Tongariro Crossing

I signed up to do the Tongariro Crossing. This is supposed to be one of New Zealand’s best 1-day hikes. It takes you 17 km across the Tongariro National Park World Heritage Area. For $49, Tongariro Expeditions, picks you up from your hostel, at 6:30, drops you off at the starting point, picks you up at the finishing point, at 3:30, and takes you back to your hostel. The hike itself is free.

Food for the day would be a box of cereal bars, an apple, and a bag of peanuts. It is suggested that you take 3 to 4 liters of water with you. So I bought 2 1.5 liter bottles of water to take with me along with a small .6 liter bottle.

I wore 4 layers of clothing: a non-cotton base layer, a fleece layer, a fleece lined jacket and a wind breaker; non-cotton underwear and a pair of cotton trousers. This really concerned me. You’re not supposed to wear cotton when doing activities like this. When cotton gets wet, it does not keep you warm and it takes long to dry. But I did not have any non-cotton pants. I could have rented (hired) a pair, but since the forecast did not call for any rain, I decided to take my chances. I would put my Sketchers boots to the test. Are they really boots or do they just look like boots?

The first leg of the hike was relatively easy. It was about a 1 hour hike. It went from the Mangatepopo car park at 1150m to Soda Springs at about 1275m. For much of the way there was a clearly marked or formed trail and an easy grade. There were some locations that were rocky and relatively steep, but not difficult. Not a bad start. Of course I was sweating quite a bit under my 4 layers of clothing. It was time to take off the fleece lined jacket before starting the next leg.

The second leg, from Soda Springs to the South Crater, is nick-named the Devil’s Staircase. It is very short compared to the first leg, but it is a very steep, rocky accent, with no clearly defined path. The elevation at the South Crater is just under 1600m. I knew this would be difficult. A few weeks ago, when I did a little trip down part of the Grand Canyon, I really struggled on the way up. The Devil’s Staircase was much worse. Whenever I thought I had reached the end, there was more, much more.

Finally, the South Crater. As we walked across the crater, we began to encounter snow/ice on the ground. Walking across the South Crater was a welcome reprieve, as it was essentially flat. However, there was yet another steep accent coming to get to Red Crater. Red Crater, at 1886m, would be the highest elevation we would be at. From here, you can see 360 degrees. Awesome scenery, but this is where the wind picked up and things got cold. I wanted to get off that peak quickly as possible. But it wasn’t that easy.

What goes up must come down. One would think that coming down would be easier that going up. And for everyone else, that seemed to be the case. But for me, coming down from Red Crater was the beginning of my problems. While everyone else had no problem running and sliding down, I had issues with the steep narrow path, covered with either loose dirt or ice and sharp drop-offs on either side. Each step was carefully placed to ensure I would not slip. This deliberate movement put lots of stress on my knees, and brought back the pain I had suffered in my left knee, on my bike ride a couple months ago.

I began to worry about missing the bus at 3:30, so I bypassed the Emerald Lakes and continued my trek across the snow covered Central Crater. It was cold. All my layers were back on again. My fingers were freezing, and I didn’t have gloves. And to my surprise, ahead of me was yet another accent. This time on a snow covered slope up to Blue Lake. Luckily, my knee hurt only while descending.

But from here one, it was all downhill. For much of the way down the trail was clearly marked and formed with crushed stone. This was ok, but in many locations, they had constructed steps, presumably to aid descending steep areas. This was share torture for me. If I stepped down with my right leg, my left knee would hurt. I had to step down with my left leg on each step, to prevent bending my left leg.

As more people pass me by, I worry more about missing the bus. When I stopped at the Ketetahi hut (1454m) to rest a little, I realized that I was toward the front of the pack and didn’t need to worry about missing the bus - as yet.

For most of this hike, due to elevation and temperature, there had been either very small shrubs or no vegetation at all. On the final leg, I was suddenly in an enchanted forest. Well, it could have been, I’m not sure. I was having quite a miserable time with my knee. My mind was focused on slowly arriving at the Ketetahi carpark (700m). I arrived a 3:15 ahead of many others.

A few minutes after I arrived, a girl asked if someone had dropped a black jacket with peanuts. Somewhere in the enchanted forest, I dropped my jacket and didn’t even notice. My clothes were adequate. 4 layers was just fine for the varying temperatures. It didn’t rain, so my cotton pants were not an issue. My boots got a little scuffed up at the toe, but they held up just fine. I only drank about .6 liters of water! This didn’t really surprise me. On my trip to the Grand Canyon, they suggested 1.5 liters and I probably drank half of that. It was hot at the Grand Canyon, but cold at Tongariro.

Despite my knee, I really enjoyed doing this. Being up in the mountains was amazing. This is the kind of thing I came to New Zealand to do. And after one day of rest, I was ready to go on to my next adventure - 3 days canoeing on the Whanganui River. *

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*I was really looking forward to doing the Whanganui River Canoeing. This was the one thing I wanted to do from before I left home. However, it seems that I was the only person in Taupo who wanted to do this. The company wouldn’t do it for just one person. I suppose I could have rented a canoe and do it myself, but I’d probably get myself killed. So I decided to move on to Wellington, capitol of New Zealand.