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Published: October 30th 2010
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So Saturday we were all set to attempt the Tongariro Crossing, reputedly the best 1 day tramp in New Zealand... We left Taupo at 6am arriving at National Park Village (imaginitive name!) before 8 in order to sign in for the guided walk & get kitted out. Seagull had told us walking shoes weren't good enough but our guides seem to disagree & pronounced all our footwear suitable for the tramp. So after a short talk & drive to the start of the walk we were handed ice axes & set off up the mountains! Beautiful views around as it was a crystal clear day with not a cloud in the sky, best day they've had for ages! For the past couple of week's they'd not been able to go up the mountain at all & the day before us they were unable to make the full crossing, we were lucky however & with the help of our ice axes made it up past the snow line, past Red Crater & Central Crater (which isn't actually a real crater!) & down the otherside of Mt Tongariro. Our path started on Mt Ngauruhoe (which should look familar to many of those reading
The walk up
it started off very bare indeed! this...).
The crossing is 19km & takes all day, by the time we returned to the village & checked into The Park lodge we were ready for the $10 Stray menu that awaited us! I took many many photos on the crossing so if you'd like to see more you'll have to wait til I get them up on Flickr or get back to the UK & visit you!
I'd planned to stop off here for a few days to enjoy the walks & scenery & relax for a few days after such a busy week & luckily a few others had similar feeling so myself, Debby, Justin, Cora & Sandra stayed at the lovely lodge (complete with free hot tub!) a further 2 nights, handy as they had a 3 for 2 deal on the accommodation! On the Sunday Debby, Justin & Sandra hired mountain bikes for the afternoon whilst myself & Cora decided to take the gentler option of a 2h stroll up to a lookout point which was good 😊
Monday morning myself, Justin & Sandra were up earliesh to meet the next Stray bus which had arrived for the Crossing, those not doing
the crossing were taking a shorter walk & we had decided to join them. In the end the bus didn't leave for another 2 hours so time to get some tea & chat to mum briefly (hello mum!) before heading up to Whakapapa village (NB: Wh is pronounced F over here....) before heading off to the Taranaki Falls. Having been advised by the receptionist at our lodge to do the walk backwards we did so & she was right! This way you get to walk upstream to the waterfall and get a good view of it in the way. You also get a neasier stroll back to the village. On the way back to the lodge we stopped briefly at the Tawhai Falls aka Gollum's Pool which is a very beautiful spot.
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