Having a blast

Driving down from Rotorua to the Tongariro National Park, Amanda, Anouk and I take a break by the Huka Falls in Taupo. Taupo is another of those enormous calderas. The impact of its eruption was felt as far away as Ancient Rome where a change in the weather was documented. On a lesser scale today we see a jet boat motor right up to the falls then speed away with the life-jacketed passengers waving at us up on the viewing terraces.

We skirt Lake Taupo in the sunshine and drive towards the clouds of the national park. As we approach Tongariro we notice wisps of white around the sides and debate whether these are clouds or active vents in the sides of the mountain. We find out later it is activity of a non-cloudy nature.

It's properly clagged in when we get to Whakapapa (Wh is pronounced f by the way...really) and the Chateau Tongariro, where we are told our cabin isn't ready. Amanda kicks up a stink and we're shown to a cabin that is most likely nicer than the one they were trying to get ready quickly for us. God bless the fuss-makers.

We call in at the excellent visitor centre and watch a 15-minute film about volcanics, and a 25-minute film featuring the Maori legends behind the mountains and the story of how they came to be in the hands of the Department of Conservation (DOC). There's a lovely line about how volcanoes create and destroy in one explosion.

Keen to get some exercise, I go for a a quick walk to Taranaki Falls, a real surprise at around 20m high. The trail features open hillside, narrow gorges and glades of trees with so much lichen it's as if the trunks have puffa jackets on. It's that thick.

We have dinner at the Skotel, a Seventies style ski lodge complete with retro skier panels on the sliding glass doors at the entrance.

The next morning Anouk wakes me up at 7am saying, 'Auntie Cate, you have to come and look at the view.' Something makes me shake myself out of bed and walk through to the living room window. Before me is a pink sunrise and blue skies all around us on the mountain. Anouk later tells Amanda, 'I just had to get her up Mum, it's a tourist day.' I quickly dress, put on my walking boots, grab my camera and step outside. There it is, Ngauruhoe in all its cone-like splendour. 

I walk along the Taranaki Falls track as far as the first bridge and see all three of the volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. I meet people coming out on the track as I head back to the cabin and can't help grinning at one and all. It is indeed a tourist day. 

We breakfast quickly and are up at the Iwakau Village at the 'Top of the Bruce' road – the car park and base station for the Ruapehu ski area – by 9am. The chairlift is on hold due to high winds so we decide to wait it out for a bit in the cafe over fruit pie and flat whites. We check back in and it's still on hold, so we decide to do a little walk over to a ridge. It's called Meads Wall route and is a dramatic rocky outcrop that was used as a location for Lord of the Rings.
I scramble up to the top of the little peak here. The views are outstanding, all the peaks, the valley cloaked in cloud and far in the distance Taranaki poking through.

Back at base the chairlift still isn't open but there's a strong chance it will so we decide to have lunch here and hope for the best, spending a bit of time messing around in the sun and the store, where we find these outsize Uggs.


In the meantime, I get chatting to a group of walkers who are talking about walking the Skyline Route, which departs from the top of the chairlift. So I ask if I can tag along if the lift gets going. Fortunately it does. Up at the top there's a brand new top station cafe, like a cathedral in wood with windows soaring up to take in as much of the view as is possible.

Then my new tramping buddies, Chris and Calli, and I set off on the track. I've never walked in such recent volcanic terrain before and the scoria underfoot is like treading on Rice Krispies.
It's a steep climb up a winding track, following way marker poles to the ridge you'd walk up if you were going to the summit. That's the snow line and it really wouldn't be a great idea to walk any further, ill equipped as I am. Chris is from Taupo and Calli is from Rotorua. I think they might be dating. Whatever, I'm just glad they're cool about me joining them. They're excellent walking company and when we get to the top Calli obliges with a photo or two of me with the stupendous Ngauruhoe behind. It's quite breezy. 

We are higher than Mount Tongariro and most definitely higher than anyone doing the Crossing. All that's missing is an emerald lake. Next time… for the moment I feel incredibly blessed to have had this miracle day of sunshine and views.

We do a bit of a jogging descent as the scoria scree is so soft. Chris and Calli drop me off at the Chateau, which is where we head for a sauna and swim in a pool that looks like it's in the bowels of a ship, with a low ceiling and marine-style rivets around the metal panels. 

We have dinner in Pihangi, the cafe under the Chateau and later I sit by the fire with a Baileys. Anouk has made friends with a girl called Brenna. She gravitates towards Brenna and her parents' table at dinner and weaves them all sorts of yarns about the horses she has at home.

I keep forgetting Anouk is only six. She is so articulate and picks things up so quickly, plus she's tall (second tallest in her class). I've taught her the Woolie Boogie Bee song from my choir's Lullaby album and she is not only word perfect, but has improvised some extra verses of her own. But I would expect no less than for the daughter of my clever, expressive and passionate friend to be a clever, expressive and passionate child. I love the way she says 'Oh man…' and the way she catches her mum out by remembering everything that has ever been said and throwing it back. At six! I'm well and truly smitten.

On my last full day in New Zealand we have coffee in the Fergusson cafe, once a ski club hut, where there's a display of archive photographs, and information on how the workers who built the Chateau, pictured below, were accommodated.

As we're leaving the mountains Ngaurahoe seems to have a UFO flying above it, framed in the panoramic window inside the Chateau.

It's so strange that the weather forecast was appalling and yet, for my stay here in this volcano theatre, it's as if the curtains opened and the performers played their parts to perfection. There's one last show to see, Tawhai Falls just south of the Chateau, where Anouk takes a paddle in the ice-cold waters.

On our drive back north we stop for lunch in Te Kuiti, a town at the heart of rural King Country, that celebrates its famous rugby-playing sons, the Meads, but doesn't seem too bothered about its kids playing on the railway tracks unsupervised. 

After a bit of a drive our next stop is the Waitomo glowworm caves where I take Anouk on a tour while Amanda rests up. Our guide is a Maori girl who tells us she is descended from the man who discovered the caves all those years ago. She leads us along passages, down stairways and into the 'cathedral' a space some 30m high where all the lights go out and she asks her brother to sing a Maori song. Listening to him in the dark is moving and magical. Then, still in the dark and in complete silence, we descend to an underground river where we all squash into a boat that is then pulled along on a cable. Clinging to the roof of the cave just above our heads are thousands of glowworms, like a canopy of sparkling diamonds. Anouk and I are at the rear of the boat and all we can do is lie back in absolute wonder.

Once we've given the swish visitor centre our dues we are back on the road to Auckland, via Amanda's mum's place for a barbecue with mum, brother Jean-Paul and his gorgeous daughter Stephania. 
Now I'm off to San Francisco. Leaving is hard. Anouk is very upset and I have to stand by her bed singing until she falls asleep and lets go of my hand. I manage a few hours but am up at five to wake Amanda for our drive to the airport. What a friend. As good as family to me. Hard to top New Zealand, too... until I'm back in Scotland this summer, of course!