Woke up at the kiwi fruit farm and went for a look around the property which was beautiful. It was very early and I was not thinking so I did not have my camera.
We left by 8:30 AM to head down through Rotorua to Tongariro National Park for the main highlight of the trip.
Dipped our feet in some naturally heated thermal pools in a park in Rotorua. We didn't want to pay for any of the expensive thermal spectacles of the area.
We stopped at Huka Falls on the way down which was spectacular but, alas, I didn't bring my camera and Rachel claims her photos do it no justice. Follow this link to have a look at the falls.
Then we gunned it down to Taupo where we loaded up on food and dropped off a camera and phone we'd found at a backcountry hut in Egmont National Park. We'd texted the owners and arranged for them to pick up the goods at the visitor center. Taupo was beautiful and it was great to look across the huge crater lake at the mountains we'd be hiking up the next day. Unfortunately this is the best photo I've got my hands on right now. I'm trying to eat the mountains.
We got to the Whakapapa DoC in Tongariro National Park and the employees convinced us out of starting the Northern Circuit so late in the day as they expected the snow would slow us down considerably. We decided to go into Mangatepopo Hut on one side of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and try to cross the next day. If the weather was poor we'd wait around and try to do it the day after that. We were determined to give this hike a chance to be all that we wanted it to be. Here are the mountains we'd be climbing up around. On the right is Ngauruhoe and off to the left is Mt. Tongariro. Ngauruhoe was used as Mt. Doom in LOTR.
Here's Mangatepopo hut where we stayed that night.
That night we went out to check out the stars and we found this opossum.
Day 7
We got up the next day and despite poor weather decided to try to do the Alpine Crossing as we'd planned.
Conditions weren't great but heaps of snow had fallen over the last week which was exciting for us.
Stuff along the path was frozen up solid which was very cool.
We got to a sign where there was a turn off for a side trip to climb Ngauruhoe and just after it we bumped into a party coming back towards the start. They told us to turn around. Here's a video of me explaining the details.
So we decided to go down the way we'd come and go around to get up to Ketetahi Hut on the other side of the crossing. There we'd wait for another day to come and hope for better weather to do the other half of the hike in.
We crossed what's called "Ketetahi Hot Springs". The river was warm and it cut through the snow easily.
The ground was smoking. Very cool. Reminded me of visitng Centralia.
I got this eerie shot of a slip we crossed over just before arriving at Ketetahi Hut.
And finally we made it to the hut which was supposed to have an amazing view. The visitor's book in the hut was loaded with comments like "best view ever". Anyways, here's what we saw.
And that's how we finished day 7. Had some dinner in the hut which we had to ourselves and fell asleep hoping for good weather.
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