Day 5 – The Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro crossing is supposed to be one of the best one day walks in New Zealand. The crossing is based in the Tongariro National Forest covers 17 kilometers of varying gradient passing between the saddle of two active volcanoes (one of which is Mt Ngaruahoe famous as Mt doom in the lord of the rings) then descends down to three emerald lakes (water filled explosion craters) before finishing in a dense rainforest. It is renowned for is amazing views and the diversity of the landscape passing through alpine scrub to volcanic scree slopes above the tree line the back down into the forest.

Up until the day I decided to do the crossing the weather was blue skies and 80 F. It started raining on the way up to the start of the trek and continued the rest of the day. The transport company who ran the shuttle for the hike gives about 8 hours for the trek anticipating that people will stop at the highest point to relax and eat lunch or take some of the side hikes to the tops of the volcanoes. It turned into an epic 5 hour hike. The wind probably reached 30 mph at the ridgelines and the rain turned to frozen sleet. The volcanic domes were all hidden in the clouds and the entire landscape was fogged in. The moments of clearing it looked like you were walking on some parts of the moon. Though the view was limited the fogged in mountains were really beautiful and the steam jets that were everywhere made it a bit surreal. Though definitely memorable and not quite the scenic hike with panoramic views that I was expecting, I would still recommend the hike to anyone visiting New Zealand.

As a side note, I met a couple from Australia who were on holiday with a company called International Parks Tours or Tourism (IPT) which specializes in international trips to various world famous national parks. The couple had been everywhere from Croatia to Canada. It sounded like a cool way to see other countries.