Tongariro day 2 - part 1 : Ngauruhoe

(This was a somewhat epic day, and so we have decided to follow the Hobbit films and split the post into multiple installments).

The second day of the Northern Circuit can be done as a single-day walk, and this is advertised as the best one-day walk in New Zealand, therefore it can get very busy. Up to 5000 people can be seen trudging over the pass on a nice weekend day. So to beat the worst of the crowds, we got up at the crack of dawn, and were on the trail at 6.45.

By 8.30 we had climbed to the base of Ngauruhoe and had to decide whether to tackle the epic (and active) volcano that was looming over us. From this point the climb looked just ridiculous, a perfectly uniform cone rising over 600m above us. But we had got up early, so we decided to throw ourselves at it, along with an increasing number of the day-walkers (you'll know our opinion of day-walkers from previous posts).

The climb was at an almost perfect 40 degrees and was made pretty much entirely of scree. So it was 2 steps up, and 1 step back. Rocks frequently rained down from above, The Viking managed to get one nearly to the bottom. The climb was made a little easier in places by an old lava flow which gave better purchase, and eventually we made the summit.

As we came over the crest, Dave realised he was middle-aged when he told some youths off for having music blasting out! I mean, who takes speakers all the way up there??? To their credit, they turned it off without any attitude.

And then we could see down into the crater where (presumably) the one ring was forged. Apparently there are lots of rings down there as there was a bit of a fashion for carrying rings up and throwing them in... Something to do I suppose.

The view from the top was truly tremendous, we could see the numerous peaks of Tongariro poking out of a sea of clouds that were rolling in from the west. To the south was the giant Ruapehu, with a sprinkling of snow on his top.

Ngauruhoe hasn't erupted since 1975 but vents around the peak were billowing sulphorous steam to remind us that he is very much active (Tongariro by contrast is still technically in an eruption phase after flattening a hut 2 years ago).

And then the descent... You remember the scree mentioned earlier? Well it turns out that this is much better for going down than up. Taking giant steps away from the slope and letting the scree catch you meant that we got down in 1/2 hour and had lots of fun doing it.

Looking back at what we had just come down was more a little surreal, a sensation that stayed with us for the rest of the day. Whenever we looked over at Ngauruhoe, the sheer bulk of him just didn't sit comfortably with the knowledge that we'd just climbed him, and run back down, and survived - well, Hannah broke a nail :o(