Outdoors2

Our motel near Tongariro National Park (80kb)

Our first view of Mt Ngauruhoe at the start of a 17km hike (26kb)

Beech forest at the start (115kb)

Terrific trail work - there were dozens of these, designed to sluice water away from the trail (95kb)

Looking back through the valleys (68kb)

The other side of Mt Ruapehu - there are ski areas on both sides of the mountain (52kb)

Sara did great for such a long hike (54kb)

Mt Ngauruhoe (30kb)

Lower Tama Lake, at about 1200m (36kb)

Getting closer to the volcano (39kb)

Not much vegetation here at Upper Tama Lake, at about 1314m (49kb)

Mt Ruapehu towers over Joe and Sara (36kb)

Looking at the lower lake from the upper one (37kb)

Spectacular rocks (95kb)

As close as we got to Ngauruhoe - very dry, volanic landscape (31kb)

The other side of Ruapehu is lush bush and waterfalls (82kb)

There is some vegetation on the trail, but not much (111kb)

And it is all highly specialized to adapt to the difficult terrain (131kb)

There are some tussocks of grass as you get back down a bit from the volcanos (118kb)

There are a few hardy flowers (131kb)

Making our way back to the DOC office in the afternoon (46kb)

We did stop at Taranaki Falls on the way back (72kb)

Very refreshing to climb down behind the falls (80kb)

Hard to believe this landscape is only a few kilometers from the lunar landscape on the volcanos (107kb)

This stream is what creates the falls (100kb)

Our last look back, as evening begins to fall (22kb)

Lake Taupo, north of Tongariro, with the volcanos in the background (21kb)