A Dangerous Business

Date: 15th December 2023

Start: Tongariro Holiday Park (km 1108.5)

End: Whakapapa Holiday Park (km 1143)

Distance Travelled: 27.1 km walked + 7.4 km shuttle (34.5 km total)

Total Distance Completed: 1070 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: no song, just Sam Gamgee being an absolute legend to Frodo (“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”)

Rings Cast Into The Fire: none, it’s mine, it came to me!

Easily the best day on trail so far. Doesn’t even come close. Tongariro is such a magical place.

Ok, ok, I’ll lessen the superlatives for a bit and go back to the beginning, a grassy embankment across the road from the holiday park waiting for a shuttle to take us to Ketetahi Carpark. If you come over here to do the crossing as a day hike, don’t go here to start. The other end at Mangatepopo is a lot higher so you’ll be saving yourself a lot of climbing.

For us SOBOs, we didn’t have a choice (flip-flopping notwithstanding). We start at the opposite end, climbing around 1100 m to Red Crater. Of our group of 7, only 5 were on the bus. Anne’s planning on walking every single inch and Matt is a photographer. All photographers, from what I can gather, love nothing more than a good sunrise. He’d left at midnight and walked to the crater for said sunrise would then come back down and do the Northern Circuit.

Anyway, the track. It starts in a peaceful forest alongside a very alkali stream thanks to all of the volcanic activity in the region. In other words, do not drink the water. The climb began immediately, rising through the forest on many a stair until the treeline at 1000 m ASL.

We were under no time pressure so everyone was taking it slowly on the ascent. Out of the trees, there wasn’t much to hear apart from the wind rustling through the tussock that grows abundantly on these slopes. That, and the sound of the first day walkers/runners making their way down from about 8:30, just over an hour since we had began. And I thought I was insane. Nevermind them, I’m sure they’re having fun. My nose was having quite a fun time too, sensing the lovely smells being vented out of nearby craters and creeks.

The morning fog that covered the mountains above us lifted, exposing some spectacular views to the north.

After walking past the site of the former Ketetahi Hut, the track – you guessed it – kept climbing up some very un-New Zealand switchbacks onto a ridge on one side of a short valley. Even the tussock had stopped growing by this point, the one I green thing we could see were some lichens gripping tightly to some rocks. At the top of the ridge, we caught sight of our impending doom.

A little further on we reached Blue Lake and made the short descent into Central Crater.

The end of the crater is the intersection between the Crossing and the Circuit. It was just a signpost, but it did feel a bit weird being back at the same spot I was at not even a year ago. Little did I know back then what kind of adventure I’d be having when I returned. The only thing souring my mood slightly was the army of day hikers I could see beginning their descent down the scree slope.

That marked the next challenge: going up the scree slope whilst not running into anyone coming down. I’ll keep my account brief on this part: it was hard. Step forward, slide back half a step, rinse and repeat the entire way up, looking up on occasion to make sure no one was in my way.

I can safely say that going down scree is much easier than trying to climb it. After fighting through the hoards, I stepped foot on the top of Red Crater… and didn’t stay there long as the wind was picking up and I didn’t feel like being tossed into the crater itself.

Ok, maybe I was a bit premature in claiming descending off Red Crater is easier than climbing up it. The other side doesn’t have any scree, just a thin layer of loose gravel that I gingerly went down whilst watching Vicky and Snacks cover it frustratingly easily, all the while also navigating  around the last few day hikers making their way up. I was getting pretty hungry once I reached South Crater, but when I eventually caught up with the two girls – who had run into Maud and Tommy from California – they wanted to head down further to find somewhere more sheltered from the wind. To be fair that’s probably the best decision, it wouldn’t be very nice to eat up here.

Close to the bottom of the valley we found a sheltered spot to sit down and take a break. This was our second long day in a row and we were all beginning to fatigue. Being in such a pretty environment did help to mitigate our energy losses, spending most of my lunchtime admiring the Martian landscape instead of eating. In my defence I was reduced to eating plain wraps so I figured I should spend my time focusing on more interesting matters.

There were 12 km still to walk today. Unfortunately Mangatepopo Hut was fully booked so we’d be pushing onto Whakapapa Village. I still wanted to pay it a visit and see if I could find my gut book entry from last year. The 3 km down the valley to the hut was very lovely, mostly boardwalk and a nice gentle descent.

When I got to the hut I was saddened to see that the book had been replaced, the earliest entries coming from October this year. That makes sense, it’s a Great Walk hut, you’re gonna have 10+ entries basically every day during the summer season so they’d need to replace it regularly. Still on familiar trail, I turned off the crossing and onto the Mangatepopo Track to take me all the way into town. When I came through here last year with Eli, I remember the track being heavily eroded in many places. Well, DOC still hasn’t gotten around to fixing it up, some places being worse than it was 12 months ago.

Most of the time a path could be found on the far sides of what felt like canyons, but there were a few occasions with some steep drops into creek beds. It was nothing I hadn’t dealt with before and I made quick work of the final few kilometres, catching up with Vicky, finishing the trail at 5:30pm, our second 10 hour day in a row.

We found the holiday park absolutely bustling. TA hikers were littered everywhere, it’s a wonder how they all fit in. Most were new faces, however amongst them were Melly and Jamie! The last time I saw themnwad at Browns Bat and the Dome Cafe, respectively. Now here we all are, together once again, as we are all starting the Whanganui on the same day. Later that evening, a very tired looking Matt rolled into camp, having completed 51 km of walking.

Two hard days in a row deserves a reward of some sort. Luckily for us, there’s a restaurant at the more boujee hotel in town, so many of us headed there for a well-earned meal. I may have even got dessert.

With the crossing done, the hardest days were now behind us, at least when it comes to getting to the river. A short day to National Park tomorrow and then a couple days of road walking are all that stand between us and our canoes. It’s a shame to leave Tongariro so soon, but I’m sure I’ll be back here plenty more times.