The Tongariro about-turn

After my sky dive we drove down to Turangi, where we were staying the night before we did the Tongariro Crossing.
Our hostel recommended that we leave on the 6.30am shuttle to get the sunrise and have plenty of time. Well, we got that one and we saw the sunrise but the bus didn't stop for us to take pictures, which was a massive shame as the colours blazing out behind Tongariro would have made an amazing picture.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is New Zealand's most famous one-day hike. It's usually 19.4km long and takes about 7 hours but due to volcanic activity you can currently only go halfway and then you have to retrace your steps.
So, we were there quite early. The walk itself is quite moderate. Most of it has been properly marked out by a wooden walkway, with some of the uphill parts covered in chicken wire to stop you from slipping. The views on the way up are really impressive, but it's from the base of Mount Ngaurahoe/ Mount Doom onwards that it becomes really very beautiful.

We would have time to climb both Tongariro and Ngauruhoe but we didn't know how long it would take us to get to the Emerald Pools, which is as far as you can currently go. So we continued on past Ngauruhoe towards Tongariro. It all looked very dramatic, with cloud sweeping across the mountain and the morning sun breaking through every now and again.

Climbing up Tongariro was the hardest, as it was quite steep and very gravelly - at this point we were wishing we had hiking boots. As we got to the Emerald Pools, which in the end only took us 3 hours against the signposted 4 and a half hours, the mountain was completely covered in cloud. We got to as far as we could go and could only see about 3 feet in front of us. It was gutting!! We couldn't see a thing!

We added some layers, had lunch and waited for about half an hour up there but given that we were basically sat in a cloud, it was really cold and wet. So, we begrudgingly climbed back down, which was even harder than climbing up as we had no grip in our shoes whatsoever. Ciaran fell twice and now has a huge bruise on his hip. REALLY needed those hiking boots! All the way down he kept looking back - I knew he had really wanted to see those amazing views from the top, because he had seen how amazing the views were from my skydive. We had given up on the idea of climbing Ngauruhoe as there's no way we would have been able to do it in our crappy footwear.

We were about half way back to the car park (and would have been about 3 hours early for the return shuttle) when we saw that the cloud over Tongariro had cleared up. So, we turned around and climbed back up again!! It was so hard, especially knowing how hard it would be to climb back down but the views the were totally worth it. We got to see "Mordor", all the incredible craters around the mountain and the Emerald Pools, which are dazzling.

On the way back our shuttle driver took us via the other side of the mountain, so that we could see the activity that's preventing people from doing the whole walk. I have no doubt that we definitely saw the best bits of the Tongariro Crossing, though I would like to do the whole walk next time. Even though we covered the same distance, because we had to turn back halfway it didn't feel like we'd accomplished it, if you know what I mean? Because we didn't reach the finish? But it was still a great hike.

There was no better way to wind down from it than at the Tokaanu Hot Springs, which are about 10 minutes drive from Turangi. We even got our own private, open air hot mineral bath! This is why I love having a car! If we were on a Kiwibus we would easily miss placed off the beaten path.