Hi everyone, here are pictures of my first field trip around the Ruapehu Valley. We hiked up mount Raupehu, a good 2600 metres high. The first leg we took ski lifts but we had to climb the summit (near crater lake) for a good few hours. The terrain was pretty rocky, and part of the climb involved walking through snow and ice, pretty tiring, especially at altitude, I was soooooo tired. Getting to the top was great, a lunch break and photo session later we went down to the crater lake to investigate. It has recently been breached, causing a massive lahar (mudslide) to slip down the other side of the valley, the lahar reached miles down, and totally flooded some areas with mud. Luckily there are procedures in place to ensure that people are evacuated in time. The lake (in the picture behind me) was about 28 degrees on that day (it was about that hot on the day, I got sunburnt!) and there was sulfur streaming through it making it a nice blue/green colour.
It was a pretty amazing hike and the next day we did part of the Tongariro crossing which is a famous day hike here, following beautiful mountains and volcanoes. During the walk you can see the old lava flows where there have been recent (1975) eruptions. Mount Ngauruhoe (said as Narahoeie) erupted 45 times in the 20th Century. Its the very last picture. It was also the volcano known as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, so pretty cool to have seen it from the top. Its possible to climb it, but its really steep, and the mountain I climbed was bad enough!
As you can see some pretty amazing scenery. I'm hoping to be in the area again soon, to maybe pick up some more tracks or just enjoy the countryside and the views. I'm not planning to hike up any more mountains soon though, one is enough for me at the moment!
Last a short video of us mucking around on the glacier!
Netty x
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