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Published: April 2nd 2010
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Day 33 - Mon March 8th
This was the most amazing day of the trip so far - the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19.4km hike between volcanoes.
It was freezing cold when our alarm went off at 5am, so we piled on the layers, shovelled down some museli and got on the bus with the other walkers at 5.40am. We felt a bit bad when one woman wasn’t allowed on the bus because she didn’t have the right shoes, but at least she got to go back to bed! It felt a bit like a school trip on the bus and there was a mixture of apprehension and excitement in the air. We arrived at the start of the trail, got our briefing from the hostel owner who had done the walk many, many times before (his fastest time being 1hr 25!) and then set off into the darkness at 6.15am. It was still misty but luckily we had our head torches to find our way, unlike a German couple who were walking very close behind us in order to use our light! The first part was quite flat, a slight incline, but we were soon warming up and
before long had to take off one of our many layers of clothing. The mist was soon lifting and the sun started to rise. Apparently there can be up to 800 walkers on this track in the summer, so we were glad to be the first of ten or so people on the track as we hardly saw anyone and didn’t have to worry about people getting in the way of our photos, of which we took a fair few!
After about an hour we came to a big sign that said turn back if you are not prepared/fit enough, so the big climb was about to begin and what a climb it was. We had to stop every few minutes because the steep inclines and steps killed our lungs and legs. But we finally made it to the top of the first section and the sun was almost covering the mountain so the view was great. Because of the volcanic rock nothing much grows here, so it felt like what you imagine the moon surface to be like, quite barren and as we walked across the south crater, it was all quite surreal.
Unfortunately we then had
to face another climb, with no real path, just rocks and the occasional post to follow before we made it to red crater. It was another uphill struggle, with several stops for breathers, but we made it in the end. We were just walking around this crater rather than across and it was the highest point on the track at 1,886 metres. It didn’t look very red when we walked passed, maybe due to the way the sun was shining, but when we had walked further on and looked back you could see the vibrant colour - awesome. So after the highest point it was time to head downhill and this is where the fun began because the incline down was very steep and there was no path just very loose stones to slide on. So it was really a case of finding the deepest section of stones and trying to slide your feet down into it. The area was quite narrow though and so any trip or tumble could result in a very big drop down the side. We both had a few slips, but luckily just landed on our bums rather than sliding off the volcano. The up
side was the view we had over the amazing Emerald Lakes which were just sparkling as it was now clear blue skies with no clouds at all. We made it safely down the shingle cliff, walked past the Emerald Lakes and on to Blue Lake where we had our lunch stop, even though it was only 10am! But we were feeling pretty elated now, having done the main slog and just enjoyed our surroundings. Despite the clear blue skies it was still quite windy at the top, so we kept putting layers on and then taking them off again.
It was mainly downhill from thereon in, firstly we zig-zagged down a long path to one of the department of conservation huts where people can stay overnight if they are doing longer walks. Amy was tempted to use the toilets until she saw the humungous swarm of flies buzzing around outside and decided to wait a bit longer! We knew the first bus pick up time was 12.30pm and we were more or less on time to make it, so we picked up the pace a little and were even running down the little sets of ladder steps we encountered
along the way. The path then led into a forest which was shady and cool but we kept up our step running throughout the never ending path and it started to feel like a game of snakes and ladders (luckily without the snakes)! So we finally made it to the end at 12.15pm. 6 hours of walking in total and we had weary legs and hot feet to show for it, but it was the most amazing experience.
Covered in mountain dust, we jumped in the showers back at the campsite and then decided not to stick around but drive on to Wanganui in order to break up the drive to Wellington that we were headed for tomorrow.
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Mummy Webster
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Very very impressed!!