We woke to a beautiful morning at our hotel on the shores of the beautiful Lake Taupō, which appears to be the largest lake in New Zealand. We had to get on the road early to make it to the pickup spot for the bus that would drop us off at the trail head for an epic hike up and over the world famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Mount Ngauruhoe’s cone like shape, which was where filming was done for the Mount Doom and Mordor scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was looming in the distance.
For anyone considering doing the hike, please know that in November 2023 we had to go online to obtain a free permit from the National Parks Service before we could do the hike. Because the trail head and end of the trail are on opposite sides of the mountain most people will need to book a shuttle to get to and from the hike. We used the Tongariro Crossing Shuttle which cost $60 NZD per person and were quite happy with their service and our driver was amazing.
At the trail head our bus had to navigate around a truck with a tanker trailer behind it, and when I took a closer look at the tanker I saw that it had “Jet Fuel” written on the side. That was curious given that we were in the middle of no where and in a national park. A few minutes later we all discovered why there would be a tank jet fuel there when a helicopter dropped off something it had been carrying by a cable underneath it and then landed to refuel. The “thing” it was carrying was a porta potty cassette, and it was interesting to watch as it made six or seven more trips during the first hour of our hike.
The start of the hike was a gentle incline on gravel paths alternating with boardwalks over some rocky areas. There were quite a few people starting the hike but we all soon stretched out over the trail.
As we progressed up the valley we started to enter lava fields with black clumpy boulders scattered around the boardwalk. The terrain became more and more desolate looking as we hiked closer to the beginning of the really steep part of the climb.
The most difficult portion of the climb found us zig zagging back and forth up a very steep hill of ancient lava debris and boulders.
We took our time and as we crested the steep section onto a table smooth lava plain, and were treated with amazing views of the valley we’d just hiked up on one side, the lava plain, as well as “Mount Doom.”
As we hiked across the lava plain there was a heavy mist on the far side of it that we ended up walking through on our way the crater ridge.
On the other side of the ridge were the world famous blue lakes of the Tongariro Crossing. It was a bit chilly and windy, but the sky’s were blue and beautiful. The next day we saw in the news that the weather had turned and they had to close down the trail because of the rain, cold and wind conditions.
The piercing blue lakes were in stark contrast with the mainly desolate lava and rock terrain with the occasional vent visible from the telltale sulfur laden steam coming from underground.
Another flat lava plain we walked by had at some point been been partially covered by a newer clumpy and lumpy black lava flow as you can see below. There were even a couple of pockets of snow where shadows from the edge of the flow cast shadows.
As we started the down hill portion of the hike we noticed an old lava vent that looked like it was straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies and could easily have doubled as the entrance to Sauron’s Forge.
One of the most interesting things I saw on the hike was some interesting looking coloured fluid coming out of a sulphur steam vent that emptied into the aqua marine blue lake near by.
Also interesting was the underwater vegetation in the lake that was thriving in this volcanic environment. In canada our blue alpine lakes seem to be devoid of visible aquatic vegetation, which I guess makes sense given how cold they are.
Unlike the freezing cold glacier fed blue lakes in Canada, these ones are probably warm. We didn’t dip our hands in to see how warm they are as the blue lakes on the mountain are sacred to the Maori peoples and we were asked by park staff to enjoy our views of the lake and not touch the water.
One our way down from the summit of the Tongariro Crossing, we walked through a handful of snow drifts in shadowy hollows on the south side of the mountains.
Eventually we were treated to stunning views of Lake Taupō and another smaller lake nearby as we made our way down the track to the shuttle pickup point.
Even in the scrub brush a fair ways down the mountain there were plenty of steaming sulfur vents that if you couldn’t see the steam near the ground, you could definitely smell them.
Hiking the Tongariro Alpine Cross was a challenging 5-hour hike for us, but was completely worth it given the amazing other worldly views we experienced!