The Tangariro Crossing: One of the Best Days Yet

This past thursday I hiked the Tangariro Crossing, which is a 19.4km hike (or tramp as they say in New Zealand). It starts at the base of Mt. Tangariro and the path runs in between Mt. Tangariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe then continues to the summit of Mt. Tangariro.

Mt. Doom

Side Note: Mt Ngauruhoe is Mt. Doom .. for all you Lord of the Rings fans.

Now I don't have much experience with hiking, and this one is ranked as challenging so I was a little worried before starting but luckily I'm in decent shape and didn't struggle with the fitness part of the hike.

The hike itself was quite challenging though. After about an hour of flat walking at the beginning you reach a part of the walk named Devils Staircase. This was basically a steep uphill climb that took us almost halfway to the summit of Mt. Tangariro. We continued on along a flat path through a volcanic crater.

Red Crater

We had another steep climb by which point we reached red crater. A volcanic crater, the red colouring caused by lava flow.

After 8km of walking (atleast half of it uphill) we reached the summit.

Next we had a steep descent (and when I say steep I'm talking sliding down on my bum type of steep) toward the Emerald Lakes. Which in my opinion was probably the most spectacular part of the hike. The emerald blue colour is caused in part by rainfall that causes minerals to run down the side of the volcanoes and into the lakes.

As soon as we walked past the Emerald lakes the clouds started moving in fast. With the clouds came some bad weather. It started with wind and hail and then it started snowing. I thought by coming to New Zealand I had been really smart in avoiding winter but up on the Tangariro winter was in full swing.

On the way down we were walking along extremely narrow paths, unable to see what was in front of us.


As it started to clear up we noticed that many of the volcanoes around us were steaming from different areas. Then we noticed a very reassuring sign...

The hike finished with a walk through forest made up mostly of the Native Bush.

And finally after experiences every single type of weather, and walking over several different types of terrain I finished one of the most spectacular walks in New Zealand ..the Tangariro Crossing