Tongariro Alpine Crossing, amazing burgers & a massive disappointment

Today was the big one, the most popular of the 10 Great Hikes of New Zealand often called New Zealand’s greatest day trek, the 19.4(+1)km hike from Mangatepopo to the Ketetahi Hot Springs via the red crater, more commonly known as the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. To do this we had to get up at 6am in order to park up and the end of the hike and then catch a shuttle to the start as it’s a linear track (unless you want to do the whole Northern circuit which is a 3 day hike, nope). Looking like another beautiful day when we left we had high expectations. On the drive we however did run into a very large forbidding cloud, which looked relatively scary, however with fingers crossed that it didn’t mean rain we jumped on the bus. 

The hike itself is very popular, so there are loads of busses ferrying people to the start line, the consequence being a very crowded track. Amelia cut a frustrated figure attempting to overtake the inferior hikers on the steps heading up the mountain, and it was generally pretty annoying having so many other hikers to share the trail with. You begin in a volcanic landscape with a gentle elevation gain, Mount Ngauruhoe always on your right. We’d heard that you can see Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings from the crossing, and I assumed it was the adjacent Mt Ngauruhoe, however when we had ascended a couple of hundred metres we realised it’s actually a much more impressive volcano (literally looks like the cartoon drawing of a volcano, picture perfect) that you can see puncturing the horizon a long way away. 

Past these volcanic fields is a stretch of icy snow in an elongated crater, which leads up to the final steep climb. This isn’t particularly enjoyable as is mostly slippery dirt and rocks. However at the top you can fully appreciate the power of the freezing wind. The Department of Conservation changed the name from the ‘Tongariro Crossing’ to the ‘Tongariro Alpine Crossing’ to emphasise this fact to adventurous tourists who didn’t fully appreciate how arctic the wind is (makes Felixstowe’s sea breeze feel like a warm fan set to low). After nearly being blown over a few times attempting to take photos (which generally came out awfully) we started the descent. Again very slippery, with dirt and rocks getting in our shoes, but this time with the addition of the stink of sulphur from the fissures which rise from the geothermal activity below. Literally smells like a massive, disgusting fart. 

Eventually we descended, past more snow, mud, and on to a heathery mountainside. We (Amelia) found a comfortable place to nestle into the hillside away from the wind for lunch. The remainder of the hike oddly takes place in thick jungle-like forest, not at all expected, and finishes back at the road where we began. I called it a 19.4(+1)km hike as the hike itself is 19.4km but the walk from the car park at the hikes end to the road where we parked was another kilometre (you can only park in the car park for 4 hours and we weren’t that optimistic at our chances of making that). Something they don’t mention on the tin. 

It’s meant to take 6-8 hours however we were done quicker than that so had a nice bit of time in the afternoon to relax before going out for dinner and the rugby. I had a slight panic on the return drive back to Ohakune as the petrol level was low, very low, the warning light was on for a long time. But we managed to get to a very expensive petrol station just in the nick of time, and got back to watch the Bake Off final (amazing).

We had a couple of ridiculous burgers and a massive amount of poutine (chips, gravy, cheese) at The Blind Finch then made our way over to Kings Sports Bar for the ruggers, a half hour walk from our campsite as the closest bar, which has a ‘biggest rugby screen in town’ sign outside, wasn’t actually playing the game. Which I assumed was a joke when the barman told me. Ohakune also doesn’t have taxis apparently. So we ran/walked back to the camper at just past midnight when it was slightly too chilly to be doing so. The game was intensely frustrating, but kudos to South Africa they stifled the hell out of the match. 

A very long, but enjoyable, day.