
New Zealand Tramps – Tongariro Crossing
Tramping through Mordor
You may have noticed that this blog went very quiet for a couple of weeks. This was because Marc and I visited New Zealand for my lovely friend Kendra (and her awesome fiancée Mitch)’s wedding. The thing is, once you’ve flown that far, you might as well go on some hikes and see the Kiwi scenery! One of the tramps (the Kiwi word for hikes) that I was most keen to try, is the super famous Tongariro Crossing. The Tongariro National Park is a national heritage site, and it is where Mordor was filmed for the Lord of the Rings. So as you can imagine, the scenery is volcanic and truly epic! Get ready for a long post full of piccies!
Tongariro Crossing Map
Tongariro Crossing – the basics
Distance: The Tongariro Crosing is 19.4km (one way)
Timing: We went pretty slowly and had some looong breaks. It took 8 hours. You could do it in 6-7 hours if you don’t have long breaks and don’t have to line up for the loo!
Elevation gain: At least 760m (or over 1100m if you go in the opposite direction)
Highest point: The red crater is 1886m
How to get there: There are parking restrictions at either end of the Tongariro Crossing, so the best way to get there is via a shuttle bus. We took a shuttle from Whakapapa Village. It cost $35 per person.
Weather: You should expect rain, or at least very changable alpine weather! We were incredibly lucky to be rewarded with amazing views. I was not expecting that!
If a day-hike isn’t enough for you, the Tongariro Crossing is actually part of a longer 3-4 day walk. It is one of New Zealand’s famous Great Walks.
What to bring:
- There are no shops or places to get water, so bring plenty of food and drink.
- Bring loo-roll! There are toilets at various points along the way, but most of them are toilet-paper-less.
- I did see some people in trainers, but the ground is rough and volcanic with sharp rocks, so it’s best to come with walking boots.
- As the weather is really changeable, make sure you have plenty of layers as well as sunscreen for when the sun comes out!
- There is quite a lot more downhill than uphill. This can be really hard on your knees, so bring walking poles if you have them. They made our afternoon sooo much better!
Nearby Peaks:
I’d read some blogs that mentioned you can do side trips to climb Mount Tongariro or Mount Ngauruhoe. However, our bus drivers told us that these mountains are sacred to the local people and asked us not to climb them. The sign posts have been removed to the trails, and if you go, you should respect the sanctity of the sacred mountains. The main walk is stunning, so you don’t need to bag the peaks to enjoy the area!
Extra Notes:
This is easily the busiest walk we did in New Zealand. There were soooo many shuttles bringing a huge number of tourists and local Kiwis to the trail. If you are hoping to experience the silence of New Zealand’s Wilderness, this is not the walk for you! We started on the earliest possible shuttle, and it seemed like the path only got busier as the day went on. So go early if you can!
The Tongariro Crossing:
We stayed in the Skotel Alpine Resort on Mount Ruapehu in Whakapapa village. This village has fantastic views of Tongariro National Park if the mist lifts!
The earliest shuttle bus from Whakapapa village left at 7am, but it is pretty close, so we could get started by 7:30am. All our friends were staying on the other side of the Mountain, so they left at 6am, and started just over an half an hour before us. We figured that if we had a good pace, maybe we could catch up with them along the way. At first I was really jealous of my friends! We had seen stunning views from our hotel at 7am, when I knew they were already walking. By the time we had arrived, the clouds had come down so we couldn’t see the surrounding peaks! It was still pretty, but the weather forecast had predicted more clouds and a little rain, so I wasn’t expecting to see much.
The start of the Tongariro Crossing looks a little like Ireland. The surrounding hills are covered in flowers and heather, and there are no trees, so if you don’t look closely at the plants, it felt like home.
The clouds soon started to clear, and we even had a brilliant view of Mount Ruapehu where we’d stayed the night before. We’d driven up through an impressive rainstorm, so this was our first view of the mountain where we had stayed!
The path for the Tongariro Crossing is really well paved to start with. Then, after a while goes through a delicate natural habitat covered in mosses. The New Zealand Government have built a board-walk so you can continue without ruining the natural habitat. It is probably best that they did, because so many people walk through the area each day!
