Taupo

Today centred around waiting to find out if we would be able to undertake the Tongariro Crossing or not. When we made the provisional booking yesterday we heard that after several days of it being closed by poor weather, the forecast for the weekend looked, quote 'real good'. So it was with anticipation that we waited, which turned into a restlessness that we could not abate as we did not want to exert ourselves by going out of Taupo before a potential 20km hike over alpine conditions the following day. Announcements for the crossings are at 2:00pm the day before so when the time came around we telephoned through to see what the verdict was.

Unfortunately despite clear skies and sunshine, snow showers and strong winds increased the avalanche risk to an extent that it was unsafe and the crossing for Saturday was cancelled. It was frustrating to wait for disappointing news, compounded by the fact that realistically we had run out of time left to wait a further day on the chance that the crossing would be open on Sunday. However we cannot complain as we have had excellent luck with the weather and activities that are dependent on it during our time in wintery New Zealand.

Determined to still undertake a day's hike we spent the remainder of the afternoon formulating a Plan B for tomorrow. This still involves attempting to hike 20km but around the coastline of Lake Taupo rather than through the Tongariro National Park.Read more