This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
~ “t’snotmuch further along here,” I mumbled uncertainly, peering through the Duchess’ windscreen into the gathering gloom of the Desert Road. Roger wasn’t convinced and was certain that we had passed the start of the Waihohonu Track. We stopped, checked the map, made a U-tum and rumbled back the way we’d come. It soon became obvious that we hadn't in fact gone far enoughin the first place, so we made another U-turn and continued north on the dark and dreary Desert Road.
“See you at 3.30 on Sunday, Roger called as the Duchess trundled off into the ‘darkness in a cloud of diesel fumes. The silence engulfed us and we shouldered our packs and trudged off, heading for a patch of beech forest 15 minutes away. The Club trips were heading into the Kaimanawas but Gary and had opted for a blast around Tongariro National Park, primarily to take photos of the Tama Lakes for Pat Duffy’s journal article. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a journal editor!
Witha clear missionin our minds we rose early and were soon racing off along the track to Waihohonu Hut. The weather was patchy; some cloud, some sun, some wind, but fortunately no rain. We made good time and stopped for alook at the old Waihohonu Hut which had recently had a new coat of very bright red paint. Blends extremely well into its surroundings ... NOT! We trudged on..Regular stops for artistic photography on Gary’s part gave me the opportunity to take a good look at the area, and it really is very pleasant.
The track stretched into the distance ahead and we were making short work of it. As we neared the saddle above the lower Tama Lake we left the track and made our way up and around the eastern side of the lake. To our horror we saw several, no, make that many figures bedecked in white sunhats on the track on the other side of the lake. Dam, the feeling of solitude was wrecked. We raced up the ridge and found an excellent, sheltered lunch spot with good views of both lakes, one on each side; Mt Ngauruhoe on our left and Mt Ruapehu on our _ providing a lot of useless information about a couple of old explosion craters that now look suspiciously like lakes. Gary’s belly gave an audible groan and began to expand - old apricots and sulphur are a fearsome mixture - causing him some discomfort, a sign of worse to come.
Travel was pleasant and the views nice so we stopped every now and then to gaze around and to comment on Gary’s still expanding belly. Between Mt Ngauruhoe’s sulphurous emissions and Gary’s indescribable ones, breathing was becoming a chore. I chose a different line, upwind, and continued the plod to the ridge.
The route looked straightforward enough on the map and for some distance it was, but right about the time I commented that “this route’s good, we're making pretty good time”, we clambered out of a gully to be faced with poxy lava flow after poxy lava flow. Progress deteriorated as we climbed gingerly over brittle, sharp volcanic rock, so we decided to drop below the lava flows and were pleased to find a route which eventually took us down a gully and into the Mangatepopo Valley. A tent city had been erected around Mangatepopo Hut and we agreed that this would be a good place to miss so we pitched camp in a great little spot away from the track with excellent views of Mt Ngauruhoe, and way out west, Mt Taranaki.
Gary’s belly had finally stopped groaning and expanding but the powerful emissions stayed around to plague me for much of the evening. Dinner was a proverbial feast, most enjoyable, and we were pretty pleased to hit the sack.
A cracker day greeted us. Clear skies and no wind enticed us from our pits early and we were packed and away before 7.30 am. We were horrified to see several loopies from Mangatepopo tent village ahead of us on the highway that stretched out before us, so we upped the pace and systematically blew them into the dust. Egos restored, we completed the grunt up to the saddle ‘fight. Very nice, too.
’ Thewhite sunhats and their owners spent ourlunchbreak dlambering around nearby, noses down bums up, closely examining the flora and making alot of noise. Lunch was nice; Gary singlehandedly devoured a packet of rather - old apricots - he was soon to pay dearly for this gluttony. . Weleft, passinga very weather-beaten sign, presumably at the head of the Mangatepopo Valley before the sun managed to get on it, saving alot of sweat. We stopped on the saddle to admire the. views before noting with disappointment that Central Crater was more like a lake - I had only ever seen it either covered in snow or completely bare, although the map did show it as a seasonal lake. We were forced to sidle quite wide around the edge to avoid crashing through the softening snow, but this didn’t take as long as anticipated. - WT&MC APRIL 1995
We were making good time and the day was superb so a slight diversion to the summit of Mt Tongariro seemed feasible. This accomplished, we continued on over Red Crater and down to the Emerald Lakes, sparkling enticingly below. .
Aware that we would be cutting things fine to get out to the Desert Road by 3.30 pm we raced along, stopping occasionally for photos. By now it was stinking hot and the moon-like landscape of the Oturere Valley offered no shelter. I was shortly to learn an extremely valuable and painful lesson - when your feet are very hot, cooking in your rubber gummies, no less, don’t be tempted to cool them downin the occasional stream unless you can keep your feet wet and cool. The heat coming up through the ground was unbelievable and over the next couple of hours I found itincreasingly difficult to walk as the soles of my feet, stewing away inmy gummies, began to blister.
By Waihohonu Hut the heat was taking its toll. We stopped for a quick scoff but mindful of our pickup time we were soon hurrying off again. The Duchess was a sight for sore eyes and it was a relief to get the boots off. In spite of the swollen and blistered feet it was an excellent trip, and once ! could walk properly. again, I could look back with fond memories of a fun mission.
Scribe: — Claire Goldsworthy
Footnote: B) provided a photo of the Tama Lakes which turned out to be superior in quality!