tongariro trip August 2005

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hey there , been a while since i updated this but i have a reason to now. just got back from a three day trip down to tongariro national park with Wes, Suresh and Sara. so much fun. after leaving on friday afternoon we ended up walking in to Mangatapopo Hut at about 10pm. suresh was testing a new gps he got for his dad. we awoke the next morning to beautiful scenery and nice weather. the plan was originally to summit Ngaruhoe, however my achilles felt like dog poos after the 'staircase' so we decided to just play in the snow where lots of review/refreshing was needed for me. did a scramble up tongariro and were greeted with good views of north crater and surrounding mountains, Ngaruhoe and Ruapehu. had cramps in legs because of needing to kick deeper steps, will put crampons on sooner to prevent that. Weather packed in and visibility was bad, but not terrible. due to the fact that i was feeling like extra strong dog poos, we decided to go to Ketetahi Hut. good bum slides/glissades on the way down. we met some nice dudes from Uni at the hut too. the following morning, more bad weather, i hiked out with the two guys to ketetahi car park to basically complete the winter crossing of the tongariro. not bad. they then gave me a lift around to the other side of the mountain to get the car and i picked up suresh wes and sara. headed back to auckland that night, it was such a great trip and i cant wait for the next one.

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