The clouds had now almost completely disappeared, to show the volcanic landscape. Isn’t this gorgeous!? My photos are all a little over-exposed as it was still early in the morning and the sun was bright and low in the sky. Ah well.
We found our friends!! Ed, Fiona, Jen and Nina had stopped for a breakfast break so we managed to catch up with them. Yay! Now we were a giant group of six people. We didn’t all stay together completely, but it was really nice to keep meeting up with them during the walk.
There was a 5 minute detour to see a waterfall. I have seen some impressive photos of the waterfall at Soda Springs. The waterfall was pretty small this summer, but still pretty, and nice and noisy.
The next part of the walk was a steep climb up to the saddle between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe. The two mountains are actually one massive volcano. The cone shape of Mount Ngauruhoe is a vent for the main Tongariro volcano! There is plenty of evidence of previous lava flows, and we saw a sign telling tourists about pyroclastic flows. The sign said to run as fast as you can (but I am not convinced that would help much if a volcano of this size erupted!) Eep.
Anyway, as the volcanoes didn’t explode during our walk, we were treated to these gorgeous views back down the valley we had just tramped through. Tongariro National Park is beautiful in all directions.
Once we’d made it up high, we had a pleasant (very flat) hike through the MASSIVE south crater. There were volcanic walls of rock in all directions. This section is 1650m high, and there is very little vegetation, so you can imagine that you are hiking through a lunar landscape!
You can probably tell, I love the shape and colours of Mount Ngauruhoe. I took so, so many photos in this direction, including the jump shot near the top of this post.
After the flat walking-break we had another steep climb up to the red crater at 1886m. The views changed constantly as the clouds flowed in, and then kept marching on. This part of the walk looks the most Mordor-y. There are beautiful mountainous, if vegetation-less views in all directions. This is also the part when you realise you should bring walking boots! The path is bumpy and rocky and so it would be easy to end up with feet full of rocks if you don’t bring the right shoes!
My favourite part of the red crater was looking down onto this giant fissure on the side of the crater. Imagine how hot the rock must have been for such a huge chunk to pop like a bubble!? I could totally imagine a horde of orcs hiding further down the tunnel ready to attack walkers/hobbits.
Once we’d made it over the highest point of the red crater, we were treated to views of the beautiful Emerald lakes. They look quite nice normally, but as soon as the sun comes out, the colour brightens up to really display those gorgeous emerald colours! You can just about see the next part of the path, to the right of the lakes, in the photo below.
This is the toughest path on the whole hike. There are loads of tiny, spiky rocks, so most people were slipping and falling down the crater. We were really, really glad to have our walking poles!
I LOVED the look of these volcanic lakes. The Emerald lakes were created after volcanic eruptions. The holes were left by eruptions, and then filled up with rainwater. The colours are due to all the minerals that have dissolved into the water and run into the lakes from the red crater. However inviting they look, you wouldn’t want to swim in them! If you look carefully in my photos you’ll see all the steam rising from the lakes and the rocks around them. It is far to hot for a refreshing dip!
The other thing about the area around these lakes is that it stinks of sulfur! I was very glad that none of us had brought egg-related food for lunch as the rotten-egg-like smell would have been hard to bear while eating eggy foods! We decided to stop here for lunch despite the smell because it was just so pretty!
Fi, Nina, Marc and I all spent a while relaxing by the lakes and watching out for Ed and Jen, who had not yet appeared coming down from the red crater. We had a perfect view of the hundreds of people falling down the mountain, so we did spot them eventually! How is this for a lunch-time view!?
This is the view down to the Mordor valley (away from the path of the walk.) My panorama failed slightly in the center, but I am posting it anyway because it gives you an idea of the epic view.
Most people turn left and keep walking as soon as they reach the lakes, but we took an extra detour around the furthest emerald lake. It was warm, crazy coloured, and beautiful! There was also quite a lot of algae around this lake, so at least algae likes hot, mineral-filled waters!
