The 3 T's (Taupo, Turangi and Tongariro)

So after leaving Rotorua early, we headed south to Taupo (apparently now pronounced toe-paw). This is a lovely town situated in the middle of the North island and is perched on the northern edge of a massive lake, aptly named ....Lake Taupo.


We arrived in Taupo and stopped briefly to see the local cycle race event, a 160km relay race around lake Taupo. Then continued on to a smaller town called Turangi, found at the southern end of lake Taupo. We stayed in a lovely backpackers place and started reading up on the Tongariro crossing, our next challenge!


The Tongariro crossing is a 19.4km (7/8 hour) hike up the side, over and back down an extinct volcano with some amazing views. However the reason for arriving earlier than planned was due to the weather conditions. It is so unpredictable that you could spend days waiting to do the crossing and miss the opportunity. We planned to do it on the Sunday and are so pleased we did, because the saturday was cold and windy and the Monday it was closed!


So Sunday morning we were up early and got our transfer to the start point. We arrived at 08:15 and were very fortunate with the weather; clear, warm and dry ! The first 4-6 Km were a slow, long climb up hill, with a section called the 'devil's steps' to reach the flat section at the top. As you can imagine we were both breathing rather swiftly when we got to the top. We decided to skip the optional 3 hour climb up the side of the volcano crater.

The walk and views from the top part were amazing. Walking through the alpine desert with snow still on the ground was pretty cool. The scenery just got better the more we walked. The highest point we reached had some stunning views and you could look back toward the red crater and the extinct volcano or forward to the blue lake and emerald lakes below.

We continued on, now down steep slopes, toward the lakes to get a closer look at them. We stopped half way down the shingle slope and had our lunch and took in the scenery.


After this we then started the decent back to the pick up point. For some reason we found this the harder part of the trek, 7-8 Km down hill was a killer on the legs and feet. Anyway, we made the entire trip in glorious weather and without a blister in sight, an amazing trek and one that we are lucky to have had the opportunity to do.