Tongariro Alpine Crossing

31st January 2010, 22:15 pm, Home, Cologne

Yes, I know I am a bit late writing about my day hiking the magnificent Tongariro Crossing. But I still remember every detail, especially after looking at all the photos once more while composing this web site.

Unfortunately Richa could not join me on this hike because it was her time of the month. So she stayed back at the Howard's Lodge. The day started at about 7:30 am with breakfast at the lodge. There we met an American and a Swedish couple who were both doing the hike as well. Everyone was very excited. I was a bit nervous since I had read everywhere that the climb is quite challenging and should not be taken lightly. The weather did not look too good. It was very cloudy and it was raining. At about 8:00 the Howard's Lodge van took about 10 people to the starting point of the crossing. It took about 20 minutes to reach Mangatepopo Valley and I started the hike at about 8:30. It was still very cloudy and visibility was very poor. But since everyone had told me that weather condition can change within minutes I was still hopeful. After about an hour I reached the Soda Springs side trip. It lead to a waterfall but was not too spectacular. Soon after that the climbing started and got harder and steeper. Weather condition started to get worse - heavy rain and a significant drop in temperature. After some more time it started snowing and a icy strong wind started blowing. I took out my gloves and woollen hat and sought shelter with some fellow hikers behind a rock which gave us good protection from the wind and snow. I ate my sandwich and chocolate bar and after 15 minutes we continued the steep climb to the Red Crater.

I reached the top around noon. Visibility was still poor. What a waste I thought to myself. This hike is not what I had expected it to be. But this would change soon. We reached the Emerald Lakes which were not emerald at all. More blue/greyish in this kind of weather. I sat down with the Swedish couple and had my lunch.

We waited for about 20 minutes, took some photos of the lakes whenever the sky cleared up for a little while and then continued walking across the Central Crater and the Blue Lake. And suddenly the sky started clearing up and within 10 minutes we had bright sunshine and almost clear blue sky. It was unbelievable how suddenly this change in weather happened. I spent quite some time at the Blue Lake taking lots of photos of the Central and Red Crater and Mt Ngauruhoe. The views were absolutely amazing! I had never seen anything nearly as spectacular! For a moment I thought of going back past the Emerald Lakes towards the Red Crater but then decided to continue downwards looking back at the stunning views across the Central Crater. Soon after the start of the descend the view disappeared. But in front of me was a spectacular view of Lake Rotoaira and Lake Taupo. This view was in sight during the entire descend towards Ketetahi Hut, where I rested and finished the rest of my food.

The ascent had been quite hard already but the descent was even worse. My knees started hurting towards the end. As I got further down the vegetation started changing dramatically. While on the top hardly anything grew, further down there were small plants and grass. And during the last one hour I was walking through a very green forest with small waterfalls before reaching Ketetahi Road. We waited about half an hour for hour van which took us back to Howard's Lodge. The lady who was driving the van was extremely friendly and was telling us loads about the Tongariro NP region. We stopped at Whakapapa to drop off some hikers. There are lots of walks and day hikes in this area she told us. We got some great views of Mt Ruapehu and even saw Mt Taranaki in the far west.

The hike was an amazing and unforgettable experience! After reaching Howard's Lodge I had a shower, told Richa about my day and bought myself a Tongariro Crossing t-shirt. Soon after that we were on our way towards Palmerston North.