Fabulous Tongariro Crossing Trek
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Editor Pick
Tongariro Expeditions
- April 30, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
Most people doing the Tongariro Crossing stay in Taupo. There is a much smaller town, Turangi, that is much closer to the Tongariro National Park, but from my research, the only thing I found to do there was the Tongariro Crossing, and the same tour buses drive you from there as from Taupo. The only difference is that it's about a 30 minute drive from Turangi and an hour and a half from Taupo.
There are a few different buses that take people to the Tongariro, and I chose Tongariro Expeditions under the advice of the Tiki Lodge. I was able to book my expedition there, and we had the option of not paying until we got on the bus in case the weather was bad, which is quite often.
For $35, I got a 3 hour round-trip bus ride, plus any gear I possibly could have needed. One of the most important pieces of gear they supply are hiking boots, which were clean and un-smelly enough that I would actually put my feet in them. Many people are scared off from the Tongariro because of their lack of boots, or lack of willingness to carry around a pair of shoes they'll use once on their trip, so this solves that problem. I also took a very warm fleece-lined coat (even if it's a warm day, take advantage of this—the Red Crater is freezing!), and a day pack, which was incredibly useful since it was just large enough to carry my outer layers of clothing, a giant water bottle, and food.
Tongariro Expeditions offers two services, the early bird, which really is early, picking you up around 5am to go up to the mountains, and the standard service, which picked us up around 6:15am at the hostel. They do not always offer the early bird service, depending on weather conditions—when I went, they did not. This service is for people that want to climb one of the two mountains, which adds an extra hour and a half or so to the trip. The service I was on got us to the mountains around 8ish and left again at 3:30pm from the other end. With the earlybird, you can arrive early and then take either an early shuttle or the 3:30pm service back.
Our bus driver was hilarious—he had a huge curly fro and everything started and ended with "sweet as!" He explained the Crossing to us step by step and point out that the most important part of the brochure was the page on which he can be seen hiking the Crossing in the snow. He must have said, "when you get back, check in with your good looking bus driver—that's me!" about a thousand times. Being on the bus with him definitely woke us up!
I thought this was a very good bus service, and incredibly cheap for what they gave us. For anyone doing the Crossing, I recommend this as a way to get to and from the mountains.
From journal The Tongariro - 17kms and a Broken Toe
Editor Pick
Tongariro Crossing--Ketetahi Hut to the End
- April 30, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
This review is a continuation of Tongariro Crossing, Emerald Lakes to Ketetahi Hut.
I was in front of our little group now, so I felt motivated to go faster. Mistake. I caught a rock under my foot in a bad position, and it bent my toe farther than it had been bent in a while, and it popped. And then hurt like all hell. I was convinced that I broke it again, so I told the others to go on without me. Unfortunately, my only company decided to regale me with tales of how much her calves hurt. My toe was possibly broken and I had walked just as far as her. So this did not put me in a good mood, which was sad, because the rest of the trail was still quite nice, although everyone tends to rush it in an effort to be done.
The last few miles of the hike really are mean. For probably an hour, I walked through beautiful forest, following crystal clear streams around every corner. However, by that point, I just wanted to sit down, and decided that I was not a fan of the corner game. When I finally made it out, it was 3.35, 5 minutes after the early bird bus left. One of my friends had told the driver about my incident and he was very happy to not have to come in to find me. And, luckily, when I got on the bus, I finally pulled my shoe off and after poking my toe, it popped back into place and the pain quickly subsided. If only I had realized that 2 hours before—but I was terrified of taking off my boot for fear I couldn’t get it back on again. And, as expensive as helicopter rides are, I didn’t particularly want to get myself a free one through the Tongariro by being incapable of finishing. I comforted myself in the fact that at least I wasn’t as stupid as the man that tried to climb in the horrific weather, against all warnings, and nearly died before being rescued.
Overall, I thought this was the best hike I have ever been on and would willingly do it again, especially with all my toes in one piece. Adding to that is the fact that I would like to go back and give the last part of the trail the appreciation it deserves—while everyone will be exhausted by this point (except the person the bus driver claimed made it through the entire trail and the 8kms to the main road… in 1 hour and 45 minutes—haha, yeah right), the trail really is spectacular throughout and is worth paying attention to. As long as you are fit enough (at 17kms/11 miles, it is no small feat), I would recommend the walk to anyone—and take plenty of film and a camera to record your memories! I took nearly 100 pictures along the way, and somehow still managed to make it back to the bus on time, broken toe and all.
From journal The Tongariro - 17kms and a Broken Toe
Editor Pick
Tongariro Crossing--Emerald Lakes to Ketetahi Hut
- April 30, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
This review is a continuation of Tongariro Crossing—South Crater to Red Crater.Finally at the bottom, with out much bodily injury, and my toe surprisingly still in one piece, although slightly aching by this point, we stopped but quickly moved on because of the smell of rotten eggs which permeated everything. We were there long enough to get a good look at the Emerald Lakes, which are very striking and one of the most photographed points of the Tongariro. They are also a sacred Maori ground, so regardless of how much anyone wanted to relax, we all kept our distance from them out of respect. We were sad because we missed the spot at the top of the crater where the driver told us we could sit and warm our bums; of course, we weren’t sad enough to actually turn out. We then made our final biggish climb, which was only about 5 minutes long, and stopped for another break by Blue Lake. To celebrate the end of all climbs for the day, we decided to eat lunch. It is a must that you take plenty of food because you’ll be starving by this point. Unfortunately, the sandwich that I had bought at the store apparently had mayo that I didn’t know about, so it was mushy and disgusting. So I say from experience: the end of the walk will be a lot more fun if your stomach isn’t eating itself.After this, the path wound around the mountains, until we could finally see a smaller lake, the giant Taupo behind it, and most importantly, the Ketetahi hut, which meant there would only be 2 more hours in the hike… when we reached it. It's such a tease though, because the path zigzags all over the hills, with the hut never actually getting any closer, until—boom—20 or 30 minutes later you're there. It wasn’t quite as frustrating as the Devil’s Staircase, but it was odd seemingly being no closer to your destination than you were 10 minutes ago, although you’ve been walking at a fair pace the entire time.After a short stop at the oasis—or so it seemed—we were back on the trail, hoping to catch the early bird bus back. We went through some hot springs land with lots of threatening warnings about how using the Tongariro Crossing absolutely doesn't allow you to use the springs, so we stopped, snapped a shot of a bit of steam, and moved on.This review is continued in Tongariro Crossing, Ketetahi Hut to the End.
