| NEW ZEALAND- December 2004 |
| Claire Rosemary Jane, Children's Author |
| Visit to New Zealand |
| Links Tsunami New Zealand homepage New Zealand Index page Tsunami Towns and Cities: Auckland Wellington Christchurch Invercargill Nelson Picton Greymouth Queenstown Napier Gisborne Taupo Rotorua Paihia Specific Excursions: Franz Joseph glacier. Stewart Island Ulva island Southern Alps The Tongariro Crossing Cape Reinga Christmas Day in Rotorua Travelling Currency. |
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| The Tongariro Crossing. |
| My main website is at http://clairerosemaryjane.co.uk |
| I had one main reason to visit Taupo. I wanted to walk the Tongariaro Crossing. The Tongariro crossing had been closed for days to all but the most foolhardy as a result of the bad weather, prior to my arrival, and there was no certainty as to whether the hike would be permitted even on the day that I wanted to do it, Monday 20th December. (Organised trips to the start of the crossing always advise you not to do the walk if they themselves would not be prepared to do it.) The weather is in fact the chief controlling factor as to whether the walk should be undertaken or not, and is very changeable on the crossing itself. Occasional snowfalls are not rare, and even in December there may be snow on the tracks. Additionally Tongariro National Park is an active volcanic area, and volcanic activity can occur at any time and without warning. Visitors are advised to take notice of possible warnings, especially when going close to the craters. All of this I knew in advance of the walk. But of all the things that I most wanted to do in New Zealand this was number one on my list. Not being a regular hiker, I was concerned enough to try to improve my fitness level by exercising and running for a month prior to my trip to New Zealand. I also knew that it would be the climbing itself that would be my biggest personal problem, and that I should have little trouble with the distance. I had also made a habit of walking in New Zealand as much as possible prior to my visit to Taupo. My packing list of things that I took to the Tongariro Crossing (and hence would take across it) were as follows: Water (2 bottles), high energy bars, sandwiches, chocolate, complete set of waterproofs (anorak and leggings), 4 layers of clothes, spare socks, gloves, sunglasses, lip protection, suntan cream, 35mm camera, telephoto lens, 4 reels of 35 mm film, elastoplasts, map, and last but not least, a compass. In the event, I was extremely lucky to have done the Tongariro Crossing at all. For I did it on the only day that it was open in this particular time period. It would be closed once more the following day. I started the actual walk at 8:45 am, having been up since 5:30am and collected at 6:15am from Taupo. I counted some 20 coaches on the track as we came in to Mangatepopo, on the western end of the trail, which probably equates to something like a minimum of a four hundred people walking the trail that day, it could have been as many as six to eight hundred people on the walk. Small wonder with such a small window of opportunity. As predicted, the first part was a steady climb on a well-defined path. Once at Soda Springs the climb really begins. And how! And much of the climb was in snow on this particular day. Several times I wondered whether I was actually going to make it, for I always find climbing very hard work, and it leaves me very breathless. The incredibly steep nature of this part of the climb reminded me of going up the Worcestershire Beacon in the UK by the steepest route possible after a heavy snowfall, (something I had also done), but at a much higher altitude. I told myself that I just had to keep going and that I had plenty of time. But as we climbed higher so it grew colder and the wind grew stronger, on this the windward side of the mountain. Finally I was at the South Crater. It was comparative bliss to walk across this dead flat, snow-covered area. But then the second steep climb started. The wind was so strong that it was blowing me sideways. I took refuge briefly behind a high rock with a family consisting of dad, daughter and son, where we compared notes and attempted to eat. I found it really difficult to eat at this high-altitude and it was not exactly a pleasurable experience. |
| I set off again, bracing myself as best as I could against the strong wind. We had estimated that the temperature was about minus six degrees Celsius up here on this particular day. I only had thin clothes on, but I did at least have four layers with a windproof anorak and over trousers over them, but even so I got neither cold nor wet on the climb, (only from perspiration!) But I also knew that I must not stop for long in such cold temperatures, for it was the endeavours of the climb that were keeping me warm. By now we were up into near white-out, and it was reassuring to know that I had a compass with me, and knew how to use it. However the trail was very well marked at this point, and it was just about possible to see from guide post to guide post. Suddenly we were on the summit, past the cairn of stones, and the clouds cleared a little; and there were the Emerald Lakes. Photographs! Several of them. ( I will add a few of these when they have been processed.) In places the snow was all of a foot deep, and I had not seen this sort of depth of snow since I had been in Michigan, USA, in March of 2002. Even in the depths of winter, the low ground of Somerset where I live only ever gets a sprinkling of snow these days). From here on it was mostly downhill and suddenly there was the Blue Lake and again visibility cleared enough to take photographs. From here on it was mostly downhill. I made it to the Ketatari Hut easily in the suggested two hours that it was supposed to take. But everywhere the track was often covered in deep drifting snow, for we were now on the leeward side of the mountain, and out of the worst of the wind, and although it was not nearly so cold here, it was still quite dangerous in places. The snow plus the wind had made me feel that this is in fact a very unsafe walk, one not to be taken lightly or badly prepared, especially in conditions such as these. By the time I had reached Ketatari Hut, I was well below the snow line once more, but in some ways the last bit was the worst of the lot, for there are many boulders on this part of the trail, and lots of steps, but worst of all it seemed to go on for ever, and took me two hours ten minutes to do; longer than the two hours that the Tongariro Crossing map suggested. The whole walk had taken me seven-and-a-half hours. But I had done it, and felt an enormous sense of exhilaration that I had completed the walk that I had so wanted to do, in conditions that from a walking point of view were far from ideal. |