With that out of the way, let me tell you a bit about the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It's a 19.4 km alpine crossing that takes you by 2 active volcanoes through a very interesting landscape in Tongariro National Park, which is New Zealand's oldest national park and the world's second oldest (after Yellowstone, if I remember correctly) It sort of looks like the moon, sort of like Mars, and sort of like downtown Detroit. It takes about 6-8 hours to complete and is considered to be New Zealand's most popular day-long hike, as well as one of the 9 great walks. On the map below you will see the crossing in red.
Oh yeah, the two volcanoes were used in the Lord of the Rings movies as Mount Doom. So.. {insert ring-related joke here}
I arrived in Tongariro at 2pm or so via train (the park is one of the stops on the Wellington-Auckland line), found a hostel, made myself comfortable, and prepared my gear for the next day's hike. The weather was very nice, in contrast to what I experienced in Wellington, so I was hoping for the same sort of thing for the next day. I booked a shuttle to pick me up at the hostel at 7:15am to take me to the crossing.. I wanted to head to Taupo right after the hike, which I *thought* meant that I'd have to head back to the hostel, wait a day, and then arrange transportation.. but apparently shuttles run from Taupo to the crossing as well.. so I contacted the bus company in Taupo and arranged for them to pick up my backpack (big 17kg one; all my crossing gear was in a small day pack) at the start of the hike - and to take me to Taupo afterwards.. It would save me a day - and I got lucky.. the shuttles from Taupo *usually* arrive 5-10 minutes after the ones from the hostel by the train station.. so basically the plan was for me to take a bus to the start of the hike - wait for the shuttle from Taupo to arrive - load up my big backpack onto the Taupo bus - do the hike - and then catch that bus to Taupo when I was finished with the hike.
Whew! I hope all of that made sense! Before I get into anything else, let me say that the weather was NOT nearly as nice as it was the previous day.. It was very cloudy and looked like it would rain at some point in the near future.. We didn't even know if we'd be able to hike until shortly before the bus left.
While I was waiting for the Taupo bus to arrive I ran into somebody from the hostel - a German (surprise surprise) named Ruediger. We made a blood pact to become hiking buddies for the day. We agreed that it might make sense not to be walking alone in light of the bad weather.. and in hindsight it was a pretty good idea. It was also good to be able to practice my English... oh.. wait a second, nevermind, that's probably just what the German guy was thinking..
The hike starts with a steady climb upwards for about an hour and a half, at which point you end up.. in clouds! At least on that day.. It was quite a bizarre experience. Not only were we hiking through volcanic debris & terrain that might be best described as lunar.. or martian.. but our vision was limited to maybe 15 metres in either direction. The best way I can think of to describe it is by comparing it to one of those old Star Trek rocky planet sets. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm sure at least one of you do.
Walking through a cloud is not at all like walking through fog. There was quite a bit of moisture all around us and every once in a while we'd walk through "sideways rain". It was all quite bizarre and nothing I really expected when I signed up for this thing. I'm glad I brought all the gear that I did, because I really did need all of it - a fleece top, waterproof jacket, wool hat, gloves, 2.5L of water, food, and my camera.. which I actually attempted to use - with interesting results.
We continued climbing until we reached 1,950 metres or so, at which point we hiked along a very strange and level plateau. It caught us by surprise.. a pleasant surprise! I really enjoyed this part of the hike.. It really seemed like we were on a movie set or something.. and not at all sure what was around us, especially in front of us.
Eventually we reached the emerald lakes, which usually look yellowish, light blueish, and greenish.. They looked quite strange under the cloud.. I took some pictures but I'm not sure how they'll turn out! I'm not sure if ANY of the pictures I took will manage to convey the experience in any meaningful fashion.. The videos that I took of us walking should hopefully do that job a bit more effectively.
The hike continued with another plateau later on, a climb here and there, and a strange descent down volcanic sand of some sort that was a bit annoying. The sandy descent only lasted a bit - but the last 3 hours of the hike was a descent as well - down stairs, rocks, and other such things.. I was forced to take some ibuprofin an hour and a half into the hike and then some more maybe 2 and a half hours before the finish (due to a painful left knee)... but overall I found the hike somewhat easy. The Routeburn Track was far more difficult - and not only because I happened to have 17kg of stuff on my back (and only 1-2kg now). I was really expecting a bit more of a challenge from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing..
You might wonder whether the clouds (aka no good pictures of all the things people usually take pictures of when they complete this crossing) meant that I viewed the experience as a failed one.. but, not really! It was a strange and unique experience that I will probably never forget.
Near the end of the hike (after we were low enough to no longer be covered by clouds) it started raining.. Twenty minutes later we were at the end - under a roof.. with 40-50 other people. Somehow we were able to find room... and we waited for the buses. for an hour and a half. See, usually it takes 8 hours to complete the hike. It took us 6. I suppose when it's nicer out people stop a lot more often to take in the views - as well as partaking in 1 or 2 of the 2 optional side hikes.. The buses were due to arrive at 4 - we arrived at the end before 2pm. Luckily for us the buses arrived early.. and I was off, to Taupo! Where there were more clouds and more rain. so I didn't get to skydive :( (it is the skydiving capital of the world - it is surprisingly cheap to skydive there).. I was going to write more about Taupo here, but that will have to wait..
Tomorrow I am off to Rotorua. I am hoping for sun! And btw, usually I quickly go over my posts and do a rough spell and grammar check before publishing.. but I have no time for that right now. So if any of the above made you cringe (I know that some of you are grammar nazis), my apologies! My next post will be a lot more cleaner, I promise.
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