Crazy New Zealand Weather

My alarm went off unwelcomed at 2:30 am Saturday morning. In 4.5 hours I would be back at Tongariro National Park ready to do the Alpine Crossing for the second time. And this time there would be snow!!! I wanted to do this walk a second time and everyone I told thought I was crazy because this is a loooooooong 20km hike. The first time we did the hike was back in November and we did most of the walk in a cloud and did not get to see the amazing sights. So I really wanted to see what all the fuss was about for myself, so yes I decided to do it again. 

Rob picked up Wiebke and I at my house at 3 am and then we were off to pick up 2 more friends along the way. The roads were clear, obviously... With a few short breaks we made it to the hostel by 8am. If you can remember from my last post of The Crossing we stayed at great hostel with a very unique owner, Ian. The last time we stayed and he found out I was Canadian he asked if I had a tin of maple syrup, and to both our disappointment I didn’t. But when my sister came and visited me in March she brought a can of real Canadian maple syrup! And my first thought was I need to get this to Ian! So we pulled into the hostel around 8am, hungry and tired. We quickly made some breakfast and checked into our room. The weather wasn’t looking good again... Seriously I think this national park has something against me or it just wasn’t meant to be. Ian strongly advised us not to the Alpine Crossing and gave us another trail that was lower to avoid the strong winds. The winds that day were reaching 80-100km/h! So we got into our warm gear and headed to the Tama Lakes. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse from the last time, it did… 

cloudy but still kind of pretty

we walked through some
forest bits along the way

My thoughts about the rain...

It rained on and off but we stuck it out. Until we turned a corner and saw that our path was blocked by a fast flowing river. Rob and Bharat briefly thought about trying to cross it while Wiebke, Alicia and I took one look and decided to turn back! The wind was insanely strong and the rain felt like hail as it hit our face. This video is a good representation, the wind was so strong that you can’t even hear that I was talking during it! 

You can see where the path begins on the other side

So we headed back. Surprisingly still in high spirits despite having walked for 2 hours in the rain and knowing that we had 2 more hours back. We took a detour on the way back to Taranaki Falls.  

still smiling :)

Me, Rob, Bharat, Wiebke and Alicia

Four hours later, soaking wet and freezing cold we made it back to the car. Rob cranked the heat as we all tried to thaw! Once we made back to the hostel we were greeted by Ian who was very proud that we even tried to do a walk in this weather. He helped us hang up our wet clothes by the fire and made us some special hot chocolate to warm our insides. Ian’s hospitality didn’t end there, as he walked into the lounge with toasted bread topped with cheese and pickles. 

We spent the rest of the evening eating and learning some new games. Rob taught us a fun game called Mex. I have learned many new card games from people but this one used dice! Then Ian showed us a New Zealand board game where we were tested on our knowledge of this country. It was quite interesting and we knew a lot more then we had originally thought and of course learned some new things. The traveling around really helped.

Since I brought maple syrup this time, I also brought pancake mix! Perfect Canadian combination :) So we made pancakes and tested out the different types of syrup we had in the hostel. 

The contenders

After an hour of saying goodbye to Ian (he just loves to talk!) we hit the road to Taupo. We made one stop at Huka Falls to view the notorious powerful river. 

Wiebke and I 

Taupo Lookout

Looking at pictures from our crazy walk the day before

Huka Falls

After we drove down the road to Wairakei Natural Thermal Valley, where we took a half hour walk though the valley. We were given lasers to point at the ground and it would then tell us how hot the ground was. Pretty cool technology! 

Looks like a mouth!

Then it was time to be heading back to Auckland so we could all catch some zzz’s before our 6:30am alarms. Back to reality. Even though I did not get to see the amazing sights of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, again, we still had an amazing weekend! I think I learned something from this experience, that not everything goes according to plan and you need to learn to roll with it and create a new adventure out of what you have. And hey isn’t that what life and growth is all about!