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Other entries in Turangi

The Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro Crossing has been billed as the best one-day walk in NZ. We can't judge, it being our first real walk in NZ, but it was pretty cool. We decided to do the first part of it, just over half, and then come back down, since it would have cost us fifty dollars to get dropped off at one end and picked up at the other and everyone told us that the best stuff was all within the first four hours of the walk. It was awfully cool. The walk took us between two active volcanoes while climbing up an extinct one (we were actually in the crater of it). One of the active volcanoes was Mt Ngauruhoe (2287m high), which Peter Jackson used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. For a lot of the walk it felt like we actually were in Mordor, as we were surrounded by barren, gloomy volcanic landscape. We had thought about climbing Ngauruhoe, but there was a lot of snow on it and when it's snowy climbing it is pretty much restricted to people with avalanche equipment, crampons, and ice picks. So we stuck to Mount Tongariro (1967m high), which involved a fair amount of scrabbling over rocks and pulling ourselves hand-over-hand up some steep bits. When we got to the top, we found a stunning view (see photos) but Mount Doom was obscured by a cloud. Matt pointed out that the cloud seemed to be moving very quickly toward us, and within about three minutes the view was gone (glad we took the pictures first). Thirty seconds afterward, two German guys crested the hill and were disappointed that there was no view. We didn't have the heart to tell them that they'd missed it by less than five minutes. Anyway, within another five we had other problems, because the cloud was upon us and had brought with it a hailstorm. Suddenly the wind, which had already been quite fierce, was howling and tearing at our jackets and we were being pelted by small but stinging hailstones. Within less than half an hour, though, the cloud had passed and taken the hail with it. It was still pretty cold at the top, though, and when we found a warm steam vent Cat pretty much refused to leave. Eventually we moved on to the end of our trail, stopping within sight of the Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake. We collected a few of the tiny dark-red rocks at the top as souvenirs (not many, you conservationist fiends!) and headed back down, stopping to visit the Soda Spring, which were in a really marshy area where Matt sank up to his ankles in cold, sulphur-stinking water. The whole walk took just over eight hours, but the ride home seemed longer by virtue of the simple fact of Matt's now-smelly feet.

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