Day 27 (Actually Day 21): Crossing the Tongoriro

Before I arrived in New Zealand, in the little research I did, I knew that the Tongariro Alpine Crossing was an absolute must on my list of places to see and things to do.

What I have found here in New Zealand is that every place is described in a way that makes it seem that it is grander than it is in reality. Any where in New Zealand there is a "the most unique _____  on the east coast", "the oldest _____ in the country", "the biggest _____ on the west coast". And so it goes the Tongariro Alpine Crossing happens to be in the countries oldest national parks, deemed to be the best one day hike in New Zealand, with others saying that it is in the top 10 day treks in the world. See what I am saying here? Bold statements about EVERYTHING. In most cases it is easy to make a joke about these statements. However, in my little experience of treks worldwide, I can safely say that the Tongariro lived up to the hype. This was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. The volcanic landscape was incredibly diverse, the whole trek was breath taking, and I would tell anyone, if you come to NZ you MUST do the Tongariro Crossing. This day of hiking, from start to finish, was seriously a perfect day, possibly one of the most perfect days I will have in the whole time I am in New Zealand.

The track is 19.4 km start to finish. Being the fantastic on-the-ball travellers we are, we were late arriving at the location where the shuttles take you to the start point by. So we decided to drive 30 minutes to the Mangatepopo Valley and park there, which is the starting point of the hike. We originally decided we would just hitch hike back to the car once we arrived at the end of the hike. Once we were on the trail and had been walking for a while we decided it would be best to just walk to all the land,marks along the trail, turn around after we saw the last viewpoint and walk back to the car. The trek from end to end is 19.7km. I do not actually know the distances from point to point so I cannot say how many kilometers we covered, but I do know it was a lot and likely more than the 19.7km of the full trail. We saw Mt. Ngauguroe, made famous by Lord of the Rings being filmed as Mt. Doom. We stopped off at Soda Springs, saw the South Crater and Red Crater (this trek is partly on/near an active volcano hence all the craters), Emerald Lakes, Central Crater and Blue Lake. We returned back to the car as the sun was setting and enjoyed a glorious sunset, the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Mt. Ngauruhoe

Soda Springs

      

Kissing Rocks