A must do on every New Zealand explorer's list is the Tongariro Crossing, one of the most beautiful day hikes in the world. This crossing goes along the ridges of a collection small active volcanic craters next to Ruapehu. Much of the hike goes along Mt. Ngauruhoe, an active volcano, that along with Mt. Ruapehu (one I hike previously) were used as Mt. Doom in the LOTR. So 7 of my amazing buddies and I decided to make a Saturday of hiking the crossing. Our team consisted of Ema, Brayden, Graeme, Benedict, Ross, Alex, Viladmir, and myself. It was another 4:30 am wake up call to drive the 2 hours to the national park. If you know me, early mornings can be a little rough but there is something different about waking up to go on a new adventure, I probably didn't sleep more than an hour that night...which isn't the best preparation when you plan on hiking 8 hours the next day but that wasn't going to stop me.
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| The Crew: Ema, Alex, Ross, Graeme, Jen, Viladmir, Benedict, and Brayden |
So we took 2 cars and got to one side of the crossing and dropped almost everyone off then drove another car to the other side. By the time we were all back to the beginning and ready to go it was about 10 am. As we waited for the drivers to come back about 4 groups of hikers started up the mountain. It was a foggy day and the rain was threatening but some hikers only had shorts or light jackets. We started to think we might have brought too many layers because we planned on a snowy ascent but kept what we had anyway. Clouds covered the volcanic ridge so we couldn't actually see the mountain we were about to climb up. The start of the trail was an easy dirt road leading to swampy valley coming up the base of the mountain An area termed the devil's staircase had switchbacks of wooden steps leading up the mountain. As we hiked the wind was constantly changing and the clouds were moving in and out faster than the hokey pokey. We continued to hike onward, but every group we passed warned us of the terrible winds and fog on top of the volcano. A bunch of invincible college kids such as ourselves didn't let this stop us, we were all eager to do this walk and this was our only chance to do it. As we continued our accent all of the groups we had seen start ahead of us had turned back and everyone told us that we should do the same but, being as stubborn as we were, we had to see it for ourselves before we made such a regrettable decision. So we moved into the thick cloud cover and stayed close. So far there wasn't much to worry about, the wind was a bit blustery at times. I put on the extra layer I had taken off during our climb up the stair and put a bandana around my face to protect from the wind and felt reasonably comfortable as we kept hiking.
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| If there is a Eruption.... |
The weather conditions really seemed completely manageable to me, I mean as long as it isn't bad enough for my eye lashes to freeze together I saw no problem continuing on. Even if we weren't going to see much because of the fog there was a sense of pride to be earned in fearing the conditions and completing the crossing. As we reached a white flat area (everything was white) the winds were fierce but were at our back and not causing us any trouble. The flat area turned out to be basically a huge ice skating rink, I think it was part of a crater that had heated some of the snow and ice to melt it but it had frozen on top so below the ice the water wasn't deep and we could walk across the ice but if you punched through the ice you got a wet boot covered in mud. So of course I just followed the bigger guys until I knew I could walk through an area without breaking the ice. Once we understood what we were walking on it became a lot of fun. We all boot skated across the ice just like figure skaters. When the wind would gust you could get it to give you a little boost as you jump and slid along the ice. For being completely disoriented and in a thick white cloud that we couldn't see more that 20m we had a really good time. We didn't see any other people, as they had all turned back. After crossing the large white ice skating rink, the trail markers led us up along the ridge of the highest mountain. This was the only area that it got a bit icey and slick. It was snowy and icey but also a lot of rocks so you could keep good traction if you stayed on the rocks. As we hiked up the ridge we looked back and the clouds suddenly cleared! We could see the large white open ice field we had just walked through and another crater just above it.
