The Tongariro Alpine Crossing holds the title of New Zealand's best one day trek. It is 19.4km long (20km if you include walking to the car parks), passes through an Active Volcanic Hazard Zone, gorgeous coloured lakes, and "is considered steep in parts" (i.e. it is extremely steep and will make you feel like you're going to die). It is one of the hardest things I've ever done, and if you had asked me on the plane out here if I would even have considered doing something like this, I would have said no, and felt gutted that I was going to miss out on doing it. So when I sat down on the bus that afternoon, tired and aching and desperate for rest, I felt immensely proud of myself. It was a bloody fantastic day.
Our shuttle picked us up from our hostel at 5:25am. After a bad nights sleep for both of us, we were feeling less than fresh. Tom missed most of the journey by sleeping through it all. I even had to put his sun cream on his face (he got so offended when I put it on his eye lids). It took about an hour and a half to drive to our starting point, Mangatepopo Car Park.
We reached this spot at 7am. After the obligatory photo, we set off on our track. It takes between 5 and a half to 7 and a half hours to complete, so we knew we had a long day of walking ahead of us. Good thing our rucksacks were filled with food!
The start of the track, with Mount Nghauruhoe shielding us from the warmth of the sun. I still ended up taking off my fleece and then my trackies about 10 minutes into the walk (I had thermal leggings on underneath, don't panic).
The first hour of the track was on this well-formed boardwalk type thing. You follow the Mangatepopo Stream through the Mangatepopo Valley. The landscape was fascinating. The earth had an almost yellow tinge to it, and it all looked rugged and harsh. With the slowly rising sun lighting it all up, I thought it looked beautiful.
We were also blessed with amazingly crisp, clear weather. As we were walking up the next section of the track, we could see the tip of Mount Taranaki. This was nothing short of spectacular, considering Mount Taranaki is an active volcano on the west coast, over 200 kilometres away.
The next hour of our trek was spent climbing what is fondly referred to as "The Devil's Staircase."
This was the only part of the trip where I doubted myself. You pass a warning sign at the bottom of the staircase that tells you to check the weather, check your equipment, and check your ability. You're heading towards the most dangerous part of the trek and if any of those three things aren't perfect, you're in danger. I remember reading that sign and wondering if I had made a terrible mistake.
We climbed from 1400 to 1600 meters above sea level. Most of the climb was on a surface like you can see in the picture, although parts of it were on new/old lava flows and felt slippy under foot.
I struggled with this part, immensely. My lungs felt like they were on fire and my legs probably thought I was trying to torture them. We had to stop every 10 minutes or so just for me to get my breath back. In the end, the only way I could keep going was to count my steps. Every 200, I would let myself rest.
You can imagine, knowing how much I struggled, just how frustrating it was to have Tom behind me, completely unaffected by the whole thing. He walked the last half of it EATING A BAG OF CRISPS. About 5 minutes before I took this picture I half-shouted "Can you STOP eating those crisps, please, it's so bloody unfair!!!!"
The top of the Devil's Staircase brought us onto the flat surface of the South Crater. I've never felt so pleased to see flat ground in all my life. We still had climbing to go, but I allowed myself the joy of knowing I had defeated one challenge already.
The South Crater is also the start of one of the side tracks: the summit of Mount Ngauruhoe. You probably know it better as Mount Doom though.
That's right, we're just causally stood at the bottom of Mount Doom nO BIG DEAL.
From the South Crater, we had a 40 minute climb to the top of the Red Crater (1886m). This was less strenuous than the Devil's Staircase but it was a harder climb. You were following a track that was simply the signs of previous footfall - there was nothing even remotely "formed" on this section. We were clambering over rocks on an exposed ridge, with two steep drops either side.
The wind at this section was almost unbearable. It was so cold it hurt. We tried to minimise the amount of exposed skin we had but we still felt the icy power of the wind. At some points we had to duck down behind rocks just to stop it pulling us over. There was one part of the track that had a metal rope to help you pull yourself up the rocks. Reaching for that with my bare hand almost made me cry.
