Hike: 23km, 2287m

We got up at 6:00am to a calm campsite! We rushed around, bleary eyed, sorting out our bits and bobs for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing - "New Zealand's best one day walk". We got on the coach shivering with a few other fellow trampers and were all delighted to see the mountains completely clear of cloud! Hurray! We were in for a good day!

We got to the start of the walk with the sun still behind the mountains so made a hasty departure before the masses started walking. Luckily many people had done the walk the day before so there wasn't a stack of people rushing out to do it. On the bus we had chatted to two people (one of whom could run the crossing in two hours!) who were doing the three day round the mountains walk, and suggested we get going quickly to get past the big lava flow before the sun hit it. This kind of thing set the tone for the day: a walk through active volcanic mountains...

It only took a couple of hours to get up onto the saddle between the Ngauruhoe and Tongariro peaks. The saddle alone is at about 1900m altitude, so this was a big day for us!

We had been planning to climb both the big peaks so immediately started the ascent up Mount Ngauruhoe. This is the mountain made famous by its casting as "Mount Doom" in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's a perfect cone with very steep scree sides which proved to be very difficult to climb and even harder to descent. Claire wasn't too happy on the ascent, but I was fairly confident so encouraged her up to the top. There wasn't a set path so it was a matter of finding the most firm footing and following the only ridge of rock up. The final section was incredibly windy (the winds hadn't dropped that much!) and very, very loose underfoot. The views from the top were incredible, however, and for me worth the effort. We could see all the way over Lake Taupo and to Mount Taranaki on the West Coast! The crater itself was fairly unimpressive and the DOC say not to enter it as toxic gases can build up! We could see thermal steam rising from one point on the mountain side as we went past it!

The worst part of the Mount Ngauruhoe climb was the descent. This was so loose that scree running was the only option. There were several problems with this. Firstly, the scree was inconsistent. Some was over hard rock which meant you just slipped and fell over, while in other patches the scree was too rocky so you just bashed your ankles. We were descending early, so people further up the mountain were dislodging rocks which would sometimes pick up enough momentum to make the full 750m descent, right beside us... We saw nobody getting hurt, but we did see a huge rock larger than a suitcase fly down the slope. It flew past us about 50m further across the slope, and I will never, ever, forget the sight of it, spinning and whistling a full 15m clear of the mountain as it flew over the horizon and went past us. It was going fairly near one man, but luckily cleared him by some margin. I also saw three one foot diameter rocks fly through a group of three people who were, quite literally, running for their lives as it bisected them. The final rock followed a girl as she ran to the side so she had to duck down as it went over her. Some people seem to love the climb but personally I don't want to do something like that again, and would advise people as such. Be warned!

After lunch, the next section of walk was through a very flat plain in between the mountains. It was a strange yellowy orange colour and a total contrast to the steep scree we'd just been on. Claire was pretty happy to reach a normal, marked path!

After a steep walk up onto the next ridge, we passed the sign to Mount Tongariro. We'd written this off as the Mount Doom detour had taken three hours which was a bit longer than we'd expected. We had thought the Tongariro ascent would take two hours, but the sign said 1:20 and it looked like a proper path so we went for it! We managed it in just under an hour and it was well worth it. The views back to Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu were spectacular. These two are the iconic mountains of the World Heritage Area and to see them side by side was simply amazing.

The path now began to descend and went through some incredible volcanic areas. Claire's favourite was the "Red Crater" which was an iron rich crater with one side blown out by a violent eruption. The "explosion pit" was where this blast had come through and looked like something out of a science fiction film!

Next up were the Emerald Lakes which were stunning. There were three of them and they were a unique turqoise colour that under the sunshine (yes, we were really lucky) just glowed. After these was a Mauri sacred lake called the Blue Lake (t'was blue, shock horror!) which looked more like a beautiful beach. All along this section were thermal vents and the pervasive smell of sulphur.

The final two hours of the walk were a more boring descent back into and through the forest down to the gravel road. We were fairly pushed for time after tackling both ascents so had to jog down where possible, but wound up being 20 minutes early for our bus.

We were filthy. Simply filthy. Showers were an immediate requirement and much enjoyed. Mmmh, hot water! We were pretty exhausted, but more exhilarated, and enjoyed a good meal and a few beers at the (cheaper) chateaux restaurant.

What an incredible, diverse day. I've never done anything quite like it.