Friday 9th Nov

4.50am wake up call for the coach pick up at 5.40am! It was a hour journey to get to Tongariro National Park. Once we arrived, it was very windy and cold! Unfortunately for both of us, we aren't equipped for the cold weather!! So we had to hire the jacket and bought the gloves each to keep ourselves warm. We setted off hiking at about 7.30am. It was going to be a very long day as it would be 7-8 hours hiking.

It was a gentle hiking to start with from the Mangatepopo car park. We walked up to the valley called Soda Springs. Unfortunately between Soda Springs and the South Crater, the hike was very steep. They labelled that as a "Devils Staircase" That was a pain killer!! It was a torture to get up there as you need alot of energy and good legs muscles to get yourself up there! It was practically like that we were doing rock climbing! Lisa was ready to give up but there was no way to get down and the only way out is another side of the crossing meaning another 6 hours of hiking!

Once we got to the top of the Devils Staircase, we had a quick rest. We both were pleased that it was out of the way as the next hike was going to be easy. It was dead flat and its called South Crater. It was a enjoyable walk as it gave our legs a easy pace and to relax! Daniel thought that it was like walking on Mars cos of the texture and colours of the ground.

Once we got to the other side of the crater, it was going to be our last big climb for the day, called Red Crater Ridge. When we reached to the top, we still had to climb down and it was fun! It was like sliding down and of course we have fallen onto our bottoms when we have missed the footing! It was a beautiful view as there were few clear blue lakes to be seen as you can see in the photos. Unfortunately the lakes weren't allowed for swimming. it was very tempting though! Once we got ourselves at the bottom, there were snow on few areas, had a quick go on snowfights.

We moved on as we got to reach to Keteahi Hut before 2.30pm. We arrived there in good time as we were there at about 1pm. Another loo stop before continuing our hike. We got to make to the last stop for the bus before 4.30pm. We couldn't wait to get to the end cos our legs were struggling to continue anymore. Our feet were full of blisters. We managed to force ourselves to carry on as there was no way out anyway!! Once we smelt the cooking, we knew that we were near to the end and we screamed excitely, knowing that we can finally rest!

It was our end of 16km hike (around 10 miles). We reached to the desitination at 3pm which was a good time cos we managed to catch 3.30pm bus to get back to our hostel.

At the hostel, we dumped ourselves onto the bed to recover. Unfortunately for Lisa, she wasn't feeling very well as she had a cold from Black Water Rafting and Sky Diving. To add to her cold, the coldness from the top of the mountain made it worse. She slept for a couple of hours before dragging her legs to have a shower. Daniel was still able to move about as he went to the supermarket to get food for our tea while Lisa slept/showered.

We retired to watch the dvd that we borrowed from the reception. It was King Kong. We didn't finish watching it till 1am!