Oh gosh. Look at us, blogging again!!! We were gonna stop, but the people demanded it so here it goes, the day you’ve all been waiting for is here, the fateful. Tongariro crossing, the line separates the kids from the big kids, the royalty from the plebeians. We set out this fine morn with determination in our hearts and rice krispers in our bellies, the perfect fuel for a day of labor. Then we got to the spot. The Mangatepopo valley trailhead. It was an awesome spot to be sure, but a spot that we would come to despise in the coming days (spoilers).
The geology was pretty cool tho, we stopped at a couple different places in the beginning of the crossing to see some interesting features that were important for our mapping exercise the next day. We first saw an area with the Taupo ignimbrite. Then, we saw a lava flow were top and bottom volcanic breccia as well as a massive rock in the middle.
We then saw a series or lava flows from a different volcano. Lastly, we saw a block and ash flow with scoria clasts that demonstrated chilled margins and low mineral content. These different volcano features were quite helpful in our mapping exercise and with our overall knowledge of volcanic systems. In general we jammed through the first 4 kilometers of our 20 kilometer day like ultra-marathoners, our eyes (like the eye of Sauron) widening at the marvel of the towering volcano that towered in front of us: Ngauruhoe. Let’s be clear though, this walk was not called the Ngauruhoe crossing for no reason, for in actuality Ngauruhoe was just one tiny facet of the Tongariro volcanic complex. And boy how complex it was. After creating our first long climb and taking a few good long looks at the valley below, we reached one such complicated feature: the South Crater. This crater was damning (Haha?) to our sense of geologic mastery, as it took us a while and several hints to figure out its origin. In the end we decided that it was a valley that had been dammed by the uprising Ngauruhoe, causing a lake to form. But wait! There was definitely no lake there now, so where did it go? Well, the short answer is away, and that is also all the answers that you will get as blog readers (come on the maymester if you want to full story!).
After passing the crater we reached our second climb, and it was INTENSE. The wind tried to push us back, but the site of Conrad Jensen’s (birthday boy!!! Not on the crossing but currently) mountain goat esque leaps put fire in our souls and gave us the energy to rise to the challenge, pushing ourselves to our limits and cresting the majority of the hill.
We stopped for lunch on the edge of red crater, staring into the foggy abyss, which turned out to be sort of lame because it was so darn foggy! In the clouds we would have had glimpses an impressive dike, way cooler than the ones we’ve seen so far. But we didn’t.
Then we got to the top, and saw some steam ventilation situations, which were awesome. Then we put on our green glasses (wizard of oz reference) and journeyed to the emerald lakes, a cool series of lakes that were, you guessed it, the color of emeralds. This anomaly was due to the geothermal systems that dominate the area. The emerald lakes were both the peak of the hike and the peak of the day, and as we journeyed down the backside of the crossing we were way less excited.
We did see this cool lava bomb impact on from a big steam explosion that was awesome but besides that the walk down was uneventful. Finally we reached the last part of the hike, a lush forest section that heralded our glorious return to our saviors, Dave and, more importantly, Liam Kelley! We passed through the Lahar zone with no trouble whatsoever (we scared all the lahars away) and celebrated our victory with stretches and betches. We returned to the Skotel full of joy and relished another evening with dan the man. What an awesome day wow!!
Beth and John
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