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| Foggy, ice field |
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| Clouds cleared as we could see the large open white field we had just crossed. |
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| Top of Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) |
We could also finally see just how large the ridge we were hiking was but couldn't quite make out the top. Our magnificent views only lasted a short while as heavy wind gust blew the clouds back in and gave us a bit of a challenge attempting to maneuver up the skinny, steep, and icey ledge. We finally made it to the top and continued to be completely surrounded by the terrible whiteness that had engulfed us. There was nothing to see and the wind was blowing harder then ever. As we continued back down the other side, along the opposite ridge, many of my friends were forced to sit down to prevent being blown over, a wise choice considering the large cliff beneath us for most of the way. But don't worry, it died down enough we were all able to jump, walk, and slide down the mix of dirt, ice, and snow that reminded us all strangely of oreo ice cream, although I'm sure not as tasty. It was a slick decent and more than one of us spent some quality time on our butts as we attempted to safely descend. The part of the trail that we were walking was famous for its spectacular views of volcanic craters, lakes, and miles and miles of New Zealand, but for awhile it seemed the clouds weren't going to give in to allow to witness the legendary sites. But then just as we were about to reach the famous 3 crater lakes at the top of the crossing the clouds cleared out, it was impeccable timing. We saw the deep emerald blue lakes and when the wind blew in our direction you could catch a whiff of the rotten egg sulfuric smell. faint scent of sulfur. It was really a scene that felt out of this world like we were exploring another planet. We stopped briefly to eat lunch and take photos but then had to continue on our way to keep from getting too cold. We were really fortunate the clouds cleared for us to see this, although barren, beautiful scene.
As we continued on we crossed over another strangely large wide open field of ice and up another ridge to see an even larger lake. The sun was reflecting brightly through the clouds and off the snow and besides the biting wind it would have been tempting to take a dip. The lakes weren't frozen as you would expect in such a cold area, I would assume this is because of thermal heat. Most of our hike had been through thick fog and we weren't really able to feel the heat from the sun at all. We joked the whole time how the "What to Bring" list online had strongly recommend sun hats and sunscreen.....I explain more on this later. The last third of the hike was a bit more leisurely. Although we did pass a few unprepared adventures headed to where we had just come and knew we'd probably being seeing them headed back our way soon. Some how we had managed to have the wind at our backs nearly the entire time. As we reflected on the warnings people had given us on our way in at first we thought they were being dramatic but really it would have been as awful as they had said had we been going into the wind, like they did, the whole way. So we really lucked out in the direction that we took the crossing. After a spontaneous snowball fight, Brayden posing his famed handstands in sketchy places, and a few snowy ravines, the trail lead us out of a canyon and on to a mountain face overlooking more lakes and the beautiful Taupo valley.
A number of switchbacks led us to a hut filled with people just getting ready to complete the crossing or had just finished, after swapping a few stories and taking more photos we continued down the mountain face covered in the most switch backs I have seen to up or down any mountain. It was a bit tedious how slow it made our descent but we had made such good time for our hike is wasn't like we were in a rush. Along the way we saw what we will forever claim to be Smaug's Lair from The Hobbit and a few other places that resembled LOTR. The steep ridges we climbed and the main peak that we summitted was where they filmed the Mt. Doom scenes from LOTR, you could see the resemblance of the steep volcanic mountain covered in dark volcanic soil. Even knowing this Ema wouldn't reenact the scene with me being Frodo and her Sam, where Sam carries Frodo up the steep mountain, well that is mostly because somewhere along the way I had agreed to be Sam, but that is irrelevent ;) ha ha. All in all it was an amazing day and such an unforgettable adventure bad weather and all. Oh and back to the sunscreen thing....ya we all got fried. It was almost humorous considered how many times we had joked about the sunscreen and never used it, only to have fried faces and peeling skin for the next week. We really never got a lot of direct sun but those UV rays really do still go through the clouds and reflect off the snow to give ya a good burn ha ha. so worth it.
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| Ross, Viladmir, Benedict, Graeme, Alex, Brayden, Jen, and Ema after completing the crossing |
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| Mt. Doom |
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