I arrived in New Zealand a few days ago and during that time I stayed in Wellington for two nights before travelling to Taupo. I arrived on Saturday afternoon, two hours later then planned so there was no time to do anything on Saturday. I just made sure to get some extra rest that night so that I would be able to do a lot of things in the next days.
On Sunday I had a bit of a lazy start, I didn’t want to get out of bed and the weather wasn’t that great either. In the early afternoon the weather had cleared up and I decided to visit the Huka Falls, knowing that the hike there wasn’t that difficult. The walk gave me a nice view of the river.
Once I reached the Huka Falls, I wished that I would have been wearing shorts instead of long jeans. The weather had cleared up and it was absolutely beautiful outside. The Falls itself were very nice, it wasn’t a big waterfall as in height, but the amount of water passing through was enormous and quite impressive.
On my way back I bounced into one of my roommates and I went back to the falls with her. We had a nice conversation about where we were from, what she was doing in New Zealand. In the evening we we went to get Thai together and it was really good meeting her.
On Monday I was picked up at 5.30 from my hostel to get to the Tongariro crossing. This crossing is one of the most popular crossings of New Zealand and I can understand why that it. We arrived at the crossing just after 7am and with someone I met on the bus we started the crossing. The weather was okay, it was a bit cold and there were several big clouds hanging around the mountains.Within 2 hours we got to Mt Ngauruhoe (also known for some as Mount Doom:D), so we could have done the optional summit. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that good at the moment and we had to pass it. On our way up to the Red Crater Ridge we had bad weather, it was extremely cold and the wind was really strong which made the ascent really difficult. Why didn’t I bring my gloves with me...? Because I thought about those things at the exact moment that the bus arrived to pick me up. Oh, I regretted that yes. But okay, I survived the wind and cold. Unfortunately, we also had to pass the second optional summit. Mt Tongariro was just covered in a cloud and with our hands still freezing we continued our way up to the highest point of the Red Crater Ridge. Up there we took a small break to drink something, eat something and hope that the clouds would disappear a bit before we would make the quite steep descent to the Emerald Lakes. We got a fantastic view once the clouds disappeared a little bit.
Obviously it was still a bit... misty... foggy... cloudy...? The descent down was quite interesting, the hill was quite steep and the the black sand made it a bit difficult for everyone. Several people landed on their butts while sliding down the hill, which made the descent... funny. Down at the Emerald Lakes we took another break, or actually I had to wait a bit before the girl I walked with was down as I was probably one of the faster people doing the descent (some people pretty much just flew off the mountain, which was very fast but seemed a bit unsafe). After the Emerald Lakes we walked to the Blue Lake through the Central Crater and the view was stunning.
Would you just look at that? Hardly any clouds anymore while an hour before everything was just covered in it. I hate you mountain weather, I would have done the Mt Tongariro summit with the conditions one hour later... But okay, the rest of the walk was not difficult anymore. No steep ascents or descents, easy walks, some stairs up and down and great views of course. The final part of the crossing was not difficult, but it was the most challenging in sense of how long it was. It took over two hours to get to the car park from the final checkpoint which was mostly just difficult. You’re tired, you have seen amazing views but your muscles are starting to ache. You kind of rather have the short steep descents that need your concentration but with fantastic views, instead of an easy but extremely long walk. Eventually it was around 2.45pm that we reached the car park and about 15 minutes later we got back into the bus. It took over an hour to get back to my hostel and once I got there I claimed the bathroom and took a shower. That was all I really wanted at that point. A shower to feel clean again and to soothe my sore muscles. I was able to cook for myself, but the rest of the evening was trying not to fall asleep at 7pm. At 9pm I gave up, turned everything off and went to bed in the hope that I would be able to stand up in the morning, without extremely sore muscles.
I was able to stand up this morning without to much pain. My muscles feel quite okay, but I am still really tired of the crossing. It was absolutely worth it though. I would do it again any day <3
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