Tongariro Crossing Trip

On December 4th we took two vans to go on an awesome trip to the Tongariro Crossing. I had signed up for the hike when we got back from 2 week break so I was super excited about it when it was finally here. The reason we took 2 vans is because the hike takes about 6 hours (18.5 km) to go from one side to the other so the two different groups started on opposite sides, exchanged keys in the middle and then drove around and met up again. My group had the easier way up which I was very thankful for. It was a climb up no matter which way you started (3 hours up and 3 hours down). We left at 5:30 am because it takes about 3 hours to get there so most of us slept on the way there.

Here is a picture of Mt Ruapehu also known as Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings.

Here's my group starting out.

On the way up. Yes, I am aware that my headband makes me look like I should be Survivor.

This was my group. Ya, we're pretty tough. This is us at the halfway point which is why I'm bundled up because there was snow up there. The people from left to right (front) are: Mitch, Pascal, Hannah, Jessica and top is me, Jack (our fearless leader) Rachel S, Sid, Rachel M and Ian.

Here's a picture of the valley you cross after you get over the first part of the crossing. As you can see you still have quite a ways to climb before going back down. (picture by Auden)

This is almost halfway.

Here's Jack pointing to the sulfur lake at the top. Since it's a volcano there are cool blue sulfur lakes on the top of it in the craters.

Here's more of Mt. Ruapehu. I guess part of this opening is also in the Lord of the Rings. I haven't really seen that much of the movies.

Mt Doom or Mt Ruapehu.

Here are more sulfur lakes on the way down. This part of the crossing was super steep and you could easily slide down since the rocks were more like a pile of sand. I side stepped my way down and was happy I didn't have to go up it like the other group.

While we were waiting for the other group we found a patch of snow and got them with some snowballs. There were so many different types of scenery along the hike.

This is another picture by Auden. This was what the other group saw on their way up and we saw on our way down. It was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous! The water in the distance in Lake Taupo which is NZ's largest lake.

Another pic of the way down. The colors were amazing. The grass was yellow and brown that looked almost desert like and then you have blue skys, green grass and the lake below. I think God decided to show off when He created New Zealand.