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Published: August 27th 2007
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Taupo We arrived in Taupo in the afternoon and decided to walk along the river to the Huka Falls, taking in a ninety year old man bungy jumping into the river (he's braver than me!). The walk was very pleasent, meandering along the river with its fantastic colours. There is even a hot water spring that joins the river, where quite a few locals were gathered for a soak. It was a hot day, so we didn't fancy joining them.
Our bed for the next couple of nights was at Rainbow Lodge. The room was great, very good value but the kitchen was a bit on the small side and we had to wait until 9.30pm for a free cooker and some clean pans. This was a pain in the arse, as we had to get up really early the next day (5.30am) and wanted to eat early, but that's just how it is sometimes.
Tongariro Crossing The reason for our early rise was to complete what is billed as one of New Zealand's most famous and spectacular one day walks, the Tongariro Crossing. At 18kms (about 13 miles), crossing active volcanic terrain, this was to be
a challenge. We started the walk at 8.30am and we were lucky - the weather was fine, as forecast. Up here the weather can change very quickly from sunshine to being in the cloud with very little visibility (which really ruins your day out/the views) or even blizzard conditions. We'd checked the forecast the day before committing to it, but even that's no guarantee!
Of course, the problem with a walk like this is once you've parked up, how do you get back to your car without walking back?! Fortunately, a number of tour operators offer various bus services. We drove ourselves to Whakapapa (1 and half hours from Taupo), with the first sign of civilisation seeing the slightly out of place image of a huge Chateau overshadowed by the enormous Mt. Raupehu ski resort. We parked up opposite the Chateau and took the bus to the start of the walk at Mangatepopo road end.
The first part of the walk eases you in with a slight uphill climb. Then we got to the serious climb after Mangatepopo Hut (the last toilet stop for some distance!). From here we climbed up in altitude by about 450m to South
Crater. The amazing views of Mt. Ngauruhoe (used as Mt. Doom, Mordor in Lord of the Rings) and the snow capped Mt. Raupehu kept us going. You had to really watch your footing, otherwise you sent loose boulders down on those behind you! After some huffing and puffing (actually, rather a lot of puffing) we made it to the top (or saddle) and took a brief rest to admire the views. I took a longing glance up to the 2-3 hour diversion up to the crater rim of Mt. Doom. It looked incredibly steep with only scree to walk on. I could just about make out some dots as people making the climb. I took my hat off to them as I decided against making the extra journey I so wanted to make and took one last longing glance up at what might have been, as Sally dragged me onwards! The road ahead was refreshingly flat for a short time, although we could soon see the next big climb up - to the Red Crater. Here we would reach the summit of our walk at 1,900m.
When we reached the top of Red Crater the views were amazing. I
took a closer inspection of the Red Crater and could see it steaming away up one side. Certainly that all too familiar smell from Rotorua of sulphur was evident up here. Then we had the 200m steep descent from Red Crater to the Emerald Lakes...Sally hated this bit! The route down was on scree. You basically did a controlled slide all the way, as there was very little to get any grip on. A kind fellow walker took pity and lent Sally his hiking stick which sped her up no end : from taking 6 times longer than everyone else to 4 times longer! My hand was squeezed within an inch of requiring amputation, gaining only short relief as I insisted on taking the walk defining photo of the Emerald Lakes. By the time I'd got Sally to the lakes, the guy had enjoyed a good rest and was ready to go again, so quite rightly wanted his stick back!! Again, we only stopped for a brief rest as we could see the next (and final) climb ahead of us up to the Blue lake.
The hard climbs were out the way now, although Sally was now fearing a
scree infested descent. So was I...this could be a really long day - and we hadn't brought overnight gear! Before finding out, we had lunch by the Blue lake and soaked up the amazing views of the various peaks all lined up in a row for us, just begging to be photographed. The descent was very long (1,000m drop in altitude from Blue Lake to the end - Ketetahi car park), but was much easier going for Sally (and my squeezed hand) than the scree. Again, the views down to the valleys were incredible. The path zig-zagged its way down to the Ketetahi hut for a good hour. On the way down we got further reminders that we were on active volcanoes, eventually passing a steamy hot spring and rocks with colours and smells reminiscent of Rotorua and the volcanic valleys. Eventually the path descends on ever increasingly large 'steps' formed into the path. Fortunately I have long legs, but for those that don't some of these required a small ladder! We dropped into forest without warning, passing further evidence of old lava flows and for a short time the path wound its way very scenically along a mountain stream.
By this stage we were running on empty and I was glad Sally talked me out of doing the additional side trek up to the Mt. Doom crater. The path continued to go unrelentingly downwards. And then, out of the blue, we heard music to our ears : a bus sounding it's horn!! This meant we were closing in on the car park that marked the end of our amazing 18km tramp. We were absolutely knackered, but it was worth it for each and every view. I've done my best to capture the flavour of this great walk through words and photos, but actually you need to do it yourself - no photos can do justice to the panoramic views. Just make sure you can pick a day when the weather is good. I spoke to people that did the walk the day after and saw nothing.
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