Waka - This was a fascinating cable car trip taking about 12 minutes. The area was volcanic with very little vegetation, that was very rocky with some only deposited recently - the last eruption was in 2007. The area is a ski resort, much of the year the whole area is covered in snow. The rocks have not been weathered and smoothed and they are angular with sharp edges.
Skyline Walk is considered one of the best short walks in the park. It is only a few kilometres but with a 300m climb. The views were amazing throughout, and crossed patches of snow.
It was not an easy walk - I wish I had my sticks. It involved a fair bit of scrambling, and areas of very soft volcanic sand. And at times it was hard to pick out the path.
My ankle gave out and I didn’t make the summit at 2300 metres - at least Tina did.
But I was happy with the view where I sat and waited for her.
A short walk from the lower cable car station was Meads Wall Walk. The start of the walk had great views up the route of the cable car.
Meads Wall was striking.
We had been told that we had to go to the saddle next to the wall. The path was not clear and passed through some rough ground to reach the saddle. This gave a view of the reverse of the Meads Wall, which was probably 5 or 6 times higher than the front and a sheer drop.
There was also an amazing view of Ngauruhoe. Similar to the top of the Skyline Track, but without the view of the lakes - but then again it was from 1600m not 2300m
Back to Whakapapa we went on the Silica Rapids Walk - It was a nice walk from the hotel and filled a couple of hours we had spare. It basically followed a stream. It was interesting seeing how iron and silica changed the colour of the rocks in different areas of the stream.
The final place we saw was Mahaui Rapids, were just at the side of the road.
They provided a nice foreground for the final view of Ngauruhoe.
