Two Years in KiwiLand: Christmas Break (Day 8)

Today (New Year's Eve), we drove from Hutt Valley (outside of Wellington) to Whakapapa Village near Tongariro National Park. It was about a 4.5 hour drive. Fairly uneventful day really. We got a bit of a late start since we got in on the ferry so late the night before. Once we made it to Whakapapa Village, we found a nice little DOC campsite called Mangahui where we set up the tent. This is a really nice isolated campground that cost only $4.00 per night for a tent site. The sites are great - separated nicely from each other and right near a hiking trail and stream.

After setting up camp, we headed in to Whakapapa Village to visit the DOC info center to try to plan our trip on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing for the following morning. The weather was not looking that great with high winds expected, but the day was supposed to improve towards the afternoon. We were a bit skeptical, especially after the first bus service we called said that they cancelled trips for the following day due to weather (it is recommended to take a bus to the start of the track then they will pick you up at the end of the track later in the day), but the next bus company we called said that the weather should be OK so we decided to do it. After visiting the info center, we headed further up Mount Ruapehu to check out the ski slopes and lifts. Since it's summer time, they do not have skiing at the moment, however, according to the DOC person, sometimes they do, but due to a lot of rain this December, there was not enough snow remaining. It looks pretty cool and I've heard that the skiing is great from some of my colleagues but sounds pretty busy in winter time as they get around 10,000 skiers many days. Maybe I'll give it a shot this winter.

After checking things out, we headed into town to get a few groceries then made some dinner - chili and kumara (like a cross between a potato and sweet potato). We had a couple beers in preparation for New Years, but then it started to rain. It was only around 9:00 but since we were camping and it was raining, there was not a whole lot to do. By about 10:00, we decided to head to bed - not much of a New Year's celebration but we knew we had a big day ahead of us. Due to the rain, Dan decided to sleep in the car. I chanced the tent and it turned out OK as the rain fly held the water out and I had a dry (although cold and noisy due to the rain) night's sleep.

View of Mt. Ruapehu from the road