Hiking The Tongariro Alpine Crossing – NZ

Enjoying the beautiful views and blue lakes at the top of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

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.

Lake Taupō. Photo credit by My Blond Bucket List
A helicopter changing out a porta potty cassette. Photo credit: Hut2Hut

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.

A quick selfie near the start of the hike

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.

Clumps of lava a long ways from the Mount Ngauruhoe.
A map of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing trails

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.”

A look back at the desolate terrain from eruptions over the years.
Another view of the valley.
A photo of “Mt. Doom” AKA Mount Ngauruhoe near the top of the hike.

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.

The mist by the crater ridge.
A higher crater ridge to the side of where we were headed.
Heather on the top of the crater ridge with Mt. Doom in the background.
We look so happy to have most of the uphill climbing behind us!

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.

Seeing the first of the blue lakes at the crest of the trail.

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.

Notice the steam coming out of the rocks to the top right of the lake.

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.

A black lava field below one of the smaller volcano cones.

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.

A strange looking lava vent
You can hear the wind and see sulfur laced steam rising from a volcanic vent.

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.

Interesting sludge flowing into a blue lake

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 of the “blue” lakes near the top of our hike.
The last of the lakes we saw in the hike on a stunningly beautiful day.

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.

Kind of fun to find a little bit of snow on our way down the mountain.

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.

A glimpse of the huge lakes near the base of the mountain.

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.

Our hike route on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, NZ as recorded by an Apple Watch and mapped on Strava.

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!

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