The Tongariro Alpine Crossing
This walk is publicised as the best one day walk in NZ. I will not argue! It is graded as challenging and we certainly knew at the end of the day that we had done a serious walk.
It is an epic adventure and takes you through awesome volcanic scenery. Shuttle buses operate to take you to the start and pick you up at the end. Nearly everybody walks one way. We started walking at 7.30 in the morning and finished at 2.30 with just a few brief stops to rest and eat. The weather was cloudy at first but we had some sun later in the day. It was certainly windy when we were 2000m up but visibility was always good. We were so lucky as we had set aside 2 days to choose from for the crossing. The second day was heavy rain and strone winds with poor visibilty but that is NZ weather.
The walk starts with an hour on the flat before you come to the Devil's Staircase - aptly named. An hour of steep climbing over boulders of all sizes to eventually reach a coll. At this point there is a side walk to the top of the most perfect of volcanic cones that loomed over us - only to be attempted by those who found the Devil's staircase easy!
Then we had an easy ridge before another very steep and exhausting climb. We were at our hight point now, having climbed 1000m. The wind was strong and we moved onto a ridge that was 5m wide so no problem but I could not look down into the South Crater which was purple and black and menacing. From there we descended on thick volcanic dust - scree like. If you were brave you ran digging heels in for control. It took me some time! From here there are wonderful views of the emerald lakes and back up to increduble scenery. You can see how the volcano must have blown its top in the past, and the extent of various lava flows.
Over one more small hill and then we had the long walk downhill to the bus.
A truly amazing day and a physically exhausting one. We felt really proud to have achieved the walk and to have experienced the scenery,
It is an epic adventure and takes you through awesome volcanic scenery. Shuttle buses operate to take you to the start and pick you up at the end. Nearly everybody walks one way. We started walking at 7.30 in the morning and finished at 2.30 with just a few brief stops to rest and eat. The weather was cloudy at first but we had some sun later in the day. It was certainly windy when we were 2000m up but visibility was always good. We were so lucky as we had set aside 2 days to choose from for the crossing. The second day was heavy rain and strone winds with poor visibilty but that is NZ weather.
The walk starts with an hour on the flat before you come to the Devil's Staircase - aptly named. An hour of steep climbing over boulders of all sizes to eventually reach a coll. At this point there is a side walk to the top of the most perfect of volcanic cones that loomed over us - only to be attempted by those who found the Devil's staircase easy!
Then we had an easy ridge before another very steep and exhausting climb. We were at our hight point now, having climbed 1000m. The wind was strong and we moved onto a ridge that was 5m wide so no problem but I could not look down into the South Crater which was purple and black and menacing. From there we descended on thick volcanic dust - scree like. If you were brave you ran digging heels in for control. It took me some time! From here there are wonderful views of the emerald lakes and back up to increduble scenery. You can see how the volcano must have blown its top in the past, and the extent of various lava flows.
Over one more small hill and then we had the long walk downhill to the bus.
A truly amazing day and a physically exhausting one. We felt really proud to have achieved the walk and to have experienced the scenery,
posted by Bob's Blog @ 2:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home