From the east coast through Rotorua we drove in our rented 12 seater Hiace van (only vehicle available last minute!) to Tongoriro National Park to stay at the lovely Whakapapa Holiday Park.
*note Auntie Julie’s tight braid handiwork
It felt just like camp! For the first 3 days we shared the entire lodge with Julie and Lowell and the boys. We cooked meals, played games and danced and lazed around watching the Olympics in our own personal common area.
We even played tennis in the pouring rain with Fraser in the lead. Made for a tourist attraction on a day with no views.
Every day was a different hike. The first full day we hiked up to Taranaki falls and had a perfect weather window in what was otherwise an overcast and rainy day.
I had to work a bit to keep the boys from jumping right into the pool under the falls. Had a quick talk about rockfall and the origin of all the boulders we were hopping over.
From Levi’s journal: [our cousins came with us to Whakapapa for 2 nights we watched Coraline with them and went on hikes.]
The next day we said goodbye to Julie and the gang and begrudgingly accepted some very friendly British backpackers into our personal lodge.
We did a quick hike to Silica Rapids, again catching a nice weather window.
That night we watched The Middle in our dorm room, having been banished from the common area for excessive volumes…
Next up Mt Doom!
2 comments:
Love it!!!
Those hike look great. I like the safety/nature education aspect as well. Too bad the new guests couldn’t handle a robust Canadian family hang in the common room
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