Day 17 - In the footsteps of Frodo

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is held to be the best one day hike in New Zealand - and who are we to disagree? The hike is very popular, so much so a bus service is laid on to get hikers from one end of the track to the other. Ideal! So, an early start from Taupo to get us to Whatapapa got us bussed up to the trail head at Mangatepopo.

So what makes this hike so special? Well it takes the walker through a great variety of terrain, crossing some of the most active volcanic areas of NZ, but also through scrubland, dramatic valleys, and forest.

We started with an hour's hike along a track winding through moorland towards the rising sun and the backdrop of Mt Ngauruhoe - more familiar to fans of the Lord of the Rings films as Mount Doom! This is a text book Volcano - conical with an almost perfect caldera with the scars of past lava flows rolling down its flanks. From the point know as Soda Springs we climbed up the "Devil's Staircase" (why is it always the devil?...) which wound its way fairly steeply up over a old lava flow. The views just getting better and better...

We were fortunate to get a nice sunny morning for the trip, but winds were at 45kph and forecast to get stronger - certainly not a flying day. This did mean we got fantastic views with the tops clear of cloud, save that rolling in and up from the north - adding more drama to the scene (as if that were needed). The hike took us from the top of the Devil's Staircase across the flat of the southern crater. Truly an alien landscape if ever there was one! Then it was another climb up onto the rim. The photographs were mounting up too!

We'd made good time arriving at the rim, so we decided to take the hour or so to take the side hike to the summit of Mt Tongariro to get some more views. The wind was picking up quite a bit though and as we hiked around the rim of the southern crater we got regularly sand-blasted as the wind whipped up grit from the northern crater and across us. (We're still fishing grit out from our ears a day later). But it was worth it - more great views of Mt Ngauruhoe and we just got a glimpse of Mt Tanganika out on the coast (despite gathering cloud).

More sand blasting took us back to look down on Red Crater. Just when you think there are no more incredible surprising sights this tramp can possibly throw at you... Red crater is very red. Many spots may claim to be the gates of hell, but here the devil was spawned. Words fail here - hopefully you'll get some idea from the photo.

Down the rim took us past the Emerald lakes (mmm sulphur...) and across the northern crater. By now the cloud was starting to drop so the clear views we'd had of the blue lake early were now shrouded. Then suddenly the scenery was quite different as we turned down into a valley reminiscent of a steep sided glen, covered in mosses, heathers, and alpine flowers as well as large areas of lichen. As we descended this gave way to shrubbery and the Ketetari hot springs (mmm more sulphur...), then finally an hour's walk out under the forest canopy to await the bus.