The Magnificent Tongariro Park

See photos of Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu

Monday afternoon Nico and I finally left Tuateawa for a while and embarked on our journey around the rest of New Zealand in the van. We basically came straight down here to Tongariro after a minor side trip to pick up a new seat for the van. Coming here to these volcanoes is super exciting for me and I have been looking forward to it ever since I missed out on the epic trip with Earthwise about a month ago. My knee still hurts a little bit, but actually got better with each day of use! Tongariro is basically right in the middle of the north island and has two of the biggest mountains on the north island, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe (pronounced narahoee) a.k.a Mt. Doom.

These mountains are all volcanic, and Ruapehu is still somewhat active. There are ski slopes on it and a few years ago they had to be closed all season because the mountain was erupting. Tongariro is another smaller and much older volcano in the area.

We first set out to do an overnight to get to Ngauruhoe. We basically followed a track most of the way, but then continued past where the track goes and set up camp right at the base of the cone. Good thing Nico was there not too long ago, cause she was able to point out the way and the sweet campsite. The landscape there is very strange, with lots of rocky ridges, and very little vegetation. It is not that high up, but still has only alpine type vegetation. It gets dark around here by 6:30 nowadays, and after that there really isn't much to do when it is dark cold and windy. So an early bedtime was good for an early start with the sun the next day.

Our campsite

Sunset with Mt. Taranaki on the left in the distance

Going up Ngauruhoe is unique. It is actually a ~2300 meter high pile of loose rocks. Going up was night too bad, we just had to find our line, but our heads down and chug. The top consists of an outer and inner crater and completely barren of animal or plant life. Coming down is where the fun was. Every step we would sink in and slide through the rocks and sand. It was quite steep though, so we had to be careful of tumbling all the way down. I think we must have gone a different route than most, cause we saw no one else once we left the normal track in the middle of the previous day. And it was a damn good thing that no one else came up the way we were descending, cause we would set off these rockslides and watch the rocks tumble basically all the way down to the bottom. We had to be sure to travel side by side in order to be safe. Then once we got back down, we packed up camp and hiked all the way back out. All day we were able to see some clouds rolling in but we were way above them. Eventually we dropped below and that was the end of the nice weather for the day. We were quite tired by the time we made it back. Good thing there was a public shelter nearby with running water. We cooked dinner and cleaned up and even took some washcloth baths, and then was in bed ready to sleep by 8. Felt like 1am though.

Then the very next day we got up and hiked up Ruapehu. It is actually the biggest mountain on the north island at 2751 meters, but can easily be done as a day hike since you can drive closer to it. And a full day it was. We were both a bit tired already from the past 2 full days, but somehow by the end we were not feeling too bad (probably cause of the 5 hours it took us to get down). Somehow for being another volcanic mountain with no plant or animal life on it, Ruapehu was actually quite different than Ngauruhoe. We hiked up the ski fields for a while, but then just wandered up the random valleys up to the top. You can easily see how this was covered by lava flows and everything was actually quite solid. Then on top, there was a huge crater that had mud flats and glaciers in it. Then you can circle the crater and find another crater with the lightest blue lake that I have ever seen. Then on the way down, we took a slightly different route that took us down some glacial snow and along a glacial river. It was a bit unsteady, but some really interesting stuff.

Glacial fed crater lake at the top of Ruapehu

Now we are chilling in the public shelter near the base of Ruapehu. This one even has hot water and heat and electricity! I am writing this from there, but it will probably be a few more days before I get to post it. I am also looking forward to washing up with warm water. Once we are done here, we can wander anywhere we want and park for the night. It is working out quite well so far doing this whole living in a van thing.

All that above was written a couple days ago. Right now we are in New Plymouth chillin in a library with the free wireless. Today we plan on heading to Mt. Taranaki, another huge one on the North Island and plan on hiking up to the summit tomorrow.

Thought I'd write about last night though, cause it was interesting. We were cooking dinner under cover of the back door of the van in a random parking lot, and some older guy on his way home from the bar stops to talk to us for a little while. Then before we know it he is inviting us over to his house for a real bed and a shower. Now we actually have quite a good setup in the van there with a full size bed, but I thought it would be cool to take him up on his offer and have a little adventure. We went there and watched some rugby with him and slept inside for the first time in ages. Turns out our van is actually more comfortable, and we got up at 6am to jet out of there and to a beach were we parked and went back to sleep.

Something I learned through this → if someone is being nice to offer you their place, either really take them up on the offer, or respectfully decline. We were a bit unsure and kinda in the middle there... ended up buying a $6 bar of chocolate to bring which I dont think will ever get eaten and all we did was sleep and jet out. It probably would have been better to just go to the beach and sleep there in the first place, cause he really did not have much to offer beyond what we already had. I just kinda wanted to take him up on the offer for the heck of it.

Live and learn and off to Taranaki!