We had a much quieter night in our lovely campsite under the trees and woke to another sun filled day.  We packed up camp, had our usual porridge and coffee, and were on our way by 7.15.

The morning walk was a gradual climb up to Tama saddle through low brush. On our right the mighty Mount Ngarahoe, walking around the southern aspect this time, still black and brooding even in the sunshine.  On our left the snowy Mount Ruapehu, gleaming white.  Awesome, beautiful, stunning – we have used all these adjectives many times already and need some new ones. As we set off we saw a lone walker ahead of us (going faster than us and so not for long) but then we saw no one else for the entire morning.  It felt wild and tame at the same time in this weather; much of the time I guess it feels wild and wilder as walkers are immersed in cloud.

We were walking really well and we seemed to reach the saddle in no time.  We almost wanted to walk slower to make the walk last longer.  There was a small side route which took just 10 minutes to the overlook Lower Tama lake;  a glistening blue backed by jagged rocking cliffs.

We decided not to add on extra hour there and back to the Upper Lake as we knew we had a way to go to reach Whakapapa village (Wh is pronounced Ph/Fh we later found out). We thought, after reaching the summit, it would be a gradual down hill all the way, similar to the way up.  But it undulated up and down with short but steep gradients.  Suddenly we began to feel the tiredness in our legs; largely psychological when you have to go uphill when you were expecting to go down. However over the last brow we could see the village ahead and a steady path down. We also suddenly started to see lots of people. 

The walk up the Tama lakes is a relatively easy day walk from the village, and more so at the Taranaki falls which is a 2 hour circular walk. We felt somewhat dishevelled, and probably a bit smelly, as we lumbered down the hill tortoise like with our worldly belongings on our back, as other skipped up fresh with gleaming white trainers.  Everyone had a cheery smile and some even an admiring (or possibly pitying) look.  No one quite said that we should not have left the old folks home but it was perhaps well hidden on their faces!

The Taranaki Falls was our last ‘feature’ stop. An impressive gush of water over a cliff, dropping about 30m to a pool before running off down the hill. David of course could not resist walking round the back of the falls and dipping his head into the water.  He came out looking rather damp but gained the admiration of a group of lads who proceeded to follow him – and got a lot wetter than he did!

The last hour of any walk, whether 4 hours or 4 days, always seems a drag, and so did this one as we reluctantly reached the village and could not extend the walk any further as we handed in our emergency beacon (unused!) at the Visitor Centre.  Then we had an excellent coffee and pie at the coffee-cart as we looked back up at the mountain and the route we had walked. Let’s be honest – we felt a tiny bit proud of our achievement.  It was not just walking around the TNC with full packs, carrying our own food, camping and tramping all the way.  It was that we had enjoyed ourselves so much.  We were left to wonder what the experience would have been like in fog, wind and rain, with endless climbing and nothing to see at the top apart from more cloud.  We were stunningly lucky and will have days ahead when the weather gods are not blessing us, but for now we were basking in the sunlight as we took a final look back at these wonderful mountains.