Tongariro day 2 - part 2 : The Emerald Lakes

By the time we'd descended Ngauruhoe, the hordes had caught up with us (day-walkers that is, rather than orks, goblins or any other denizen of middle-earth) but they tended to bunch into noisy groups so weren't too difficult to avoid. We were just grateful that there were only 700 today instead of the 5000 that sometimes take on the crossing. 

The next part of the walk involved crossing a massive crater and then climbing the steep wall of rock at the edge, much to the dismay of the knackered day-walkers who were starting to think that maybe they'd bitten off more than they could chew.

In all seriousness, the day walk is very hard. Over 15km long and climbing 700m up and down, without including the optional climbs to the summits of Ngauruhoe or Tongariro. It is mainly done because it features in the 'top 10 things to do in NZ', mostly by people who have not been told how hard it is, and are not really in the right clothes (scree running in shiny white slip-on trainers anyone?).

Tourists eh? ;-)

The kiwis, being an imaginative bunch, have called the big crater that we are walking through "south crater", others being "central crater", "north crater" and (after a good, long think) "red crater". I think that it would be better if they were called things like "despair crater" or "the crater of lost souls"!

Once we had climbed the crater wall, we had another optional extra to the summit of Tongariro. This was nothing like Ngauruhoe (just walking along a ridge really), but we had time/food and it gave the day-walkers a chance to get away (they all had to catch their shuttles by 3 or 4pm).

Heading along the Tongariro ridge took us back towards Ngauruhoe, and more opportunities to gawp at the morning's climb.

The exciting thing about Tongariro (other than its propensity for throwing out rocks that crush huts), is the amazing colours of all the rocks. There was everything from yellow to red to pink to bright blue. This was just a prelude of what was to come.

Once we'd wandered back from Tongariro, we rejoined the main track and looked down into the red crater (of the damned). This wasn't just red, this had all of the reds!

Then, just when things couldn't get any more colourful, we saw the Emerald Lakes. For once, these are aptly named, unlike those Blue Lakes in Mount Cook we told you about. In this case, even the word 'Emerald' really doesn't describe how vividly green the lakes were. You'll have to see the photos to get the idea.

From there, it was a gentle 5km down an old lava flow, passing more steam vents on the way, this time lined up in a neat row (presumably for geological reasons). 

Finally, we walked out to the hut through a valley filled with prehistoric lumps of lava.

With Ngauruhoe as a backdrop, this looked much more like Mordor.