If I was to describe New Zealand in one word, it would be ‘breathtaking’, but I’m sure if you’re reading this then this is not breaking news. New Zealand has a reputation for having some of the most jaw dropping landscapes on the planet, and it’s well deserved. Of the month I spent there, my jaw rarely ever returned to a closed state. Naturally, such landscapes offer some fantastic hikes. Now I’m not going to pretend that I’m a guru when it comes to hiking in New Zealand - I’m far from it. I didn’t even get round to hiking any of the ’10 Great Walks’ the country has to offer, although not for lack of trying (some of the hikes require you to book +3 months in advance). However, I have done my fair share of hikes over the years in some equally impressive locations: the Italian Dolomites, the Swiss Alps, the Scottish Highlands, Table Mountain, Yosemite Falls, the rocky spikes of the Bavella, so I’d like to think that for any particular hike to stand above the rest, it would be quite a feat. The Tongariro Crossing however, has done just that. While it’s famously regarded as one of the best day hikes in the world, I went into it slightly skeptical. I had heard and seen pictures of how many people walk the crossing every day, and thought it was really a case of it being ‘the best day hike in the world for people that don’t hike often’. How wrong I was… I was travelling with Stray at the time, so our group woke up super early that morning as we were travelling from deep in the NZ bush from a place a called Blue Duck Station. We drove to a tour operator called Adrift Tongariro, based in a tiny town simply called ‘National Park’. I don’t know too much about Adrift, as the beauty of doing it with Stray is that it’s all organised for you, but you were able to rent hiking gear there if you needed to (boots, poles, waterproofs etc.) and we had a typical safety briefing about what happens if you get lost. Unless you’re hiking the trail at night, or decide to veer off the path (which I believe is prohibited) then you’d have to be pretty clueless for this to happen, especially given how many other people will be hiking the crossing at the same time as you. We jumped on a bus and Adrift then took us out to the beginning of the trail. Before you set off they’ll tell you what time the bus will pick you up at the other end. There are a couple to catch to account for varying walking paces, so as long as you finish it in the 6-8 hour time-span that’s expected, you’ll be fine.
I set off around 8.30. The sun was still fairly low in the sky (this was beginning of March) which made for some nice lighting and photo opportunities. The first section has a slight incline which eventually sees you walking along a broad-walk to the base of Mt Ngauruhoe…aka Mount Doom. It’s on this broad-walk I’d say you encounter your first truly epic view - a flattish plain, scattered with rocks, that suddenly ascends to the heavens…see below.
Once you cross the bridge the real hike begins. You’ll begin working your way up the slopes of Mount Doom, and for any other Lord of the Ring fanatics, it’s imperative that at this point you plug some headphones in and listen to the soundtrack as you climb. Still one of my favourite moments of the entire trip, the landscape is so true to film that it actually feels like you’ll bump into Frodo and Sam on the way up!
This section is steep, rightly earning it’s name as the ‘Devils Staircase’. Grind it out and you’re rewarded with a freakishly flat plain to walk across that you wouldn’t expect to come across after the climb you’ve just done. It was at this point I started to think how different this landscape was to anything else I’d seen, and the best is still to come.
Now for the second and final push to the top. This section is half the distance of Devils Staircase, however it requires a bit more scrabbling. As you leave the flat section behind, the ‘path’ follows a ridge line up to the summit. You’re suddenly a lot more open to the elements, and the day I did it saw everyone unpacking their fleeces and adding a couple of layers. With that being said, it’s a small price to pay for the view you get.
When you’re ready to move on you’ll be making your way down to the Emerald Lakes. This part I particularly enjoyed, although that didn’t seem to be the case for a lot of people. The path is covered in gravel/scree with a drop off either side. Personally, I found it easiest to just slide down the slope by sinking each step into the gravel, and letting gravity do it’s job. You’ll see from the video however, this didn’t appear to be the approach most people took!
There’s a slight detour you can take here by walking around the second of the second lake. Veer off right after you pass the first and you’ll see a small path the leads you round to the shore of the second. It’s a cool little spot that most people seemed to ignore, however I wouldn’t recommend stopping for lunch here as the smell of rotten eggs (sulfur) is extremely off putting.
The track has you walk across another flat bit of land and then up a small hill to Blue Lake - the biggest of the three. Here is where I stopped off for a quick bite to eat, as it’s far removed from the smell of sulfur and provides you with the last truly epic view of the hike.
From here you’ll gradually start to work your way down to the finishing point. While there’s a lot less to talk about from here on out, you’re actually only about 10km in, so just over the halfway mark. It’s definitely a ‘front loaded’ hike in terms of the scenery, and while you’re not exactly neglected a view on the way down, it’s far less dramatic compared to the other worldly landscape you’ve just seen. Once I realised this, I decided to pick up the pace and see what time I could complete the walk in.
There next 5/6km of the path twist and turn down the mountain side. It’s a fairly gradual decent that eventually takes you into more of a woodland area. Despite these sections being a little less exciting than the ones before, the ever-changing scenery is still something to be appreciated. It’s crazy to think how merely hours ago you were walking on what could be described as the surface of Mars - dry, rocky, and seemly desolate of life. Now, during the final couple km’s of the hike you’re surrounded by a thick, wet, and richly green bush with the sounds of birds chirping and gushing streams nearby.
Soon enough you’ll reach the pick-up point where I hopped on the Adrift bus that took me back to the town I started in for a well deserved pint. My finishing time? 5 hours and 32 minutes, and while I am a fast walker, as is evident from everything above I stopped A LOT of times to take pictures, film certain aspects of the walk, and most importantly…for lunch. Our Stray group all finished under the 8 hour mark and gradually joined me for a celebratory drink in the local bar, so if you have any concerns about making it in the allotted time (if you’re catching a bus at the other end), I’d say you’ll be fine! If I was to rate the hike for it’s difficulty and spectacle, I’d give it the following: Difficulty: 5/10 Spectacle: 9/10 The Tongariro Crossing may have been my favourite day from the month I spent in New Zealand, and is undoubtedly one of the best hikes I’ve ever done. Two other popular hikes I did there, the Mueller Hut route and Roys Peak, also provide me with some of the best views of the trip, however the hikes up to them were far less enjoyable. What separates the Crossing from these (and many others) is the constantly changing landscape. You'll find a couple more pictures I took from the hike below, and if you missed it at the beginning, then click here to see a short edit I put together from all the GoPro footage I captured during it. Sean Bean/Boromir famously said, “One does not simply walk into Mordor”…well nowadays they do, and have a dam good time doing so.
