Tongariro National Park

 

Our hotel - Bayview Chateau for 2 nights right in the National Park.

On Thursday we split up into 2 groups.  11 of us chose to do the all day hike - Tongariro Crossing, while the others did two smaller hikes with lunch at the hotel. Our bus drove us to the start of the hike and we started hiking at 8:15am.  

The hike is basically a walk up to the ridge of a volcano, down into the inside of the crater and across to the other side then back up to the ridge.  Along the ridge then up to the summit, along the ridge above the red crater, back way down a hill to the Emerald Lakes (3), across the next crater to Blue Lake, up the side of the crater, then down, down and down some more until 8 hours later we came out to the parking lot where our bus was waiting for us.

Tongariro Crossing is considered the best one day hike in New Zealand, at 19.4km long with 2,550 ft of ascent and 3,700 ft of descent.  The considerable up was pretty difficult and we were very lucky with the weather as it was cloudy, no rain and only a little bit of wind.  Not too hot, in fact I was quite chilly when we got near the summit.  It definitely cooled off as we got higher. 

Looking back where we had come from. 

Crossing the inside of the south crater.

Looking back again after finishing a scramble.

Mt. Ngauruhoe or more commonly known as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.

The Red Crater which looks like the Orcs will be flying out of it at any moment.

Our group.

Going down to the 3 Emerald Lakes

The Blue Lake with an alpine daisy in front.

On our way down from the craters.

The view as we head down.

Finished! Whew, we were exhausted but elated to have done the hike.