Day 28: The Forgotten World Highway & Mount Ruapehu
We made it halfway through the Forgotten World Highway the night before, and decided to spend the night in the “Republic” of Whangamomona. Apparently, this town in the middle of nowhere New Zealand declared themselves an independent state in 1989 (symbolically only of course – and just one day per year) to protest some redistricting done without their input. As we were not there on their independence Day (in January) it was just another rural New Zealand town – maybe a tad quirkier.
The rest of the drive through the Forgotten World Highway was, well a bit forgettable really. Although we did get flagged down near the end by a farmer who needed to let his cows through the road. That’s another thing we noticed about the North Island verses the South – more livestock seems to get loose from the fields up North – we never saw stray animals in the South but every now and then we’d find a cow, sheep or goat wandering on the road. Drivers beware!
Beautiful views of the Forgotten World Highway
Stray cows – this would never happen on the South Island!
Making way for herding cattle
We got back to Tongariro late in the afternoon, but we had enough time for a quick tour round the lobby of the stunning Chateau Tongariro Hotel. We skipped their High Tea in order to visit Mount Ruapehu (Mount Doom, to the Lord of the Rings fans out there) – the ski area was running its lift to the “highest café in New Zealand”, where there was also a short Skyline Ridge Walk. Unfortunately for us, we missed the trailhead and started blindly climbing up the mountain. In our defense, we were not the only ones – we even asked some other tourists coming down from the mountain if it was the correct trail and they said “Yes! The view at the top is amazing!” Once we got halfway to the top, however, we could see the correct trail below us, veering off to the left of where we were. Oh well, we still got a great view!
Lurking around the lobby of the Chateau Tongariro – pretending we rich people
We got there too late for High Tea – boo.
Snowless ski-lift up Mount Ruapehu
Views from the highest café in New Zealand
A couple of boots on the mountain – view of Tongariro in the distance
The ski area in Ruapehu is building a new lift – we got a front-row view of the construction by helicopter
Setting up camp for the night
Sunset view from our “living room” – #Gobycamper