The photos below use local deciduous trees to indicate where we are situated during the changing season. The Autumn colours were historically a pleasant feature of Turangi, despite the Toe-Paw Council removing many mature trees throughout the township during the last few years. Fortunately, we have a library of Autumn colours from past Aprils to show what it used to look like.

The recent erratic weather pattern has been difficult for tourist anglers and hikers. TV1’s Dan’s usual alarming presentation was even more misleading than usual, emphasising warnings of severe heavy rain and stormy weather in all directions. They might have been justified in the far north and on the Coromandel, but not in Turangi.

We are so smart with the benefit of hindsight. The river flow chart from the last seven days illustrates it better. The few showers are reflected more accurately in the river flow chart. We were more concerned for the Reel Recovery circus last week, which enjoyed splendid fine warm dry weather. The small increase in river flow hardly affected the wading or fishing. The Tongariro River is complicated by how much this increase was purely weather-related and how much might have been redirected via the Poutu Canal to Lake Rotoaira, to spin the turbines at the Tokaanu Power Station.

SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed is Manager of everything here, except the weather) could judge the public response by the number of cancellations for both fishing and the Tongariro Crossing. Now we are heading into Easter, She is under more pressure from tourists seeking a more reliable weather guide. Hence this Easter report.

Usually, once we reach April, the trees’ foliage and changing colours are our best visual indicators of Autumn. This season, we have a typical example from the stand-alone tree below, located in the park on the northern side of the shopping mall. It cannot decide, so it is forced to defying tradition with a compromise, something for everyone, displaying all seasons’ colours, from bare winter branches to green summer leaves to delicately yellowing foliage to full Autumn bloom.

The last 2025-2026 summer season was possibly the worst weather we have seen in Turangi over the last twenty years, and this tree below reflects the confusion better than any description I could compose.

Compare to the foliage colours below from previous April autumn photos.