Page 45 - Travel Leisure - USA (February 2020)
P. 45
From far left: Mount Ruapehu,
in New Zealand’s Tongariro
National Park; the Northern
Explorer train, which traverses
the North Island.
shrubs lining the tracks were known
as pukeko. There were starlings and E X P E R I E N C E S
sparrows like the ones we have back
home in England. Nineteenth-century
Brits devoted unconscionable energy
to making New Zealand look like
home, and at a cursory glance farming
areas could be the Cotswolds or the
Yorkshire Dales. But then comes an
outburst of cabbage trees or a
gathering of hopbushes, the rise of
bright wings, and always that birdsong.
North Island landscapes vary
quickly, however, and by the time we
got to Tongariro National Park, the
landscape was more like southeastern
Iceland. Both are active volcanic
terrains where lava fields surge
A DIFFERENT TUNE
between mountains, and both lie in
On New Zealand’s wild and lush North Island, SARAH MOSS cool temperate zones where rain on
journeys through snowcapped mountain ranges and tranquil rich soil nurtures distinctive plants,
vineyards—following the sound of exotic birdsong all the way. insects, and birds. We stayed at
Chateau Tongariro Hotel (chateau.co.nz;
doubles from $79), a neo-Georgian
palace implausible amid heather and
UR FIRST NIGHT in New Zealand, there was low cloud. It was built in the 1920s, a
O hooting in the darkest hours, from nearer pioneer of luxury tourism in New
and farther around the flowering gardens Zealand (I later found an early menu
of suburban Auckland. Come dawn, more of a chorale displayed in Te Papa, the national
than a chorus. I got up, leaving my 12-year-old son, museum in Wellington), and continues
Felix, sleeping the sleep of the jet-lagged preteen, the traditions of that era. There’s
and ran along streets of pastel-painted wooden elaborate plasterwork on
houses, down through a park whose trees I couldn’t monumentally high ceilings, a sweeping
name, to the shore of the Pacific Ocean, which I was staircase, and enormous windows
seeing for the first time. framing views of Mount Ruapehu.
I was making stops in Auckland and Wellington on We arrived in rain—the North
a book tour, and had decided to slip a week’s vacation Island is as green as England, and for
with Felix in between. We took the train 400 miles the same reason—but as we set out
across the North Island, with a visit to Tongariro from the hotel gardens on one of the
National Park along the way. There were some locals hiking trails, the sun came out,
onboard the Northern Explorer—one couple attending highlighting shades of sedge green and
a high school reunion and another, greeted by name buttercup yellow on the rain-washed
by the guard, on their way to visit grandchildren—but moorland. Snow-covered mountains
it’s mostly a tourist line, leisurely and comfortable, appeared behind the high heath where
offered as an experience of landscape as much as an we were walking, but the gorse was in
efficient mode of transport. Carriage windows curve bloom and trees in full leaf. A marsh
up to the roof, and there’s an outdoor viewing platform harrier wheeled overhead, its piping
where you can rush from side to side, wind in hair and call belying serious hunting skills.
camera in hand, as mountain ranges rise and The next day, we were shuttled to
woodlands pass at a speed compatible with bird- the town of Pipiriki to take a jet-boat
spotting. We had a bird book, and learned that the trip with Whanganui River Adventures
large, blue-breasted swamphens puttering around the (whanganui river adventures.co.nz). I’d
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIERAN E. SCOTT T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 41
