New Zealand Honeymoon

We woke up early this morning to make sure we fueled up and were ready to go on our 7am shuttle. When we arrived at the start of the hike, our shuttle driver told us that the weather for the day looked nearly perfect! We were probably overprepared - with down and rain jackets and 8L of water between us - but that's always better than the alternative!

Here's the DOC's description of the hike:

"This challenging trip begins at 1120 m, climbs the Mangatepopo Valley to the saddle between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe, through South Crater before climbing again to Red Crater, the highest point on the crossing at 1886 m.

You will then descend on a volcanic rock scree track to the vivid Emerald Lakes, known as Nga Rotopounamu (greenstone-hued lakes). After passing Blue Lake, also known as Te Wai-whakaata-o-te-Rangihiroa (Rangihiroa’s mirror), the track sidles around the northern slope of Tongariro, then descends in a zigzag track down to the road end at 760 m."

In general, I was very impressed with the infrastructure behind this popular track. From the ease of utilizing shuttles for otherwise challenging one way hike logistics, to bathrooms (nothing super fancy - drop toilets without toilet paper) with rock wallpaper to blend into their environment, to the boardwalks and plastic gridding at lower elevations to keep the erosion at bay, to very thorough signage and trail marking, they seemed to have thought of everything.

The climb up to the saddle was challenging, but for me, the climb up to the red crater was the hardest, as we traded nicely formed steps for steep grades with slippery scree beneath our feet. The views from the top of the red crater made it all worth it - with all the emerald and blue lakes coming into view. Another favorite view for me was after blue lake when we began the switchbacks on the northern face and Lake Taupo came into view as we descended into the forest and to the end of the trail. We made it to the bottom with nearly perfect timing to catch the first shuttle back to our campground and snag a delicious burger from the food truck before it closed!Read more