Tongariro Alpine Crossing Day 150 15/02/2015

On our way to Whatapaka we had driven along the bumpy gravel track to suss out start of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing at Mangatepopo. It's a one way route and as it was a long drive and would entail packing up the van the following morning to drive there from the campsite, we jumped at the chance of buying a shuttle ticket from our campsite, which would take us to the start of the walk, dropping us off at 0730 and then picking us up at 1730 at the end of the walk at the car park on Ketetahi. The crossing is the most popular day walk in New Zealand, with between 60k and 70k people doing it every year. It involves walking through initially alpine, then as you climb, volcanic areas. It's a 19.4km tramp (this is what Kiwi's call long distance walks) which involves 706m of ascent and over 1000m of descent. There is also the option of doing either Mt Tongariro (an extra hour and 100m of ascent) or Mt Ngauruhoe (an extra 3 hours and 781m of ascent). We choose the latter, primarily as it was Mt Doom, in LOTR (Lord of the Rings) and therefore Simon in particular wanted to climb it. We started our walk with hoards of people, seeing many more snaking along the path ahead of us. It did say it was the most popular walk and it was a Sunday with good weather! After a very pleasant slightly upward walk through alpine scrub and tussock we arrived at the Soda Springs hut. We then climbed up a steep lava wall to arrive at the South Crater, which was a saddle separating the two mountains and where the side track up Mt Ngauruhoe started. The guide book said you shouldn't start this any later than 0915, so as it was 0855, bingo and we started climbing it. Initially it was an easy path but soon we were on steeper slopes on tortuous scree (the stuff where you go two steps up and slip one step down!). We headed towards a rocky ridge, which we scrambled up on loose rock but at least gave us better purchase for the long climb. At this point Diane started to become very concerned as Simon kept muttering "not far now Mr Frodo, we'll get the ring there" in a Sam of the Shire voice. An hour and half later we reached the initial high point to be rewarded with fantastic 360 views, the best being south west across two high, glacier lakes towards the snow bound peak of Mt Ruapehu. We walked around the ridge, keeping an eye out for any volcanic movement and avoiding any noxious smells and climbed the last 100m to the crater ridge. We were greeted to a magnificent sight of a huge, imposing crater with a long drop below. We only traversed half the crater rim as the rest looked very perilous with loose ground on either side of a 1000m foot drop down the mountain or who knows how long into the crater. As both would have mean certain death we went back to our start point on the top and then had a hour of "delightful" loose rock and scree run down the bottom. Here the guide book mentions who should watch out for loose rocks falling from above and not long after we started our descent we had to avoid some kicked accidentally by a young couple above who were struggling down in their fashion trainers. In our boots and using our poles it gave us extra incentive to get back down to crossing path. We felt quite chuffed for a pair of "old un's", we got up and back in 2.5 hours and proceed to cross the Mars like landscape of the South Crater, enjoying the imposing volcanos on either side. There are no signs of plant life here at all. Half way up the climb to the Red Crater we had our first lunch and then continued to another saddle which signposted the other side route to Mt Tongariro. As we were well ahead of schedule we decided it would be a shame not to climb this and so followed an easy ridge to the summit. This also had great views from the top, notwithstanding to perfect peak of Mt Ngauruhoe across the south crater. It was at this point that Simon thought it looked like Mt Doom as it showed off the angle the film used. We reversed our route and not long after the signpost we came to the red crater. Until now the colours of the rock had mainly been black, burnt orange or yellow. However this crater lived up to its name as it was very, very red. We then climbed a small peak and had the joys of another scree run, passing lots of people on their backsides as they kept slipping in their trainers and other non mountain boots. On the plateau below we passed a series of lakes, the first two smaller lakes called Emerald Lakes (they were very green) and the next Blue Lake (and it was very blue!). After passing through a small ravine, we then descended on a zig zag man made boardwalk (the biggest zig zags we've ever known), passed steaming vents and springs, down the long 700m to the dirt track and car park, again with loads of people snaking before and after us, stopping off for second lunch along the way. We got back to the car park with an hour to spare, tired but exhilarated and very dirty from the dusty paths and also from our own sweat as it was a very hot sunny day. We spent the next hour collapsed on the grass, dozing whilst waiting for the bus to arrive. We jumped on it for the 30 min ride back to our campsite, had a celebratory beer, long, wonderful shower, a chicken kebab tea accompanied by a bottle of fine red wine and collapsed into our bed totally knackered after walking about 25km ascending 1500m and descending 1900m but very happy!

Setting off - luckily the volcanic risk was normal!

The start of the track 

Early morning mist rising from the valley 

The impossible scree slopes up Mt Ngauruhoe 

Nearly at the top 

Finally at the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe 

Looking across to Mt Ruapehu 

The huge crater 

Demonstrating exceptional strength 

Safely down to the crossing 

The moonscape basin of South Crater 

On route to Mt Tongariro with Mt Ngauruhoe in the background 

Mt Tongariro summit 

Back at the crossing 

Red Crater 

Emerald and Blue Lakes 

Looking back towards Red Crater and Mt Ngauruhoe