Tongariro Crossing hike today... I woke at 6:15 a.m. to make my breakfast - scrambled eggs on toast, fruit flavored yogurt and a soft drink. I took a shower and forgot to wake up John first, so by the time I returned to the room we had 11-minutes until the bus left. Oops! John responded to the emergency and, after picking up a few other passengers, the bus returned for John.
Tongariro Crossing is a classic hike in New Zealand. You can do the 11-mile spectacular, but grueling hike in 7-8 hours. It crosses one of the newest volcanic areas in the world. It currently vents steam and sulphur fumes. The last eruption was a few years ago.
We started the hike with a low clouds hanging over us, but shortly they burned off. The sun came out and remained with us the rest of the day. The hike up provided awesome views of "Mt. Doom", the volcanic cone they used for "Mt. Doom" in the "Lord of the Rings" movies. The hike up the first part is quite taxing and a few people just turned around and walked back out, but the views as you climbed were wonderful. This brings you to the top of a large, flat crater, which we crossed. This provides some relief before the next climb to the highest point of the crossing. From the higest point there were awesome views of Mt. Doom, lime green lakes, and alien volcanic formations.
The weird thing was, the descent from the highest point was down a narrow ridge of steep, loose gravel and rocks. There were dropoffs on either side. We finally discovered that the best technique to descend was to jog down, digging in your heels and making short ski-like moves through the gravel as if it were snow. One you got the hang of it, it worked pretty well. It was still a very physically taxing maneuver and my knees were not quite up for it. I was in pain afterwards.
We took a rest at the bottom of the slope next to these lime green lakes and ate our PB & J sandwiches and drank water. It was quite beautiful. After a walk across another flat crator, we made our final climb to the rim and started the endless hike back to the pickup point. It's about 4-hours of hiking. It passes through several zones, the virtually plantless volcanic top, the grassy, bushy middle section, and finally the lower down semi-tropical forest.
Even though we were quite sore, it was a great hike! The weather couldn't have been better!
Tongariro Crossing is a classic hike in New Zealand. You can do the 11-mile spectacular, but grueling hike in 7-8 hours. It crosses one of the newest volcanic areas in the world. It currently vents steam and sulphur fumes. The last eruption was a few years ago.
We started the hike with a low clouds hanging over us, but shortly they burned off. The sun came out and remained with us the rest of the day. The hike up provided awesome views of "Mt. Doom", the volcanic cone they used for "Mt. Doom" in the "Lord of the Rings" movies. The hike up the first part is quite taxing and a few people just turned around and walked back out, but the views as you climbed were wonderful. This brings you to the top of a large, flat crater, which we crossed. This provides some relief before the next climb to the highest point of the crossing. From the higest point there were awesome views of Mt. Doom, lime green lakes, and alien volcanic formations.
The weird thing was, the descent from the highest point was down a narrow ridge of steep, loose gravel and rocks. There were dropoffs on either side. We finally discovered that the best technique to descend was to jog down, digging in your heels and making short ski-like moves through the gravel as if it were snow. One you got the hang of it, it worked pretty well. It was still a very physically taxing maneuver and my knees were not quite up for it. I was in pain afterwards.
We took a rest at the bottom of the slope next to these lime green lakes and ate our PB & J sandwiches and drank water. It was quite beautiful. After a walk across another flat crator, we made our final climb to the rim and started the endless hike back to the pickup point. It's about 4-hours of hiking. It passes through several zones, the virtually plantless volcanic top, the grassy, bushy middle section, and finally the lower down semi-tropical forest.
Even though we were quite sore, it was a great hike! The weather couldn't have been better!
posted by Chris at 5:32 AM
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