Tongariro Crossing

Patrick- I hiked the Tongariro Crossing yesterday doing recon for a later trip with Molly. It is billed as one of New Zealand's best hikes and it certainly lives up to the billing- although there are a ton (100-200 people on a weekday) of people, or heaps as kiwis would say. Instead of "a lot," kiwis say "heaps." The hike is 19 km long and takes 6-8 hours on average and you hire a van service to drop you off and pick you up. The weather can be pretty unpredictable and change rapidly but I had a great day with sunny view of amazing volcanoes nearly the whole day.

The first picture is the Emerald Lakes. Insanely coloured. The next picture it he steepness of teh slope of the hike up and down Mt. Ngarahoe- this is the volcano in the background of the picture where I am sitting. The photo where I am standing is nearly from atop Mt. Ngarahoe with Tongariro (the volcano where I am seated in the background. Maybe confusing- but beautiful nonetheless.

One thing that is incredible about this hike is the level of underpreparation that some people have. There were these Australian girls (pictured) who were woefully unprepared. The most clothing they had on was a cotton sweatshirt and everything they had on was cotton. They were each carrying one water bottle and no apparent snacks. There were many a person hiking in jeans and tennis shoes - hypothermia could have set in quickly. One German man insisted on standing at the very edge of this huge dropoff to have his picture taken. As far as I could tell it made no difference for the photo and I was just praying the whole time that he didn't fall- selfishly because I didn't want it to ruin my day of hiking.

All in all, it was a great day and I will be headed back shortly. It is only 1 hour 45 minutes from Wanganui.