Blogs from Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 29

And there we were 20 kilometers into the bush in our backcountry hut. We had just woken up from a night of wine-drinking and tale-telling with bunch of Dutch, Kiwi and English. Garth, a Kiwi dairy farmer, had given us lessons on how to birth a cow. Heald, a Dutch actuary, enlightened us with the immigration policies of Holland. And I never said a word about Bush. We were packed and ready for the infamous Tongariro Crossing, a New Zealand Great Hike at 9000ft elevation that crosses Hot Thermal Pools spitting steam and bubbling sulphur, volcanic lakes and craters, not to mention the volcanos themselves. Clad in rain gear and thermal jackets, we made our way, when suddenly, we were passed by a couple wearing jeans, a polo sweater and carrying a purse. Huh? We looked ... read more

Another long weekend trip with the Auckland YHA - this one was over Labour Weekend 22-24 October 2005. Tongariro National Park was the first national park to be established in New Zealand, and the fourth in the world. It is one of only twenty sites worldwide that have been given dual World Heritage status - both natural and cultural. It consists of 79598 hectares, and is best known for the volcanic peaks of Mt Ruapehu (2796m), Mt Ngauruhoe (2290m) and Mt Tongariro (1968m). Volcanic activity has been happening in the area for two million years, with Mt Ruapehu last erupting in 1995 and 1996.... read more

Just a quick blog as we're busy packing for our trip home but I must report on our cracking weekend skiing at Turoa on Mount Ruapehu, one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes. It forms part of Tongariro National Park and is pretty much in the middle of the North island. The car behaved well on the return journey and the weather behaved even better. So well that our neglect to bring any sunscreen had quiet an impact on my face. I'm peeling already and with my new huge goggles, I have a resemblance to a brown and pink panda. It was unbelievable how quickly my skin colour changed - even with factor 30 on the Sunday, I still took colour - the sun really is so strong here especially when its reflected off snow at ... read more

hey there , been a while since i updated this but i have a reason to now. just got back from a three day trip down to tongariro national park with Wes, Suresh and Sara. so much fun. after leaving on friday afternoon we ended up walking in to Mangatapopo Hut at about 10pm. suresh was testing a new gps he got for his dad. we awoke the next morning to beautiful scenery and nice weather. the plan was originally to summit Ngaruhoe, however my achilles felt like dog poos after the 'staircase' so we decided to just play in the snow where lots of review/refreshing was needed for me. did a scramble up tongariro and were greeted with good views of north crater and surrounding mountains, Ngaruhoe and Ruapehu. had cramps in legs because of ... read more

The answer to the question might come but first there was Friday, that started in Auckland. Yes we have been in Rotorua the day before and for those familiar with NZ map is sounds awkward probably but we went there for some errands ("sidurim"), and then drove back south all the way to the village of Whakapapa, in Tongariro national park. We had a funny error on the way. We chose some way that looked nice in the map, better than driving just on the highways. We visited a nice waterfall and then continued on a gravel (unsealed) road, nice views, drove for maybe an hour, just to find ourselves back near the waterfall, coming from the other side! We took some wrong turn probably and took a loop road... well after that we continued straight ... read more