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THE NEW ZEALAND VOLCANOES

Updated: Jan 10


The Tongariro Crossing in the North Island of New Zealand bills itself as "The World's Greatest Day Hike" and it's certainly a fantastic trip, but it was Ruapehu next door that absolutely blew me away. Much of the local tourist industry is set up around the Crossing, with buses to the start and finish, and these are very popular so it's advisable to book. I hadn't got to River Rats campsite in Turangi till 1.30am so the next morning was a blur of arranging, sorting and repacking to catch the bus to Whakapapa at the foot of Ruapehu. I arranged to be picked up three days later at the end of the Crossing, which I figured would give me time to climb the three main volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngarahoe and Tongariro. The local Maori believe that these contain the spirits of their ancestors and didn't want them caught up in the colonial land grab so in 1887 they gave them to the British government on condition that they were preserved in their current state for all time. Said government didn't have a clue what to do with them so designated them as a National Park, one of the world's first.


Ngarahoe, Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings

Ngarahoe from the SW, Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films


The journey up gave me a brief glimpse of the gigantic caldera of Lake Taupo, which last erupted in 232AD, the largest volcanic eruption on earth in the last 5000 years, with effects recorded as far away as China and Rome (some historians think that the Chinese may even have heard it 😯). The whole area is still seismically highly active, Ruapehu in particular erupting every decade or so. There is a warning system of sirens for lahars, rapid torrents of water, mud and volcanic debris which can reach up to 100mph. They tend to follow runnels so the advice is to stay on ridges where possible.

From the end of the road a good track leads up to the top of the ski area where I hid my main rucksack and headed up towards Ruapehu. It was a slog. I had never climbed a volcano before and the smaller particles were even more mobile than the angular scree I was used to. Short energetic bursts and a rest seemed to work best. I was very glad to reach the snowline as although the snow was soft it was still easier than the debris.


Ruapehu, New Zealand

Ruapehu from near Whakapapa


Reaching the rim of the crater made it all worthwhile. Amazingly this has a glacier inside it, as well as the inevitable crater lake. The lake was a lurid blue, and was covered in a thin layer of very fast moving swirling cloud. By eye you could see the water but my shutter speed wasn't fast enough so my camera just picked up the cloud and made it look white. The glacier hangs over the lake and seracs regularly calve off the front of it into the water. The lake has a pool of molten sulphur underneath it and is about 30-40 degrees C, so the collapsing ice blocks fizz spectacularly and produce clouds of steam. I didn't go down to test it!


Crater Lake, Ruapehu, New Zealand

Crater Lake, Ruapehu


I had arrived at the crater rim close to Paretetaitonga, the third highest summit, so carried on up to the top of that, which gave a great view of the rest of the summits. The next one along the rim, Te Ataahua, looked both trickier and pretty loose, while the snow on the glacier was well frozen so I traversed round inside the crater, then climbed steeper snow up to the col below the main summit, Tahurangi. An ice axe was essential and crampons would have been useful too. From the col some rather shattered rock just left of the ridge led up to the top of Tahurangi, about 2.5 hours from the road end.


Ruapehu summit, New Zealand

Tahurangi from Paratetaitonga, Ruapehu


The rock felt even more precarious on the way back down and I was glad to reach the snowy col. Below this the angle soon slackened off and I had a fun bumslide down to the glacier. I took a lower line across this on the way back so as to get a better view of the lake, and was rewarded as a big serac fell off into it while I was there, rapidly frothing into bubbles and steam. It explained where the whirling clouds came from 🙂.


Crater Lake, Ruapehu, New Zealand

Falling serac, Ruapehu crater lake


Once over the rim of the crater the descent was easy, first on snow, then down scraggy ground, much easier to descend than it had been to climb. I was planning to bivvy so I made sure to fill my water bottle directly from snow melt as the streams lower down had acquired minerals from the ground and were definitely not drinkable. I collected the rest of my kit and found a comfortable quiet spot not far from the top of the ski lifts. There was a great view but the cold wind discouraged much sitting around outside my sleeping bag and I had an early night. I needed it by then because my last night in Christchurch had involved watching a band till 3am with an Aussie I'd met on Mt Cook, and the late night arrival at River Rats hadn't helped.


