Tongariro Crossing Part 1

I feel as though I am really unable to type out a full complete blog post on my trip to and through the Tongariro Crossing. Because although I did make the treacherous 5 hour drive there, followed by the equally.. maybe even more treacherous… 5 hour drive back, I did not actually complete the Tongariro Crossing .

As a brief explanation, I can tell you that the Tongariro Crossing is considered the best full day hike in New Zealand, or so i’ve been told. It is a beautiful walk/hike through mountains, lava covered craters, throughout waterfalls, up devil’s staircases. I wouldn’t call it your average hike at all. I believe in total it is 19 km in length. Normally, hikers arrange a shuttle to drop them off at the top of the trek and then arrange for the shuttle to pick them up at the end of the trek seeing as how by the time they have completed the full hike, it will most likely either be getting dark.. or will definitely be dark by the time they are half way through coming back on the track to return to the car park where it actually begins. On average it takes a hiker around 8 hours for completion.

It is reccommended that people wear sturdy hiking boots, preferrably water proof with thick socks. In addition to this, a smart hiker’s back pack would be fully loaded with:

• An extra pair of thick socks
• Trackpants
• Rain Jacket
• Hat
• Gloves
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• Drinking Bottle
• Food
• First Aid Kit
• Cell Phone
• Accurate sense of direction while treking through the wilderness.

In short, this hike is no joke, it means business, and of course being as prepared as I possibly could.. packing my bag with all of the required and recommended elements, there was no way to prepare for the weather that showed up that day…

To be honest, I think we picked the worst possible day to do a hike like this. When we awoke in our humble, cabin-like accommodation, I could hear the trickle of water off of the thin, beaten down roof of our cabin. With a pull back of the blinds I stared outside into the wet wet lands of Tongariro… the same lands that we would be hiking in only a short hour from wake up time.

However, we could not turn back now.. we decided to put on all of our rain gear and hoped that the weather would turn around.

Luckily, the hike was still amazing to me, an American who had never been to this side of New Zealand before. The Kiwis I was with did not seem as impressed… but they thought we would still give the hike a try. It was FREEZING. And not only that… there was soaking wet rain that came pouring down in increments between the thick fog and misty clouds that were also responsible for covering half of the scenery in front of us. Heck… I couldnt even see the top of the mountain we were climbing up. It was pretty sad.

We made it about two hours and arrived at a beautiful water fall. The water was freezing, but my friend and I decided to take a picture under it anyway. Our clothes were already soaked with rain water… what was a little waterfall water going to do…

However, after that we came to an intimidating sign that was posted conveniently in front of a staircase that I came to know as “Devil’s Staircase”. With a quick read of the sign, and a few helpful hints from my kiwi friends who had done the trek before… I knew that we had to turn back there. It was far too dangerous to take the hike up any further and we knew the only thing waiting for us at the top would be meters and meters of snow that we were most definitely not prepared for… so sadly the hike ended there with promises of our return once summer had gone underway.

I am still thankful for getting a glimpse of Tongariro Crossing because it only makes me more excited to come back on a day much more suitable for a full-day hike.

Our trip was still enjoyed by spending some time in the hot pools near by with the cold rain cooling our heads from above.

This Tongariro blog post is to be continued come our return trip in January…