Friday 2 March 2018
Tongariro Northern Circuit #2
A couple of weeks ago I went with a friend to do the Tongariro Northern Circuit for the second time in less than a year. The weather wasn't quite as good as last time but we had another great trip.
We drove down to the mountains, stopping at Orakei Korako on the way — a pretty good thermal area. We spent Friday night in Taupo so we could arrive at the first hut, Mangatepopo, in good time on Saturday. We had a swim in Lake Taupo — surprisingly warm. On Saturday morning we drove to Whakapapa with a stop for a two-hour walk around Lake Rotopounamu — lovely and peaceful.
We knew Cyclone Gita was scheduled to hit New Zealand on Tuesday, the planned fourth day of our walk, so I checked at the DoC office at the start of our walk in Whakapapa. They advised us to just go ahead, that if necessary on the fourth day we could walk out to the Desert Road in 1.5 hours instead of returning to Whakapapa over the exposed saddle between Ruapehu and Tongariro.
The first day to Mangatepopo Hut was a bit rainy and the track is in poor condition ... perhaps the worst one-day section of track in the entire Great Walks system. Nevertheless the area is full of pretty wildflowers this time of year, and we got to Mangatepopo in good time, just after 3pm. Having just two in our group — instead of ten on my last tramp! — meant we talked to a lot more people, most of whom seemed to be Americans for some reason. We had a great time, made popcorn and shared it out, taught San Juan to a few people, and got to know some trampers we'd see a lot of for the rest of the walk.
Sunday's walk across Tongariro to Oturere Hut was busy as expected, as we shared the track with hundreds of people doing the Tongariro Crossing that day. Nevertheless the landscape never ceases to amaze. Oturere is quite cramped (we heard it's scheduled for an upgrade in 2019) but we had another great time: more San Juan, more popcorn, and finally a clear view of Ngauruhoe.
On Monday morning at Oturere I overhead one man propounding "religious people think they have all the answers ... must be comforting (to be so ignorant)". That's totally contrary to my experience. Who contemplates the mystery of the Trinity, or their own sin, for example, and comes away thinking they have all the answers? I resisted interjecting.
The forecast for Tuesday was that with cyclone Gita approaching we'd have 100+km/hour winds and heavy rain. That would be a bad combination for a four-hour walk in very exposed terrain between Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. We decided to accelerate plans and complete Tuesday's leg on Monday. So, we had a two-and-a-half hour walk to Waihohonu hut — still the best hut in New Zealand AFAIK — and after a half-hour break carried on all the way back to Whakapapa (five and a half hours) with short sides trip to Lower Tama Lake and Taranaki Falls. Rain was forecast for the afternoon but we only had a light sprinkle before we arrived at Whakapapa around 5pm. We drove all the way back to Auckland that night without difficulty. All in all, another excellent tramp.
