Well this is the write-up of our shortest day – after getting an early night, we were all up early , especially with the family below us getting up at 5am to walk out in the dark. Although the hut was busy either the other trampers left early or were leaving later than us – so we pretty much had the kitchen area to ourselves as we prepared breakfast, I was trying to convince the others to go to road-end (only 30min away) and catch the bus, but they were keen to finish the entire circuit, so I tagged along. By this stage I had blisters on both heels and a rather black looking toenail – but I was happy this was the last day and a hot shower and bourbon were only a few hours away.

 The weather forecast for the day ahead was showers developing in the afternoon, so we didn’t muck around too much and started on our way around 8am. The terrain is a lot more fiddly than the rest of the track and undulates constantly from hill to valley and back again.

Managetepopo hut set amongst the tussock

The desceptive “flat looking” terrain

 
Steve and Mark make the side trip round to Taranaki falls

After 3 hours of walking I reached the Skotel, and proceeded to book a room for the night and waited for the other two to turn up, little did I know but they had decided to add 80 minutes onto the day and return to Taranaki Falls which we passed on day 1.

 
Mark at the falls

Eventually they turned up and the tramp had officially come to an end. 45 km and 19 hours later.

After getting cleaned up we went out for a drive to the end of the Bruce Road – it was freezing cold and windy up there – and the cafe we found wasn’t serving anything we were keen on, so we headed off to National Park to find a good cafe near the train station. Real food at last and some beer, bourbon and coffee – luxury ! On our quick tour of bars/cafes we found the Chateau extremely overpriced and small, the Skotel on the other hand was reasonably priced had good food and the staff were very  friendly and even invited us to watch the Chiefs vs Reds game in the staff room which was really cool!

What made it even better was the fact that the Chiefs won that game Good times!! All in all a very successful trip

At our usual RGC club night, members: Dave (me),Steve and Mark (later to be known as “we”) decided  to tramp around the Northern Circuit in Tongariro National park. I had done the tramp twice or 3 times before so appointed myself “team leader” – although nearly dying on more than one occasion

We formulated our plan: picked a date we all had free (which turned out to be Anzac weekend) , did a few day tramps and overniters to help prepare ourselves for what lay ahead – 42km of grueling terrain – booked the accommodation at the Skotel for the night before, bought some new flash gear and way too much food, monitored the weather, went over the maps, read blogs, re-read the maps and changed the route many times over the weeks leading up to departure. Some of us ran to get fitness, others biked and we all hoped we had done enough.

The big day arrived and we headed down to the mountain with all our gear  – weather forecast was looking good for the first two days and iffy for the second two – so our original plan to go round the circuit in 4 days was transformed into 3 days.

We stayed in a chalet (our own hut with a separate toilet and shower) at the skotel on the Wednesday night so we could set off reasonably early the next day. The mandatory large cooked breakfast (possibly our last meal) and my optional 5-6 pieces of toast -carb loading -(Kerry has taught me well) was undertaken.

In this photo we had walked about 20m from our chalet so were feeling pretty good even though our packs weighed around 16-19kg each! Blue skies, birds singing , everything was good with the world.

In the photo above we pause at a bridge on the way to Waihohonu – starting to feel the weight of the packs.

A short time later we pass the turnoff to the Taranaki Falls, quite a good view from up here. The falls are accessible from both directions and some people treat this as a day trip. Still in good spirits – no injuries (yet).

Ruapehu in the distance as we head towards the Lower Tama lake turnoff

During the 5 hour walk to Waihohonu hut in perfect conditions, we encountered a few people heading out towards the Skotel but we were not expecting to see many people at the hut. Steve and Mark stopped to see the old Waihohonu hut before arriving at our day 1 destination. The bright red hut is very distinctive and contains a museum like variety of implements and canned food.

When we finally arrived at the hut around 2pm we found a hut with a few people already there, and as time went on a couple more groups appeared – including 2 guys who had come from Mangetepopo road end that day , and another 2 who were heading up to Ruapehu the next day. The gas cookers in the hut made cooking easier and “chef for the trip” – Steve cooked up the first of the back-country dry meals – Mexican chicken (which included nacho chips) – I think this was the first time either of them had had dehyrdrated meals, and after 17km of walking we would have eaten anything – but I enjoyed the Mexican chicken. The extra layers of clothing I was dragging around in my pack were a lifesaver – especially the Kathmandu jacket.

Cellphone coverage was surprisingly good  on the whole tramp and there was a good location only 1 min above the Waihohonu hut – so Mark made some calls home. The night was very clear and there were plenty of stars out as we watched the sun set down behind Ruapehu.

As the hut was quite full, I decided to sleep in the outside room, which my team members weren’t totally in agreement with – as the night before in the skotel had been cold  and we were expecting a cold night in Waihohonu, however we were not expecting a frost – so thats what we got. 

The sun rises on Waihohonu hut (frost on the ground) at the beginning of day 2 of our tramp.