From journal The Tongariro - 17kms and a Broken Toe
Editor Pick
Tongariro Crossing--South Crater to Red Crater
- April 30, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
This review is a continuation of Tongariro Crossing—the Devil’s Staircase.
As we sat, wheezing, we stared at the people attempting to scale Ngaruhoe. They seemed to be going almost vertical and very slowly. And we thought there was no track up the Devil’s Staircase; climbing Ngauruhoe was literally straight up dried lava flows, and it said in the guide books to be 1 hour and 45 minutes to the top and 15 minutes down. The two or three poor souls we saw, disappeared in a thick cloud soon after we finished the stairs. Imagine all that hard work to see thick fog!
From there, everyone set off across the mercifully flat South Crater. There was no point turning around now; even though we weren’t anywhere near halfway, we had put too much effort into climbing the stairs to give up. Plus, no one wanted to even consider the idea of going DOWN the Devil’s Staircase. After the too-short South Crater, we began the steady hike up to the Red Crater, this one actually a visible path. One of the girls commented that it was like hiking on the moon; I likened it more to Mars because everything was an orangey red. It really was like Mars, too, lots of rocks, dust, and barely a sign of water. As we ascended to the highest point on the track (some 1700m), there were some spectacular views of the volcanoes, the mountains around them, and the lush valleys beyond.
When we finally got to the top, standing above everything except the crazies climbing Mt Doom, it was great. It was surprisingly cold up here; I began the walk in a T-shirt and pants, and ended up wearing thermals, a T-shirt, a hoodie, AND a fleece-lined jacket at the top! Here, there was a sulfurous red crater spitting steam into the air and an even better view. However, what comes up must come down, right? We quickly realised where the bus driver had referred to as "where you'll end up walking like a crab." I didn't enjoy the great view of three Emerald Lakes and a Blue Lake directly below me as much as I should have because I, and everyone else, was concentrated on not rolling through the crater into them. It's pretty much dirt, scree, and rocks the whole way down. If you try to walk normally, you end up on your rear, and if you run, you get through it quickly but have absolutely no control of which direction you go in, or of your speed (which, judging by the people flying past me, seemed to reach terminal velocity very quickly). I opted for the crabwalk, which was slow and hard on the ankles but seemed to be the lesser of the three evils. At one point, a German man ended up catching me as I nearly lost it.
This review is continued in Tongariro Crossing—Emerald Lakes to Ketetahi Hut.
From journal The Tongariro - 17kms and a Broken Toe
Editor Pick
Tongariro Crossing--the Devil's Staircase
- April 30, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
This review is a continuation of Tongariro Crossing—start to Soda Springs.
Mount Ngauruhoe did look spectacular though, completely framed by blindingly blue skies; it was much more peaceful than the lava-spewing cone of the movies. Mount Ruapehu, both the tallest point on the North Island, and the most recent volcano to erupt there (in 1995), was visible at the very beginning of the trek but soon after leaving the carpark, he disappeared.
An interesting fact I learned in Taupo about Mount Ruapehu is the fact that it has a large Crater Lake in its crater. This lake has been slowly filling up since the last eruption in 1995, since volcanic ash blocked its drainage point. At some point, there could be catastrophic mudslides when it finally overflows, but the authorities in Taupo are apparently prepared.
The other mountain, Tongariro, was not visible yet, as we hike around that one last. An interesting fact about this mountain as well: it used to be the tallest of the three volcanoes in the park, until a very long time ago it blew off its top ¾ in an eruption! Judging by the fair size of it still, that must have been one interesting eruption to watch! This isn’t the only large scale event that has helped to form the area—Lake Taupo itself was formed by a volcanic crater some 1800 years ago.
We had beautiful weather to start our trek, and it was all too tempting to continually stop and snap shots of everything. We had a nice view of Mount Doom, and therefore I have way too many pictures of said mountain when it was looming over the Devil's Staircase. We finally decided to stop postponing the inevitable and headed to the staircase—of which we could only see scattered people clambering nearly vertically up a cliff. With no one path leading up, for 45 minutes we scrabbled our way over rocks, cursing whoever found this walkway, and taking frequent breaks to drink our rapidly depleting water supply. Luckily, I brought along a "super pump" bottle that was 1.25L, because I certainly needed it.
Among the funny stories, our bus driver had regaled us with was the idea of the "corner game." He told us that all of us would play this game in the forest at the end of the track, saying, "It must be around this corner. No, it must be this corner..." We certainly played a variation of this game a lot sooner than expected, getting to what we thought was the top of the staircase, ready to celebrate, and then getting there and realizing we weren't even halfway to the next mirage top. Finally, we got there, and promptly sat down with the mob of other exhausted people.
This review is continued in Tongariro Crossing--South Crater to Red Crater.
From journal The Tongariro - 17kms and a Broken Toe