This is IT. Tongariro Crossing day! 12 miles and 3,300 of elevation gain await us. We’ve wanted to do this hike for so long!
The alarm went off at 5:30 am. A nutritious breakfast of milk and hot cross buns before jumping on the shuttle bus to the trailhead. The hotel and shuttle was run by a Swiss lady who in true Swiss style wasn’t about to put up with tardiness. She said the bus would leave at 6 am and it did leave at precisely 6 am, you could see her counting down the seconds on her watch!
We were dropped off in silent darkness with just enough dawn light to see the slightest hint of volcanoes in the distance and the promise of an epic day.
There’s something about being on the trail before the sun is up, it’s a very special time of day and a magical feeling.
The first part of the walk was a steady hike to Mangatepopo Valley, the fact that there was only a little elevation gain made it a good warm up for the miles to come. After about 90 minutes the sun was climbing higher in the sky as we started to climb steadily to South Crater and the views across to Mount Taranaki all the way over on the west coast opened up.
We passed Mount Ngauruhoe on our right and opted out of making the 3 hour side trip ascent, we had neither the time or the inclination after hearing how rocks and scree the size of small cars regularly become dislodged and many hikers have been injured or worse; we were happy to keep hiking the main trail, that was adventure enough!
From South Crater we continued onto Red Crater and despite the fair weather, the wind whipped around us the higher we went and we were so happy we had windproof jackets and beanies to keep us warm, oh, and more hot cross buns too!
Red Crater was the highest point at 6,200ft and from here the trail descended steeply on loose scree down to the stunning Emerald Lakes. This descent was probably the most challenging part of the hike; scree is always tough on the legs and at this steepness my legs were like jelly by the time we got to Emerald Lakes not to mention my brain which hurt from concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other without sliding down the side of the crater!
We found a spot out of the wind and enjoyed the stunning scenery until we felt ready to continue on through the Central Crater, past Blue Lake and eventually zigzagged our way down to tundra, steaming sulfurous vents and finally into the forests and the end of the trail.
Not wanting to spend another night at the charmless Discovery Lodge and despite being tired we decided to drive on to Taupo, especially when we heard that the Top Ten Holiday Park had thermal hot pools and a swim up bar. Not our usual style but we felt strangely drawn after a long day of hiking.
When we got to the Top Ten we took a deep breath, navigated through the Disneyesque check-in, got our gate passes (gate passes!) and found our allocated tent pitch. Despite the holiday park style of the place, we can’t deny that we didn’t love the hot pools, the swim up bar, the spotless and well-appointed kitchens, the HUGE shower cubicles with endless hot water and the BBQ/picnic area.
Tired from our long day, we were almost asleep on our plates after a lamb steak and a couple of glasses of wine and were tucked up asleep in our tent before the sun had set.