Blogs from Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

R: It started off by me waking Cate up at 7:50. Never a good start. We were staying in Taupo, a town on the side of Lake Taupo, which is about 70km from the start of the walk. We headed off in the drizzle to the starting point, through a very nice road up to Tongariro national park. The weather was looking grey and wet but I was ever hopeful it might clear. By the time we got to the trailhead, it was bright and sunny! Cate dropped me at the trailhead at about 9:45 and I started the walk about 10am. Its a 19.4km hike over a saddle that sits between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe, which was used as the filming location of Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The terrain ... read more

Beste, Afgelopen weekend hebben we een trip gemaakt die mij wellicht de rest van mijn leven zal bijblijven, afgelopen weekend ben ik een berg opgelopen die onder andere ook gebruikt is door Peter Jackson als decor voor delen van Lord of The Rings: Tongariro National park. Dit tripje begon eigenlijk al heel vroeg in de voorafgaande week, het idee was dat we met een aantal mensen van stage in een hostel verbleven waarna zeer vroeg vertrokken kon worden naar de "Tongariro crossing". Op dat moment wist ik enkel dat dit een van de mooiste plekken op het noorder eiland zou zijn. Er werd mij dan ook met klem aangeraden dit te ondervinden. Ook had ik zo links en rechts opgepikt dat het een tocht van een kleine 19.6 km zou zijn. Maar zoals altijd ben ik ... read more

Sorry for all the photos - just couldn't pick a few it was so amazing!! How to end a holiday of adventure? How to top everything we had done with an achievement and challenge? Well we found the answer…the Tongariro crossing where you walk over an active volcano…because why not! The weather had kicked up and we had 32km winds to contend with but there was no way we weren’t going to make it. So we donned our day packs and hiking boots and set out for our adventure. It started out tame enough but as we climbed higher my thigh started to cramp up – not ideal when faced with 10km of uphill and stairs but I continued on with many stops (thanks for your patience Em!) As we got higher the wind kicked up ... read more

Day three of the Tongariro North Circuit is relatively short at only 8.5 kilometres and, according to the map would be relatively flat. As the weather was forecast to start overcast and turn to rain, we planned to get up early and attempt to make it to the next hut as early as possible. When we woke it was already drizzling so we had a leisurely breakfast instead. We set off walking down the lava field we had traversed the previous evening. Soon this changed into a field of boulders "placed" with explosive force by the volcano. The boulders were generally small, and though haphazardly placed, posed little trouble. The path adopted a gentle downward gradient which was so much easier than the previous day. The boulder field did suddenly get steeper though and dropped down ... read more

The day dawned wet... not the start we wanted for the big expedition we'd been looking forward to since we arrived in New Zealand. We were about to start the four day Tongariro Northern Circuit Great Walk. All of the pictures and the official brochure showed stunning scenery and we were hoping for the same. Preparing for our expedition seemed to take forever and we wondered how we would ever fit all of the paraphernalia and food we needed to keep us alive in all conditions in our packs. Being able to lift them was going to be another problem. It seemed to take forever but finally everything was stowed and loaded on the car. As we drove to Whakapapa Village, the start and end point for the walk, the weather seemed to get worse. We ... read more