Thursday Jan 22, 2026 Tongariro National Park Village

Deb here. Yep, another rainy day again. This was supposed to be my big Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike day but no chance of that! We had a great breakfast in the Lodge at 8:30, and then packed up for an excursion. We spoke briefly with a British man at breakfast, who’d hiked the Tongariro Crossing on Monday and said he saw absolutely nothing due to the heavy fog and mist. And apparently the trail wasn’t considered safe yesterday so it was closed. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.

First up was a short walk into Tawhai Falls, the site that was used for Gollum’s Pool in the Lord of the Rings movies. In spite of the rainy day there were 2 large buses parked at the trailhead as well, so it must be a popular spot for LOTR fans. With all the rain the falls were really roaring.

Next we went to the National Park Visitor’s Center in Tongariro Park and it ended up being a great visitor’s center. Lots of info about volcanic activity in New Zealand, including a really good movie giving an overview about volcanoes on the island.

From there we drove about half an hour down the road to Tokaanu for the thermal pools there. Along the way the skies briefly cleared at a lookout over LakeTaupo and we took in the scenery. Once at the thermal pools, we reserved a private hot pool for 20 minutes, which entitled us to a dip in the larger pool after. All for $12 NZD ($7 USD)/person. Not a fancy place, but pretty nice to have 2 soaks.

By this time it was 1 p.m. and we decided to get a coffee/tea. We went into nearby Turangi and found a cafe called Hydro, where we had a flat white, iced chai latte and a ham/cheese/tomato toastie. Once again really tasty and very reasonable.

 We stopped at the nearby historic train station on the way back to the Lodge and learned it’s now a cafe serving dinners several times a week. Once back we took advantage of the free laundry service to do a load of clothes and John caught up with his brother.

Closer to 5 p.m. we walked the .4 miles (yes, still in some rain) to The Station Cafe for a really delicious dinner. Salads, a split chicken burger and fries, local beer and wine, followed up by an excellent (shared) roasted banana pudding with butterscotch sauce, coffee and tea.

Back to the Lodge (yay, no rain on the way back!) for the evening. Fingers crossed we’ll find some sun tomorrow!