Bucket List – Day 6

There are two sealed roads into Tongariro National Park.  The oldest is the northern road which was completed in 1925 with help from labour provided by Wakapapa prison camp.  

In 1929 a 100 bed hotel was constructed adjacent to the northern road.  It was named The Chateau and remains the most imposing structure as you drive into the park.

 

The road continues through Wakapapa Village before going up to the snowline and the Alpine Village, which contains numerous ski lodges.

Tongariro National Park is New Zealand’s oldest national park. The land was gifted to the people of New Zealand by the local maori paramount chief.  Te Heu Heu Tūkino did this to ensure the area's protection for all time.

The park contains three mountains in an active volcanic area.  Mt Tongariro is the  northern most and smallest.   It has at least 12 cones and has erupted 70 times since Europeans arrived.  Basically it is the remains of a large volcanic mountain that exploded.

Mt Ngaurahoe is the youngest of the three and is a secondary cone of Tongariro.  It has that classic cone shape.  Peter Jackson used Ngaurahoe as Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings.  In 1961 I attempted to climb Mt Ngaurahoe with a group of boys.  We were members of a party of St John’s Ambulance boys on a visit to the park.  I recall the climb was quite steep and we only got 2/3 the way to the top when we noticed the crater was spitting out rocks that were rolling past us.  We wisely turned back.

Ruapehu is the largest of the three and the only one to have ski fields.  The mouth of the crater is full of water and known as Crater Lake.  I’ve walked to the lip of the crater on a number of occasions.   There is an ice “plug” in the side of the crater and if the water temperature in the lake rises the plug can melt resulting in the water draining out of the crater then rushing down the eastern side of the mountain forming a Lahar.  This has occurred on several occasions.  In 1953 it resulted in the Tangiwai Disaster when the Lahar destroyed the rail bridge at Tangiwai during the night and an express passenger train plunged into the Whangaehu River.  151 people were killed.

There are two major walking circuit in the national park.  The northern circuit is shorter and more popular.  It circumnavigates Ngaurahoe and Tongariro.  The southern circuit goes around Ruapehu.  It’s longer and less frequently walked.

 

Both circuits share the cyan coloured line between the ends of the purple line.  This common track is part of the “Tongariro Crossing” which is a popular tourist day walk.  Usually walkers start at one end and are collected at the other.

If you look at the brown contour lines in the above map you will notice the southern circuit has far more gullies and streams.  Not only is the route longer, but more physically challenging.  The green shaded areas to the west and south are an indication that these are the “wet” sides, with the eastern side being the “dry” Rangipo Desert.

During the ‘Peak’ season (ie, summer) the huts around the mountains are staffed by rangers and the popular huts (on the northern circuit require pre-booking.  All other huts are on a ‘first come first bed’ basis.  During peak season the hut rate is $54 per person per night.  Off peak the rate is $15.  We were there during the off peak.

I had already decided to walk the longer and more difficult southern circuit.   Every year an annual challenge know as ‘The Ring of Fire’ is conducted around this circuit.  It’s a one day solo event to traverse the 73km.  The current record is 8 hours, 30 minutes and 25 seconds.  I plan on completing it in six days!

The next decision was deciding on going clockwise or anticlockwise.  The bulk of the river crossing are to the west which would likely mean wet feet for six days.  However it would mean the last 1½ days would be easier terrain.  Going clockwise would mean starting easier and gradually getting harder with potentially wet feet on the last two days.  We would be tackling some difficult terrain towards the end whilst being (me) potentially exhausted.  However our packs would be lighter as we would have consumed the bulk of our food.

Weighing everything up I decided on a clockwise direction.  This had the additional advantage that we would be staying in the popular Waihohonu Hut on our first day.  If we walked the Tongariro Cross track fast we could reach the hut by midday thus improving our chances of grabbing a bed.

Carlin and I had our second dinner of savaloys <Yummm>.  I had the vaguest suspicion Carlin might have been looking forward to freeze-dried dinners.