Last Thursday I hiked the 19.4 kilometer Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is the longest hike I've ever done! Read along and I'll tell you about it.
Tongariro Crossing is in Tongariro National Park on the north island of New Zealand. We wanted to do the hike because a lot of people say it's the prettiest hike in New Zealand.
Preparing for Tongariro
When you prepare for Tongariro you must get lots of snacks. For me I feel better if I have both salty and sugary snacks. You should have 3 - 4 sugary snacks. I mixed sour patch kids, chocolate covered cranberries, and peanut m&ms together in a bag for my sugary snack. For my salty snacks I had corn nuts, seaweed, and BBQ chips. I also got a sugary drink and I chose Coke. When you're hiking Tongariro the weather will change so make sure you bring lots of layers. When I was up there I only needed a sweatshirt and that kept me pretty warm. I kept unzipping and zipping it and mom said I was battling with my sweatshirt.
The start of Tongariro
We hiked the first 2.5 miles to Soda Springs as a family. The hike to Soda Springs was full of complaints, but the rest of the hike was just me and mama and had almost 0 complaining. If you have ever watched Lord of the Rings that is where Mt. Doom comes from so we got to see Mt. Doom. When we got separated from my sibs and dada I said to my sibs "See ya"!!!!! because I was so happy to lose them though not happy to lose dada.
Coming up on the amazing part!
After we did our first big climb we got to see a big rock that had wind blowing the fog off of it and it was really pretty. Then we got to see fog being blown off all of a big crater so it was like it was moving aside for us and I felt like a princess.
Then we did another big climb and we were part of what we called a herd. The herd was really slow so when we got to the top I decided to pass the remaining part of the herd which was 3 high school boys. They were really surprised and I wanted to stick my tongue😛 out at them. Mom said that I did enough damage by passing them.
Red Crater high point
The Red Crater was really pretty. Red Crater is 6,118 feet and I got a lava rock for Baker. Leading down there was a scree gravel path that mom mostly just pulled me down.
Green Lakes
The green lakes are sacred Maori lakes. They are blueish greenish with yellow rims they are beautiful.
There is a lot of sulfur around the lakes and crater. When we ate our egg salad sandwiches next to the lake the egg salad didn't smell as bad as it usually would because of all the sulfur.
This is a photo that mommy made me take in the stinky sulfur!
Then on the hike down we saw a cool flower that had a white petal. I wonder why that's there🌼?
Now that I did Tongariro I feel like I can do anything!!!!!!!! I feel really proud because I wasn't sure I could do it. Before we left I suffered on 4 miles! Now I did 12!!!!!!!!
I hope you have fun preparing for the holidays!🎅🕎❄️
-Ginny👩🏼
The multicolor flower is cool! I wonder how it happened ...
Thanks for sharing, Ginny! I have a feeling you're going to be passing a lot of herds in your life cause you're such a fearless adventurer. I wonder if someone lived up by the Maori Lakes who was used to the smell would say, "Eww. I can smell your egg salad sandwiches." - Uncle Kelly
So proud of you!!! 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
Ginny, get out there and go. What a cool hike - what next???? I love one of the greatest lessons learned. Let your actions define you - those boys will always recall the day you passed them, no need to stick out your tongue - ever. Cant wait to see the summer santa pics from the southern hemesphere.
Wow! So proud of you, Ginny! That's quite a hike. Passing people older than you does feel good, doesn't it! 😉 Keep adventuring and being your amazing, strong self!