The Tongariro Alpine Crossing

The Tongariro Alpine crossing is claimed to be the best one-day hike in New Zealand, with spectacular scenery which was used as the backdrop to Mordor and Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. However it seems that in New Zealand, beautiful scenery can only be properly enjoyed after a near-death experience (cf. the view as you float down in a parachute is fantastic, but first you have to do the free-fall!).

The previous day was hot and sunny in Taupo, so we rose at the evil hour of 5:40am to catch a bus to the trail heads thinking hard about things like sun cream and sun hats as we had heard the trail is quite exposed. The bus was pretty cold, but then it was 6:30am, but as we neared the trail head the bus driver warned us that the winds would be around 50kph at the summit and switched on the “acclimatisation” machine (i.e. opened all the windows!) and we realised that perhaps we had been concentrating on surviving the wrong end of the weather spectrum… Fortunately the bus was equipped with a portable hire shop for some amazing lightweight wind & waterproof jackets so we were able to top-up our weather protection.

The first part of the walk was pretty dull on account of the closed in mist and fine drizzle that prevented us from seeing the surrounding mountain ranges. At some point the plant life ended and was replaced by a landscape of amazing red and black “nobbly” rocks that really did make us feel we were climbing “The Devil’s Staircase”. There were some nice flat parts on boardwalks across marshy patches to provide a rest from the ascent, and while the misty rain spoiled the view (the tall cone-shaped Mount Ngauruhoe, aka Mount Doom, looming above us was completely hidden) and the wind was a bit cold, we were enjoying the walk.

During the next climb, the wind picked up and caused things to become decidedly chilly. The plant life also stopped again and the landscape began to look a lot like Mordor, dark/black volcanic rock broken only by some large white patches of frozen snow which had yet to melt. This part of the walk involved crossing a huge snow and ice-covered volcanic crater which was easy going–the cloud even lifted a little so at least we could appreciate the size of the crater.

The wind returned as we emerged from the crater, and began to pick up speed—it was no longer merely a chill factor, by the time we were half way up the next ridge the cross wind was making it difficult to walk in a straight line, and it was sufficiently strong to tear my snugly fitting baseball cap from my head and hurl it into the crater we were ascending. It was a sad moment as that cap was a souvenir from my trip to Canada and had accompanied me on all subsequent trips—Mt Doom had claimed its first victim of the day—but the force and bite of the wind meant there was no time to mourn, we had been promised that things would be better once we got over the summit so we had to press on.

As we came over the summit of the Red Crater, there was a majestic site of Emerald lakes glistening in sunshine below, but also one problem: since we were now at the summit (1886m), getting there involved traversing an exposed ridge without a rock wall on one side to prevent the wind from sending us to join my hat in the crater. The trail guide had recommended using hands and knees if necessary (I had been bemused when I read that originally, now I understood!) so we adopted an undignified low sideways scuttle braced against the wind, and once we were over the peak, I was able to hunker down and risk taking out my camera to capture the fantastic views.

Twenty metres down the scree slope and the wind was suddenly almost non-existent so we were able to locate a warm spot of ground (the Red Crater is still active) and eat lunch in the sunshine that had suddenly appeared after its notable absence on the other side of the mountain. Rosie lent me her spare bobble hat for the rest of the trip which should result in some comedy photos but it was still cold, and we had four hours of walking to go so this was no time to be fashion-concious!

The descent took us close to the beautiful and accurately named Emerald lakes, then across another snow covered valley. From the other end we had a fantastic view of the Red Crater we had just climbed, plus the (again descriptively named) Blue Lake. There was another rocky traverse across the face of Mount Tongariro and then a long and gentle descent through some geothermal springs, and then eventually vegetation returned and the last hour was actually following the path of a sparkling clear stream through a lush green forest—a complete contrast to the volcanic landscape of the morning!

Our hostel was equipped with a hot tub which was a welcome relief for tired muscles, and despite the less than ideal weather conditions, it was a fantastic day.

2 Responses to “The Tongariro Alpine Crossing”

  1. jess Says:

    Sounds scary…. very scary. Looking forward to seeing the photos 😀

  2. Matt Says:

    It’s a great walk – shame the weather wasn’t clear but it even in late December it was misty up at the top