Tongariro Crossing

This weekend I did my first REAL day hike at Tongariro National Park, about 4.5 hours north of Wellington. It was the fourth national park established in the world and has 3 active volcanic mountains within it's grounds. The hike is 17kms long, starts at an elevation of around 800m, rises to 1900m, and then descends back down around 600m. The suggested hike time is 7-9 hours. I went up with Lance (my juggling officemate), his wife Erika (a food scientist who developed the Clif Bar), and Shannon (another colleague and also their housemate). We finished the hike in 7 hours flat...and my legs are still sore 2 days later!

The hike starts out "relatively" flat, covering dirt and gravel trails as well as a small section of boardwalk over damp soil. After an hour or so, you've walked 400m higher. Ground cover is lichen or moss and with the morning sun reflecting off it, looks kind of like snow...or cinnamon powder?


While on this easier flat section, you get a glimpse of the impending doom. Mt. Ngauruhoe in the distance. It peaks at 2287m and is an additional 3 hour return hike if you want extra punishment.


Fun's over...welcome "The Devil's Staircase". Climbing from around 1200m up to 1600, it is the first of two steep and more difficult sections. Imagine your worst Stairmaster session at the gym, and instead of pedals, you're climbing on or around volcanic boulders. The 'way up' is always designated by wooden posts with little orange markers, but the actual route you take is up to you. Lance and Shannon pause to throw on an extra layer somewhere on the Devil's Staircase. You really fee the change in temperature as you climb higher.

Mt. Ngauruhoe draws nearer. A couple of other hikers take a breather on the volcanic rocks. Not really that comfortable, but some have little cushions of grass growing on them.








While you're catching your breath on the Staircase, if it's a clear day you can turn around and see Mt. Taranaki in the distance, I'm guessing about 150kms away on the edge of the West Coast. You can see it here from the top of the Staircase where you enter into the South Crater, a short flat section before the second difficult section.

This second difficult section takes you the rest of the way up about 300m to the peak of the hike at the Red Crater, 1900m above sea level. The trail gets narrow in sections and follows the exposed ridge face of the volcano, meaning it can be a bit windy. Trail sections are "scree" or loose gravel and rocks, and dirt...or mud in some areas where icy patches have melted in the sun. Here's a tighter little section of the trail along the ridge..."don't look down...don't look down".


Once you get to the top the prize view is revealed, the Red Crater. I'm not actually sure why it's red. I would guess something to do with minerals. It's cold and windy up there. For an idea of scale, you can see tiny people crossing the ridge on the left side of the picture. The wispy stuff is steam venting out of the ground...hmmm...I guess I really am standing on an active volcano.

A little closer look as Lance and Shannon make their way through the steam, on the verge of the descent! The steam makes for a good hand warmer, and if you put your hand directly on the soil, it's pretty hot to the touch. Hot enough that you can't leave your hands there too long.



Finally! No more climbing...sort of. The descent starts down a steep face of loose gravel and "scoria" (kind of like pumice, basically ejected volcanic magma). About 300m straight down are the Emerald Lakes, coloured so by the minerals leaching from the surrounding area. Not to forget lots of smelly sulphur from all the steam vents.

Lance, Erika and Shannon taking in the view. I guess maybe I should've photoshopped myself into this picture :(






Leaving the Emerald Lakes is a short descent into the Central Crater, a HUGE flat section covered in thick dirt. It collects on the soles of your shoes making them heavy as bricks. The dark ground on the right side of the picture is an old lava flow from the Red Crater, seen in the background.


A short climb after the flat section leads up to the Blue Lake, an acidic lake that is considered sacred by the indigenous Maori people. Eating along the shores is forbidden as such, so we stopped further back around the edge to have a quick lunch. Two sandwiches, two bananas, an apple and some water.

So you'd think the rest of the way would be easy street since it's all downhill. Not really. By this time my legs were completely exhausted and I had to stop every once in a while to stretch my quads to keep them from cramping up. A constant downhill slope puts a lot of stress on your knees and a constant burn on your leg muscles. It was a zig zag trail, downhill on a narrow dirt and boulder path, cut deep into the hillside, with long grasses about chest height at times. In sections it was a gravel path compacted on sheets of honeycombed plastic (to keep the surface from blowing away), with short sections of wood and rock steps built in for the steeper sections...with the drop on the last step being a good 2 or 3 feet sometimes. When your legs feel like jello, jumping off the last step isn't that reassuring. Then the very last section wound it's way through the forest for an hour or so, along side a stream, and then all of a sudden it spits you out into the parking lot at the end...where our car was waiting parked for us. We had dropped it off at the end and taken a shuttle to the start of the trail. That way we wouldn't have to wait hours for the scheduled shuttles that bring you back to your car at the start, or the place you were staying in town.

When we got back into Wellington later that evening, we stopped off for Lebanese food (lamb kebab...mmmmmm), and as a reward for 4 tired hikers, a little gelato at Kaffee Eis...THE BEST gelato in town. My usual, a single cup with hazelnut on one side, and lemon on the other. The alternating sweet and sour combo makes each flavour that much better :)

And a couple last snaps for the day. Lance, Shannon and Erika.