Day 9: 9/1/13
It was a 7am start this morning which was tough! My alarm went off at 6.10 and I said I'll get up in a second and next thing it was 6.36 and everyone was in a panic!
We had only an hour on the bus then so everyone tried to sleep. Today's stop was Tongariro national park. The main activity was doing the Tongariro crossing. I think it's the most popular hike in New Zealand. A lot of people weren't doing it as its a lot of walking but I thought I'd chance it. You should have to walk up to the top of the track (1100m up to 1900m) and then go down again on the other side. However the volcano Mt Tongariro itself had a mini eruption in November so the far side of the track was closed. So we were walking to the top called Red Crater and back down again on the same side. When I heard that I thought I might aswell chance it as if it was too difficult I could just go back an everyone else would be coming back that way anyway!
This morning though I didn't feel great. I think it was just tiredness but my throat was dry and my nose all blocked. I was going to pull out at the last minute but I didn't! We had to go to the centre belonging to the hiking company first to hire hiking boots. Then a bus drove us to the starting point and off we went.
The first sectio took us about an hour and it was an easy walk. There were small inclines but nothing major. The next section took about an hour aswell but was all climbing. There was a sign t the beginnig warning you to consider turning around if you werent prepared for the weather, had the right equipment or were unfit. That wasnt a good sign!! It was steep enough so there were staircases everywhere. I slowed down big time on that bit but managed to get myself up there! After that there was another fairly flat part which looked like it used to be a crater at one point. It was really sandy and the wind picked up so there was sand everywhere! The last part was a climb again to the top where the red crater was. This was stony and sandy with no steps. We went up a little bit to where there was a platform and people taking photos. It was really windy and my sun hat blew off down the mountain! Lots of people were coming down saying they couldn't get to the top as it was too windy. One man on the group is an older English guy who looks like he hikes and he said it just wasn't safe to go up to the top. Some of the group wanted to go anyway. A few of us said we'd try and see. So we went to the next big rock which was likes platform again. It was so windy it was hard to get up. A guy coming down said also that it was very windy and not to go up if you weren't confident. So I didn't. Four of us turned back. We actually found it hard to come down the bit that we had gone as it was really sandy and we kept slipping. We had to sit on our bums and slide at one point!! It's a good job I had the boots and I was lad I hadn't gone to the top. There was a lovely view up there. I saw pictures belonging to the people that went up there. But it was far too windy for me! When real hikers are turning back, it's definitely time to think about turning!!
We slowly made our way down again with very sore legs!! In part of it there was sand Blowing everywhere and you coukd barely see!! It took us six hours to get from the start point to the finish point. We stopped now and again for toilets, water, food, etc so we reckoned we were about 5 hours walking and that we had walked 15k. Not bad going!!
It would have been nice to see the top but I was delighted with how far I got anyway considering I was going to pull out in the morning!
When the company picked us up they had a beer for all of us which was great!! We got checked in and st around in the room chatting and sorting out bags and things. I attempted some laundry and forgot to get tokens and had to go back for them. Later I realised that I brought some washing powder in my wash bag but I had forgotten it so it ended up in the washing machine with a tissue that made everything white. When I went back to get them out of the dryer it was locked so I will have to get them in the morning!
There was a cafe in this hostel so we had dinner and a drink here to celebrate our hiking! Some people were having a few drinks afterwards, but I just got wrecked so I went to bed early!