Taupo and the Tongariro Crossing

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We arrived in Taupo on January 28th and stayed there for three nights. Taupo is right next to Lake Taupo which is a 600 square kilometre lake that formed due to the volcanic eruptions. As we drove into town our bus driver told us that it's expected to erupt every 2000 years and it had been 2000 years since the last one - I'm not sure if he was joking or not when he said that. Anyways, it's thanks to this volcano that New Zealand didn't have any mammals on it when humans arrived - it apparently killed off everything when it erupted.

We decided that we would do the Tongariro Crossing on our first full day in Taupo. It's supposed to be in the top 5 of the best day hikes in the world so we couldn't resist. The crossing took us 7 hours and 12 minutes to complete and we were completely exhausted by the end of the day. We were picked up from our hostel at 6:20 am and taken out to the mountains so that we could walk across the top of Tongariro. Our walk started out pretty well, with a nice hour and a half walk through the valley but then our walk got a lot more difficult when we reached the Devil's Staircase. You can imagine what that was like. There were a million stairs built on the mountain to get up to the next plateau which was an hour's climb away. By the time we got to the top of those bad boys, I was ready to quit but you had to keep going or else we'd miss the bus home at the end of the day. Next, we got to catch our breath while we walked through another flat part but unfortunately, it was only a 30 minute walk and then we were at our final climb. Now this climb was even worse than the Devil's Staircase - it wasn't as physically challenging but it was very scary. It was litterally on the side of the mountain, the wind was blowing so hard, it was just loose dirt so we were constantly sliding back down the hill, and it was so steep we pretty much had to climb it.

When we finally got to the top, we were rewarded with some really nice views of the surrounding mountains, one of which was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings (it's real name is Mount Ngaurhoe..pronounced Nair-a-howie). We ate our lunch at the top of the mountain and froze because of all the wind. Then as Lindsay so aptly put it "we got the hell out of there". You would think that the walk down would be a breeze after the walk up but that was not the case (at least not at the start). When we saw the way down, we just had to swear. It was more loose dirt and at least a 65 degree angle with sheer drops on either side of the path. It took us quite a bit of time to work our way down that part of the mountain and I felt quit a bit like a mountain goat. Anyways, after that our walk got much easier and also much more boring because all of the nice scenery was behind us. That night when we got back to the hostel we pretty much just went to bed.

The next day in Taupo, we decided to take it easy after our adventure, so we just hung out in the park all day. Oh, and Lindsay bought a new camera since her's broke while we were luging in Rotorua. That night, we hung out at the hostel and played cards with some guys we met from Canada and the US.

Overall, our stay in Taupo was very nice from the walk over a mountain to hanging out by the pretty lake. Until next time!

-Carole & Lindsay

ps- pictures will be coming soon so be sure to check back!

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Photos

Tongariro Crossing
Carole trying not to slide to her death

Emerald Lakes
Smelly sulfur lakes. Pretty though.

The Devil's Staircase
This isn't even half of it.

At the top of the devil's staircase
That's Mount Doom in the background for you LOTR fans.

Mount Doom
Also known as Mt Ngaurahoe

This was the way down...
This picture doesn't really capture how steep the way down was...but trust me, it was steep.

The way down
Well, the worst of it anyway

In front of Lake Taupo
This was our recovery day.