Tongariro National Park

On Monday we checked out Tongariro National Park, just south of Turangi and Lake Taupo. We opted for the lesser-known Tama Lakes Track instead of some of the more famous hikes in the park to avoid crowds and expensive shuttles. This turned out to be a great decision as the hike was beautiful and not at all crowded.

Tongariro and the Lake Taupo region are highly volcanic and most of the landforms are the result of ancient eruptions (actually all of New Zealand is quite volcanic as it is in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and lies on two separate tectonic plates). Lake Taupo is a filled crater from a blast 26,500 years ago. Three major volcanic peaks are main features of the park: Mt. Ruapehu (blocky and snow-capped), Mt. Ngauruhoe (conical and snow-capped), and the somewhat sprawling Mt. Tongariro. We could not see Mt. Tongariro on our hike because it was hiding behind Ngauruhoe. You may recognize this specific volcano (Ngauruhoe), as it was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many parts of the park were also used for various scenes of Mordor (it is much nicer without the sets and orcs, etc.) Below are some early views of the volcanoes (first Ngauruhoe, then Ruapehu).

These two volcanoes are separated by the Tama Saddle, which includes both the Lower and Upper Tama Lakes. Both lakes fill old craters from previous volcanic eruptions. The Lower Tama Lake (1240m) is below, with Ruapehu (2672m) in the background. It is eerie how blue the water of the lakes are.

The Upper Tama Lake (1440m) is not far and sits in front of Ngauruhoe (2287m). It was quite windy as the saddle that contains the lakes acts like a funnel between the two volcanoes.


We returned via Taranaki Falls and were shocked at the contrast between this area and the saddle. We were back in subtropical rainforest, surrounded by lush forest, waterfalls and the Wairere Stream. Taranaki Falls is a 20-meter waterfall that flows down from an ancient lava flow (from an eruption on Mt. Ruapehu 15,000 years ago). Below are some pictures from around Taranaki Falls, but first a picture from the saddle to show contrast.


The forest grows thicker as the track continues to Cascade Falls, another impressive waterfall (below).


At this point we are in full on forest (as you can see here) and it is hard to believe that only about a ½ hour earlier we were hiking through eroded and wind-savaged gullies.