Tongariro Crossing. One year later

Less than a year after my previous shot at the Tongariro Crossing I decided I was overdue for another walk of the famous crossing. This time I went with a group of 17 although we all split up into our various paces... Tackling the scree up Ngarahoe was an adventure in itself, I discovered there was a faster route up the solid rocks - duh Anna! The view was fantastic, I ran the round rim of the crater - spot me on the other side of the crater rim photo.

Sliding down the scree of Ngarahoe I managed to give myself a gash on the volcanic rock and a few bruises to show my effort! From there on I ran most of the track, up to the Tongariro summit then to the end of the Ketetahi end of the track. My knees were not to happy with the downhill descent but the rush was worth it. The weather turned out to be amazing; even though gale force winds and rain was expected it was only low cloud and calm.

Next to come: another ruapehu summit and round the mountain track - watch this space.

Earth Hour

I heard about this sacred Earth hour and think it's a pretty cool idea, 1 hour doesn't achieve an awful lot when I think about it but at the same time it makes some sort of statement that we are aware of how we're treating the planet and it's in the little things like turning off our lights where we can affect our environment collectively.

29.03.08 at 8pm Local Time

Turn off your lights. Do what you can. See the promo on youtube

Stop Cluster BOMBS

There's not a whole lot more to say than stop them! They indiscriminately destroy the lives of civilians and should be banned everywhere for ever. There's a good NZ site with a bit of education about their use and the NZ cluster munitions coalition. Click here to have a look.