The Longest Weekend Ever

Friday afternoon Natasha, Elle, Kasey, Corina and I packed up Natasha's Subaru and headed to Ohakune for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The trek is 19.5 km and supposed to be one of the best in the world. It exceeded all of our expectations.

We settled into our lodging after a 5-hour drive and started to prepare for the hike. Because the Crossing starts at the Mangatepopo Valley and ends in another location, we had a shuttle pick us up at 7:15 Saturday morning. Natasha's dad is an avid hiker and provided her with some serious gear. Sometimes the walking sticks were very helpful, but the excess amount of water became a pain in the ass for her (literally). Most of the hike still doesn't feel real. At some parts I thought I was on another planet. Unfortunately because of the fog, we weren't able to see the red crater and a lot of other scenery, but it was still amazing.
The hike started with a slight incline. An hour into the hike there were signs warning hikers to turn around if they are not in good physical condition because the hard part was about to start. The next thing I know, I'm climbing up a mountain.

Before the hard part

Still smiling, still easy

Corina jumping for joy...little does she know what is ahead...But as you can see from the picture, she did.

On the way up one of the highest mountains that we climbed on Saturday, I saw an older man suffering from cardiac arrest. Apparently a helicopter came and airlifted him to the hospital. I'm not sure if he survived or not.
On the way down from that same mountain, the sulfur winds hissed by us as we slid down the mountain on the fine gravel. At the bottom we saw the Blue Lake where we stopped for lunch.

The girls fighting the winds to make it down the mountain

you can't tell from this picture, but this is the trail and the cliff next to it.

After lunch we walked for a while on flat terrain. We thought the hard part was over. But then in the distance a mountain appeared and we could see people who were hiking ahead of us, following the trail up the mountain.

Yes, we hiked up this mountain.

The rest of the walk was absolutely beautiful. With about 1 km left in our walk, our butts, knees, thighs and muscles that we didn't even know existed before this hike were either throbbing or giving up on us, sometimes both. Kasey, Corina and I were exhausted mentally and physically, so we did what any exhausted individual would do. We ran the rest of the way. We just wanted to be done so badly and make sure we didn't miss the 4pm bus. Because the last thing you want to do after completing a 7-hour hike is wait another hour for the 5pm bus to pick you up. We came out screaming for joy at 3:45, while the rest of the hikers who were ahead of us were sitting under a hut, exhausted and looking at us like we were crazy. We made it!!

We were so happy to see our shuttle arrive!

The next day we went to Taupo where we stayed in what I learned is the "typical New Zealand bach."

View of Lake Taupo from the bach.

the bach.

Now that a few days have passed and my legs are not sore anymore I can say that I would do the walk again on a clearer day. Thanks to Corina, Kasey, Elle and Natasha there was never a dull moment on the trip and whenever I hear Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" I will think of this weekend.