One great hike: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing

This post could be alternately titled: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing: Where I Almost Broke Jorge.

So, remember when I told you that I trick Jorge into doing (most) things? It's for his own good, I swear.

Here is the thing, I am a pack mule. I could literally walk non stop for I don't know how long and it doesn't bother me. Maybe it's my dad's infantry blood swirling in my body? Either way, Jorge does not have this same compulsion, so one does what one must.

Enter: the trick.

Here is how the trick works, in it's simplest form. For months before our trip I will randomly mention something that we are doing but only in the VERY vaguest terms. Example,

"Honey, can you hand me the pepper? Thanks. Do you think we should bring pepper packets to New Zealand with us? They would be light and easy to carry when we do that first biggish hike."

Ok. I don't give a shit about pepper packets, but now buried in his subconscious is the fact that we have a biggish hike in New Zealand.

Meet the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, our biggish New Zealand Hike.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a very popular hike in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's oldest national park. Although the trek itself is 19.4 km, you will have to walk an additional distance from the parking area to the trailhead and back so I think it ended up being closer to 21 km (about 13 miles) when all was said and done. This is a one way trek, meaning you will have to park your car at one end and take a shuttle to the other, then walk back to your car. We ended up parking at the Ketetahi car park, and took a bus to the trail start at Mangatepopo. There are lots of different shuttle services and even if you don't book ahead you can probably (depending on how busy it is) get a ticket there. Just make sure you're early enough for the pick up.

So, why did I have to trick Jorge? Because up to this point, I think the longest hike we had done was probably 9 - 10 miles and even that one I had to trick him and the whole time he was shaking his head at me and saying, "Why do you do this to me, Jess?".

So, I never converted km to miles for him when I talked about this hike and just told him that we ended at a lower elevation than we started, so I mean it's mostly downhill, honey.

See, mostly downhill after you do that big ass uphill part.

One thing that I found really annoying about this hike (at first) was that because everyone is coming in on shuttles at roughly the same time, you will start the hike with 100s of your nearest and dearest. I don't particularly like to talk when I'm hiking - I want to appreciate the sights and QUIET SOUNDS of nature, so this was like nails on a chalkboard to me. After about an hour, though, the group had thinned out enough to where it wasn't such an issue.

We went in February which is the tail end of the busy season. If you do the trek in March or later you will have even fewer crowds. 

OK thats better.

Does it look cold in this picture? Ok, because it wasn't at all. The reason Jorge is covered up like that is because the sun was relentlessly beating down on us and there was absolutely no shade anywhere on the entire hike. Portions of it felt like we were on Mars, which makes me think of that scene from Armageddon,

"200 degrees in the sunlight, minus 200 in the shade, canyons of razor-sharp rock, unpredictable gravitational conditions, unexpected eruptions, things like that."

"Okay, so the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks. That's all you gotta say, scariest environment imaginable."

So, obviously it wasn't that bad but you should bring a hat, sunscreen and whatever UV protection you need. This was reason #1 why Jorge was a teeeeeeensy bit miserable during this hike.

This was at the top of the first major elevation gain, the red crater.

One of us is happier than the other.

I should say that this hike was difficult, but not impossible. There was hardly any scrambling just a sort of inexorable climb upwards that at one part you have to manage with the aid of a chain hung on the side of a hill. One guy did this entire thing, carrying his 2 year old on his back in what looked like a medieval litter, so I mean...could have been worse.

The next little climb takes you to the Emerald Lakes.

Right about here is where I think we ran out of water and Jorge experienced another crack in his enthusiasm. So, bring more water than you think you need. We each brought a large canteen of water and it wasn't enough. According to Jorge, his bones were grinding together and he felt every drop of water leached out of his body but I was just mildly thirsty and highly amused. So, your experience might be somewhere in between ours. Just be prepared.

The rest of the way back is a looooooooooong downhill walk. This is definitely where Jorge had pretty much had it with the hike and his knees, joints and bones were breaking (see above). If you are a person that really struggles with downhill hikes, then you MIGHT consider hiking this in reverse. I say MIGHT, because then you're making this a mostly uphill trip, and that's up to you.

Everyone will have a different experience based on their fitness, desire, hydration level etc. I thought it was moderately tough but mostly because of the duration. Jorge was pretty mad at me/the world/Tongariro at the end of the hike but recovered quickly, was glad we did it (SEE!) and is still married to me so no permanent harm done. At the end of the day, we can say we hiked to the base of Mt. Doom, and that's worth something.

I bet I can get him to do it again.