December 25, 2023: Taupo
After three days in Wellington and an unexpected detour to Napier, I was finally heading to Taupo. The town of Taupo sits on the northeast corner of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand. The drive from Napier took two hours plus a short stop at a beautiful waterfall!
I reached Taupo around noon. The town center is compact and full of restaurants near the lakeshore. A few restaurants were open including the “World´s Coolest” McDonald´s. The Taupo store won a contest to claim the title over 35,000 other stores. What did Taupo do to win gold? Well, it has its own DC-3 plane hoisted above the ground that you can eat in.
After grabbing some fries, I headed to the plane. It was warm inside, but worth it for the unique experience. In the cockpit, there is information on the history of the plane.
Taupo´s main tourist attraction is a boat cruise around the lake. However, it was not running on Christmas Day. So instead, I drove 10 minutes out of town to Huka Falls, one of the highest flowing waterfalls on earth. The main parking lot was closed for Christmas so instead everybody parked on the street, causing major traffic jams.
The falls are only eight meters tall but the water flowing over them is so fast and powerful that the insane flow rate is visible. During non-holidays, it is possible to take a jetboat to the bottom of the falls.
Downstream from the falls is the Aratiatia Dam. The dam can be reached via a two-hour hike…or a short drive. Below the dam is a canyon with a small stream flowing. Three or four times per day (depending on the season), the dam is opened and the water from the lake flows. I was able to time my visit to witness the 14:00 water release. After a siren, the dam which reminded me of the Black Gate of Mordor opened. The water flowed and suddenly the trickly of a stream became a roaring river.
The iconic barrel scene from the second Hobbit movie was filmed here. The producers threw barrels into the river each time the dam opened. The actors were added in later using CGI.
Taupo and the entire center/north of the North Island is a hotspot for geothermal activity. There are many places to experience this in Taupo. Many are paid admission and therefore closed on Christmas, but two areas are free and always open. The first spot is a “hot beach” just south of town. By digging into the sand on the beach, you eventually reach the water table where the water is hot tub temperature. This same phenomenon exists more famously elsewhere in New Zealand.
The second public hot spring was in the well-named Spa Thermal Park. The springs are located along a river bend with the upper springs containing a waterfall. The pools were busy, which made sense with everything else in the city being closed. After 10 minutes under the hot waterfall, it started to rain hard. To save my electronics, I picked up my stuff and sheltered in the bathroom with a sizeable group of people. Eventually the rain died down and I walked back to the car.
For dinner, I got a Turkish doner kebab for $16 NZD (just over $10 USD), the cheapest meal I have yet seen in the country.
I then checked into my Airbnb. Everywhere else in New Zealand, I booked hostels but for some reason the hostels in Taupo were exceedingly expensive and had minimum stay requirements. Perhaps they were nicer than other hostels around the country, but do you know what is even nice? A private room for the same price.
I was staying with a man named Ray and a cat named Tequila in the suburbs a whole five minutes from the town center. Ray has lived in Taupo for over 40 years. He described it as the perfect-sized town.
December 26, 2023: The Greatest Day Hike
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of the New Zealand´s most popular hikes and widely considered one of the world´s greatest day hikes. It was the most anticipated days of the entire New Zealand trip, and I rearranged my trip around the bad weather to do the hike.
I left the house at 5:00. The drive is only 75 minutes, but I decided to give about a buffer before the 7:15 shuttle in case anything went wrong. And go wrong something did when Google Maps reported the main road to National Park (the town closest to the national park and from where my hiking shuttle departed) closed for an unknown reason, most likely due to damage/blockage from the rain. The drive would now take 2 hours, luckily still within my buffer.
The drive now took me around Lake Taupo through heavy rain. Luckily the rain subsided right when I reached Tongariro National Park. Three huge volcanoes, the snow-covered Mount Ruapehu, Mount Tongariro namesake of the park and the cone-shaped Mount Ngauruhoe aka the real Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, came into view and I immediately realized why this was New Zealand´s first and the world´s sixth national park.
