Last weekend I met up with six Wellington CouchSurfers to go for a 3 day hike – the Tongariro Northern Circuit leading around Mt. Ngauruhoe (a picturesk vulcano in Tongariro National Park).
We started out on Saturday from Whakapapa Village and went throu bush, forest and little canyons for creeks until we reached the Mangatepopo Hut – a hut managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
David and I went down to a creek near the hut, relaxing a bit from our ‘exhausting’ 3 hour hike by building a dam to rise the waterlevel.
Afterwards we started cooking – green curry :-) great choice!
Everyone went to bed around 9:30 to be fit for the next morning.
When I woke up for the first time around 6 is was raining so hard you could see the waterlevel standing about 10 cm high on the paths. All of us decided (independendly from eachother) to turn around and sleep some more. We finally got up around 9:30 :) Visibility outside the hut was still only about 15 Meters. At an altitude of about 1200 meters above sea level the hut was directly in the clouds…
We decided to stay the day and next night at the hut, hoping the weather would clear out, so I went to the nearest car park (about 30 mins) to hitch hike back to my car and went to get some more food and wine. :-)
For a few minutes it looked as if it might clear so 4 of us decided to go on a short tramp. After 90 minutes we were completely soaked – but of was good to move anyway. :)
The rest of the day was spent by playing UNO, cooking dinner and singing songs.
Monday wasn’t any better, so we packed our gear and went back to my car – whose batteries were dead, since I left on the lights. Stupid me! Someone gave Rachel and Dave a ride to their cars at Whakapapa Village. Good thing that Rachel had starter cables in her trunk.
What a fun and exciting weekend!
Next weekend I will do the tongariro alpine crossing – which is only one day and part of the circuit.