Tongariro Crossing

Tongariro National Park became New Zealand's first National Park on Sep. 23rd 1887 when a Maori chief donated the land to the people of New Zealand with the agreement that it would remain public property for all time. In 1990 it was listed as a World Heritage Site. The crossing is 10.5 miles with about 3000' of climbing. As it is a through hike, you have to arrange for transportation. We opted to take a bus from Taupo that dropped us off at the Mangatepopo trail head and picked us up 8 hours later at the Ketetahi trail head. At first I was a little stressed due to the fact that we had to go 17 kilometers (at that time I was still trying to remember the conversion so I wasn't sure how far that was), we weren't moving all that fast, and I was not too sure how well Kriss would do on the hike. It didn't take long though to realize that Kriss was doing fine and we would be OK with time. In the end we slowed down to kill time so that we wouldn't have to wait too long in the parking lot and we still finished in 7 hours.




Here you can almost see Mt. Ngauruhoe, the youngest of the three volcanoes in the park which formed a mere 2500 y.a. If you could see it better you may recognize it as Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings movie. Mt. Ngauruhoe last erupted in 1975.



Red Crater was in my opinion the most aesthetically interesting feature of the hike. It is a scoria cone replete with iron ore, hence the color, that was formed 3000 y.a. The most recent activity in this crater was between 1855 & 1890.



This feature is a dike that formed underground and was then exposed as the crater eroded away.

These are known as the Emerald Lakes.

This is a basaltic lava flow.


In this photo you can see just how much traffic this trail gets. Although not immediately obvious, the ground behind Kriss is vertical. This was a trench dug by many years of hikers using the same trail.

This is one of several mountain valleys that the Track crosses.

Lichen growing on rocks.

Nearly every stream originated at a hot spring and often you would know of its presence in advance due to the steam.

For about the last mile the trail dips below the tree line for the first time and you get to experience a natural Kiwi forest with all of its exotic flora.