Tongariro Crossing

Today we had our 7 hour (19.8km) Tongariro Crossing Hike. It involved getting on a bus at 6:20am and driving over an hour to Mount Tongariro in Tangoriro National Park, Taupo. Apparently this walk is listed as one of the top ten in the world for day hikes. Pre-warning: do not wear sneakers, wear hiking boots. And layers are key!

Our hike begins, and I'm still all bundled up. There was frost on the ground when we arrived to the National Park, eek!!

We made it to the summit! I bee-lined for a large rock to sit on.... I think I need to get into better shape! The summit is over 1900 meters above sea level. Although to be honest I'm not really sure if that's very high for a mountain or not.

But we were above clouds! So it can't be that low right??

Emerald Lakes below the crossing. If you can see the steam raising just behind the first larger lake it's from the sulphur being let out. You could put your hand over the hole and feel the warmth, the smell however was less desirable.

The red crater.

As we got over the mountain the sun was melting the frost. Between sun, wind, high altitude and exercise I had no idea whether I was hot or cold, but the layers definitely had to go.

Our descent. If you look past the mountains you can actually see Lake Taupo behind the little lake I'm framing. It's massive, the largest on the North Island... I believe.

This is Andreas and I. We were with four other girls but then we started to speed up, and then we got a bit competitive and tried to pass as many people as possible in the last 6km. We weren't the first back, but we started last on the bus and took some detours to summits, so we made really good time in the end. Tomorrow we're spending half of our day on the bus, and I'm expecting many leg cramps!