Day 10: Tongariro: Tongariro Crossing – So proud!
Tongariro Alpine Crossing fast facts: 19.4km (12.1 miles), total ascent 2454 ft, total descent 3636ft with the peak at 6129 above sea level, point to point hike and rated “hard in” AllTrails. This hike is described as including glacier valleys, active volcanoes, craters and vents, ancient lava flows, colored lakes, mountain streams, tussock lands, rain forest and long ranging views. It is often found on lists of the “world’s best day hikes”, and it did not disappoint.
We really wanted to give this hike a try, even if it was a big stretch for our hiking skills and endurance. After endless hours of preparation and research, the day was finally here. The weather has been touch and go all week for this area and very unpredictable to the point we almost cancelled this stop, but I’m so glad we didn’t. Our day started at 3:45am when we woke up to meet the shuttle for the 4:45am departure. We were greeted by Callum, our shuttle driver and the writer of the most informational website I found about the crossing. He shared that of the 4 forecasts he checked the worst one said constant light rain and 20 meters of visibility on the mountain today. They give you ample opportunity to change your mind about going and won’t charge you for the shuttle, even if you cancel after riding to the trailhead, which we really appreciated. Fortunately, we are staying in the National Park so the drive time to the track (hike) is only 15 minutes and the current weather looked clear so we decided to go for it. We started the hike at 5:20am just as the sun was rising. We were on the shuttle with 18 other people, but they all took off much quicker than us so we had the entire track to ourselves for the first 3 hours.
The first section is Mangatepopo Valley to Soda Springs – A field filled with grass, moss and follows alongside streams. This was my favorite part because it was so colorful and pretty, while still looking like we were walking on another planet.
The second section is Soda Springs to South Crater, the first of two big climbs and referred to as the Devil’s staircase with a 18% gradient. It was super hard, but we were up it before we knew it, thinking that the section was much longer than it was.
South Crater – A walk along the flat crater that looked like we were on Mars and was Rob’s favorite part of the hike
Climbing Red Crater – a 34% gradient, it was a tough uphill that you could see from the flat crater, but the view of Red Crater from the top was otherworldly.
Red Crater to Emerald Lakes – with a 37% gradient on loose scree (small rocks). We had to side step and slide our way down this section. Nicholas loved this and managed to work in many baseball slides on our way down making it his favorite part of the hike. We stopped here for lunch and enjoyed a break from the wind behind a big rock while looking at the beautiful greenish blue lakes.
Central Crater to Blue Lake – This was our final climb of the day and went very quickly. This was Cooper’s favorite part as he loved seeing so much water held up by the walls of the volcano.
Final leg to Ketetahi, a 9km long descent – We walked through these gorgeous fields and could see the switchbacks ahead of us. Nicholas really picked up the pace, and we boogied through the top of this section pretty quickly. Cooper loved this section for how quickly we were making progress. It ended up feeling a bit bittersweet as we still had 5 miles to go and felt like these fields would go on forever. Little did we know there was actually a forest at the end for the final 4km and that truly felt like the section that would never end. It was really pretty, but the kms felt like they were happening at a snail’s pace. Of the 100+ people that passed us we only saw one other family with two kids near the very end. So proud of our guys!
We wrapped up our hike in 8 hours and 40 minutes catching the shuttle back at 2:30pm, just shy of the record of 1hr and 25 minutes held by an Olympic athlete 😉 Here is a snapshot of our different step numbers and distance covered according to our watches. Rob’s long legs still had him at 35k steps! We ended up only getting a few raindrops on us at the very end, the clouds never blocked our view of anything, and it was the perfect temperature. We all wore long sleeves and pants the whole hike with puffy jackets and snow hats at the top and no one was sweaty or cold. It was just right.
Gold stars go to Rob for figuring out how to fit all of our supplies across our 4 packs and for carrying Nicholas’ pack in addition to the heaviest pack for all of the uphill sections. Cooper for doing this hike despite still being pretty congested and sick. Nicholas for pushing his legs to their max to keep up with us and cover such large mileage and elevation.
We had dinner at home and as I write up this blog I can hear the sheep and cows baaing and mooing out the open windows. While Rob and I are done moving for the day, the boys have decided to play soccer outside our chalet. Where does this energy come from? This place has been the perfect stop on our adventure.
