Tongariro National Park is located approximately in the middle of the North Island, and is a World Heritage area. The mountains of Tongariro are recognized as being central to the lives of the Iwi people who have historically occupied this area. The spiritual and cultural values are part of the landscape.
We stayed in the Whakapapa Village Holiday Park, and they arrange our transportation to and from the trail. The village is located at 1119m, and it was considerably colder at night than we had been used to. We did a 2 hour hike in the afternoon to get the legs going and explore the area.
It was a wonderful weather, but very cold at 7:00am the following morning, when we took the bus to the trail start of the 19.4km one way Tongariro Alpine Crossing (TAC). We had been warned that the wind speed would be around 60km/hr at the top, but the wind had already started picking up.
We started off with a gentle gradient climb alongside a stream and around edges of old lava flow. The lava has different colours; the younger lava is darker and absorbs much of the sun's heat - not that we could feel that at that time of the morning!
The track climbed steadily, gaining 340m up to the South Crater at the foot of Mt. Ngauruhoe. We crossed over two lava flows from eruptions in 1870 and 1975.
We walked up the ridge, and started smelling sulphur from the Red Crater, which is still active. The red colour is from high temperature oxidation of iron in the rock - beautiful.
It was a struggle to get to the summit of the Red Crater, the highest point of the TAC at 1886m. The trail was steep, and the wind was very strong, pushing us sideways, with sand and small stone flying around. This video was taken there while holding on to a sign due to the high winds:
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From there we descended steeply to the Emerald Lakes. Minerals leaching from the adjoining thermal area cause their brilliant color. These lakes freeze in winter.
Find Andy!
This is taken towards to summit, not an easy ascend due to the high winds and the loose lava.
Then we started our descend back to civilization and the bus pick up, but it wasn't without danger..
and this is why...
The trail went right thorugh the active area,
Trust me, we did move very quickly.
It was an amazing hike, and nothing like we have ever done before!
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