I reached the town of National Park at 6:55, parked in the park & ride and ran over to the hostel arriving just 5 minutes before the scheduled departure. Turned out the company was chill, and they would have picked me up at the park & ride. Had I missed the shuttle, they would have accommodated me on a later one.
You may be thinking: Why use the shuttle when you have a car? Two reasons. 1. The hike is one-way, with the end of the hike 30 minutes away by car. And 2. The parking lots on either end of the hike have a 4-hour parking limit, but the hike takes at least 5.5 hours to complete.
After driving to all the hotels in the town and the park & ride, we drove to the trailhead with a full bus. We were then unceremoniously dropped off amongst the crowds of other tourists. I then started to walk. Shuttles would arrive at the finish line every 75 minutes until 17:00.
The 20 kilometer or 12-mile hike crosses the mountain range.
The hike started going uphill towards Mt Doom. The scenery was mostly shrubland like near the upper reached of Mount Kilimanjaro. Eventually, the volcanoes started to reveal themselves as the trail turned into a boardwalk over a flow of aa.
After a funny warning sign, I continued to climb until the entire lava flow was visible. Here I asked a middle-aged German man to take my picture. It turned out he was also hiking solo and we ended up teaming up for the entire journey. Michael (not sure if that was his real name or the English name he uses for non-German speakers) is traveling around New Zealand with his wife and three children (his eldest is in high school and did a one-year exchange here). He mentioned that he had planned to do the hike two days ago but forced to reschedule as well. For the past two days, he was staying in a hut near the park, but said the rain was so strong he was unable to go outside.
Unfortunately, the weather started to turn and we were suddenly in thick fog. This continued for the next hour.
Somehow, right at the key moment, the fog cleared right when we reached the rim of the South Crater. What a view it was!
The climbing was not done. We then had to climb steeply up the volcanic slopes to reach another crater known as the Red Crater, which was the highest point on the hike at 1886 meters. As we reached the top, I saw a man yellow “Destroy it!” to his girlfriend. It seemed like everybody was having Lord of the Rings thoughts here.
From here, it was a steep descent to the Emerald Lakes, the most spectacular viewpoint of the hike.
The lake itself is sacred to the Maori and touching it or eating near it is apparently forbidden. Unfortunately, not many people got the memo. The lake is also surrounded by geothermal vents spewing sulphureous gas.
Continuing north, we then reached a much larger but non-sacred volcanic lake with views of another lava flow.
The final third was a massive descent down the north slopes of the mountains. Lake Taupo was now in view. As we descended the foliage changed drastically from no plants to shrubs and eventually to a thick jungle. The descent reminded me of a compressed version of the Mount Kilimanjaro hike.
I reached the end of the hike at 14:00, six hours after I set out from the start. The bus took 30 minutes to show up, but it arrived as scheduled.
Back in National Park, I picked up my car and headed back to Taupo. At the Airbnb, I told Ray about the day, and he suggested I go to some paid-entry hot springs and sent me to a local deals website call GrabOne (NZ´s version of Groupon) to get $10 off the admission.
I soaked in the perfect hot springs for a couple hours before grabbing dinner at a grocery store and then going to bed. The next day I drove off to the glow worm caves.
Final Thoughts:
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of the greatest day hikes on earth and it was worth all the effort moving my trip around to make it happen. While National Park is the closest town to the hike, there is nothing there and it is easy enough to day trip it from Taupo.
As for Taupo, there is a lot to do. The highlight are lake and watersports but if you aren´t a lake person, there are also plenty of other hot springs and geothermal related attractions nearby. Huka Falls and the dam were impressive too but I wouldn´t call them must-sees. The town itself was very pleasant, and I felt at home. It did not feel touristy even though I´m sure 99% of the people walking around were tourists. Ray said it was the perfect size and I agree.
So, I would say that the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a must-do for any North Island itinerary. Taupo is not a must-see, but if you are going to do the hike, you might as well visit Taupo too. One day for each.
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