On that occasion the weather forecast was terrible so I left the walk for another time. Last weekend we decided to make another attempt, along with Nishan and Tiani.
As it turned out, our old friend Fiasco decided to come along for the ride too. We started with the worst Friday-night rush hour we have seen in New Zealand, so that it took me an hour and a half to pick up Tiani, visit a petrol station, and drive 8km to Tim's office to meet him and Nishan. In the course of our subsequent four-hour drive we added a minor speeding infringement to our experiences, and took 20 minutes to find our mis-addressed hotel in National Park.
After all that, getting up at dawn on Saturday for the walk was hard work, but we hoped it would be worth it. Alas, the weather was not on our side; low cloud and settled drizzle meant that the trip was cancelled. You can imagine we were not the happiest bunch, especially since the weather for the past week had been perfect. The forecast for Sunday was tantalisingly perfect too but we had to be back in Auckland by then.
After a bit of humphing we decided to make the most of the day, so we took the scenic route home. We admired Lake Rotoaira and the Tongariro River before heading to Taupo about lunch time. I could actually imagine liking fishing if it meant I could stand in the Tongariro all day; it is a bit story-book, with graceful bends, bubbling shallows and glassy pools.
The Aratiatia rapids, just outside Taupo, are only open a few times a day. Most of the time their water is diverted to a hydroelectric power system from a dam above the rapids, but periodically the flood gates are opened to allow the rapids to return to their spectacular natural level. This made us enjoy them all the more; we stayed half an hour until the gates were closed, and watched the water diminish to five metres below its previous height. Even then, the rapids and rocks were spectacular and worth stopping to see.
Aratiatia RapidsAfter that we satisfied my pizza-lunch craving, then headed to Craters of the Moon, a local site of geothermal activity that has appeared as a side-effect of the building of the nearby Wairakei power station. It wasn't that exciting compared with other geothermal sites we have seen. We hope Orakei Korako will be much better.
From here we set out for Hamilton, where the Balloons over Waikato festival has been taking place. The pilot on our previous balloon trip suggested that we come and watch the Nightglow, and it was worth seeing. Around 20 balloons inflated at dusk in a large field - getting upright but not airborne - using their burners to light up the canopies. Bizarre and beautiful.
NightglowMore photos here and here.
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