Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Wow, New Zealand you ridiculously good looking country!

While carnival in Röttgen was at its absolute height (D'r Zoch beim Born vor der Tür) we got up at 4.45 local time to catch our bus to the Tongariro National Park. There, we were to undertake one of the worlds most famous and spectacular one day hikes, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Distance: 20km, covered altitude: almost 2000m up and down, hiking time: 7-8 hours.

We saw some pictures before, so we roughly knew what to expect, but we weren't prepared for these smashing views! The trek starts with 5 km of relatively easy, plain walk. That is followed by a very steep climb for about an hour, which doesn't even cover a full kilometer of distance. But once we were done with that we got our first spectacular views on Mt. Doom (pic 3) from Lord of the Rings. Quite fitting to choose this mountain as Mt. Doom as you walk through a pretty Mordor-y landscape all the time. It is always on your right during the first part of the trek but was covered in clouds at the start. After a short walk through a crater, another steep ascent to the top of the red crater followed. While the first climb was laid out with planks and steps, the second one was mostly gravel and therefore quite slippery. The same is true for the super steep descent from the red crater. But the view from the top is absolutely worth the few scares of falling. After that you see and smell 3 volcanic lakes of stunning blue. And from there it is mostly downhill. After half the descent you start to feel legs and knees shaking and you still got 4 km to go ;).

At the end we were quite happy to be done but boy was this worth it. After we said goodbye to our fellowship of the ring we treated ourselves to a Good George IPA and pretty much went straight to bed.

Weather conditions were perfect! Although it was mostly covered we had no rain and only little wind. But the cover also protected us from the sun and kept the temperature down which was a blessing for our stamina.

You obviously see pictures below but none of them can really capture the beauty of this place.Read more