Creaky Knees & Invasive Feather Dusters

Check-in time for my Tongariro hike was scheduled for 8:00 a.m. this morning. So just before bed last night, I went online for final directions and was dismayed to learn that the primary road to Tongariro, and the shortest route, was closed for construction. This wasn’t insurmountable, it just meant a detour that would add an hour to an already long drive. Going up and around the lake would get me there in about two and a half hours. I had already stayed up too late and working backward from 8:00 meant a very early morning. So, I squeezed my eyes shut and repeated, “sleep now.” “sleep now.” I don’t know about you, but this never ends up working well for me. Much too soon, my alarm went off, and I stumbled through an abbreviated get-ready process and hit the road.

On the way out of town, I saw that the short-route road was closed from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Which meant it was now open! Lesson learned … when you’re checking for road closures, don’t just read the highlights. I got to the Adrift headquarters more than an hour early which is, by any measure, better than an hour late. I took the opportunity to squeeze my eyes shut and work to counteract some of my sleep deficit. This time, “sleep now” worked. For 40 minutes, anyway.

I had originally been signed up for the full Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is a 20 km hike between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe in the Tongariro National Park with take-your-breath-away vistas and emerald-green lakes. After watching a YouTube video on the hike, however, I decided my creaky knees would settle for the half-day hike. Much of the hike is on boardwalk, interspersed with stairs and some rocky bits. According to my Fitbit, I climbed 126 floors and walked 8.1 miles, so I wasn’t a total pansy. In fact, Fitbit awarded me my Rollercoaster Badge for the day. (Insert victory pose here.)

Scotch heather was planted in Tongariro in the early 1900s as a habitat for grouse. As is often the case, this had unintended consequences, and it now crowds out many of the native plants. But if you squint and pretend you didn’t hear that, you can enjoy the purple flowers, which create a stunning blanket over the volcanic landscape. Another invader is pampas grass, which is native to South America. It is prolific here, with thousands of these unruly feather dusters emerging from the earth. They haven’t fully taken over, though, and I had great fun trying to find the tiniest flowers and hunt different varieties of lichen and berries. Tongariro is an active volcanic area, with Mt. Tongariro last erupting in 2012. The mountains surrounding the trail are stark and majestic, with rivers of lava and ash creating striations in every shade of gray.

On the way back to my hotel, I stopped at Huka Falls. The turquoise water here can flow at the rate of 220,000 litres per second. But even more importantly, it was pretty.

Tomorrow, I’m dropping my car off in Rotorua and flying to Queenstown. I put over 500 miles on the ol’ Camry while I was here, and I’m feeling pretty skilled at left-side driving now. I wonder how many times I will get in the passenger seat and wonder where the steering wheel is, once I get home. Cheers!