The Tongariro Crossing

This past weekend Will and I completed one of the last items on our short term New Zealand bucket list. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is known as the best day-walk in New Zealand. It's a 19.5k, 6-8 hour hike through Tongariro National Park in the central part of the North Island. We'd previously been to the area to ski, but now we are hiking the same ranges we skied. This is one of the most active composite volcanic regions in the world. And we took a stroll through it all!

The hike started out great. It was a brisk morning and we were walking on a pretty wide, flat path. I can do this! I thought. Then we started a very gradual climb and I began to fall behind our group of 4 pretty quick...I am the tortoise in this story. So we kept going and then we came to "the devil's stair case". It is not by coincidence that this is the name. I thought I was going to die. Because I was the least fit in the group, I didn't want to be the one stopping all the time, so I only stopped a few times to catch my breath quickly, then kept moving.

Will in front of Mt Doom

At the top we stopped for a mini picnic, then had some more climbing to do before we reached the very top. There we stopped to eat a bit more and take in the beauty. We could see about 150kms away to Mt. Taranaki. We had the best day every to complete this journey. After the colossal climb, we had to get back down.

Mt doom from the Red Crater

Will in front of the Red Crater

The A Team

The first part of the descent was really fun. It was really loose volcanic ash where you essentially had to just slide down as you walked. This took us to the beautiful emerald lakes. The colors were beautiful and not well reflected in the pictures. I was so happy to be going down and a bit flat. I thought the worst of the hike was behind me, and that we only had about 2 1/2 hours left which would be an easy cruise. Wrong! Going down was soo hard. It was so steep that you had to really focus on each step. After about 30 min I was ready to be done. My feet had started hurting really bad. The view was great, but hard to fully appreciate while walking. Jut when I thought this walk would never end, we finally hit the parking lot!

The Emerald Lakes

Making our way down

Steam coming out of the mountain...is it about the blow?!?!

We hit the grocery on the way home to pick up wine, beer and ice. The ice was the best purchase ever! Woke up with very little soreness compared to the day before!

We had such a great time and I am so happy to say I completed it. It is definitely something we will never forget.