Taranaki Falls, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

Taranaki Falls


The next day was an easy one, taking paths (and a bit of bushwhacking) through the Whakapapaiti valley, having lunch in a pub at Whakapapa, and paying a visit to the lovely Taranaki Falls, where the river spouted through a gap in a lava flow. I eventually got round to the start of the Tongariro Crossing and followed the track up to the NZAC hut at Mangatepopo. I stocked up on water there, for the same reason as on Ruapehu, and bivvied a little higher up the valley. The sunset was spectacular, and I was sheltered enough this time to be out of the wind and enjoy it.


Sunset below Tongariro, New Zealand

Sunset above Mangatepopo


The bivvy gave me a head start so I was ahead of the hordes and met nobody on the first part of the Crossing, up to the strikingly flat-floored South Crater. This is dominated by the grey volcanic cone of Ngarahoe, the Mount Doom of the Lord of the Rings films. I couldn't resist the detour so dumped my sack and headed up the obvious line. It was even harder going than Ruapehu as it was steeper, more sustained and had no snow on it. I soon found out that the larger grains of the open slope were marginally more stable than the smaller stuff on the trodden route so took to those. It was still pretty tough going. At the time I was probably the fittest I've ever been but it still took an hour and a quarter to get up the 600 metres to the crater rim, from where the highest point wasn't far. Ngarahoe is active and although there wasn't any lava visible there were several fumaroles belching clouds within the crater. These wafted across the crater rim in several places, with the distinctive rotten eggs smell of hydrogen sulphide. The powerful stench was a strong disincentive to hanging around, despite the superb views. Once back round the rim the descent only took 15 minutes as the earthy scree was ideal for running down.


Ngarahoe (Mount Doom), New Zealand

Ngarahoe from Tongariro


By contrast the route up Tongariro was much easier, on a path and with only 200 metres of height gain. The main Crossing track avoids the summit but a branch path goes up it via a couple of steepish steps. By now people had caught me up so I had company for this, a local couple John and Nicola, who took an excellent pic of me on the summit.


Tongariro summit, New Zealand

On Tongariro summit


Returning to the main path I soon arrived at the Red Crater, another highly active spot, with puffs of smelly fumes coming out of its vents and a desert starkness about it.

Beyond this the path descended to the well-named Emerald Lakes, These get their startlingly surreal brightness from dissolved marl which has settled out onto the lake bed and reflects sunlight through the water.


Emerald Lakes, Tongariro, New Zealand

Emerald Lakes, Tongariro


Another wide flat crater floor and a short rise led to the Blue Lake, then once across an easy saddle the view suddenly opened out. Below was Lake Rotaira and beyond it the vast expanse of Lake Taupo. The path zigzagged easily down to the Ketatahi Pools, boiling away merrily in clouds of steam. At the time I went most people went for a paddle in the warm outflow from these – how high up you went depending on your temperature tolerance, but these days this is no longer allowed as they are a sacred site to the Maori. You now have to wait until reaching your accommodation to wash the dust off – no great hardship as pretty much everywhere has its own geothermal pool 🙂.


Ketatahi Pools, Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand

Ketatahi Pools, Tongariro


Another few kilometres of easy descent led down into the forest and the pick up point/car park. I had plenty of time so dawdled along, including another paddle and getting back to Turangi around 6pm. As a coda I spent the next day at Rotorua, visiting the excellent Maori heritage museum and exploring the volcanic park at Waiotapu. The latter had some amazing waterfalls of sulphur crystals as well as geysers and bubbling mud pools. Trying to time a photograph to get an exploding gloop bubble was distinctly tricky! Then it was off to Auckland for some local rock climbing and the festivities put on for the Round the World Yacht Race.


Sulphur Cave, Waiotapu, New Zealand

Sulphur Cave, Waiotapu


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