January

Happy 2012! We started the New Year with a party at a friend’s house and then moved onto a bar in Ohakune for the countdown. Since then things have been steady away at work but are a bit quieter now it’s the end of the school summer holidays here.
A couple of weeks ago we did the Tongariro Crossing, it’s a 19.4km walk that claims to be the best 1 day walk in the country. It was pretty popular and although we were on the bus at 5.50am and walking at 7.30am there were plenty of people there already. The walk starts at Mangatepopo hut, with the 1st hour of the walk to Soda Springs being pretty easy and only slightly uphill. We stopped at Soda Springs for a snack and a drink before tackling the Devils Steps. The Devils Steps are a man-made staircase that takes you in-between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngarahoe (aka Mt Doom LOTR) and we were told by our bus driver that the steps would take 2 hours to climb. Initially quite worried as 2 hours is a very long time to be walking up steps, but thankfully it only took 35mins. Clearly the bus driver is very unfit. From here you walk through the South Crater which is thankfully very flat! As we were walking through James looked around and said ‘this must be what the moon looks like!’ Made us laugh for ages! From here it’s a steep but short climb to the top of the Red Crater where the land surrounding it is red due to the mineral content. There were still a few pockets of snow dotted around, but as this is the highest point and 1900m above sea level that’s not surprising! The rest of the walk from here was all downhill. First it was down the Emerald Lakes, which are beautiful and then further on is the Blue Lake, equally as lovely. From the blue lake you walk to the Ketatahi hut, where we stopped and had lunch. After the hut the walk is quite long and there is not much to see, some people suggest turning around and walking back at the Blue Lake, but then you couldn’t say you had done the Crossing! We finished earlier than anticipated and couldn’t get a bus back to Ohakune at the time; however there was a bus willing to drop us off at the pub so we could have a drink while we waited – even better!
Only 7 weeks now and we will be flying out of NZ and heading to Dubai for a week before coming home! Looking forward to seeing everyone, it’s been too long!