Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Crossing Challenge

Touted as New Zealand's best One-Day Hike, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is not for the faint of heart.  Although only 19.4km (12 miles), the terrain of this trek is rather difficult and quite steep in a lot of places.  In 1894, Tongariro National Park was established and it was the first national park for New Zealand, and only the fourth in the world.  It was also the first place in the world be be added to the World Heritage List in 1993 (after the criteria was revised to allow cultural landscapes to be included).  "The park has active and extinct volcanoes, a diverse range of ecosystems, and some remarkable landscapes."

We were originally to do the crossing on Tuesday, but Andy felt that the weather forecast looked better for a Wednesday hike (the weather at the top can change quite rapidly), so we changed days.  We caught the bus at 5am to make the trip up to the starting point of the hike (it was about an hour and a half drive).  I had heard it estimated that it takes between 7-8 hours to do the crossing and it had been raining our whole ride to the mountain.  Thankfully, the rain had let up by the time we arrived so although it was still quite dark at 7am, we weren't getting wet.  The bus driver advised us to get to the top of the mountain, enjoy a lunch break at the top, and then hurry back down the other side (it's a one-way hike) before the rain in the forecast arrived in the early afternoon.  There were 9 of us total from our tour and we hadn't really made any sort of plan to stay together as a group.  At this point in the tour we were aware of who naturally walks at a faster pace and we'd basically agreed to just split up naturally as things progressed.  Mary-Kay had told us about her son's visit a few months back and how he'd done the trek in under 5 hours (I think it was closer to 4 hours, but that's inconsequential I suppose).  Knowing absolutely nothing about this hike beforehand, except that you get to see Mt. Doom (that's from LOTR if I remember correctly), I had no idea what I was getting into with this decision to make the trek.  I digress.

 Teagan and Gary, the couple from Australia, did not stop at the first bathroom, but the rest of us did.  Knowing I would walk faster than most of them, and seeing that they were all waiting for everyone in our group, I just decided to carry on without them and assumed we'd meet at the top or something.  Knowing that it's possible to do the crossing in 5 hours I sort of challenged myself to do it in under 6 hours.  And then the endorphins kicked in, or something, and it became like a race.  I'd pick a person in front of me and they became my mini-goal.  Pass them.  Choose a new person, and then pass them.  There were tons of people on the trail in the beginning, so it really wasn't hard to find people to catch up to.  I eventually caught up to Teagan and Gary, but decided not to be the third wheel and kept on moving.  The first hour, according to the map was an easy walk, and then came the difficult ascent up to the South Crater (including a section known as Devi's Staircase).  Once you get to the South Crater  there's a notation on the map (and a large sign on the trail): "POINT OF NO RETURN: If you are having trouble or difficult for any reason, or the weather has closed in turn around."  I carried on.


"Going from the South Crater to the top of the Red Crater is the steepest part of the track.  Caution is required as this section of track is steep and has a big drop on either side."  Now, mind you, I didn't read any of the little map they gave us before I started, but I have common sense so I didn't get too close to the edges anyway.  The top of the Red Crater is the summit of the main track and it was sure cold on the way up there (all the wind didn't help either).  This is the highest point on the main track at 1,886 meters (6,187 feet).  Despite clouds often blocking large portions of the view, it was still quite stunning.  On a clear day I believe you can see coast-to-coast.  Although the driver had mentioned eating your lunch here (and the map mentioned "natural underground heating, as the crater is active and there are hot spots to sit on"), I arrived about 9:30am so I ate an apple and headed down the other side.


The "hike" down the Red Crater was rather intense (the map lists it as  "easy ascent" but I'm not sure I totally agree with that).  It's mostly just loose dirt and rocks on a very narrow ridge.  It's extremely difficult to not lose your footing.  You think you're taking a step but your foot keeps going and you lose your balance a bit, and yet some people were nearly running down it (rather risky, both for them, and the people they were rushing past).  By surviving that section of track you are rewarded with views of the aptly named "Emerald Lakes".

Gary took this lovey shot

Once down to the Emerald Lakes you are inside the Central Crater so you get a nice, flat, and easy walk with just a small climb up to the Blue Lake.  After the lakes there really wasn't anything  more of supreme interest.

The last 3-4km were definitely the worst (which sounds a bit odd considering it was 85% downhill, on a nice path), but as I said, there wasn't much to see and there wasn't much to look forward to, except being done.  It didn't help that because of the clouds and incoming weather I often couldn't see more than 40 feet in front of me (honestly, it could have been 100ft, I am terrible at judging distances).  By this point I had been walking mostly by myself with very few people around, it was quite nice to just hear the sounds of nature and the occasional stream or waterfall.  The very last leg of the trip is a huge zig-zag down the mountain and all that downhill walking bothers my right knee something terrible, so I was definitely looking forward to sitting down, but the trail seemed to never end.  Of course, it did end, but not without walking through the woods and the 'Lahar Hazard Zone'.  The large sign says "You are entering a 700m higher risk Lahar Hazard Zone.  Move quickly through, no stopping.  If you hear a noise from upstream, do not enter."  It can be raining higher up the mountain which often produces flash floods down below.

I made it to the car park by 12:30pm, achieving my goal with a time of 5.5 hours.  Of course this now meant I had to sit and wait until everyone else from my group arrived back.  It did give me plenty of time to stretch, and I was able to almost judge how soon the others might arrive by seeing people I had passed at various stages of the trail make it to the car park.  Everyone was back down by about 2:45pm and all but Teagan and Gary had endured some rain on the last leg.  We all caught the bus back to the Burger King parking lot where we met up with our non-hiking tour mates.  We had a long drive to Wellington the rest of the evening, so we passed the time with playlists that most of the group had created, picking songs from 5 different categories such as Guilty Pleasure, Reminds Me of Home, Classic, or Karaoke.  You had to tell a story or reason why you chose each song so it was fun and made the four hour drive pass much quicker.

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