After Taupo Frank and I left for the Tongairio National park again, our aim: to climb the other two peaks, Ruapehu and Tongariro. First up was Mt Ruapehu, the highest peak on the North island at around 2700m. In winter Ruapehu's lower slopes form one of the north islands ski resorts but when we climbed there was very little snow, just some left in the valleys and snow at the top. This walk was slighlty more challenging than the others in the sense that it was not a marked track. It was advised you had a map, but we figured we'd be ok with the rough diagram we had. About two thirds of the way up we were walking up a snow path which was getting steeper and steeper and we didn't fell to confident, it was getting slippy! So we decided to det off as soon as posible so rather than following it all the way up we came off at the side. At this point we weren't to sure where the path went (should have followed the snow) but we could see the ridge leading to the top if we went straight up and after our experience clilmbing scree slopes on Ngarahue we figured we'd be ok, so off we set, straight up. As we got nearer and nearer the top the terrain became steeper and steeper an looser an looser. It wasn't gravel scree like on Ngauruhoe but there were large lumps of rock loose. We didn't feel very secure but made it to saftey, I think I'll stick to the route next time. We had fantastic views at the top and wandered around snow and the crater lake. Once we'd had enough we made our way down and ended up running and bolder hopping most of the way. The following day Frank and I decided to start at the other end of the Tongariro drossing and walk the other half we did't do before, climbing Mt Tongariro and Ngauruhoe and back. We'd set ourselves quiet a mamouth mission. We walked hard and enjoyed all the craters and volcanic landscape. The weather was not great and we were very exposed at the top. There was 70km hour winds and low visibilty so we got beaten back on our attempt to climb Mt Tongariro. Also Ngauruhoe was in a cloud so we didn't do that one either but we at least saw the rest of the crossing. Wicked, next stop Whanganui with Ash and Liz.
Thursday 10 May 2007
Tongariro National Park
After Taupo Frank and I left for the Tongairio National park again, our aim: to climb the other two peaks, Ruapehu and Tongariro. First up was Mt Ruapehu, the highest peak on the North island at around 2700m. In winter Ruapehu's lower slopes form one of the north islands ski resorts but when we climbed there was very little snow, just some left in the valleys and snow at the top. This walk was slighlty more challenging than the others in the sense that it was not a marked track. It was advised you had a map, but we figured we'd be ok with the rough diagram we had. About two thirds of the way up we were walking up a snow path which was getting steeper and steeper and we didn't fell to confident, it was getting slippy! So we decided to det off as soon as posible so rather than following it all the way up we came off at the side. At this point we weren't to sure where the path went (should have followed the snow) but we could see the ridge leading to the top if we went straight up and after our experience clilmbing scree slopes on Ngarahue we figured we'd be ok, so off we set, straight up. As we got nearer and nearer the top the terrain became steeper and steeper an looser an looser. It wasn't gravel scree like on Ngauruhoe but there were large lumps of rock loose. We didn't feel very secure but made it to saftey, I think I'll stick to the route next time. We had fantastic views at the top and wandered around snow and the crater lake. Once we'd had enough we made our way down and ended up running and bolder hopping most of the way. The following day Frank and I decided to start at the other end of the Tongariro drossing and walk the other half we did't do before, climbing Mt Tongariro and Ngauruhoe and back. We'd set ourselves quiet a mamouth mission. We walked hard and enjoyed all the craters and volcanic landscape. The weather was not great and we were very exposed at the top. There was 70km hour winds and low visibilty so we got beaten back on our attempt to climb Mt Tongariro. Also Ngauruhoe was in a cloud so we didn't do that one either but we at least saw the rest of the crossing. Wicked, next stop Whanganui with Ash and Liz.
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