I came here to walk one of the great walks „the northern circle“, but it should never come that far. Somehow, I had missed the fact that not only you have to pre-book the huts on this track but also the camping sites. The guy in the visitor center explaining this to me was neither friendly nor especially helpful. Maybe he simply meets to mainly ill prepared tourist everyday. The thought that I could just camp somewhere 500 m away from the track first occurred to me, when I was already heading in the opposite direction. Fact was that I arrived here at 4 pm and had no clue where to stay and what to do now. But there where many other tracking paths and huts in this national park. So I decided to walk south to Ohakune and to re-think the situation.
The big disadvantage of this decision was that despite the high season I was almost alone in the track and in the huts, which can be really scary (just hoping there exist no bears in this country). The track in it self was nice but a very challenging up and down on muddy and very slippery paths (I fell at least four times and was covered in mud on day two.), through tiny waterfalls, over steep landslides and over rocky lava fields). Therefore view on Mt. Ruapenu is surely gorgeous, unfortunately it was blocked by clouds most of the time during my tramping (the NewZealandic form of hiking resp. trekking).

The tracks were pretty though, the huts empty and the view … kind of blocked.

The ground of lava is slowly conquered by moss and lichen.

I actually never found out what was surprising at ‚lake surprise‘.

On the third day I got up to perfect sunshine and with the sun also the mood rose. Just another 1.5 h climbing up a lava field (I felt very uncomfortable with the 20 kg on my back.) and I reached the road to Ohakune.

Mt. Torangiro, the best view I got while walking on the road.

Because I didn’t wanted a lift right away I chose the denture from the road but regretted it fast when I found myself in a path containing if mud under 20 cm of water. 2h later back on the road it took 5 min before a nice elderly couple stopped next to me offering me a lift to Ohakune which I gladly excepted. So I found myself at 1 pm in the sleepy town (which in winter must be a hub for ski and snowboarder with all it’s „Snow lodges“) back to the frustration of planning the next weeks in NewZealand.

Sleepy Ohakune, with it’s potential ski resort just behind.

Apart from its obvious relation to snow requiring sports, Ohakune is a good base for exploring Tongairo national park, biking the empty roads through green hobbitic hills and hanging out in one of the loveliest hostels (even have a trampoline in the garden).

Did anyone know that NewZealand is mainly populated by sheep? They say it’s 40 Mio. sheep versus 4.5 Mio. humans.