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Published: February 22nd 2011
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On Thursday 13th Jan we left Rotorua to go to Taupo, a hours journey, on the way we stopped at the largest mud pool just outside Rotorua and hot and cold river, we did not know we were stopping there so didn’t have our swim wear ready, this is were 2 rivers meet one being hot and the other cold! We also stopped at Huka falls just outside of Taupo, this was an amazing site to see, such a powerful water fall. We arrived at Taupo around 4pm, checked into our hostel, Tiki Lodge and went for a walk around the town, on the evening we went out for a few drinks and went to the base bar elements which is where Ell from Bunac is working and also Robyn was there having some drinks, we also saw some people from the Stray bus so we had drinks with them. On the Friday we went to the Taupo bungy site, because me and Alex had already done the bungy we had vouchers to do it again or the swing for $55, also Tracey wanted to do it, Alex and Tracey did the bungy but I decided to do the swing, Tracey
did the swing with me, was amazing, much better than the bungy which was scarier! That evening we stayed in as we needed a early night because we were doing the Tongariro Crossing on the Saturday.
On Saturday 15th Jan we got up at 5.30am to get ready for the crossing, we were being picked up at 7am by Stray to take us to Adrift the company for the crossing, we didn’t actually get to the start of the crossing till 10am by the time everyone had signed and paid etc, we set off at 10.05am. The weather wasn’t the best, was overcast and rain was forecast for part of the walk, there are different sections we would come across which was good so we could keep a track on how far we had gone and if we were in good time. The first incline was up Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom) and the second up Mount Tongariro.
The first section was 1 hour from the car park to Soda Springs, was a easy gradual incline apparently from 1150mtrs to approx 1300mtrs, this was hard enough for me, I was hanging by the time I got to the marker, it took
us 55 minutes. From there we had a really steep section to South Crater, recommended time 1 hour up to 1660mtrs! This section was called the devil staircase, think they need to rename it to whatever the worst name ever is, it was so hard, went up what seemed like hundreds of stairs to a turning which I thought was the top but no, as you came around the bend there was yet more and more stairs, at this point I considered turning around but I didn’t I carried on, it was so hard and had to stop on several occasions, I have no idea how many steps there were but in my head I think there was thousands!!! Think it took me the whole hour to complete this section.
Following this section was a nice flat walk for only about 15 minutes and was then another up to 1886mtrs, this section was all loose rocks and sand, was so hard as I kept slipping back down and the track was so narrow, but again I just kept going and finally reached the top, felt like such an accomplishment. We then had a small decline down to the Emerald Lakes,
I should have reached the Emerald Lakes at around 1pm but got there at 12.40pm, I was so happy with this time and the lakes were beautiful, we decided to stop here for lunch.
Setting off again towards the Blue Lake, was a little incline again but not as bad as the other 2 inclines previous, after the Blue Lake it was then downhill almost all the way, this was such a relief. The next stop was at Ketetahi Hut, which is a place people can stay if they decided to do the walk in 2 days, I didn’t see the point in this as it was only 2 hours from the end? We arrived at the Hut at 2pm a full hour before was should have going on the guide times, was so pleased we were a hour ahead of the recommended time! We stopped for a quick water and snack break and then set off again for the last section, 2 hours to the finish! The walk down was really nice and the final part was through a woodlands, we finally got to the end at 3.30pm, finishing after 5 hours 25 minutes, the recommended time for this
walk was 7-8 hours, I was so pleased I had completed it and never wanted to see the mountains again! The problem we had when we finished was that most of the people on the Stray bus asked to be given the most amount of time to do it so Stray wasn’t coming to pick us up till 5.30pm, we then had a 2 hour wait, laying on the ground trying to recover!
Once Stray picked us up we then went to The Park hostel, we went straight in had showers and went straight to the bar for a pint and to get some food, we didn’t stay up late as we were all so tired and we were leaving at 9am to go to Wellington the next morning.
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