By Nora_Wolcott
Today I expected to be writing about my spectacular tramp across the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 9-hour climb that is by all accounts one of the best in the country. But things don't always work out as expected. Here's how things went down: on Saturday I packed my tramping bag with everything I would need for the climb, including a hat, gloves, jackets and enough food to last me a full day. Accompanied by my best tramping friend Morgan I went down to the Auckland City car rental, and we were soon on our way to Tongariro National Park. After 4 hours of driving we arrived at Howard's Lodge, a small but comfortable hostel where we spent the night with 8 other trampers in bunk beds. In the morning we woke up at the crack of dawn, early enough to catch one of the few shuttles to the base of the mountain. This was where our adventure began, but not the one we expected.
Upon dropping our key off at reception, the worn-out looking receptionist greeted us with, "you do know the shuttles are cancelled for today, right?". We did not. Apparently there was a blizzard on the mountain, and the shuttle service had decided that morning not to let anyone climb for the day. With that we packed all our alpine tramping gear into the rental car, and sat deliberating on what to do next. We had come all this way, and were determined to make the most of our time. So, with that in mind, we headed North to Lake Taupo. The fog was so thick on the winding roads down we had to pull over a few times to let it clear, as we could barely see the road in front of us. However, when we made it to Taupo the fog evaporated altogether, leaving clear and sunny skies.
With newfound energy we hiked up Huka falls, glacial rapids the icy blue color we had become familiar with during our South Island trip. It was a short but beautiful hike, and yielded some great views of the waterfall, engorged from a night of heavy rain. After that, we used the money we had been refunded from our shuttle to Tongariro to book a boat out to see the Maori cliff carvings. I had fairly low expectations for this, which were completely surpassed by the carvings, which stretched high into the cliffs surrounding Lake Taupo. The boat we took out was a gorgeous little catamaran, which gave us plenty of time to soak up the sun while admiring the carvings.
When we left I no longer felt, as I had upon finding out we would not be able to hike the mountain, that our trip was a failure. Instead, it was a real adventure somewhere I don't know if I would've gotten a chance to see otherwise. And to lessen my disappointment even further, I was able to rebook a trip to Tongariro two weeks from now, which I'm sure you will be hearing about. All in all, there's nothing wrong with a little change of plans.