Start – Taupo
Finish – 2km before Waihohonu hut
Daily Distance – 12 km
TA Distance – off-trail
Today is the first day of the 3rd month of this trek and I have finally seen some mountains! Day 1 of my
Tongariro Christmas ramble has been an ultra leisurely day of little walking and frequent stops to take in
the scenery. I enjoy my lunchtime coffee breaks and have found them further improved when taken
overlooking volcanic crater lakes or staring up at a mountain peak (yes, I had 2 coffee lunches today ?).
The scenery in this section is a peculiar combination of scrubby moorland, old lava flows and mountains
rising up to the sides. It’s quite lovely and a very welcome change after the last few days of tarmac
walking and the busyness of Taupo. The weather has been giving me the runaround today though. It has
been cycling through bands of cloud, rain and sun all day, meaning my rain jacket has been on/off more
times than I can count. Perhaps it’s a feature of the altitude, or perhaps NZ is just evening out the good
weather fortune I have had until now.
Camp tonight is a dried up stream bed at an approximate elevation of 1,159 metres (or 1 1/4 Munros for
the Scottish audience). Conveniently it is next to a snowmelt-fed stream so I can drink as much as I like
tonight without concern for running dry. I must remember to let it warm up before drinking though as the
cold doesn’t half set my teeth on edge. Apart from being a lovely spot, I have made camp before
Waihohonu hut because it is classified as a Great Walk hut, so therefore requires pre-booking and given
the school holidays it is fully booked for the next few nights. I’m not particularly sad though as I have
heard it’s a large and noisy hut and a night alone in the wilderness is never a bad thing. I imagine the next
few evenings will be more sociable as I’ll be staying in regular first-come-first-served huts, which should
have at least a few other people who are trying to dodge the crowds.
