TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK.

Shannon News, 17 January 1922, Page 3

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK.

A LAND OF BEAUTY AND AND GRANDEUR. By A..H.M. The Shandon-Levin party that tramped through the Tongarigo National Park a few weeks ago certainly' had a little hardship (to face, and there were long hours of hard climbing when wet through and hundry, on snow, ice and rock, through mist and rain, but to the lovers of nature the magniflcept mountain scenery waS never lost. The weary hours of inarching were more than compensated for by the, ever-changing panoramas that opened on the rise of every ridge, on the ascent of every peak. There was no monotony. Every lew minutes brought into view something new, something granded

than before, something weird, some-

thing uncanny. Tongariro Park is a * land of changing delights, a cinematograph for • the observer, a playground for the naturalist. A detailed account of the experiences of the Shannon party on Ruapehu and the slopes of Tongariro ha salready appeared in this paper, but only two of that party had the pleasure and satisfaction of ascending Tongariro proper and visiting the wonderful sights amid the ruings of what must have been, centuries ago, on!e df the most violent of the world’s volcanoes. On the day of the return of two of our companions to civilisation, we made the ascent in perfect weather, along easy horse-tracks that lead through old craters, standing grim and shattered like the ruins of ancient Rome, past lakes of vivid blue and emerald green, nestling in those hollows vftiere once the fumes and steam of subterranean forces belched forth. Lakes as cold as ice,- and with water as pure as crystal, while directly above in the cliffs the steam blowholes roared and thundered - unceasingly, reminding one of the days that are gone, when this whole land was a bubbling mass of molten rock and flying cinders. And directly above us towred Ngaruahoe, a grim, silent ( monster, whose fires lie ' , dormant i ready for the next outbreak; a mountain beautiful in outline, built on a tiny scale compared to what this ancient Tongariro’ must have been. Across \the central crater'. from the Blue Lake we tramped to the most wonderful sight in the whole, of the National Park—that of the Red Crater. < It is perhaps the smallest of th« bunch, and almost extinct. A single blowhole roars continually in one corner. The cliffs rise up from the floor for some hundreds of feet, and on the edge of the “hole” one may sit for hours and gaze in wonder at layers of coloured socks that 5 range through a series of svery imaginable hue, from palest', pink to dark maroon, from white to deep yellow, and from the lightest to the deepest shades of green. The southern rim is sprinkled with scoria containing all the shades of the rainbow, and it >it were not for the fearful wreck that the whole country presents, one would think he were for the moment in fairyland. From here we gazed

down into that largest of all craters—

the Okarere—the crater that led us I astray and caused ms many extra weary hours of tramping and nights upon the mountairi slopes and in Maori pas. It is just : one huge blistered cauidrqn suddenly cooled, fringed with high, treacherous cliffs, up which we scrambled in the mist with our 401 b packs. It is full of

rocks, tom and shattel red into every conceivable shape, rising into the air sometimes for over a., hundred *feet like, the steeples of chßirches, but ail so silent and grim liJ&e the surface of the moon seen throug h a powerful telescope. One could spend a week in Tongariro and fai lto «-xhause it of 1 its many surprises. Tiie echoes are wonderful. From Tonga riro we conversed with a climber on Ngaruahoe, and we spoke to a par ty of ladies who were crossing the Southern Crater, long before they appeared large enough to see. Many hours we* spent in this “house of destruction,” and very reluctantly turnerd back to Ketetahi hut, on the northern slopes'of Tongariro. A tramp of a little over an hour brought u:s to those hot springs we had leai .Tied to enjoy so thoroughly, and a liot bath in natural mineral waters, . surrounded by the wonders of nature, the steaming cliffs and hissing :jnd roaring blowholes, made one forget about the worries, of the world, its vexations, its narrowness, and our sorrows. Back each day To the hut where we ,fed lavishly and slept soundly, and enjoyed ev cry atom of nature around us. Fr om the doorway, one looked down.oii plain and forest, and from the ridge at the back one’s gaze could wander away to the Bay of Plenty, with Roto Aira spread out like a Turkish carpet at one’s feet, and Taupo just over the mountain fops "oeyomcl. The sunsets from here were a gorgeous display of Oriental colouring, and. the mountains shading from the base to sparkling pink .at the summit, with iCAtwtwhi booming

and echoing'nearly a iTiile away -was a sight that shall live in trie memory of those who were fortunate enough to enjoy it.

One must 7 not forget its wonderful flora that nature is spreading over this shattered land, covering up the blackened/ scars of destruction, and beautifying the landscape with shrubs of most fantastic greens and flowers of delightful hues. The boxwoods 'were in blopm, as were the mountain daisies and buttercups; and on every hand one would see the rows of daisy plants set out as perfectly geometrical as in a florist’s garden. It was something that pleased the <ye jand made i one forget about the fatigue that began to creep on after hours of “plugging.” Plants and flowers there were of every colour starting at the snow-line and gradually thickening' into dense scrub and bush on the lower slopes. The climb up Mt. Ruapehu has already been described, but one cannot help writ-illg about that wonderful panorama of plain and forest, hill and/ dale, with Egrnont on. .the lioijizon , wrapped in fleecy clouds, her snowy cap protruding through the top. It was a scene that, held our gaze for a long time, but 1 am uncertain whether 1. enjoyed that as much as I did those most delightful colours of palest green shading to dazzling blue that we saw in the depths of every crevasse. They alone are worth going to see, and, combined with the snow-capped tops of Ruar pehu surrounding a sulphurous lake, the joys of glissading down snowy slopes, sleeping out in the scrub (even though certain members of the party snored all night),’the everlasP ing wonders of, Tongariro and Ngaruahoe, the dips in Ketetahi’s not pools, the meeting with fellow climbers in a land that for thousands 'of years bid defiance to the foot of man or beast, the satisfaction and joy after a - day’s tramp, when we sat after our evening meal in the front of an isolated tin hut and watched the shadows deepen on plain, forest and lake,- without news of the world, “'fit” in every muscle and sinew, and Nature around us unspoilt: by the hand of man, filled one’s heart with a great joy—a joy that made us loath to leave it. Rut we who stayed behind are even now looking forward to the day when we shall again set oiit on another tramp to Tongariro National Park. There were days of hard and long marching and of little food, but they are easily forgotten in the magnificence beyond every spur and in the depth of every gorge, ill every standing cliff and every rock garden.