We were up at 05:30 to: get breakfast, pack our day packs,
make some very plain sandwiches (due to lack of salad,) and head off to wait
for the pick-up shuttle at 06:50.
The bus driver took us to the recommended southern start
point of the track and then double checked that we were all well-equipped
before handed us a small map with details of the sections of the walk. He also
informed us that we’d have plenty of time to make the hike and the pick-ups
would be from the other end at 15:30 and 16:30. The weather was looking
promising too; the sun was out and the clouds were dispersing so the mountain
tops would soon become visible.
The first hour’s walk was very pleasant and took us all the
way to Soda Springs; this is where things got tough. Now, on the small map we’d
been handed each section is labelled with a difficulty level and this first
section had been labelled easy – fair enough as it was. We also got to see
Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom from LOTR) along this walk because the clouds had
moved on as expected so the skies were now clear.
Section two of the walk was to take us up the aptly named
Devil’s Staircase and to the South Crater and this was labelled as a “Hard
Ascent” on the map. This was clearly a miss-print as this should have read
“Difficult Ascent” due to the ridiculous number of steps and many steep
inclines that linked the stairways together. After quite a few short stops
along the way we finally made it to the South Crater and a point where, if you
desired, you could make a detour up Mt Ngauruhoe for the “Dangerous Ascent” of
a 2 ½ hours return trip involving lots of scrambling up and down the shingles
of the Mountain – We feel sorry for Frodo and Sam!
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| Mt Doom |
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| Mt Doom but closer! |
At the foot of the Red Crater Ridge “Difficult Ascent” we
both looked up and our hearts sank as our eyes took in the, damn near vertical,
climb we would have to now complete. We set off after taking in some pretty
amazing views and were soon stationary again! We made a very slow ascent up
this part of the trek, with Danny offering words of motivation to Corrie who
was finding this bit extremely tough. It took us an hour to make this, in our
words, “Extreme Ascent” and after lots of: moaning, lactic acid, energy bars,
and water we finally made it to the Red Crater Summit.
The views from the Summit were fantastic and you could see
for miles around; we could even see the Taranaki volcano where we’d been not so
long ago. We spent about 10 minutes here just because of the awesome scenery
until we decided to march on. The next half of the walk would, according to the
map info, be “Easy” though we simply disregarded this and decided we’d just
make our own minds up from now on. You could also divert here to ascend the 1
hour 30 minute return trip up Mount Tongariro though we, yet again, decided to
give this a miss.
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| Taranaki Volcano on horizon |
To descend the summit we had to traverse a very steep slope
covered in loose rocks but before we attempted this we decided to watch the
people in front have a go! Some had gone left and some chosen to go right and
we thought we’d wait to see which way looked easiest. It soon became apparent
that right was right and so we were soon carefully slipping and sliding down
the right side slope. Not far down we noticed one of the girls who’d gone left
still struggling; in fact she’d come to a complete stop and seemed unsure of
what to do next. Danny, being the gentleman that he is, made his way over and
helped her across to the easier route, though she did fall a couple more times
before we made it to the bottom of the hill.
We were now at the Emerald Lakes and thought this a good
point to have a half a sarni and some energy food. The lakes are hot pools and
this was our first glimpse of the geothermal area we’d be seeing a lot more of
in the days to come. In fact, all the way down that steep, slippery slope we
could feel the heat through our shoes and the rocks were warm to touch. It was
quite nice to spend another 5-10 minutes here and watch the steam rising from
the ground and the pools, the only down-side being the smell of rotten eggs
that accompanies these areas.
We were soon walking along on the “Easy Descent” towards the
Blue Lake though after a 5 minute easy and level walk, we came to a steep 15
minute uphill climb that most certainly was not an “Easy Descent.”
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| Red Crater and Mt Doom in the background |
The Blue Lake was pretty as were the views all around us
once more and so we decided to finish our lunch here. We rested another 10
minutes or so and then moved on to complete our long journey, glad that the
hardest parts should now be over with. We’d arrived at the Blue Lake at about
11:30 and so were making good time and were only 3 hours away from completing
the hike… according to the stupid map.
The hour long descent to the Ketetahi Hut was moderate but
this was now due to our toes beginning to hurt after a fair few downhill
sections. We persisted and the stunning vista of hills and Lake Taupo in front
of us certainly helped to ease the pain.
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| Lake Taupo on the horizon |
At the hut we nipped to the toilet and then decided to give
our feet a final break before finishing the last leg. Whilst resting we got
chatting to a Scottish lass and decided to continue our chatting about our
travels etc whilst on the walk. She was with us all the way down but the walk
had finally taken its toll on Corrie who was starting to fall behind a little.
Danny and Elenor waited each time and we slowly ate away at the remaining
kilometres. There did come a point where Corrie realised she’d lost a rubber
eye-piece thing for the viewfinder on her camera and was obviously wanting to
find it. She was clearly in no state to go back looking for it and Danny
certainly was not entertaining this hope – We carried on.
The last part of the walk did seem to take ages and this is
when we could really feel pain in our feet and the aches of our leg muscles. We
did eventually make it to the end of the walk and in time for the first pick-up
so we were pleased. In total we managed to complete the 19.4km walk in about 7
hours and 45 minutes even with all our stops and resting periods – we were
pleased with ourselves. We’re so glad we did the walk and were even more
pleased that the weather was, once more, so good. We can see why it is classed
as one of the best day walks in the world but it is not one to be taken lightly…
IT IS HARD!
Back at the campsite we popped back to the café we’d visited
yesterday and had tea here seeing as neither of us wanted to make that 50km
round trip to the shops and back. We had some delicious food here and it was
really appreciated by our tummies after today’s epic. We’re not looking forward
to our muscles for the next few days; Corrie has already started whinging about
the aches and pains!
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