3rd-5th of March
Trampers: Lucas, Sophia, Lauren, Tyler, Lisa, Carina, Sophia, Amalie, Nicolas, Kristin, Greta, Steven, Om
The Tongariro Northern Circuit! In an effort to avoid exorbitant hut fees during the Great Walk season, we decided do the walk as soon as possible (2 days) after the season, hoping to also find a few less people on the track as well. In classic AUTC fashion, we left 1.5 hours after the intended departure and ended up at the road end at around 7. Luckily, there was only a 20 minute walk to Mangetepopo Hut and we all made it to the hut in short order. Logistics at the hut were a bit crazy as upon arrival we found that there was only 1 bunk left; with a group of 13 people, this was going to be a problem. However, we were hungry and it was decided that it would become a problem for later. We also came to the realization that between the 13 of us, we only had 3 stoves, which made cooking dinner a bit interesting. We ate dinner sequentially outside in a cold (but beautiful) night and finally went to bed in as many random places around the hut as we could.
We woke up the next day to clear blue skies, promising good views from the top of the mountain later in the day. While we thought our departure time of 8:30 would be enough to beat most of the traffic on the Tongariro Crossing portion of the track, this was definitely not the case (so much for Lucas’ theory that the off season should be quiet). Nonetheless, we continued along the very nice boardwalk - a luxury for New Zealand tramping. We made the obligatory stop at Soda Springs to see the waterfall and take a photo before making use of the last bathrooms before Oturere Hut later in the day. It was slow going up the Devil’s staircase but we eventually made it up to Red Crater.
We experienced more traffic up the last little bit of uphill towards the highest point of the track, but it’s hard to complain about going too slow when it gives you more time to admire the views. The weather stayed the course and we couldn’t have had a better view from the top; we had panoramic views of Taupo, the Kaimanawa ranges and even Taranaki way out to the west. That’s not to say that Tongariro wasn’t equally as cool; the views of the various craters were incredible and being able to see how far we had come was very satisfying. We had to comandeer a member of the public to take a photo of us as a group and then had to take individual photos with the various landmarks for friends/family/online dating profiles.
After briefly ‘losing’ some group members due to bad counting, and getting to hear some expert tin-whistling, we continued down towards Emerald Lakes and finally over to Blue Lake for lunch, where various gourmet tramping meals were consumed. The more adventurous among the group then continued on to make the descent up to North Crater, where we found - guess what! - yet another crater. After walking around the plateau, we found an incredible view of Taupo. We also gazed upon the trampers doing the much maligned downhill section of the crossing, feeling very grateful that they weren’t in their shoes. Though the descent seemed much more perilous than the climb up, we made it back to the group and traced our steps back to the turnoff to Oturere hut. A bit of further downhill led us to a very desert-y area, which was a nice change from the mountain scenery.
We all made it to the hut in by mid afternoon, had a quick break then continued to our destination of Waihohonu Hut. As the sun started to gradually dip below the mountains, we had a renewed sense of urgency as we made our way over undulating desert terrain, but overall spirits were very high. As we entered bush for the first time on the trip, some members of the group decided to partake in a quick bush bash to save the windyness of the main track. For perhaps the first time in AUTC history, a quick bush bash ended up actually being quick and placed the now much dirtier bush-bashers ahead of the other group. Who knew it was possible? We arrived at the hut to find that there were only 5 bunks left; a decent bit better than the previous night, but still not enough for everyone to enjoy the luxuries of a DOC mattress. Luckily floor space at Waihohonu Hut was much more plentiful and we didn’t have to all sleep shoulder-to-shoulder, which made the sleep that night much more comfortable.
Final day! We woke to a very frosty morning, and while what was presumably a beautiful sunrise over the Kaimanawas was blocked by a patch of trees, its reflection onto Ruapehu was perhaps equally as stunning. We quickly got going in the morning and then stopped going just as quickly as we made our first stop at the historic Waihohonu Hut, which was quite a bit smaller than the main hut (it wouldn’t have been fun if we had to fit everyone in there!).
From then, we had more undulation as we walked between Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. Making the most of our being in the area, we took the opportunity to zoom up to Tama Lakes which was also a very nice view (common theme for the trip). From there, most of us were on the home stretch. A bit more undulation took us to Taranaki Falls, a pleasant surprise to all of us as ChatGPT didn’t include this when in wrote the trip description. A few brave souls were going from a swim, but no one in our group decided to partake. About here is when we split up; while most of the group had a short walk to Whakapapa Village, the drivers still had about 3 hours to get back to Mangatepopo carpark. As a parting gift to the rest of the group, the drivers bestowed their oversized packs upon the rest of the group, making the walk out a wee bit easier. The track degraded in quality a bit from here; originally the plan was to do this section on day one in the dark, but in hindsight this would not have been the best idea. Finally, our brave group of drivers made it to their cars (nothing beats the feeling) and managed not to get lost on the way back to the rest of the group, who had been evicted from the DOC visitors center. From there, our next destination was the obligatory Macca’s stop (as is tradition) and finally we arrived back in Auckland much later than anticipated (funny how trips tend to do that). Nevertheless, the weekend had still been a great one, thought we were all extremely happy to have somewhere to sleep that night that wasn’t the floor of a hut.
Via Lucas Hebberd
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