Last weekend 6 of us drove down to National Park to hike the Tongariro Crossing. On the Thursday before the weekend there were gale-force winds and rain, we took the risk and the morning we arrived at the start of the tramp it was clear skies as far as the eye could see. We could even see Mt Taranaki from the summit! The walk climbed up some steep rocks in the first couple of hours and then levelled out as we crossed the South Crater below Ngauruhoe. There was a bite to the wind but the sun was still shining so it didn't bite too hard!We took the side track up to the Tongariro summit along some dodgy shifty shint (I think thats the name for that gravel!). We made it in half the allowed time so we stopped for lunch at the top taking in the magnificent views. Trying out our navigation skills we made our own tracks to the North Crater where we made some very strange undiginfied bird and ape sounds to explore the acoustics of the crater which echoed.
It was such a good walk I would really encourage anyone to do it, you can take your time and still do it in a day although you need to pick a clear day if you want to appreciate the views we got to see.
The photos show a few of us on the walk. The station wagon is a demonstration of how I can compact into a boot packed full of gear within 20cm squared, well it felt like that!
Click on the photos for a big 100% size image. soak up those sun rays, feel the wind biting your fingers
