Day 156 - Tongariro Crossing

The day I spent walking the Tongariro crossing is by far one of the best days of my life. We nearly didn't do it at all. The weather had been so bad the day before they had cancelled all crossings and so we had all gone to sleep praying the weather had cleared the next day. It hadn't. All the signs said no crossings. But then... a wonderful man arrived who runs the guided walks. We wern't having a guide because they cost about $300 but he arrived and offered to walk on ahead of us for free to check it was safe. We were exstatic, and luckily he decided we were competent enough and never told us to turn around. This also meant there was no one else doing the walk and getting in our photos, and the weather brightened up almost as soon as we started walking.

It's rated in the top 10 one day walks in the world and I can see why. The walk begins on a small dirt track leading away from the car park and imediately you are awe inspired by the landscape. Here it is fairly flat with masses of vegetation spreading out over the rocky ground and the colours are amazing. It almost doesn't look real, like you are walking through a movie set. Eventually you come to what they call the devils stair case. It's not the most fun part of the walk as the name would suggest, but the moment you feel your legs giving up you turn around to see the view and you forget all about your aches and pains. Beyond this the walk is pretty easy, and you have the view of the volcanoes rising up to keep you going. We were actually very lucky to be doing the walk just after bad weather as it meant the snow was still very fresh, just adding to the spectacular scenery. The terain is just out of this world, because, lets be honest, how often do you walk over active volcanoes? Once at the top you can't help but feel like you are on top of the world. I felt totally free.

Coming down the other side was interesting as the ground is very unstable and the wind was trying desperately to push us over the edge :-\ . A lot of that section was spent on our bums waiting out the wind. At the base of the hill are the emerald lakes and you really can't imagine how green they are until you're there. Even the different colours in the rocks are amazing, including the Red crater, which is, funnily enough, a really bright, rich, red. The final leg of the walk is down through wild alpine vegetation and into the rainforest. This itself would be a lovely walk as you get amazing views over lake Taupo, you walk through fields where the grass is taller than you, and then you come to the beautiful waterfalls in the forest.

Magical, is just one of the words I would use to describe the day.

ps. Staying at the park meant we could jump straight into the hot tubs when we got back :-)