2009 Expedition: The Tongariro Crossing and Mt Ruapehu

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November 3, 2009

I spent the first two weeks of my time here in New Zealand being a tour guide for my Mom and Aunt Betty, as we put 4500 km (about 2500 miles) on a rental car trying to see as much of the country as possible. It was a great time, but by the end of it, I was looking forward to getting off the roads and into the wilderness.
After dropping off my Mom and Aunt at the airport in Auckland, I met up with Eric at Nigel and Tamara’s house- friends we met during our last trip. We spent two nights with them, hanging around the city, getting haircuts on the deck, and enjoying fantastic hospitality. Then, yesterday morning, we caught a bus out of the city to get to Turangi, a town that sits near the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing. After picking up our food for the next five days, we were set for the 7am departure for the track the next morning.
We were back at it again with our first day of official backpacking, and we started the trip off right with the Tongariro Circuit, one of the most famous hikes in New Zealand. We did this hike last time, but it was one of my favorites, so we decided to do it a second time to experience the beauty of this place once more. We weren’t let down. The lingering clouds lifted as we climbed to the saddle and we were greeted with spectacular views down both sides of this line of volcanoes.
The terrain around this area is very unique, and has the sort of look that I imagine you would find on Mars, dry landscapes of reddish-brown rock with remnants of volcanic flows coming off all sides of the mountain. It’s very beautiful, but I can see how it could be an inhospitable place in worse weather conditions. Winds are known to kick up to gale force, and there can even be heavy snow in the middle of summer. Fortunately, the weather forecast is fine today and tomorrow, but we’ve got five nights around Ngarahoe and Ruapehu (two of the volcanoes) so things could change during that time.
It feels good to be back in the rugged backcountry again. I was fortunate to have had the chance to do this two years ago, and I feel very fortunate that I am able to do a trip like this a second time.

November 4, 2009

I had forgotten how welcome a sight a hut can be after a long, hard day of hiking. By the time we arrived at the Rangipo Hut today, I was beyond exhausted and felt as though one more step might actually be physically impossible.
Our hike today, while scenic, was probably one of the more challenging ones we’ll do for the next while. It was 14 miles of consistently undulating terrain. Our route continued south, away from Ngarahoe, and sidled along Ruapehu, a monster of a volcano. As with most volcanoes, Ruapehu has a never-ending series of valleys leading off the mountainside, which have been carved out by lava flows. These valleys make for amazing sights, but prove very challenging to continually climb and descend.
After eight hours, we arrived at the hut, where I deposited myself on a bench for at least half an hour trying to gather my remaining strength to cook dinner. We ended up sharing the hut tonight with a mother and son from Auckland, who were a pleasant change from the company at the hut last night. Last night, English was the minority language to German by a count of five to two. Sometimes with the amount of Germans here in the country, it feels like you’re not even visiting New Zealand at all.
We cooked a filling dinner of breakfast burritos and played some dice until it got dark. Sleep came easy after this long day of walking.

November 5, 2009

When I arranged our transportation from the end of this track, I budgeted five days for us around the mountain thinking that we would use one of the days to summit one of the volcanoes. Now that we’re here though, we see that there is too much snow to make a summit attempt possible. So today became a rest day, which was much needed after yesterday’s arduous journey.
A rest day at a beautifully situated hut in the mountain sounds like a good thing, but the reality of today was a little less than ideal. Last time in this country I became accustomed to having a large selection of magazines, Reader’s Digests, and books that people had left at the huts to choose from. It was an unpleasant surprise to learn that the Department of Conservation (DoC) has been on a mission to remove all the literature from the huts for some unknown reason. So with no options for reading since I didn’t bring a book, I had to instead pass the time in other ways: staring at the wall, playing and giving up on the most frustrating game of sudoku ever, chopping firewood, more wall-staring, attempting the sudoku puzzle once more before throwing it on the floor in disgust, asking Eric what time we should start dinner for the sixth time, and finally finishing the damn sudoku puzzle after starting over four times and spending three hours agonizing over it.
And then, just like that, the day was over in the blink of an eye (not really). We cooked dinner and were chatting with two other Americans that had joined us at the hut. The legs are feeling better after a day of rest, so I guess sitting around had a few benefits. Hiking again tomorrow should feel good.

November 6, 2009

It was good to find the roof of the hut still attached this morning after the winds from last night. It was so loud that sleeping was actually difficult through most of the early morning hours. The wind had barely eased up by the time we began our hiking for the day around 9am.
Continuing though the Rangipo Desert, we picked our way through barren rock fields with Mount Ruapehu constantly to our right. The only strenuous part of today’s walking was an enormous gorge that we encountered about an hour in. It was incredibly wide, probably an eighth of a mile, and about 500-600 feet deep. Traversing it took 45 minutes, but after that, it was relatively easy walking. The rocky desert abruptly gave way to beech forest, and soon we were on the southern side of the volcano and into wetter and muddier conditions. It took about two more hours of climbing up and down a few smaller gullies, many thankfully with boardwalks placed to help get over the mud, but eventually we arrived at the Mangahuehu Hut with time for a leisurely afternoon. We’ve got spectacular views of the both volcano and also out towards the plains.

November 7, 2009

Our last day on this track was quick and easy. More mud and boardwalks, but soon we were at the mountain road where the first car to pass by gave us a lift down into town. With a few hours to kill before our bus came, I tried to make a call using Skype from a computer at a local establishment. I walked in, saw the web cam on the computer and thought, “Great. This will be easy,” since I’ve had some trouble finding computers set up correctly to use Skype. So I paid the lady working there for an hour of internet time and sat down to use it. When I got on the computer and pulled up Skype, the camera worked, but there was no microphone to capture sound. The camera only captured video and needed a supplementary microphone. Starting to get frustrated, I went back to the employee and asked for the microphone. She told me they didn’t have one, but it was clear she just didn’t know where it was and didn’t care. So the conversation continued like this:
“But people use the computer for calling, right?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then how do they speak into the computer without a microphone?”
“I don’t know.”
“You work here, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me anything helpful?” I was getting annoyed.
“I’m not sure, there’s a camera I think.”
“Yes I know there’s a camera, but that’s not helpful without a microphone unless I’m using sign language to communicate. I like to speak during my phone calls.”
“I guess I just don’t know much about this place.”
And just as she said this and walked away, the surreal moment was topped off by the song “Sweet Caroline,” which came blasting out of the speakers without warning. And as the line “Good times never seemed so good” was playing, I realized that I found yet one more place in New Zealand where things are just a little off.
We caught our bus and traveled to Levin, where we will restock for the next track- three nights in the Tararua Mountains.

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