It was still cold when we eventually reached the top but the wind wasn't as powerful as it had been on the climb. That gave us plenty of opportunity for this photo: me dropping my One Ring into Mount Doom! Props to Leigh for that present, it has been the perfect thing to have here!
From the Red Crater, we descended down to the Emerald Lakes. Our little guide sheets said that the summit of Red Crater is a good place for lunch, on account of the hot springs that heat the rocks there. Whether we were just too cold to recognise warmth or what, but Tom and I couldn't find any warm spots up there. Plus, the wind was starting to pick up again and we thought that if we descended before eating, we were more likely to find shelter down there.
The walk down here was hilarious. We were walking down "scree/scoria", loose volcanic stones that did not want to stay in one place. To say we walked down here is a bit of a lie actually, it would be more accurate to say we slid down. We saw a couple of people fall but thankfully everyone was careful enough to avoid injury.
The scoria. It was ankle deep in places and you have absolutely no warning of when it was going to give way - the first you knew anything of it was when you felt your foot slide a few feet in front of you!
Tom and I couldn't stop laughing the whole way day. I think this was my favourite part of the whole hike, it was just so much fun.
"I feel like I didn't appreciate enough how green those lakes were when we were there." - Tom
At the bottom of the Red Crater, we reached the Emerald Lakes. These lakes have been coloured by the minerals in the surrounding area. They are a bright, sparkling green, and definitely deserve the name they have been given.
We sat about 5 or 10 metres away from the spot I took this photo. We found some rocks that gave us shelter from the wind which gave us the perfect opportunity to eat some food. We were starving. It's lucky we packed the amount of food that we did. It was strange to be eating "lunch" at 10 in the morning but our stomachs didn't care about the time, they cared about food.
Two tuna sandwiches, two cereal bars, some crisps, some chocolate, and a lot of water later.... We felt ready to start walking again.
One thing I loved was all the random little patches of snow we were walking past. This one was easy to reach from the track and I couldn't resist this photo. I've never stood on real snow before so this was a big moment for me!
Our next stop was at the Blue Lake, another aptly named body of water. I couldn't believe the colour of this. It's so frustrating that my photo doesn't do it justice! It was the bluest blue I've ever seen a lake, and I've seen some pretty blue water since being in New Zealand.
We had another stop here, to admire the view. We realised we were making really good timing at this point, and that we were set to be about an hour or so early for the first bus. This meant we had a lot more time for rest stops, photo stops, and just general sight seeing. A welcome realisation that improved the hike I think!
From the Blue Lake, the next two sections of the trek run through Active Volcanic Hazard Zones.
I've said it plenty before but I'll say it again, why is New Zealand so blasé about all these volcanoes?!
They had these lovely signs posted along the track, warning you to exit the area as quickly as possible if you see signs of volcanic activity. Considering I have never seen volcanic activity before, I didn't feel too confident that I would be that good at identifying them should they appear.
It also didn't help that we could see the steam vents that had appeared on Te Maari....an active crater that last erupted in 2012. There are really helpful signs telling you all about that eruption. You know, the eruption that came from the steaming vents that were A STONES THROW AWAY FROM THE SIGN.
I just.... my stress levels were through the roof guys.
The two sections after the Blue Lake was to Ketetahi Hut, and from Ketetahi Hut to Ketetahi Car Park. This whole section was downhill (bar one uphill climb that no one told us about). Easy, right?
Wrong.
Turns out walking downhill for 2 hours is as hard as walking uphill for one. We were shattered. Walking downhill also made our legs hurt in places that hadn't previously been hurting from all the other walking we had done that day. It is possible we no longer had calves by the end of these sections.
It was also strangely demotivating being able to see the rest of the track snake down the hill in front of you. We always seemed to have so much further to walk than we thought. When we stopped to eat the last of our sandwiches at Ketetahi Hut, it took a lot of willpower to force ourselves up and walking again.
5 and a half hours of walking, 7 and a half hours in total. We were tired, aching, cold, sweaty, Tom had hurt his ankle, we still had a 20 minute wait for a bus, and we both wanted to curl up and sleep.
As we were driving back to our hostel in Taupo, it already started to take on a dream-like quality. Was that real? Did we really do that??
It felt so empowering to be able to say yes.
Yes we did.
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