Next, we tramped through the central crater and then hiked up another ridge. This is the view looking backwards. You can see the dark lava field that fills up the central crater. The red crater is the peak in the background (with Mount Ngauruhoe hiding behind that!)
The final section of the walk is the knee-killer section! The path is really good and windy, rather than steep. However there is a long way to cover, and it is constantly downhill.
I gave one of my poles to my friend Fi, to try to prevent jelly-legs. We continued to be lucky with the weather so we saw gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside down to Lake Rotoaira and Lake Taupo.
One thing that I didn’t understand about the local plants was why there were so many dead trees. It is the middle of summer, so I am not sure why so many of these trees were leaf-less. Maybe they were poisoned by the volcanic activity? Do any of you know?
The last few kilometers down to the Ketetahi car park was like a different world! The flora suddenly became quite tropical with gorgeously lush green plants surrounding the path. We saw so many ferns that I can finally see why it is the national plant of New Zealand!
Right near the car park there is a fast-rushing river. You can take one final detour down to a beautiful waterfall. It is a really pleasant view to finish such a fantastic walk!
My original plan for our holiday was to take a ferry South from Wellington, and head straight to the South island. I am sooo glad we decided to drive North to tramp along the Tongariro Crossing instead. It was a perfect day, with perfect weather and the company of good friends.
If you are planning to trip to Kiwiland, and you like to stretch your legs, I cannot recommend this Great Walk enough. Or, if you’d like other ideas for fantastic Kiwi walks, I have more Kiwi Posts here.
61 thoughts on “New Zealand Tramps – Tongariro Crossing”
This is GORGEOUS!! I will admit, I would most likely be that person who is making Hobbit jokes for the entire duration of the hike haha. Those lakes are so interesting- it reminds me of Maligne Lake in the rockies (although comparing my pictures, I suppose it’s more turquoise than green). I think that someone needs to make a rainbow out of all of the different colours of lakes, you could totally do it with views from your hikes!!
Oooh I could totally do it after my next hike- we saw loads more volcanic lakes! I think I just need to find bright red water and purple…
It’s a pretty amazing hike right!? It is hard to describe the heat and the eggy stink, but it *looked* beautiful.
This looks amazing! I tried to do it a while back but it was closed in bad weather. Got the northern circuit booked now so here’s hoping! Gorgeous pictures 🙂
Oooh I hope you get good weather! I think the day we went was the first decent day in a while, so it was sooo busy.
I’m so impressed that you booked the whole thing! I didn’t manage to book huts on any of the great walks! I decided all my plans too late. Oops. 🙁
It looks amazing! 😀 I’d love to go to NZ one day
Thanks Hannah! It’s another long flight like your recent trip…but totally worth the effort!
Oh WOW! This just looks SO amazing. So beautiful, so varied, a true taste of New Zealand. I’ve really enjoyed your Instagram photos too. Now *that* is what a call a “nice stroll” 😃
Lol thanks Hayley! We had sooo many nice strolls in New Zealand. I can’t wait to upload more piccies and write about them all. You’ve got the instagram sneak preview!
I have serious hike envy. Stunning, just amazing. Thank you for sharing your pictures and your experience too. I always enjoy reading about your adventures 🙂
Yay! Glad you liked it Em!
Do you think you could have a trip to Kiwiland and get hiking? You’re so close to pretty hikes in the UK…you’d just have to settle for no volcanoes.
Wow that is a long hike! You guys are amazing to have finished it and the legs turning to jelly sounds like something that would happen to me. Were you guys sore the next day? I’ve gotta admit the views are absolutely spectacular though and sound like it was worth it!
It’s not toooo long. Plus, it wasn’t too much elevation gain now we’re used to Canadian hikes.
Our legs were pretty good the next day (but maybe that was because we had hiking poles!?) But we all went out for food (and plenty of wine) that evening, so I had more of an issue with my head the following morning!
Beautiful! The volcanic parts remind me of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, and the stinky but beautiful pools are just some of what you’ll see in Yellowstone National Park. Thanks for sharing – I love hiking vicariously through your posts!
Oooh I’m keen to go to Hawaii aaaand Yellowstone. Before this trip I had only seen volcanic areas in Japan, but I find them completely fascinating!
