Friday 14th January - Tongariro Alpine Crossing

7:15 start this morning as we said goodbye to Dan and Blue Duck Lodge and headed for TongariroNational Park (a World Heritage site) and our accommodation at Park Lodge.After checking in and picking up our packed lunches (which we had ordered the pre-ordered) we set off on another bus for the car park at Mangatepopo where we started the Tongariro Crossing.

The Tongariro Crossing is an epic 19.4 km trek across steep volcanic terrain.It is considered to be the greatest 1 day hike in all of New Zealand and in the top 10 in the world.The hike passes between MountTongariro and MountNgauruhoe (also known as MountDoom from the Lord of the Rings films) with the snow capped Ruapehu in the distance, and takes between 6 and 8 hours.In the last 150 years, there have been minor eruptions from both MountRuapehu and MountNgauruhoe.

The track starts at 1100m (3,300 feet which is roughly the height of Snowdon) and is 1886m (approx 5,500 feet) at its highest point.The terrain and scenery varies from mountain springs to glacial valleys, old lava flows, an active crater, steam vents and back again.

We set off at 10:00 am with our backpacks filled with water (2 litres each), snacks, lunch, warm clothes, sun screen and cameras.The first section, which takes about 1.5 hours, was a reasonably gentle climb to 1400m (4,200 feet) at Soda Springs.We then had our first steep climb to South Crater at 1600m (4,800 feet) before a flat traverse across the lunar like landscape of the crater itself.

From Soda Springs to South Crater takes about an hour and from there to Red Crater, where we had spectacular views of the volcano vent and EmeraldLakes, was a VERY steep climb to 1900m (5,700 feet) and takes about another hour.EmeraldLakes are a trio of water-filled explosion craters whose fascinating colours are down to the dissolved minerals that have washed down from the thermal area.From here we started our descent to Emerald Lakes themselves (at 1700m / 5,100 feet) down a very treacherous, loose volcanic gravel slope - this is supposed to take 20 minutes but the terrain was so loose and slippery it took me a lot longer using a shuffling, skating motion.

There was one more reasonably steep climb to Blue Lake before we started our descent proper to Ketetahi car park where we were being picked up at 5.30 - 5.45.This is another 4 hour hike and towards the end we were pushing it for time!!! Ant and Chris went ahead to make sure the bus driver waited for us and completed the hike in 7.5 hours (the average).16 of us started the hike, 1 turned back at South Crater, 4 finished in 6 hours, Chris and Anton in 7.5 and the rest of us took the whole 8 hours.By the end of the trek, most of us had blisters and we were struggling to put one foot in front of the other.

We got back to Park Lodge at 6:30 pm sore but victorious and had just about ½ an hour for a shower before a well deserved beer and dinner!!Some people also took advantage of the 2 hot tubs at the Lodge to soak their poor sore feet and aching muscles.Luckily we have a slightly later start tomorrow as we are not leaving for Wellington until 8:00 am!!!