Day 12: Hiking the Tongariro Crossing
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We stayed at the Grand Chateau, right at the base of Mount Ruapehu
in Tongariro National Park. Unfortunately, I have no good pictures of
the Chateau, but they are easy enough to find on the web.
We were hoping to do the Tongariro Crossing today, as it was our
only full day in the park. Last night, the weather report said there
might be snow over the night and if that was true, it would probably be
too dangerous to attempt the hike.
We were really excited, therefore, to wake up this morning and see
that the weather appeared to be perfectly clear (best weather we had
the whole time in New Zealand, in fact), and there wasn't too much snow.
This is a view of Mount Ngauruhoe (2287m) (pronounced, as best I
understand, "Na-ru-ho") just before the sunrise. While we were waiting
for our transport to the start of the Crossing (which is one-way) we
watched the sun rise over Ngauruhoe. Here is a map
of the Tongariro Crossing Hike. Generally, everyone starts near the
Mangatepopo Hut because it is higher in elevation than the other end.
(See the UFOs?)
Really nice views of Mount Ruapehu (2797m, the largest in the North
Island) just at the start of our hike. This mountain is the most active
volcano in the Park. It erupted multiple times, most recently in
1995-1996. There is a lake forming at the top of the volcano because
the eruption blocked the exit of the crater. They are predicting a
"lahar" sometime in the near future. That would occur when the lake
fills with too much water and suddenly bursts out of its banks sending
water flooding down the mountain. But I guess no one is too concerned
about a lahar or an eruption, because our hotel is built right at the
base, and an entire ski village is built even higher up.
Oh, and yes it was cold out. It was probably just around freezing
when we started our hike. We bought our lovely hats and my gloves just
the day before around town.
Our path, as it curved up towards Ngauruhoe (away from Ruapehu).
Lots more views of Mount Ngauruhoe.
Our path ahead. (The path was very busy with other hikers. There
were probably 50-100 people on the path. Of course, it was probably the
best day of the whole week, but on our other hikes we never saw more
than 3 people.)
The waterfalls at Soda Springs. As you might imagine, there is a lot of geothermal activity in this area.
The view back down the path from around Soda Springs. If you look
carefully, you can see the peak of Mount Taranaki in the distance. It
is a very conical volcano all by itself on the west coast.
Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit it on this trip. It is
about 100km directly to the west of us from this hike. The mountain was
used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai.
Hiking the first very steep path up to the South Crater from Soda Springs.
A few pictures at the top of the steep section.
The very wide, flat expanse of the South Crater.
We hiked up another steep section to this ridge. Looking to the
right on the first picture, you can see a person in red walking on the
path. That's about where we took the last two pictures.
We stayed on top of the ridge for a snack and to take in the view.
These two pictures were taken the opposite direction (roughly east) as
the previous two pictures.
We stopped here for a bit of rest about halfway up the last steep
section. The path was a bit treacherous here. Because our side of the
mountain was still mostly in shadow, there was ice and snow on the
ground. In some spots, the path was just a slope, so the snow made it
quite slippery.
At the bottom-center of the first picture, you can just make out a few tiny people where we stopped for our snack.
The ice stuck to a patch of desert grass made a neat-looking
porcupine. Most of the rocks on the path had an inch or so of snow
stuck to the south side (the side without sun in the Southern
Hemisphere). Shady patches of ground also had inch-long ice crystals
growing upwards like fur.
Here we are on the edge of the Red Crater. The colors here
fascinated me. Some areas were black, some red, and in the shadier
spots it was white with snow. There is a fair amount of
sulphur-smelling steam rising from the crater, indicating that it is
still somewhat active.
The view of Ngauruhoe from the highest point on the path (which is
still along the Red Crater, just higher up). Note the inch-wide section
of snow and ice on the side of the post.
The Red Crater from above. Notice the giant crack in the crater.
Apparently that formed by lava that had bubbled up and then subsided,
leaving just a shell.
The view to the north from the Red Crater peak. You can see the
round Blue Lake and then way in the distance Lake Taupo. (The white
patch is just snow, I think.) This picture was difficult to take
because a lot of steam was blowing over from the Red Crater at the time.
On our way down from the peak, we got a nice view of the Red Crater and Mount Ngauruhoe.
Some pictures of the Emerald Lakes, as seen from our way down the Red Crater peak. Yes, they really are that bizarre color.
The edge of one of the Emerald Lakes.
The lakes and steam rising from rocks looking up towards the Red Crater.
Here we are looking across the Central Crater towards the Emerald Lakes, the Red Crater and Mount Ngauruhoe.
The Blue Lake, looking north.
This is looking back across the Central Crater towards the Red
Crater and Mount Ngauruhoe again. The large dark patch looked to us
like recent evidence of a lava flow. But we had no idea how recent
"recent" was.
This is looking ahead on our path to Lake Rotoaira and then Lake Taupo beyond it.
This is the waterfall coming down from the Ketetahi Hot Springs.
The springs were definitely the most interesting thing on this long
journey down to the bottom, but unfortunately we couldn't get any
closer to them because they are on private property.
The water coming down from the springs was very opaque and gray.
The rocks around it are naturally a beautiful red color, but generally
you can only see the color where they are actually wet. Just above the
water level, the rocks are gray with the dried mud from the water.
Here we are most of the way down. You can see where the springs are by the giant plume of steam.
This is our "We finished!" picture at the very end while waiting
for our ride. It took us 7 hours in total. We could've done it faster
except that we took it slow with extra time for breaks because we knew
that we would have to wait at the bottom for our ride.
After a nice shower back at the hotel, we went out driving before
the sun set completely. Here we see Mount Ngauruhoe is free of clouds
again.
We started driving up the road to the ski village above our hotel.
You can see Mount Ruapehu started out still very sunny, but it got
darker and darker as we got closer. In the third picture, you can see
the white buildings of the ski village.
This is at the ski village (Iwikau) at the top of the road. Mount
Ruapehu is now entirely shaded. The nice condos look very strange
perched on top of ugly black rocks; as though they were built in the
middle of Mordor. It probably looks much prettier after some snow has
fallen. There didn't appear to be a paved road up to the houses, just a
very impassable (for us, anyway) rocky path.
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