Day 55: Hamilton to Owhango

I had a weird night, I woke up at one point and thought I was in a canoe under the stars. In the morning I went to a nearby café and had poached eggs over hash browns and avocado with a flat white. I packed up and then headed over the bridge to East Hamilton, the closest post office and Bin Inn, to post off my old tent and then resupply. I then went to a grocery store to get a few more items and wound up with so much food that it wouldn’t fit in my food bag…I then headed over to the Trek n’ Travel to pick up my new pack. They were quite busy and there was only one employee working. He was very nice but had many customers to look after and although he did make some time to help me fit the pack and answer my questions, it felt rushed. I had to go at some point since I thought I had a bus to catch. When I got to the bus station, I learned that the bus I was planning to take wasn’t running today. I found a spot to have a sandwich and ponder what to do. I ended up catching another bus to near highway 3 on the edge of town and hitching from there. My first driver was a woman who’s a dairy farmer and who was returning home after spending some time with her sister at Christmas. She had an adorable little kitten with her that she rescued from under a house near her sister’s. She was fun to talk with, but I wished she didn’t take her hands off the steering wheel so much and keep turning around to look at the kitten. She dropped me at the intersection of highway 4 and my next lift was a man who works in construction and who talked about his and his son’s karate prowess (the son is a world champion) and his photography hobby. He dropped me off at the start of the 42nd Traverse in Owhango and I walked about 2 km to get to a sweet campsite by the river.

I had taken a photo of the instructions for the Nemo and proceeded to try to set it up. Only problem was that I was having aura for a migraine and couldn’t read the instructions since my vision was all wonky. It had been a blazing hot day and I had been traipsing around Hamilton without a hat on for a few hours so I figured that was the cause of the aura. I did manage to get the tent up although it wasn’t perfect.

I made dinner, took some Tylenol and called it a night.

Day 56: 42nd Traverse campsite to Tongariro Holiday Park

I had a ton of condensation on the tent in the morning, including some that dripped into the tent where the mesh was touching the fly so I’ll have to figure out how to pitch the fly better. I was off at 7:30 and the air was nice and cool and the trail quite shaded.

It was an atv track really that wound it’s way through some hills with no real views to speak of. The 42nd Traverse is officially closed for about 200m, where a large slip occured about a month ago, however, some are still going and crossing the slip and I had decided to go and assess it since it had been drier the past week and therefore probably more stable. When I got there, the scale of it really struck me and I realized that you couldn’t see the other side.

Still, it looked doable so I started across first following some footsteps and then making up my own path. It was actually a lot of fun to figure out a path through the mud, rocks and downed trees. After a few more kms, there was a small stream to cross where I had some lunch.

Then the trail turns down another track that was very eroded and overgrown in places.

At one point I realised that this thorny tree had my hat in its grips. I was having trouble unhooking it so decided to leave it attached to the thorns and walk out from under it. I then realized that I had a few thorns in my calf too and that it had my leg in its grip too. I managed to free my leg (no damage done) and then walk out from under my hat, which I also then managed to free. There was also a bigger stream to cross that went mid thigh for one short step.

The day ended with a road walk to the campsite. At least it had some nice views.

While I was showering, I realized that my hips are bruised and swollen from the hip belt of the new pack. I tried to look up a video to better adjust the pack on YouTube, but the sound was so dreadful that I couldn’t make out most of it. I did glean a few things about the adjustments for the pack so hopefully this will help the situation.

Day 57: Tongariro Holiday Park to Whakapapa Village Holiday Park (Tongariro Crossing)

I was on trail again at 7:30 with a lot to look forward to, but first was a 6km road walk to the start of the Tongariro crossing trail. There were a ton of cars parked at the trailhead, sort of like in the Adirondacks on a nice weekend. Most people walk Northwards so probably shuttled from their parked cars to the Southern trailhead since I didn’t see anyone on trail to begin with. It was a nice walk through a forest for the first few kms and then the trail emerged from the trees and continued up and up and up and the air started to smell sulphuric.

I started to cross people coming the other way and it eventually there was a steady stream of them. After cresting a ridge, I could see Blue lake and had some great view of Red Crater in front of Mt Doom.

The climb up Red Crater was very steep and because the ground was all loose stone and sand, I would slip back a bit with each step. I was also battling the sea if people coming down. I was glad to stop and have some lunch just after the top. Then it was a down and across a plateau between Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro. My top elevation was almost 1870m.

It was downhill from there through more volcanic landscape, including across some lava flows before ending up in a plane of sorts that the trail meanders through. I had left the crowds behind at this point and it was a quiet afternoon into Whakapapa Village with lots of views of Mt Ruapehu. I was delighted to see Michael here, whose killing a few days before heading to the Whanganui river, as well as Tyson and some new faces.