TAUPO – OHAKUNE – MANGAWHERO FALLS/MT. RUAPEHU (GOLLUM’S POOL & ITHILIEN) – LEVIN – WELLINGTON, 9 May 2024
I’ll preface this all by saying this chapter will be rather short, BUT with some amazing photos.
We left Taupō quite early to make sure we made good time. We were heading into the “dark” (which was less dark and much more…breathtaking in the sunrise) of Mordor and Mt. Doom. As the sun rose over Lake Taupō, Orodruin (Mt Doom’s nerd name) already had a thick cloud over its peak. We set off 2 hours around the lake and through the more mountainous region of Tongariro National Park, a place of significant natural beauty. More on that much later! We’ll get back t0o it.
pic: Mt Ruapehu (Mt Doom) and the mountains of Mordor
After the weather changed between bright summer to rain to back again to windy as we meandered around the foothills, the bright sunny day disappearing too, we arrived in Ohakune. Stepping off the bus, a shock to the system, it was very, VERY cold. As we were now already in the elevated foothills, we’d left the balmy warmth of places like Auckland, Rotorua and Taupō (around 2oc on average) for a town coming in at 4c. It was like being back home!
I grabbed a good coffee…and an energy drink (I was very tired from a lovely catch up with my partner back home the night before), along with some funny family gifts from a local store, before it was back on the coach and we started to wind our way up the 5000ft Mt. Ruapehu….
…and that…was all she wrote…
We got around 3/4 of the way up before we hit a complete road closure. Ice had frozen over the surface of the road, making skidding very likely, and after the next bend we’d have a sheer cliff on one side of the road.
I like The Lord of the Rings… but I’m not dying for it.
So, back on the road, we go, heading to Wellington. Stopping briefly in Levin to visit a supermarket (weirdly called New World, an odd choice, IMHO), we arrived in good time at around 4.30-45 pm.
We arrived in the weirdest room. One bed was contained by the door, with no lamps or windows, an almost black box theatre, the other? A full decked out bed, complete with Juliet balcony overlooking the Bay. I didn’t mind switching each night, but Jon didn’t want to and said we should toss for it and I call it.
I’ve never seen a man look more crestfallen than when I called the right face (Heads) and saw Jon’s heart sink. I settled in, and we freshened up before finding a cool craft bar (with very chain-esque food, sadly) with Joseph and McKenzie and having a really wonderful night learning about our different lives and cultures.
Meeting new people has been one of the most beautiful parts of this trip, by far.
And that’s it. I wish there was more for this day, but alas, it was not to be. There has also been an obvious break in writing and related posts. When you see what the next chapter is… you‘ll see why.
– Jake,
11 May 2024
P.S. Jon is also writing about his version of events over on his Tumblr page, Misplaced Midlanders! Check it out!
The Long Expected Journey 