Tongariro Alpine Crossing

We arrived at National Park Backpackers around 6pm. I don't know the geography terribly well but it seems there is just a small town called National Park Village right by Tongariro National Park. The hostel was filled with folks preparing to do the Tongariro Crossing the next day. The poor weather we had experienced the few days prior had also affected everyone's ability to do the Tongariro Crossing. A handful of guys in our room had been waiting two or three days for the weather to break so they could do the crossing - I guess we just lucked out.

Friday morning we awoke at 6:30AM (!!!) to have breakfast, finish packing and catch the shuttle bus to the start of the track at 7:15. The shuttle only took 30 or 40 minutes to get to the trailhead, and the driver told us he would be at the other end at 3:00PM and 4:30PM - if you don't make it by 4:30, you're walking. The forecast for the day was mostly fine with lots of wind.

The trail starts off nice and flat, which is somewhat misleading, because after about an hour it becomes quite steep and rocky. This is what you see right before it gets steep:

And zoomed in on the trail profile:

The first major attraction is Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom (really just the top). As soon as we started the climb it immediately became windy, and therefor colder. Luckily there wasn't a cloud in the sky so the sun helped a lot to combat the chill (as did the climbing up stairs for hours).

Eventually we made our way to South Crater, walked through it, and then climbed a few hundred more meters to Red Crater, which had really vibrant red ground.

At this point we were at about 1900 meters so we not only had the volcanic features to look at but we also had a pretty good view of the surrounding area.

We then continued down through the crater and could see the Emerald Lakes as well as Blue Lake. This is also when it started to smell. At first it was just generally stinky but then it was very definitely sulfur/rotten eggs. I wish there was some way I could share the odor with you via the internet, but there is not. I guess you will all just have to miss out.

Multiple people suggested that we do the trail but Katie's work friend also said that for her the whole trail was like walking in a long line of people.  For us that was generally true as well.  It wasn't actually like walking in a line, but the trail was crowded enough that you were very rarely alone.  It was tricky to get pictures without all the other people in them.

I don't know much (i.e. anything) about the geology of the region but I'm sure all of the geology nerds that read this blog will chime in in the comments and explain the sulfur smell, why the lakes are that emerald blue and why some of the rocks are red versus grey versus black.

After blue lake it was pretty much all down hill. We reached Ketetahi Hut around 1:00PM so we assumed that even if we stopped and made lunch we should still have the estimated hour and a half to make it to the car park for the 3:00PM bus. This was a generally poor assumption.

We finished lunch right around 1:30PM and then hightailed it down the track towards the Ketetahi car park. Almost on the dot of 2:15 we reached a sign that read "Ketetahi car park 45 minutes." We may or may not have run parts of the trail at the end. Needless to say no pictures were taken but there really wasn't much to see. The volcanic features were all behind us and it was mostly just a boring rocky (sorry Laura) walk down through increasingly thick bush.

Oh, and we did make it to the car park at 2:55, right as our bus was pulling up. Neither of us will be able to walk tomorrow. Herein lies the reason we brought ibuprofen and as George would say: praise the lord and pass the anti-inflammatories.