Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Hey all,

It’s Seth again. I’m back to share a few photos from Tongariro Alpine Crossing, widely considered to be the best single day hike in New Zealand.  The hike was 20 kilometers long, passing through an active volcanic area.  We passed an area that erupted 1.5 years ago (that’s still steaming…).  The hike also passes Mount Ngauruhoe, better known to Lord of the Rings fans as Mount Doom.  As another note for the LOTR fans, this post is coming out of order chronologically, and a Hobbiton update is still coming.

Here we are below Mount Doom

Jessica and Mount Doom after we climbed out of South Crater

The two of us on the rim of South Crater

We climbed higher above South Crater

What made this hike especially great is that every couple miles the landscape would completely change, and you’d have something new and amazing to see.

Emerald Lakes

Our view at lunch time

Before descending to the Emerald Lakes, we hiked along the rim of Red Crater, which you can see below, along with Mount Ngauruhoe.  This photo looks back on the steepest part of the hike we came down.

Red Crater

We hiked past another alpine lake, and then we started descending the north side of the volcanoes, where there were great views of Lake Taupo.

Several lakes to the north

Here’s Jessica hiking near Te Maari Crater, which erupted in August of 2012

Hiking past the recently erupted area was really interesting.  In addition to views of the massive young crater, we could spot boulders on the ground along the trail that were brought there by the blast.  The trail also passed a hut that had holes ripped in it by rocks from the eruption.  Thankfully, the eruption occurred on a winter night and no one was sleeping in the hut.  There were several interesting warning signs along the trail.  This is actually one of the tamer ones.

We hiked past a lot of signs like these