Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Last weekend was Taranaki Anniversary, so we had a long weekend, yay for a Monday off work! The weather was beautiful late summer sunny and warm, and an excellent opportunity to cross something off my NZ to-do list.

So Fri night after work (well afternoon really, because we decided we had worked enough around 1pm), we drove to National Park Village, which is at the base of Mt. Ruapehu. There we organized we organized lunch and transport for the next day and set about mentally preparing for the trek.

The Tongariro Alpine crossing is a 21 kilometer trek which takes you through (as in between) the peaks of Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe. The trek begins in the Mangatepopo valley which is though to have been carved out by glaciers and then filled in with lava from eruptions (the volcanoes are still active). Towards the base of the ranges where the trek starts to ascend, you get to the soda springs. The water is full of minerals, especially iron oxide.

Sunrise! It was just above freezing but warmed
up quickly

Mt. Ruapehu

Mt. Taongariro

The next part of the climb was I think my least favorite. It was crowded due to the narrowness of the track in relation to the number of people, and it was LOTS of stairs. While in some ways I appreciated the sophistication of the track, I also realized that my legs got tired much faster from walking up stairs as opposed to just an incline. However, it was a beautiful clear day and we could enjoy seeing Mt. Taranaki to the West. Having previously seen Mt. Ruapehu from the top of Mt. Taranaki, it was cool to reverse the view :)

Mt. Taranaki

Once we got past all the stairs, the terrain flattened out a bit due to a lake, which is currently nearly dried up. It was a fun stop though because I got to see where Troway spent a week camped out in the snow during a high school adventure trip.

Semi-dried up lake

The next leg of the climb was the steepest and had some sections which required single file climbing. Portions of it were narrowly along a rock ledge with a chain to hold onto. Probably not so extreme for a serious climber, but extreme enough for someone who grew up with no mountains to climb!

Mt. Tongariro

From there, we climbed to the highest point of the trek (1886 meters or 6,187 feet) to a gorgeous view of the Red Crater and our first glimpse of the Blue and Emerald Lakes. Its color comes from oxidation of iron in the rock, according to the Dept. of Conservation information page.

Lava formations

The next challenge was to descend to the Emerald Lakes. The color is these lakes is also caused by minerals. Despite the steaming areas around the lakes, the water stays cold enough to freeze in winter. The Maori call these lakes Ngarotopounamu (greenstone-hued).

Another 20-30 minutes of undulating terrain took us to the Blue Lake, which was a good halfway-ish point to have lunch. The Maori call this lake Te Wai-whakaata-o-te-Rangihiroa, or Rangihiroa's mirror. Te Rangihiroa was a local chiefs son who was said to be an early explorer of the volcanoes. His sister was named Te Maari, after whom another crater is named.

The next leg of our trek was winding along the edge or the ranges. The last two-ish hours was through the Alpine slopes at a constant descent, with the final section through a hardwood forest to the lot where the buses come back to collect you at the end of the trek.

Big pumice stone :)

Bigger pumice stone!

Steaming mountain

We managed to complete the entire trek in 6 hours, which was quicker than we had anticipated. We were tired at the end, but it was definitely worth it and I would enjoy doing the trek again, especially to explore some of the side treks which we did not take time to see this trip.

Headed home to meet my niece next week!

Bridge to Nowhere

Tuesday and Wednesday last week were not your normal 9-5 in the office day at work. I was off with half of my department for a team building field trip. Since we unfortunately did not have the luxury of completely stopping business for two days, the other half are off for their adventures this week.

At 6 am on Tuesday we boarded a bus and began the 4 hour journey to Pipiriki. It was a relatively quiet bus ride due to the early start. Once we got to Pipiriki we boarded jet boats for a 30km ride upriver to the lodge where we would stay the night. The lodge was perched on top of a hill with a gorgeous view overlooking the river. It is a homestead type of place, with chickens, super cute dogs, and power only from a generator run during the day.

The lodge had lunch waiting for us, so we enjoyed the view out on the deck while filling up on enough energy for the afternoon activities.

Once we’d settled in a bit and finished lunch, we boarded the jet boats again to head a bit further up river to the Mangapurua for the hike to the Bridge to Nowhere. It was about a 45 min hike along a good trail through the bush. We got to cross a swing bridge close to our destination. The Bridge to Nowhere was over a canyon, pretty well in the middle of nowhere (not to be too punny). We were fortunate to have one of the lodge staff along with us who shared quite a lot of history about the bridge, and had photos from when it was first put up, as well as some of the area around the bridge’s location.

From one of the abandoned homesteads

Once we had our fill of bridges and hiking we headed back to the lodge for some work-type discussions with the managers, with positive updates on things to expect in the next couple of years. We then had dinner and the evening to relax and enjoy the good company.

The next morning after breakfast we headed home. This meant we got to enjoy the river scenery again on the 30km ride back to Pipiriki to get our bus. The Wanganui river is gorgeous, with sections of it running between cliffs on both sides. Canoeing a portion of it is definitely on my NZ to-do list now J

A bit of info on the Bridge to Nowhere:

Soldiers returning from World War I were offered land in the Mangapurua and Kaiwhakauka valleys as a government project to help them and their families settle. The idea seemed to be that it would allow them to have their own land, while also developing an untouched part of the country. One major obstacle was reliable road access. As part of a project to improve this, a swing bridge was built over the Mangapurua Streatm in 1919. However, it was not terribly sturdy or reliable or so in the 1930s work began to build the concrete bridge currently in existence. It was meant to be part of a road from Raetihi to Taranaki, which would have greatly improved the access for this area.

At the settlements peak there were a total of 46 farms. However, by 1942 only three of those remained. There were many hardships, including erosion, flooding, and economic hardship from the depression. The area is now called the “valley of abandoned dreams” and the bridge to nowhere is used more in modern days than it was first built for everyday purposes.  

What is left of the original swing bridge