Tongariro Alpine Crossing
The Tongariro Alpine crossing is meant to be the best one day hike in New Zealand, 18km’s in between two volcanos, through numerous radically diverse regions. We hiked that today, weather was just about perfect for it with the only issue being cloud cover descending from the pass which is hardly unusual. Mountains like this have a funny way of making their own clouds and weather patterns anyway…
Tongariro Park has 3 main peaks in it, 2 of which are active volcanos (one was used as Mt Doom in filming for the LOTR trilogy). This hike doesn’t take you by that volcano, (though parts of it felt like I was walking in the movie) but between the other active volcano in the park “Mt Ngauruhoe” and the other main peak “Mt Tongariro”. Fantastic hike, the scenery was amazing and it wasn’t that hard, I feel fine tonight…
I’m going to post quite a few of the different parts of the trail on here, thee diversity was stunning. From alpine tundra, to plantless lava fields and much more…
These are a very small sampling of what I put on flickr.
First section of the hike:
Up the lava fields:
Large crater:
Around the pass:
Alpine Tundra:
Grasslands:
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Adam
It looks like you guys are having fun. At least you got to experience some snow, even though you are heading into summer time.
Stunning photos!