Because of some extreme thunderstorms the ski mountain closed early for the year (this was going to be the last weekend anyway), so my plan to ski is scrapped. I was hoping to ski in NZ even if it was just sloppy spring skiing. Oh well. So last minute I decided to hike the Tongariro […]
Robin had a shuttle to catch at 2:15 in town, the hike was supposed to be 8 hours, but we figured if we could do most of the hike before the rain that was supposed to come in the afternoon muddied everything up, we could make it. We left just after 7, but just after […]
sunrise was fantastic, five of the six of us got up and sat on the deck mostly in silence drinking coffee, eating breakfast and just watching the sun slowly rise over the valley. I think the best thing about the round the mountain track is how quickly the scenery changes. We started in desert, but […]
Woke up to a great sunrise. The trail started following sandy dry river beds (which I’m guessing are mostly spring melt), through shorter forest. After a while the scenery started becoming more dramatic and volcanic. The really fantastic part of the trail is that it changed dramatically about every hour. There was a section that […]
The around the mountain track is a 4-6 day backpack around mt Ruapehau, which is much less crowded than the tongariro crossing or the tongariro northern circuit. The first part of the around the mountain track is also part of the tongariro northern circuit, so I reserved a spot at the Waihohonu hut (most huts […]
Day 31 I got to town and took a mostly chill day, looked at the logistics of the next coming days. I didn’t realize that I was still 2-3 days away from the Tongariro crossing start point, I thought I was closer. I wanted to hike the “around the mountain” hike which is 4-6 days, […]
I woke up much much less sore than I expected, but crazy tired. Thinking my hike was only 21 km I lounged in my hammock a bit. I took my sweet time. Eventually I got up and packed and started hiking around 9:30. I left the old forest and entered a much younger one that […]
Kate bailed because her mom wants to do the timber trail with her, so she’s taking a zero to wait, which is a bummer for me but understandable. So instead of trying the section before I decided to take advantage of the nice weather (forecast is sunny and warm for the next week) and hitch […]
Kate, Sam, Laura and I got a lift from the owner of the farm to the small nearby highway, we decided to skip the next section because it’s 35 km of mostly farmland and road walking. Before we even started hitching on the highway, Sam and Laura already got a ride and he had room […]
We heard that the trail from the hut to the road was really muddy and slippery, to make matters worse we woke to rain and wind making the trail even more slick. Nobody wanted to leave the hut, but we were already geared up, so I went for it. The conditions weren’t great but once […]