Taupo to Tongariro National Park

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We are up at 4:30 am to get ready for our 5:40 am bus to Tongariro National Park. It is still dark when we leave so we don’t know whether it is cloudy or not. As we drive to Tongariro it starts to rain, softly at first then heavily as we arrive at the trailhead. We sit on the bus a little while before the driver tells us that they have another bus on the other side of the crossing and it is clear. It should be clearing shortly so we need to start the track. We put on some rain gear and leave the bus to start the trail at 7:40 am. The hike should take us about 8 hours with the crossing about mid-point so we hope it will clear by the time we get to the crossing. The hike starts at 1140 meters and the first hour is a gentle climb to about 1200 meters. At this point there is a steep climb to South Crater via Devils Staircase that takes another hour. Several people turn back at this point because it is raining, cold and the wind is blowing hard. You then cross South Crater, which is flat before you get to the base of Red Crater Ridge, which is another steep climb. The flat at South Crater is a barren landscape of fine, dark grey lava rock and ash. It gave you an eerie feeling of desolation. Most of the track posts on the Red Crater Ridge climb had blown down and I got off the track a little at one point. Michael was behind me and as he called out that I was off the track, I realized I was on a pretty steep incline that dropped into South Crater. I started to turn around but lost my footing and began to slide down the incline. Since it was still raining it didn’t take long to become pretty muddy. I was on my stomach trying to climb back up the ridge but the ground beneath me was solid rock with a light layer of dirt and some loose rocks. Every time I reached for a rock to use as a handhold it broke loose and went sliding down the incline. Although I didn’t feel scared, I did feel tense in a survival mode sort of way. Michael said later that he was scared for me. Michael started to come down to me but I told him not to and two girls stopped and told him not to go down. I knew if he came down it would only mean that both of us were in trouble and I needed him to help me out when I got high enough. I finally wiggled my way up enough to grab hold of Michael’s hiking pole and when I did the girl next to him grabbed him so he wouldn’t fall down. I finally got up covered in mud but okay. The girls bid us goodbye and took off ahead of us. Michael thought my adrenaline would be high but mostly my muscles were just very tense, so we continued on the track. I had to laugh a little since I was literally clawing my way up part of the ridge but I hadn’t broken a fingernail. We went on to Red Crater, which has big drops on either side, and the wind was blowing pretty fiercely. At one point I looked at Michael and said, “What the hell are we doing here?” but I knew we were at the point of no return and would have to just keep going. Although the visibility is not great the view into Red Crater is really impressive with red rock formations. On a clear day they say you can see from coast to coast at this point in the crossing. From the top of the crater there is a steep downhill over loose lava rock to Emerald Lakes, then on down to Central Crater. The walk through Central Crater is pretty flat down to Blue Lake then you follow a downhill path through Rotopaunga valley to Ketetahi Hut. We have made pretty good time to this point even with my calamity but we decide to keep going in case the rest of the downhill is harder. The weather is finally clearing but obviously too late for the great views from the crossing. Sure enough the downhill from Ketetahi Hut is pretty steep and rocky and we are getting tired since it is about 2:00 pm so we are a little slower going. At about 3:15 pm we get to the beech forest and millions of steps to the end of the track at 4:10 pm. We are pleased we have made the hike in 8 hours 30 minutes.
The bus leaves the carpark about 4:20 pm and drops us at our motel around 6:00 pm. By this time we are both already stiffening up and when I take my clothes off to shower I see the bruises on my right side and my swollen right knee. Apparently this was done when I fell and slid down the incline. I’m beginning to wonder if someone as clumsy as I am should try to be so outdoorsy but I did enjoy the hike in spite of the incident and the bad weather. Since we are soaked and muddy we throw our clothes in the washing machine at the laundry and put our boots outside to dry. We have dinner in our motel room and commensurate on how stiff we are getting then take aspirin and go to bed.

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