Frustrated

21 April

Whakapapa Village to Mangatepopo Hut

KM 1138.5

Distance: 9.5km

Elevation: ascent: 249m; descent 181m

Steps: 15,000

Time: 7:00am - 9:30pm

This morning's forecast hinted that completing the Tongariro Crossing today was not guaranteed. And that's what eventuated after two-and-a-half hours walking in steady light (and sometimes heavy) rain and increasing wind speeds. 

On reaching Mangatepopo Hut we were starting to get wet beneath our rain gear, and while we weren't neccessarily cold we weren't particularly warm. The hut is situated at 1200m elevation, but the Crossing reaches a height of 1847m at Red Crater and the predicted temperatures were 3-5C, with wind speed increasing to around 50 km/h and gusting to 70km/h. 

The hut was occupied by a warden and we sought her advice on whether we should continue. Her advice was, in short, that completing the Crossing was possible in these conditions but wouldn't be enjoyable and we wouldn't get any views of the surrounding mountains. As we are not keen on, nor experienced in, tramping in such harsh conditions we decided it would be safer to call it a day. Vaughan's parents were on hand to pick us up at a nearby carpark and we were back at our accommodation by 11am.

Even though it was a short section, there were a few highlights worth mentioning, no photographs unfortunately.

1. We were treated to a close fly-by by a NZ falcon as it flew at head height over the track in front of us.

2. An eroded section of the track had exposed burnt timber buried under ash and mud, presumably the remains of trees burnt during an eruption centuries ago. A reminder of the volcanic history of the land we were passing through.

3. Walking into a toasty warm Mangatepopo Hut as a group of 16 were leaving. They had set a fire for the morning and we benefitted from it!

After the interruptions of earlier this week it was a little disheartening not to get another 20+ km under our belt. But it was the right decision. Added to the frustration is that the forecast is for even worse weather tomorrow (Friday) so we'll be forced to take another rest day, and now plan to do the crossing on Saturday. It's just one of those weeks I guess.

We spent the afternoon in Ohakune, drinking coffee and seeing what Ohakune is famous for: giant vegetable characters! For a long time the giant carrot in the first photo was what the town was famous for. In recent years a playground has been developed and includes other giant vegetables including the (rather unfortunately arranged) parsnip below, as well as a potato, turnip, kumara, and a carrot racing car. As you can see the weather was pretty good in Ohakune. But it's at the much lower elevation of 590m. Mt Ruapehu remained clouded over all day.