Day 337: Tongariro Crossing

Although we had planned to have a restful last few weeks in New Zealand with no majoy activities, the one thing that we really wanted to do was the Tongariro Crossing – a one-day hike across a volcanic range. When we were first in the North Island there was snow on the mountain so we put it off till now.

Now, being high season, it was really busy and you don’t get the sense of isolation that you do on other walks in NZ but it was still amazing. After the first major hill the crowd thinned out anyway and there was much more space. This is billed as the best one day hike in NZ and they are not wrong – there is such a change of scenery along the walk that it really didn’t feel like the 5hrs it took us. The first half is a 100m ascent, over lava flows until you get to the thermal areas on the top of the mountain – complete with coloured lakes and steaming rocks -  and then the descent takes you through hot spring areas and native bush. Absolutely spectacular.

It rained a bit on our descent but hey, this is NZ, we got all the good view at the top. We had to wait for our transport at the end though and there were laods of people there, all worried that they would not fit onto the first pick-up and have to wait an hour so there was a mad scramble when the bus arrived. As it happened, they sent more than enough and we got back to our car and drove up to Taupo and found a campsite with hotpools to soak our weary legs in…