Tongariro Crossing
Trip Start
Dec 29, 2007
1
36
42
Trip End
Ongoing
National Park Village,
North Island,
New Zealand
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Our backpackers in National Park was adjacent to Whakapapa village (& village I use loosely). There is a huge climbing wall in the hostel as well as a fully equipped kitchen. Behind lies a cafe, in front a bar & just around the corner a petrol station with a little supermarket. Other than that, pickings are slim with your only company being mountains & solitude. Only 15 minutes drive from our base lay the trail car parks which are reputed theft havens so some hostels offer to drop you off & pick you up for ~$30pp.
After dumping some baggage off we headed out to the scenic Tawhai falls nearby before attacking the Silica rapids track
view from hostel
. Like most walks around Nz they are well signed & you are given a ballpark time for completing it even if it's OAP orientated. The path didn't require too much effort & as can be seen from photos you cross mineral deposits, various vegetation, rivers & forestry. We stocked up on breakfast provisions afterwards before indulging in a proper meal at Schnapps bar. They couldn't have been more welcoming for the occasion upping the price 20% & serving average food to cement the rearing. After tuning in to the final of the rugby 7s tournament in Wellington we hit the hay.Waking up to a plate of pasta didn't seem all that strange as the mountain view gave us appetite enough. Following the brief bus ride we joined the throngs on the trail at Mangatepopo. The first hour to be fair was quite flat. All ages could be seen amidst the long tail of hikers. Our layers peeled off as we progressed & the weather remained calm. The main incline of 200m, Devils staircase, started after the 1st toilet stop. This is the hardest part of the crossing. It continued steeply until we reached the saddle between Mount's Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. We opted not to climb the former as we were dependant on making the bus but it supposedly takes 45 minutes.
The hike was broken up by regular photo stops. We plodded along the south crater until we reached the peak point at red crater which greeted us with a waft of sulphur almost strong enough to make us reproduce the tagliatelle
Tawhai falls
. The views made up for the stench especially that overlooking emerald lakes. The pictures paint a thousand words. After the almost vertical drop to get down to the lakes we moved on towards the visible blue lake in the distance. As the lakes are believed to be sacred you aren't supposed to eat in the vicinity not that it perturbed the majority. The path levelled out beyond this before declining to Ketetahi hut, where we stumbled upon a porter-loo to remember. The swarm of giant sized insects hovering above it made us give it a wide berth. Septic is the word that came to mind. We still had an hour of walking left; all downhill & non-intensive through the deafening secatas & along side gushing waterfalls. Fortunately we finished just as the heat became intense & shortly before our bus arrived. Needless to say the evening was pretty much a write off.
After much debate between tiddly winks & hop scotch, our final day was spent rafting along the Whakapapa river. To term it 'white water' would be like calling Mother Theresa promiscuous but it was foamier than expected. For $95 each we got all the gear, about 2 hours of rafting & even a cookie break. The sun was out, the scenery was incredible, nobody asked us to squeal like a pig so arguably it was my highlight of Nz thus far. My fifth year secondary school canoeing experience paid dividends as we flipped the raft a few times, the last time plum onto a rock which tickled a little. That said I can now appreciate why rafting is such a rush & would be up for trying it again despite the painful return journey.
