The Introduction to TONGARIRO Skulduggery spells it out:

“This intriguing story about the Tongariro River is to explore many other fishy issues and to weld them into a fictitious plot, starting on a memorable trout fishing trip. Warning – Like most fishing tales, some of it may be all lies…”

“The “mockumentary” style uses the form of a documentary to satirize the rest of the Turangi establishment. It is all true, except where I lied.”

One thing we did not lie about was the intention to somehow donate profits back into the Tongariro River environment. Our first attempt failed. We asked DOC (the Department of Conservation manage the fishery and the angler access tracks including the Tongariro River Trail) if we could install tourist information panels along the river to describe the history of some of the pools. The original track and some of these pools are over 100 years old and tourists love to read the historical background.

All other bike trails have similar interesting information panels except the Tongariro River Trail. Tourists often ask who was the “Admiral” of Admiral’s Pool, who was Major Jones, who was the Duchess, why was it called “The Sly Grog Pool” or the “Cattle Rustlers Pool”? etc. Sadly, DOC declined, but that was three years ago and we have not given up.

More recently on the update of the “Tongariro Bucket List” map (- 50 pools to fish before you die) we introduced new names such as the “Daisy Pool”, just above the SH1 road bridge. This resulted in many questions about where the name came from. The old geezers who claimed squatters residential rights to the pool – see photo above – call it the “Gold Card” Pool. We referred them to the 100-year-old history of the river when the Daisy name was gazetted. That is a typical ideal location where an information panel would be devoured by the tourist walkers and bikers on the Tongariro River Trail.

We considered installing a seat there too but with the public visual exposure to SH1 bridge we were afraid it would not last long… i.e. certain local feral kids would soon trash it.

As TRM could not get an official blessing or DOC’s permission, sometimes these improvements to the Tongariro River environment just happen anyway. There are now two seats installed for anglers or walkers overlooking the river. They were converted from obsolete Whakapapa ski chair lifts – replaced with the sky waka – with the swing safety bar reused as the base.

We were delighted to find one pretty clearing with good views over the river developed by local residents as a picnic spot. What an ideal location, so another seat has mysteriously popped up there.

If you discover them on your next tramp – when exploring all the angler access tracks off the main trails – please keep their location secret for obvious reasons… You cannot walk by and miss them – one has now been attractively suitably enhanced with a snowboard and skis to indicate its heritage.

PS Copies of TONGARIRO Skulduggery are still for sale at TRM reception – with all profits going into similar projects.