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Published: August 3rd 2006
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Tongariro Crossing
Start of the crossing track Next stop
Taupo only 45mins south of Rotorura, the town sits on the edge of
Lake Taupo. A huge lake that was once the site of a massive volcano, before it blew itself to pieces. First night I stayed with the rest of the Stray Bus at Urban Retreat, shite, facilities where bad and a very annoying Kiwi Experience bus had just arrived. Next day I moved into the
Rainbow Lodge, an excellent hostel, nice kitchen, sauna, friendly slackpackers and a couple of hot swedish room mates.
I spent the next week
hanging out at the Rainbow Lodge waiting for the
weather to clear. The
Tongariro Crossing is a 17Km day trek though the Tongariro National Park, passing over spectacular volcanic terrain. You have to be careful with the weather in the mountains as it makes a massive difference to the hiking conditions. The day before I hiked a couple got lost and one died of hypothermia. Pretty much everyone at the hostel was also waiting for the weather to clear so they could either do the Crossing or Sky Dive. Killing time is my forte but after a few days I needed to do something.
Rock & Ropes is
an obstacle course suspended about 30ft above ground! you test your nerves clambering across high wires and leaping from platforms. All good fun and pretty easy for someone of my ability!
Finally the weather cleared and the bus picked us up at 6:30am, dropping us at the Crossing starting point
just before 8am. Although keen to get moving we, that's
Jen (my American hiking/tramping buddy) and myself somehow managed to set off
last. We started walking with a few others from the hostel but the pace was a little slow. The first major obstacle was the
Devil's Staircase. Until then it had been flat easy walking terrain, the Devil's Staircase took a good 30mins to climb and definitely woke us up. Reaching the top brings you to the base of
Mt Ngauruhoe or for anyone who has seen the films
Mt Doom!. One of the side tracks of the Crossing is to climb
Ngauruhoe/Doom, the trekking info reckons you need to start climbing by 8:30 if you want to make the last bus. It was
nearly 9:30am and neither of us had climbed a volcanoe without a guide before. After a quick chat we thought
fuck it lets give
Tongariro Crossing
View from the top of the Devil's Staircase! it a go, we left our packs at the base and headed up! The base is at
1675m and the
summit 2275m, only 600m to climb. There's no marked route you
pick your own path, firstly it was over solid ground this gave way to loose stone. Around this time a cloud came out of nowhere heading straight for us. We sat for a while watching it
stork us, within minutes you couldn't see further than your hand in front of your face.....We continued on hopefully in the right direction,
up. It blew over as quickly as it arrived and could see the top again. The
loose rock was hard work, we often gave each other knowing glances - you alright, shall we carry on??? After chatting with a few people on their way down we pushed on enthusiastically. Clouds came and went,
the views just better - see pics for proof! We could tell we where getting close as the rock had icicles hanging off them.
Reaching the summit and enjoying the panoramic views made the climb well worth the effort.
Mt Doom is a cone shaped volcano with the summit a circle maybe a few hundred meters across
Tongariro Crossing
Mt Ngauruhoe or Mt DOOM! and a narrow ledge running round the outside. You could see right down inside but alas no larva, the best views where of the landscapes and clouds below. We
didn't hang round for long, it was bloody cold and neither of us where wearing anything particularly warm. The descent was quicker but still fairly tricky, you can see how steep it was! The trouble was sliding and falling over, Jen wisely bought
gloves all I had was a plastic bottle to brace my fall.
It took us nearly 3 hours to climb Doom and with most of the trek ahead we pushed on. This did have a nice side effect in that the path was now clear, the pack where well ahead and it felt like having the Tongariro Crossing to ourselves. After Doom we passed through the barren desert track of the south crater to reach the Red Crater and then the Emerald Lakes, coloured by the areas geo-thermal activity. The whole area was a mixture of bright colours and very much reminded me of southern Bolivia. After about 12Km we started to descend and the landscape turned to green vegetation. Finally making it to the pick up
Tongariro Crossing
Jen in action climbing Mt Doom,pretty steep! point just in time for the last bus, 4:30pm. Not bad really
17Km a volcanoe climb in 8hrs!! Arriving back in Taupo Jen drove to a
local hot spring stream so we could relieve those aching muscles. By this point it was dark and had to use torch light to find the stream! Next day was all about chilling out and watching LOTR - every time Mt Doom was shown,
I climbed that!
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Rob Meades
non-member comment
Good to get an update - thought you'd have run out of money and ended-up home before now.