Traveling with Ray Owens

I have an idea. Let’s get in a coach and drive an hour and a half around the shore of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand at 238 square miles. Not all that big, but they are pretty proud. Then we drive to the base of a volcano Waikato and then walk up the trail to see Taranaki Falls. Then we can walk down to get a good look at the falls and then back up and up to get back to the coach. What do you say to that plan? Sounds great! Let’s go!

Well, it was great. The drive was lovely and the stories of the mountains were fascinating. I was going to upload the story about the mountains that our guide Christian told us that I recorded on voice memo but can’t figure out how to do that. Maybe later I can. It is a fun story about mountains falling in love and fighting for the girl mountain.

The lake I mentioned is in fact a caldera that is the second largest in the world, topped only by the Yellowstone caldera.

About 50 of us senior citizens made the same decision to take this hike and they divide us into groups of about 10 and sent us with the guides. I got into a group that was designated as a leisure group. I originally thought I was going to be held back by the slow walkers but soon I was glad for the leisurely pace.

Our guide, Tanya, really was great. We learned a lot about the volcanos and geology and the flora on the New Zealand mountains.

One of the tiniest little plants in New Zealand is the Sundew. It is a reddish little thing that gives off a sweet smell that attracts insects. The tiny flowers are covered by sticky even tinier hairs. When an insect lands on the Sundew it soon learns of the carnivorous nature of this plant and it is eaten alive!!! (Cue ominous music.)

Then there is the plant that has lovely little red berries. The plant is the tutu plant perhaps because the seeds in the berries are too too poisonous to go near. The story is told of a traveling circus leaving their elephant near a patch of tutu. The elephant died. Humans be warned.

The Māori people developed a way to extract the juice from the berries and leave the seeds behind. This was not a 100 percent effective process and sometimes a person would be poisoned. The poison would cause massive convulsions that could cause the person to break most of their bones. Then if the poison did not kill them the broken bones would. Their solution was to dig a huge hole in the ground next to where they were going to consume the tutu juice. If someone started reacting they would put them in the hole and bury them up to the neck so they could not move. If the lived they would dig them out and there would be no broken bones. If the poison killed them? It was pretty easy to finish the burial.

The track (aka trail) was a very well maintained path that encouraged people to stay out of the delicate flora and yet we could enjoy them from a close proximity. The track spent some time in the treeless bushes and then you would walk into a primeval forest. This national park has 3 active volcanoes: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in “The Lord of the Rings” films) and Ruapehu with its ski slopes. Ski slopes you say? Now if you are thinking about ski slopes in the USA where you can go in the summer and see big meadows between the trees. That is not here. Even if you are thinking about the slopes of Sun Valley Idaho where much of the ski slope is above the tree line and the meadow are much bigger. That is not here either. The Whakapapa ski area is located on a volcano in a lava strewn field of giant boulders. I couldn’t imagine how you could get enough snow to make the ski surface even sorta boulder free. The key to solving this is they have snow making machines that put down about 6 meters of manufactured snow (almost 20 feet of snow) and then they pray for real snow.

Speaking of lord of the rings. The national park is also the location of Tawhai Falls which was the place where Gollum’s pool was filmed. I was kinda sad that we did not walk the extra hour and a half to get there.

We had dinner this evening at our hotel. Viking arranged a buffet. We sat at at table with eight people we have been getting to know. Two of the ladies are sisters from Milwaukee. They are four years apart in age. They were telling stories that had us all in stitches. Marsha is the baby sister. They are in separate rooms. Marsha called Linda to ask if she could use her shower because there was only a tub in her bathroom. Linda said she could use hers just bring a robe and come over. Marsha called back a few minutes later and said “never mind, I found it. It was behind the door. “

The day was delightful, even if I did have to walk 5.8 miles uphill both ways to discover this delight. . The evening dinner was even more delightful.