A SHORT RUN-UP
Tim Roxborogh on how to walk the best bits of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing
One day I’ll do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. And I mean it: one day it will indeed happen and when it does, I’ve got zero doubt it’ll blow my procrastinating little mind. But I have a sneaking suspicion there’s a part of my brain that thinks I’ve already gamed the system and found a way to knock off most of the greatest hits of the famous 19.4km, seven-hour hike without ever actually having to do it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the jaw-dropping, bite-sized, T20-like alternative, Tongariro National Park’s 6km Taranaki Falls Track.
I first found out about the track by accident. It was some years back and I was on assignment at the Chateau Tongariro, almost certainly the most recognisable historic hotel in the country. As a hotel buff, I’d always wanted to stay at the Chateau, but beyond the walls of this 1929-built, Georgian-styled, Canadian-inspired property, I knew little of the national park that surrounds it.
The quick backstory to Tongariro National Park is that not only is it the oldest national park
in New Zealand, it’s the sixth-oldest in the world, created in 1887. For generations, this land has been of enormous spiritual significance to Māori and there was the very real fear it would be seized by European settlers. So instead, something quite extraordinary happened: led by the paramount chief Horonuku Te Heuheu Tūkino, the local iwi — Ngāti Tūwharetoa — gifted their sacred land to the Crown on the condition it would be permanently protected for all peoples. The generosity, the foresight and the magnanimity of this gesture will always get me.
What began as 26sq km of spectacular alpine terrain gradually expanded over the years to the 796sq km that have comprised Tongariro National Park since its last enlargement in 1975. And through it all, those three volcanic peaks of Mt Ruapehu, Mt Ngāuruhoe and Mt Tongariro have been the very heart of the park.
The Chateau — sitting 1100m up the slopes of the 2797m Mt Ruapehu — arrived at the end of the 1920s to encourage tourism to the park, and
there’s simply no approach by car to a hotel in New Zealand that is as fairytale-like.
Speaking of which, one of the reasons I keep returning to this part of the country is that there is something enchanting about so much of what you see. A couple of weeks ago I was in Taupō for a long-awaited catch up with a bunch of mates who’d hired a house for a weekend of shenanigans, tomfoolery and general sillybuggers. A boys’ weekend, if you will. But when the early winter’s day dawned blue and calm, I insisted any shenanigans be delayed and we head south to the national park.
The reasoning was simple. I’ve done the Taranaki Falls Track in the bleakest of weather, where fog and sleet hide the mountains and you have to guess where the Chateau might be. And even then, it still casts a spell. But to do it in perfect weather? Saying no wasn’t an option.
The drive from Taupō to Whakapapa Village and the Chateau is about 80 minutes and if you’re feeling keen, you can do what we did and add the easy 6km, two-hour
Lake Rotopounamu loop to the day’s calorie burn as it’s directly on the way. Just 10 minutes from Tūrangi, Lake Rotopounamu sits on the edge of Tongariro National Park and is a small, gorgeous body of water enveloped by some of the North
Island’s most jungle-like native forest.
It’s then 25 minutes from Lake Rotopounamu to the Chateau, where we popped in for lunch as well as the compulsory photos of the 2291m-high Mt Ngāuruhoe/Mt Doom as seen from the lobby. On a “bluebird” day as the skiers and snowboarders among us say, the hotel’s framing of the mountain Peter Jackson made an international celebrity out of (thanks to Lord Of The Rings) never fails to stun.
Indeed, the dramatic cone of Mt Ngāuruhoe is a recurring presence on the Taranaki Falls Track, with both ends of the two-hour loop beginning and ending right by the Chateau. But as much as those views had us almost continuously snapping photos, a good deal of the magic of this walk is that you keep going from the reds and yellows of the tussock and tundra to suddenly being swallowed by the mosses and dripping greens of native beech forest.
As for the falls themselves, they’re at the track’s midpoint and plunge 20m over boulders into a pool below. The track then descends down winding steps until you’re adjacent to a river and a tree-line that visually transports me to places like Oregon or Alaska where you half expect to see bears catching salmon. I’m not sure if there’s a more varied, more consistently amazing two-hour walk in the country: snowy mountains, steep volcanoes, lush rainforest, tussock and tundra, waterfalls and an iconic hotel to boot.
As a test cricket purist, I’m not saying the Taranaki Falls Track means you’re off the hook on doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but this sure is one unforgettable T20.
For more New Zealand travel ideas and inspiration, go to newfinder.co.nz and newzealand.com