13/09/10

Unlucky for some, especially us.
We woke up late, I had been awake several times during the night because of aching all over. We were determined to do a walk despite the rain given that it was our last day in Tongariro National Park. We made out way up to Whakapapa Village and checked the weather forecast - still 'often cloudy with showers' but often doesn't mean 'always' so we continued. We went to the cafe and had a hot chocolate to warm up before we started, donned our gear at the campervan and we were on our way.

The path was the same as we had taken to Taranaki Falls the night before, but the conditions were even worse, it was raining and the cloud was lower with no breaks in sight. We made it to the junction between Taranaki Falls and the path to the Tama Lakes which we were about to take when we found that the platypus was empty and had clearly leaked all its water into the campervan. Lindsey was not amused, we had to get back to the campervan, put the wet bedding up to dry and refill the platypus. We set off again and reached the junction an hour and ten minutes after we had originally set off. It was a 5-6 hour walk, so this wasn't the best start. The rain didn't look like easing up at all, but we continued on. Around this point Lindsey's boot started to fill with water, probably from her overtrouser, but still we didn't give up. On the way to the lakes we met rather cheery Dutch/German girls, given the weather, coming in the opposite direction who informed us that we'd need to get our feet wet to cross a river on the way to the lake. We thought we might find a way across so we continued. The rain stopped a little, so we stopped to drain Lindsey's shoes and socks and it wasn't long before we came to the river they were talking about. It was unpassable so, defeated, we turned back and continued our way through the rain, still with no break in the cloud. It was a long and painful journey, both Lindsey's and my back was aching from the heavy pack which we were swapping between us and I still didn't feel right. We reached the village again after what seemed like an eternity and yet the rain still did not stop. By this point I had a bit of a fever and we were very miserable, so we got changed and decided to leave Tongariro, never having had the opportunity to experience the beauty shrouded behind the mist, cloud and rain.

We drove all the way to Ohakune and decided to treat ourselves with a meal out. We must have looked at every restaurant in the town, which were either too expensive (it was a ski resort) or closed, until we finally went to a bar serving food that we had missed on our first pass. We ordered squid rings and fries to start and Lindsey a chicken/bacon burger with fries for a main. I had a vegetable canneloni. Again we were surprised at the portion sizes - there were so many chips with the squid rings that Lindsey had to ask them not to bring any with the burger. They kindly gave us $4 back, which we left as a tip.

Full and feeling better after a disappointing day. We arrived at another DOC campsite to find all the parking bays filled, so we parked up on the grass and quickly went to bed.

The rain had stopped.