Lake Rotopounamu and Mt Pihanga

Walk #106, 22nd January 2023

This walk is between Turangi and National Park on SH47.

This beautiful lake is on the slopes of Mount Pihanga – the smallest of the mountains. It’s really a hill. The lake is named after greenstone, Roto means lake and Pounamu means greenstone.

According to Maori legend the volcanos in the central North Island including Ruapehu, Tongariro, Ngarahoe and Taranaki all fought over Pihanga. Tonagariro blew his top over her and Taranaki left, moving south and west, gouging out the Whanganui River.

Lake Rotoaira, a much larger lake, is at the bottom of Pihanga.

On this walk we were lucky enough to see a NZ Robin, the Maori name is a Toutouwai.

We saw a Huhu beetle on a tree by the style as we were leaving.

Walk: Turangi 41

Links

Rotopounamu Track

Rotopounamu Pihanga Restoration

Lake Rotoaira and Lake Otamangakau

Lake Rotopounamu and Lake Rotoaira By phillbennett

The Mounds

Walk #85, 15th April 2022

The mounds are little hillocks of volcanic rock formed after an ancient, massive eruption and landslide on the northern flanks of Mount Ruapehu. The debris created a wave pattern that resulted in these small mounds being spread out for miles.

The walk is short, only 20 minutes, and is on the road leading to the Whakapapa village and Chateau, on the right hand side.

Tongariro National Park #44

Tongariro National Trout Centre, Turangi

Walk #79, 12th Jan 2022

This pleasant spot near Turangi is a trout fishery run by DOC. I took my kids trout fishing here in the school holidays 20 years ago. The children are guaranteed a catch from the kids pond.

Times have changed and sadly the children are now locked out of this activity unless the parents have vaccine passports. We ignored the whole vaccine passport mess by avoiding the DOC trout centre.

We wandered around the hatchery facility, looked through the underwater trout viewing chamber and took a stroll along the banks of the picturesque Tongariro River.

Walk: Turangi / Taupo 40

Links

Tongariro National Trout Centre

Tawhai Falls

Walk 34, Tawhai Falls, 3rd July 2020

The waterfall is on the road to the Chateau and is reached after a short stroll through mountain toatoa and beech forest.

The falls aren’t that high but they’re pretty. The water tumbles over the edge of an ancient lava flow.

Tawhai Falls

The site is also a Lord of the Rings location, it’s known as Gollum’s pool, the forbidden pool where Frodo and Faramir capture Gollum in the Lord of the Rings.

LOTR, Gollum, Tawhai Falls

The day we visited the falls, it was a beautiful, crisp winter’s day, and we’d just had the North Island’s first dump of snow. The mountains in the near distance – Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, looked beautiful with their white mantles set against a blue sky.

Mt Ngaurahoe

Mt Ruapehu

Walk: Tongariro National Park 45

Links

Whakapapa Village short walks
Tawhai Falls Walk Mt Ruapehu

Te Porere Redoubt

Walk 9: Te Porere Redoubt, 28 Dec 2018

Click here for the video

Te Pōrere, in the shadow of Tongariro, is the site of the last major battle of the New Zealand Wars was fought on 4 October 1869 between Te Kooti and a combined force of Armed Constabulary and Māori fighters.

Te Kooti or an ally built this British style redoubt/pa but the angles were poorly sited and the horizontal loopholes prevented the defenders from firing down into the ditch, which the government forces speedily occupied after taking out two small detached positions.

The dead from Te Porere are buried on site. Te Kooti got away into the bush with other survivors.

Te Kehakeha led him and others ‘in the general direction of Te Rena via an old Ngāti Hotu track’. Te Rena belonged to the remnant of the Ngati Hotu. (Source: The National Park District Inquiry Report, Page 173.)

Walk: Central North Island 42

Te Kooti

“Perhaps time will allow us to see this figure in perspective, and help us to decide whether he was murderer, butcher, and slayer of innocent women and children. Or was he really a military genius, a Maori hero, who suffered defeat only twice in the long years of campaigning. Was he a prophet, a spiritual leader, who could refashion the adherents of a pagan cult into warriors who could fight with rules, who could show mercy to prisoners, who could begin and end the fighting with worship of God. Te Kooti Rikirangi Te Turuki—mystery man of the Maori race—we see him now in a clearer light.”
Article: Did This Change the Course of History? by Ernest E. Bush

Te Kooti – Wikipedia

*See page on Te Kooti’s war.

Taranaki Falls

Walk 6: Taranaki Falls, 4th Sept 2018

Click here for the video

The falls tumble over the top of an old lava flow in Tongariro National Park. The track is fairly easy. It was the old Waihohonu horse track many years ago. The Chateau is not that far away.

Walking through the mountain beech forest, the track follows the Wairere Stream.

The Wairere stream drops over the Cascade Falls on the way to Taranaki Falls.

Bert above Tongariro Falls

Climbing up the steps of the lava flow above Taranaki falls you get extensive views of the land surrounding Tongariro National Park.

Walk: Central North Island 43

We stayed at the Chateau, holiday September 2018

History of Tongariro National Park

In 1886 in order to prevent the selling of the mountains to European settlers, the local Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi had the mountains surveyed in the Native Land Court and then set aside (whakatapua) as a reserve. The Tongariro deed of gift between Te Heuheu Tūkino IV of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and the Crown (1887) can be seen on the above history link.

Links:

Taranaki Falls Walk
Freewalks, NZ: Taranaki Falls Walk, Mt Ruapehu