The Tongariro crossing walkway, is located in the central North Island of New Zealand in Tongariro national park.  This is New Zealand’s oldest national park.  It is a one day walk through an amazing alpine environment.   The trek is 20km along, and I walked this together with my father Jack, my wife Stephanie and a group of family friends in December 2009.  It is officially know now as the ‘Tongariro Alpine Crossing’.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is New Zealand’s most popular one day walk. Check out the photo’s below and you can see why.  It is like walking through a different planet.  Parts of the crater remind me of being on the moon!

A must do for visitor’s heading to that part of the world and looking for a beautiful walk in an amazing landscape.  You can get transport to drop you at the start and pick you up at the end of the track.  Thus you can travel light.  Beware it can get very windy and cold, is a mountainous environment and parts of the route are over rough, loose ground.  So treat it with respect and remember its not a walk along the beach!

You can find more info online at:

http://www.tongarirocrossing.org.nz/

Start of the Tongariro crossing at Ketetahi, 20km to go!

Walking along the board walks up into the red crater

Stephanie taking a break on the scree slopes of Mt Ngaurahoe. We were attempting the side trip to climb Mt Ngaurahoe but she was uncomfortable on the steep scree so we turned back.

The colors of the soil and rocks in the crater is amazing

It was quite windy and gets exposed on the crater rim where there is no shelter

One of the crater lakes. They smell sulfurous and are not fit to drink due to the high amount of sulphur.

A rock farm

Enjoying an over priced coffee at Whakapapa ski field