The Tongariro Crossing, Part 1

As I mentioned before, the Tongariro Crossing is widely considered the "Best 1-Day Hike in New Zealand." It's pretty cool, though I thought that the Rob Roy was at least as good (though it was really a half-day-er).

We postponed our trip up there (central North Island), mainly because of oversleeping and lack of planning on the day we should have gone. As a result, while the picture from Lake Taupo in the last post reveals good weather, it turned on the tramp the next day. The way up, pictured here, was fine. By the time we got to lunch at the Emerald Lakes, the cloud cover had lowered to our elevation, giving us about 1.5 hours in the fog and keeping it cloudy the rest of the day. So we missed a lot of supposedly spectacular views, and even when the weather was good, the clouds partially obscured the mountain tops, which is a shame. The day before, driving past, they were remarkable, but we figured, "Why get a picture from the road now, when we'll be up close tomorrow?" Bad decision, since we never saw the peaks again.

The Tongariro Crossing is a track that goes through three active volcanos (which provided the backdrop for Mordor in Lord of the Rings--look for similarities in the purely conical mountain in the one picture). It's a lunar landscape, which is beautiful, and the mountains themselves (when you can see them) are impressive. Finally, once you're up there, you get amazing views of a large part of New Zealand.

The hike itself is rigorous--the most rigorous Julie or I has ever done. It is not longer than anything we've done, but it's harder--while only 17km (10.2 miles), that takes 7 hours when you go at a good clip.

In the one picture, you see Julie's ascent up the first part of the climb. You climb up to the "saddle" in the middle of the picture. All the little colored dots on another picture are people, climbing up a very long and steep and straight ascent that is more careful volcanic rock scramble than hike. Once you get to the top, you're in a crater, and then you've got another huge and fast ascent, for a total of 1000 meters (do the math). Then it's another crater, and then the beautiful Emerald Lakes. Finally, the descent begins, which is more brutal than the climb, especially for those of us with tendonitis in the knees. Kiwis apparently have something against switchbacks, and they have a hankering for huge drop-offs on their stairs. Our knees were pulverized, but it was a beautiful hike.