Tongariro Crossing
Yesterday I did the Tongariro crossing, a big hike near Taupo, through a number of new and old volcanic cones.
The day started out super early. I got up at 5 am, and got picked up by a big tour bus that took us to the start of the walking track. It was chilly starting out. The sun was hidden behind the mountains when we started out, I was glad to have packed a sweater, some woolly gloves and my toque. I met up with Mike, a energetic 21 year old German guy. Mike wanted to do the Ngauruhoe side track. I hadn't decided on it, but with someone to do it with, I decided to go for it.
The first part of the hike was fairly flat, going through a big plain (valley?) with huge chunks of volcanic rock and small patches of grass and moss. It was really pretty.
Eventually we got to the first big climb, the devils staircase. It went up for a good while. It looked a bit like a pilgrimage, all of these hikers making their way up the mountain.
There was a great view of the valley from the top of the staircase.
From there Mike and I headed out to Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom.) It was tough going, a lot of the sides are made up of slippery Scree, basically sand and small rocks. We were continually looking for patches of bigger rocks to climb up on, as it was a lot easier and quicker to climb up on them. There were really interesting pieces of Scoria along the way. There were beautiful peices of red, rusty rocks with bubbles in them. Some of them were really sharp!
It took a good while to get to the top, it was a lot higher than it looked from the bottom.
It was an amazing view at the top. You could see a lot of the crossing and into the cone of Mt Ngauruhoe. Here's a picture of Mike, with the steam vent of Mt Ngauruhoe in the background.
Heading back down involved sliding in a "controlled" manner down the looser scree. Hiking boots with uppers would have been better. I have lower cut hiking shoes, I ended up getting a bruise on my right ankle from a piece of rock. It was good fun, tiring though! I was really glad to have my gloves to protect my hands if (when) I fell backwards. The lighter trails in this picture are the scree everyone was traveling down.
I emptied a good handful of black sand out of each shoe at the bottom of the Mountain.
Then we walked across another plain before climbing up again. We passed a really red cliff, it was beautiful.
That was to the right of this.
There were a number of steaming sulfur vents up here and it was really pretty going down.
After going down, we went through another plains, before going up another hill. Then we winded our way down and down the other side towards a hut, from where there were two more hours to the end of the track.
There was a surprising amount of walking to be done after the hut!
All the photos I took are here, hope you like them. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbotron/sets/72157594536632300/
I was going to bike to Turangi today, but my quads have told me otherwise, so I'm chilling out in Taupo today. :)
The day started out super early. I got up at 5 am, and got picked up by a big tour bus that took us to the start of the walking track. It was chilly starting out. The sun was hidden behind the mountains when we started out, I was glad to have packed a sweater, some woolly gloves and my toque. I met up with Mike, a energetic 21 year old German guy. Mike wanted to do the Ngauruhoe side track. I hadn't decided on it, but with someone to do it with, I decided to go for it.
The first part of the hike was fairly flat, going through a big plain (valley?) with huge chunks of volcanic rock and small patches of grass and moss. It was really pretty.
Eventually we got to the first big climb, the devils staircase. It went up for a good while. It looked a bit like a pilgrimage, all of these hikers making their way up the mountain.
There was a great view of the valley from the top of the staircase.
From there Mike and I headed out to Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom.) It was tough going, a lot of the sides are made up of slippery Scree, basically sand and small rocks. We were continually looking for patches of bigger rocks to climb up on, as it was a lot easier and quicker to climb up on them. There were really interesting pieces of Scoria along the way. There were beautiful peices of red, rusty rocks with bubbles in them. Some of them were really sharp!
It took a good while to get to the top, it was a lot higher than it looked from the bottom.
It was an amazing view at the top. You could see a lot of the crossing and into the cone of Mt Ngauruhoe. Here's a picture of Mike, with the steam vent of Mt Ngauruhoe in the background.
Heading back down involved sliding in a "controlled" manner down the looser scree. Hiking boots with uppers would have been better. I have lower cut hiking shoes, I ended up getting a bruise on my right ankle from a piece of rock. It was good fun, tiring though! I was really glad to have my gloves to protect my hands if (when) I fell backwards. The lighter trails in this picture are the scree everyone was traveling down.
I emptied a good handful of black sand out of each shoe at the bottom of the Mountain.
Then we walked across another plain before climbing up again. We passed a really red cliff, it was beautiful.
That was to the right of this.
There were a number of steaming sulfur vents up here and it was really pretty going down.
After going down, we went through another plains, before going up another hill. Then we winded our way down and down the other side towards a hut, from where there were two more hours to the end of the track.
There was a surprising amount of walking to be done after the hut!
All the photos I took are here, hope you like them. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbotron/sets/72157594536632300/
I was going to bike to Turangi today, but my quads have told me otherwise, so I'm chilling out in Taupo today. :)