Tongariro Crossing Part 4/4 - Descent

On the other side was blue lake, which didn’t seem quite as special as the emerald ones (all water is blue after all). Just around the corner was a backhoe. Time to take down a mountain!

From here we made our final descent. The path sloped down gradually. The rocky hills turned to shrubbery, with occasional hot springs or steam fumaroles in between. Eventually we entered a forest. A creek crossed the path with warning signs for Lahars. We later learned that these are mudslides of ash, water, snow, and volcanic material that can reach up to 100km/hr. Luckily for us, all was quiet. We passed a small but pretty waterfall in the woods, before making our way out to the carpark. It had been a long day, 10 hours, but the sights had been well worth it!

In the parking lot, we got into our bathing suits and hang our solar shower off the van. Mats had placed it on the roof before the hike in the morning so it was really hot. Very refreshing! It was nice to get into some clean clothes.

A few km’s further, along the highway, we found some hitchhikers. Two young, German guys. They were in luck, we were headed in the same direction. After having done the Tongariro Crossing, they were probably sick of walking. And they never would have made it to the town called National Park (+/- 50km away).

We continued to a small town past National Park. It was quiet there and the stars were beautiful at night. We slept great after all our hiking. What an amazing day!Read more