Today we had planned to walk the 20km Tongariro Crossing, one of NZ's iconic day hikes through mountains and dormant volcanoes. Unfortunately snow had fallen on the mountains, there was a high risk of avalanches and the weather conditions on the higher levels of this mountain pass were icy cold. The local experts strongly recommended that nobody should attempt the crossing today. We decided not to go; we had heard too many stories of people dying on the pass in bad weather! Instead we took a trip out to Turangi where we arranged to go white water rafting through 65 rapids, descending 265 metres over a 13km stretch of the Tongariro River; a grade 3 white rafting route, so a fair bit of excitement without getting dangerous. The adventure operator kitted us out very well in winter wet suits, boots, socks, fleeces and hard hats. A drive out to our start point on the river was followed by some instructions from our guide on what we were to do in response to his various directions and and then we were off down the river, paddling in unison to his commands. We all had a thrilling time going over the many rapids and through a natural landscape that could not be accessed by any means other than by boat. Part way down the river our guide made a stop next to a large, overhanging rock and invited us to climb up it and jump into the river! Most of our party refused but Chris and I decided to accept the challenge and did it. After the initial shock of the cold river water on our bodies our wet suits and layers quickly warmed us up again. By the end of our trip down the river none of our party had fallen out of the boat but then, right at the end, our guide slipped and fell in! The moment was captured by his colleague on the river bank who was there to take photos of us. Needless to say our guide was the butt of a lot of ridicule when we returned to base and the photos were up on a big TV screen.
Before leaving Turangi we took a look at some of the many, natural thermal pools in this area: bubbling mud pools, steaming streams and the smell of rotten eggs. Drove to Whakapapa Village where we visited the tourist information centre for the Tongariro National Park to check out tomorrow's weather forecast; it looked bad, forcing us to abandon our plan to walk the Tongariro Crossing on this trip to NZ.
Whakapapa, in the winter months, is one of NZ's ski resorts. We visited the rather splendid "Chateau" which was built here in the 1930's as an up market hotel for skiers.