Silica Rapids Walk

On Mt Ruapehu (in the central North Island) there is a 4.7 km round-trip to visit the Silica Rapids.  My daughter and I made this walk in the autumn of 2006.

Some of the track leads through patches of native bush.

This area with its swampy seepage ponds reminded me of some scenes in the Lord Of The Rings movies.

There is a lookout over the silica rapids.  The creamy-coloured deposits in the rapids are caused by aluminosilicate in the water.  The reddish orange on the rocks is caused by iron oxide.

Some of the walk is on hilly terrain (it is a mountain, after all!) and these steps lead down into and over the Tawhainui Stream Gorge.

Another stretch of boardwalk led across more swampy land, before the track joined the road and headed back down to the Chateau where the walk had begun.

Apart from the rain that dogged us, this was a most enjoyable walk.  There is something special about getting up into hills at higher altitudes – must be some of my Scottish Highlander ancestry making itself felt!

There are scattered showers floating around our city today.  So far all we have had at home here is a couple of minutes of very light rain at 10am, but that is better than nothing and I know other places have had more.  I hope some of the drought areas are receiving some of it.

Margaret.


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