Most amazing day yet!
We set our alarms for 5am and had started waking by 6am. Before leaving I had drank a whole litre of one of Oli's orange vitamin drinks so had to stop for a wee three times within the first hour and a half- won't be doing that again! When we arrived at the Northern end of the Tongariro crossing, I was so excited I could hardly pace myself. We had a total climb of 1400m to the summit of 1880m and we did it quickly! We'd passed the first hut and we're about 2 hours away from reaching the top when the clouds came down and we couldn't see a thing. Luke and I had already started planning a second trip so that we could actually see the crossing. We were both trying to stay positive but it was obvious we were both gutted- walking the extra distance the day before was pointless.
But then we passed an Amarican couple who stopped to tell us the clouds were only low and from the top we'd be able to see. Morale was officially boosted and we raced on to make sure the conditions didn't change before we got there.
Our view of the Blue Lake was far from good but we could just make out the water. We wondered if our view of the main craters would be the same as we clambered down hill to the crossing.
Along this flat patch it is all rock and mountains either side with snow on the peaks. In front you can just see the steep slope upwards towards the Emerald Lakes and he red crater. I was literally walking towards it with butterflies in my tummy from how excited I was!
The climb up was tough- it's all broken rock almost like sand so each step up comes with a slip backwards so it takes twice as long to get anywhere.
When we reached the top though it was so worth it. The clouds had moved and the views were incredible. The two lakes below were an amazing blue-green colour and the crater red and black. I sent mum and dad a picture message from the top and they could hardly believe it - they replied telling me they were watching the Grinch! Love the Grinch but it wasn't quite enough to beat being on a Volcano!
It was another steepish climb down to a long flat path and then a gradual climb where Luke did his very best Gandalf impression in front of Mount Doom... me and Luke and going to come back once we've got the car and do the 3 hour climb to the top of Mount Doom- there wasn't enough time to do it all in one day considering we were walking over 30km.
We tried our best to eat our peanut butter and jam wraps mid way down but ended up with peanut butter, jam and volcanic grit wraps - winds were pretty strong until we got back down to the bottom again.
The last stretch of the walk was very boring... after a long day, walking though cut scrub was the last thing we wanted to do but the weather held off until we reached Whakapapa (a small skiing village) nonetheless.
We stayed at the Whakapapa camping site - we just managed to pitch our tents and buy a few treats from the shop before the rain came in thank goodness because from about 5.30pm, the rain did not give. It hammered down all night - enough to have flooded renee's tent site so she had to move at 1 am and enough to form a huge puddle under our tent so I had to stay on Luke's side of the tent all night so as not to get wet.
When we got up in the morning, we were so glad not to have a big day ahead of us- we waited until 10am until our clothes and tents had all dried in the drying room and then made our way to the isite to pick up a few postcards and then to the cafe where we stayed until gone 11am - felt like such a normal person!!
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