Above is the real Tongariro River Motel (TRM).  Photos below are not.  SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed manages everything in the Central Plateau Tongariro National Parks region) needs to explain…

SWMBO apologises to all prospective guests that were turned off by the photos which were somehow mistakenly placed on TRM website booking engines – such as Booking-dot-com, Expedia, etc. to illustrate what TRM is supposed to look like?

Now that it is the end of the busy tourist season we can now understand why TRM had some vacancies.  Would you want to stay there?  It looks a dump!  It is.

TRM have just discovered the photos below that were placed on TRM’s website listings as being representative of the accommodation at TRM were DOC tramping huts…???

The photos were always headed by the image above of the neglected empty DOC tramping hut located at Waihohonu on the Tongariro Northern Circuit track.

But it gets worse.  This hut had been abandoned by DOC and replaced with their “Tongariro Hilton” which also features together with some interior images which suggest TRM was more like a back packers camp?.

This Tongariro Hilton is almost ridiculous compared to other huts throughout the National Park.

We understand it was specially built when Helen Clark decided to stay a night?  But that might be just sour grapes.

We prefer the story that it was built by DOC in anticipation of approval being given to bike access across the National Park from the Desert Road to Whakapapa.  DOC knew it would be so popular they built this accommodation to cope with the increase of hikers in helmets.

It is wonderful to see our taxes spent so wisely.

As TRM have advertised it on our website booking engine for the last six months it is only fair that DOC send us their usual booking fee?

If DOC had been trying to impress trampers they would have built it on the Tongariro Crossing – the most popular one day walk in NZ.

In this Christmas – New Year peak season after being closed for rain the next day they counted over 4,000 walkers.

That is why TRM have their optional tracks programme for trampers who are trying to escape and get away from the crowds.  Many tell us it is much better and more enjoyable with more variety than the Tongariro Crossing.

Some of the best trails are not on the maps.  OK?  Just ask SWMBO.

Then, finally, just to indicate how ancient TRM is they added another.  This was the original historic Waihohonu hut which was an overnight stop for the horse drawn stage coach wagon on the way from Tokaanu in those days to link to the Wanganui River steamer.

The usual north-south route in those days was from Taupo township – then a military outpost – across Lake Taupo to Tokaanu.

It might have been better if they had just featured the historical hut as it would obviously have been a deliberate spoof?

So SWMBO apologises for misleading you into thinking that the motel was similar to a remote tramping hut.

Once again our champion IT lady Christina McIntyre (redDog puts out all our fires) managed to remove them and replace them with real TRM images.

To clear up the confusion at top is the real thing.  Just to try to win back some brownie points, for Wendy below are two of Her hanging baskets.  The wind has been trying to spoil them but they still look so beautiful.  They don’t have any like that at the Tongariro Hilton.  Just tussock…