On Saturday, Will and I took off southwards in Emily's car to meet up with Tolcher, Alex, Sanjay and Shalini for adventures in Tongariro National Park. Our plan was to drive towards the park, checking out Taupo and any other interesting sights on the way, and then meet up with the crew on Saturday night in Ohakune to stay at Alex's cousin's place before tackling the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on Sunday.
On the way to Taupo, we detoured to check out Huka Falls, just north of Taupo on the Waikato River.
From there, we stopped in Taupo for lunch at the Take A Break Cafe, where Will and I had the most humongous and yummy sandwiches for lunch.We got a message from the Tolcher/Alex/Sanj/Shalini crew that they were running late, so Will and I opted to head to Whakapapa village in Tongariro National Park to see what we could see and explore. Thank goodness for the Lonely Planet guide, as we found out that the Chateau Tongariro in Whakapapa Village has a 9-hole golf course and they rent clubs. Sweet!
We had about 3 hours to kill before meeting up with the crew, so golfing sounded good. Turns out it was pretty cheap to golf ($18 green fees including club rental). Golfing was pretty hilarious, as my forearms were still shot from fishing/wakeboarding, and I could barely grip the club. But alas, it was a good time.
Clouded over Mt. Ngaurahoe:
After golf, we drove up the mountain to check out the Whakapapa ski area. It was so interesting to see a base that was covered in volcanic rock. Whakapapa is one of two ski areas that covers NZ's largest ski resort on Mt. Ruapehu, the other is Turoa. Mt. Ruapehu is an active volcano, and it was so strange to check out the ski map and see how they developed the ski runs to take into account potential lava flows.
We met up with the crew in Ohakune and had dinner in a little Italian restaurant (where one little old Italian man ran the show, waiting tables and cooking).We headed to Alex's cousin's place, an old house on a sheep farm that the family uses for recreational weekend trips. Despite my active allergies, I was able to get some zzz's, which was much-needed for the big hike the next day.
On Sunday morning, we woke up early, did some grocery shopping in Ohakune, and then headed into the park to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing start at the Mangatepopo start.
Tongariro Alpine Crossing is hailed as one of NZ's Great Walks and is known as the finest one day walk in NZ. It is an 18.5 km track (approx. 900 m up and 11oo m down) that is slated to take anywhere from 6-10 hours, depending on the fitness of the hiker. The recommended direction is from Mangatepopo to Ketatahi (which is what we were doing). So Tolcher and Will shuttled one of the vehicles to the Ketatahi end and we started the hike around 9:30 am.
The hike begins with a nice ambling ascent from the Mangatepopo car park, past the Mangatepopo hut (where you can stay if you have a park pass), and to the Soda Springs. From Soda Springs, it's a hard 600m climb to the South Crater, climbing up over volcanic rock. The climb was tough (I was sweaty) but not overly troublesome, and it took about 30 min to get to the crater.
Top of the climb from Soda Springs:
South Crater:
You can choose to summit Mt. Ngauruhoe, but it's an additional 3-hour return hike and it's straight up for 800m on some sketchy lava rock scree. I was a little thankful that no one really wanted to do the ascent.
Looking back at South Crater:
Mt. Ngauruhoe:
From the South Crater, we ascended to the Red Crater, and got some amazing sights of land resulting from volcanic lava flows. We got the occasional whiff of pungent sulpher from the volcanic vents.
After climbing up to the Red Crater, there's a quick descent to the beautiful Emerald Lakes, where we stopped for lunch.
From the Emerald Lakes, there's another small climb to the Central Crater and the Blue Lake:
Once you pass the Blue Lake, it's all downhill...sweet! The landscape changes dramatically from little to no vegetation to alpine scrub, to lush forest as we descended from the Blue Lake, past the Ketatahi hut, and to the end point. All the way down, there were sweet views of Lakes Taupo and Rotoaira.
In the end, it took us just under 6 hours for the entire trip (with 30 min break for lunch and two 10-15 min breaks, we hiked for just over 5 hours in total). It was a beautiful day, thankfully no need for all the winter layers for most of the time, and it was great to tackle this day-hike with Tolcher, Alex, Sanj and Shalini.
Thanks for Tolcher and Alex for including us in their hiking plans, it was a great time! And I'm spent!
