Day 182 New Zealand, Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

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Hello Bloggers and everyone else,



Today we had a very early wake up for us of 6.30am. We had paid the $30 shuttle bus to pick us up from the Tongariro Holiday Park at 7.10am. We had porridge for breakfast, and packed our bags full of water, pasta, snacks, sun cream and warm clothes then headed off on the bus 30 minutes down the road to the start of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (19.4km).



The weather was perfect, a little cloud that got heavier when up at the top, but we had great views of Mount Doom and all around.



The walk was hard work for the first 3 hours, all up hill with some slippery rocks, ice and snow towards the top.



The photos should speak for themselves. It was spectacular, particularly around the Emerald and Blue lakes.



It took us a few seconds under 5hours to complete it and we were the 3^rd and 4^th down out of the 60 who started. (Neil was 3^rd he ran in front of me)



Tips if you’re doing the crossing

-If you’re planning to take the $30 shuttle from the NP, first try to find another driver so you can take one car to the finish car park and then drive back to the start. As if you are a moderate+ hiker you will have at least an 1h30-2+ wait for the shuttle at the end of your walk, which is a wait outside in the cold!



-Definitely take gloves and a hat and possibly need sun cream



After our 2h15 wait for the shuttle we finally got on the bus with very cold and stiff limbs! We got straight into the camper and hit the road back to Taupo with the heater on high!!!



An hour later, and after a quick stop off at the dump-site we arrived at the free camper park-up in the centre to get the last spot going-pheww!



Neil cooked a cheap pasta meal and then we had a few beers with the film ‘The Maze Runner’ –really good I thought but Neil had read the book and obviously thought that was much better.



Good night



V&N X

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