Wow this looks like a gorgeous place! Good tip to tell people what to bring especially as there isn’t any shops!
I was reeeeally hoping for a pub or something at the end of the walk, but there was nothing *wails*
The only way the walk could be better is if you could finish it with a beer/cider…or even a cup of hot chocolate! 😉
Very nice and very informative! Beautiful pictures, too!
Thanks Raylene!
Do you like good walks too!? 🙂
Hmm. Not sure. It is one of my preferred methods of exercise, but that’s usually for 30 minutes around my neighborhood. I’ve done some fairly major hikes while in the Navy (Marine Corp “humps” with 40-50# backpacks). So I totally understand your reference to jelly legs!
(I tried to post this reply shortly after you asked me if I like to go walking, but for some reason, my WordPress app on my phone was failing me. So here I am responding via my old desktop computer!)
Oh no! Thank you for taking the time to come back Ralene! I’m sorry the wp app was being strange!
Oh my goodness, long walks with heavy backpacks must have been exhausting! I’m so impressed with your abilities while you were in the Navy!
Jelly legs are good for showing you that you have tried your hardest…but they also mean you’ll be really tired the following day!!
Oh definitely! Absolutely exhausted!
Glad to read that you mentioned certain mountains are scared and not to walk on them. Interesting to see NZ through a visitors “eyes”. Wonderful post Josy and pleased you both enjoyed your time in NZ. It is a beautiful country for outdoor pursuits. Yep, that eggy smell is truly unique 🙂
I think it might be a mix of the mountains being sacred *and* the DoC hoping to save some of the fragile habitats…but once I’d heard that, I figured I should pass it on (I only found one mention of it online, whereas there are quite a few blogs that mention the possible detours to hike up those peaks!)
Anyway, you come from SUCH a beautiful country! I think it was one of my favourite holidays ever!
Thanks for sharing these GORGEOUS photos.
Thank *you* for popping by to see them! 😀
Great post, as always, I have never seen the point of walking sticks before so good tip too. Glad you enjoyed my neck of the planet.
I LOVE your neck of the planet!
I never felt the need for sticks in the UK, but now I have gotten used to them in Canada they really help with jelly legs at the end of long, steep walks. If you walk for more then 5-6 hours in a day they really help your knees!
I sound like such an old lady!
Beautiful photos. I like the way you put some in a double formation. I put mine in a mosaic to use less space and save the reader the effort of trawling through full page images. NZ is definitely on top of my bucket list to visit!
Thanks Jane.
Hmmm…I don’t have the option of adding them in mosaic with my current theme…I might have to choose a new one.
Those lakes are truly amazing. Nature at its best x
Thanks Orla!
It’s funny seeing something that is natural, but also poisonous /devoid of life! Still pretty though!
Hello Josy, enjoyed reading your account of the ‘Mordor’ tramp. Nina is not very good at keeping us up to date when she is travelling so it was good to get another perspective. Your account brought back memories of the Routeburn in the South Island which Nina’s dad did, with a NZ friend. I only managed part of the first stage! Stunning scenery and it was much, much tougher than Phil expected.
Thanks Chris!
Nina messaged me earlier and told me that you guys enjoyed it. It made my morning! Thank you for commenting too!
We really wanted to do the routeburn as well, but it was impossible to book the huts so late (even the super expensive luxury huts!) So, we contented ourselves by hiking up to Key summit. Is that the same part of the walk that you did? It was gorgeous even when it was cloudy and overcast!
Wow! The Tongariro National Park seems so picturesque and an excellent hiking destination, Josy! When would it be the best time of the year to go hiking there?
Oh no! I am so sorry about my slow response! I just found your comment in my spam folder! 🙁
I am not sure when is the best time to go, as I heard from several people that they tried to go in summer, but the weather was terrible. I think it is best to hedge your bets though, if you can go in summer *and* you are lucky and get a non-rainy day, it is amaaaazing. We were there in January which was busy, but beautiful.
I did see photos of people doing the same hike in the snow, but in that case it might be better to go with a guide, snowshoes and proper ice-equipment!!
