Trekking in Tongariro

We spent a few nights over Christmas in Whakapapa, a village which in the winter is a ski resort but in the summer serves as a hub for mountain enthusiasts and tourists hoping to walk the Tongariro crossing, one of New Zealand’s “Great Walks” which had been described to us as “the best 1 day hike in the world”. Sounded pretty good to us!

The car parking is massively oversubscribed for the walk, and it’s a 1-way trip so various companies offer a shuttle service which will take you from Whakapapa village up to the start of the track and then transfer you back in the afternoon from the end of the walk. In order to further discourage people from running their own car shuttle the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) have introduced a 4-hour limit on the car parking at the start of the walk. Given that the official timings suggest between 6 and 8 hours of walking, this rules out using the car (or our camper) for the shuttle. So, we signed up for a shuttle from the holiday park we were staying at and despite the wet weather we woke up to, arrived at 8am on Christmas Day to the campsite office for our shuttle service. “It’s cancelled” the man behind the counter said, “we’re not taking people up there today, it’s miserable and you won’t see anything”. Ah, we had been warned about this. Mel’s parents had tried to walk the crossing a couple of times and not managed to get the weather for it. We had at least put aside two days with Hannah and George before they needed to fly home so we hoped we could go instead on Boxing Day, and we had a backup plan for Christmas Day, we walked a lowland and much shorter trip up to a local waterfall, which (to Mel’s delight) we discovered you could walk all the way around behind the falls.

A little damp, and with appropriately sized appetites we returned to the holiday park and cooked our Christmas meal (some steaks and sausages) on the campsite-provided gas bbq and enjoyed several glasses of wine / bottles of beer with our friends and (in my case) at least some family! The disadvantage of being 13 hours ahead was that by the time I made Christmas phonecalls to my parents back home it was around 9am in the UK, but 10pm and a number of beers down in New Zealand. Hopefully I didn’t sound too much worse for wear!

Boxing Day came and the weather had not improved, we made a decision again not to do the crossing, but instead spent a lovely day back down from the mountains to escape the worst of the weather, another short walk, this time around a small lake and then went and ate lunch next to southern edge of Lake Taupo. The weather definitely improved as the day went on, and by the late afternoon we were warm enough to brave a swim in the lake! Refreshing (perhaps in this case a synonym for cold) and reasonably short-lived, but very nice none-the-less.

At this point we said goodbye to my sister and her husband, as they headed back north towards Auckland for their flight the next day, and we made our way back up into the Tongariro National Park. The forecast was much clearer for the following day although we were worried about the gale-force winds which were predicted. We hadn’t booked the shuttle at this point, but Mel’s school friend had been in touch and was going to drive over early the next day in order to try and join us for the walk. We figured we’d try and sort out the shuttle that evening.

Back at the holiday park, we discovered that the shuttle was again cancelled this time due to the forecast high winds. Our suspicion is that the average tourist is relatively poorly prepared for a 6 hour mountain pass crossing and that the shuttle companies do not want to be held liable for enabling any poor decisions which tourists may make in undertaking the crossing. However, as our third day of attempting this walk dawned, we looked out on a clear if windy day, and decided we’d give it a go. In the absence of a shuttle we took our chances with the DOC rules and feeling a little bit guilty, we met Mel’s schoolfriend at the end of the walk, left our van there and travelled by car to the start. At the entrance to the carpark at the start we were greeted by a DOC employee. “What are your intentions for the day?” he asked. We had decided to tell the truth, “We’re thinking of doing the crossing”, I said, “but we’re going to walk up and see how the wind is any maybe come back down if it’s too much”. He nodded. “There’s a 4 hour limit on parking in this carpark….. just park around the back”. We took this as tacit approval and we set off, all appropriately attired in our wooly hats, gloves, thermal base layers, down mid-layers and hard-shell waterproof outer garments. I’ve been skiing in less kit than this! However, despite the high (and bitingly cold) winds at the very top, the rest of the trek was very pleasant, and the walk back down the valley on the other side was positively warm and sunny! The views of the red crater and the emerald lakes are particularly stunning and I can see why people recommend this as a day-walk. Despite the weather conditions and some cancelled shuttles, there was still a large number of other tourists and walkers doing the trek, and I can only imagine how busy it gets on a day where the weather is completely fine.

Emerald Lakes

Coming down the other side

Forest section at the end

Strolling along the south crater

The ‘team’ at the red crater

Red Crater

We arrived back down to our camper van in slightly over 6 hours, and drove back to the start. The DOC employee was nowhere to be seen and it looked like we had got away with breaking their parking rule (sorry DOC). One great walk completed! Our plan was to begin our next one the very next day, although “great walk” would be a bit of a misnomer for this one, as the Whanganui Journey is actually a 3 day canoe trip! We drove down to Raetihi and checked in with the holiday park and rental company who would be providing the canoes and logistics for this next challenge!