My aunty and I did our second attempt at climbing Tongariro last month, and we did it. It wasn't a speedy attempt by any means, but we finally got to the end, 11hrs after starting. Turns out Aunty had twisted her ankle and sprained it, she didn't get it checked out til 5 days after we got back, I was amazed that she managed to finish the walk, when I asked her about it, she said "I'm tough." Lol. Yep, tough enough to finish the walk.
The weather was beautiful, sunny but with a bit of mist and breezes, a bit chilly up the top, but manageable, hardly any wind, great views all around of Ruapehu (still with snow on the top), Taranaki and Lake Taupo. There were hundreds of people on the mountain, but not surprising since it was perfect weather. Most of them passed me on the way up.
I hated the Devils Staircase, actually, I hated all the uphill parts. I remember we were sitting at one point and this girl walked past us and said "Ladies its only 20m to the top!" Well that gave us the motivation we needed to keep going. Turns out she was a guide, her name was Catherine. She gave us some tips for descending down the scree on the other side, told us to go 20m to the right for a great view (of the red crater - we would have missed it otherwise) and then she lent me her walking pole to use on the way down. What an angel.
We got down to the Emerald lakes and decided to have lunch, it was about 1pm, we didn't realize we weren't even halfway or we would have pressed on. But the walk after the emerald lakes was way easier than the first part, mostly flat or downhill. I liked the blue lake too, but not as much. Taupo on the other side looked way better.
We were so relieved to get to the hut and be able to refill our water bottles, and relieve ourselves. Aunty only had 1L of water and we had both finished off my water by that stage, I never would have made it to the end without extra water. There was no signal for the last 2/3rds of the mountain, so I couldn't let our ride know how far away we were. By the time we got to the bush near the bottom I was over it, and the last half hour was speed walking to get to the end, left Aunty behind, which I felt bad about when I finished, but I just wanted it to be over, i was so tired. My legs were killing me (and the next 4 days I could barely walk my muscles were so stiff), and I couldn't even enjoy the pretty waterfalls on the sides.
We arrived at the end at 6:15pm. Luckily we had started at 7am or we would have finished in the dark. Nikki had been waiting ages for us, but she said at least she had lots of eye candy to entertain her, all the guys getting to the end and pulling their shirts off, that would have been a nice sight to see, lol.
She took us to the hot pools where we had an awesome soak, I started drifting off, then she took us home and fed us an awesome roast then we crashed out for the night, having earned a great sleep.