I love your blog! I’ve just nominated you for a Sunshine Blogger Award. Keep up the good work!
https://planet-dom.com/2018/02/01/the-sunshine-blogger-award/
Oooh Thank you sooo much Jane!! I’ll have a peek! 😀
what lovely scenery. Looks fabulous. I remember that sulphur smell only too well! It does not go well with a hangover!
Oh my goodness that smell would be awful if it accompanied a hangover!! Eep!
I have never been a hiking/trekking kind of girl but this post really gives justice to the longs hours of endless walking! New Zealand has always been at the top of my list because it looks like such a beautiful country. The emerald lake looks like a dream, too!
Don’t worry, if you make it to NewZealand you can see a lot of amazing scenery even without hiking…it’s just the very best views are often from up high…so you *might* want to do a few little walks!!
Oh, that contrasting green water is amazing! Thanks for the tips on poles and bringing your own loo-roll, that could be a game changer. 🙂
lol at the loo roll comment! The toilets were pretty grim to be honest (and they had long lines- we had to wait about 20 mins for one of them!) but that is way better than the lovely scenery being spoiled with human waste!!
Whoa, this park looks incredible! What gorgeous scenery! I love that you include a list of everything you should bring along for the hike. That scenery change at the end of the hike was such a surprise, and also so beautiful! I really want to travel to (or even move to) New Zealand : )
It was strange to go from such a barren landscape to that lush jungle-like forest!
As I just looked at your hiking posts I have a feeling you would LOVE it in New Zealand!! We were considering moving there too…it’s just so far! That is why we chose Canada for now!
Canada is a wonderful country, too! It has so many beautiful landscapes and wilderness areas : )
We have totally fallen in love with it! I also love that so many people are happy to go out and enjoy the outdoors. When we hiked in the UK, it was normally just us, and lots of retired people!
What a gorgeous hike! And thanks for including the tip about the bog roll. I feel like it’s second nature to us Aussies/New Zealanders but I can see how people from other countries could get stuck.
I’m not sure that your definition of long breaks is the same as mine. I don’t think that I could do 20km in less than 7 hours if I tried!
Lol we did stop for a long time at lunch, and one of the lines for the loo was around a 20 minutes break!
When I walk with just my husband we don’t really stop for many breaks, (apart from the million mini photo-stops!) So it was quite fun going with friends that take their time a bit more!
This hike looks incredible! I seriously can’t get over the lake color.
I know right!? I couldn’t help but take hundreds of photos as it was all just so beautiful!
It’s a beautiful hike! Long, but worth it. I still haven’t got an opportunity to visit New Zealand yet. Hopefully we can make it happen in the future.
Oooh I hope you can too! I have been wanting to go for yeeears. I guess I needed my friend to get married to give us the excuse to finally buy our flights!
Fascinating! Such an interesting trip! And the volcanic lakes are so pretty- shame sulfur smells so dreadful.
I don’t even mind the smell when it is coupled with such pretty views! 😀
Thank you so much for popping by!
Off to Kiwiland n a couple of weeks and this is on our agenda! Thanks for the loo roll tip – In such exposed surroundings I guess it’s a case of queue or crossed legs… Glad to say that Father Christmas brought me some wonderful lightweight walking poles and this will be their debut 🙂
Cann’t wait now!
Yay for the walking poles! They will really help on the NZ walks (and if you ever come hiking in Canada!)
My best tip for them if to make them a couple of inches longer when you’re going down hill. It really helps!
Where else are you heading in Kiwiland? The other place that really blew me away (although I didn’t blog about it yet) was the Mount Cook area. If I can give you tips on places you’re going I will!! 😀
WOW. that landscape is insanely beautiful! This makes me want to visit New Zealand so badly! I have drooled over how gorgeous the natural beauty is and this pictures just prove that!!
Me too! I remember when i first watched the Lord of the Rings, all I could think was oh my goodness that scenery is gorgeous, I want to walk there!
It took me sooo long to get around to it though!
Wait until I write about the Mount Cook area and Milford Sound. Those vistas were epic!!