Expedition to the Crater...

Another adventurous day lay ahead and that required us to get up pretty early, pack all our stuff in the car, check out and hit the road.

We wanted to be at the base of Mt Ruapehu before 10 and it was nearly an two hour drive.

Leaving Lake Taupo this early of course meant that there was no chance to do a bungy jump today either. I started to regret not doing it the first time, just because I wanted to check the vouchers.

Anyway, there was a bigger challenge ahead, so we drove up to the lift station and still had time for a big breakfast before I set off.

My parents wanted to take the car around the mountain while I was going up and the plan was to meet back at the lift in about 5 hours time.

This meant I would have to take the scenic lift up to 2020 meters and "only" walk the rest up to the crater. I was quite happy with this circumstance as I still had a good bit or respect for the mountain, but at the same time was really excited to give it my best shot.

I got a ticket for the lift (30$) and rode up 600 m or so to the highest station.

The view was already very nice from here and it was a good thing that I had brought my jacket (which was in use the first time since I left Ireland - I think).

Since there was no marked way up to the summit I asked an employee of the lift where I should be hiking along, to which he only replied, the crater is more to the right so head that way.

This was good information and I set out across a boulder field and came to a large ice sheet with melting water running underneath it. Again I was wondering if this was not a bite to big for me on my own. I found a way across the ice field on a few solid looking rocks and soon found a sort of path that headed the direction I expected the lake to be.

I followed the path and soon saw some people at the horizon. I caught up with and they looked very professional with all the gear and even a pick axe.

They were an older couple and the man, who had been on the peak a couple of times pointed out the direction I should be taking.

Soon after this I passed a couple of Koreans. As all Koreans, these were very well equipped, too.
By now I was already above the clouds that I could see far in the distance. I could see Mount Ngauruhoe which starred in Lord of the rings as Mt. Doom because of it's perfectly conical shape.
It was not as bad anymore now, as I had a bit of a path to follow and sort of knew where the crater lake was to be found.

On the very last ascent towards the rim of the crater I bumped into four Germans.

There are actually two craters up there, one larger one to the north and the one that contains the crater lake and is slightly higher to the south. We walked along the ridge between the two craters to the spot from were we could see the crater lake.

From the here the ridge of the northern crater looked quite frightening with it's rough edges of solid sharp rock surrounded by bright ice reflecting the midday sun.

What I didn't know before was now very obvious. There was still steam rising from the aquamarine blue crater which made the scene even more out of this world.

We were now at 2695 meters. It was a great feeling ad I properly enjoyed my rest with the view onto the lake (about 100m below me) and the cashew nuts I carried up here.

Up on the ridge was a little emergency shelter and monitoring hut.

There was even a bit of mobile phone reception but sending the picture to my parents from up on the mountain didn't quite work as it was only GSM that showed up on my phone.

Sitting there and enjoying the view, knowing that no one was higher on the north Island of New Zealand at that time (aside from airplane passengers maybe) made me realize that I had developed a strong affiliation with Mountains in Nepal. They are magical - especially when they are snow capped (oh... a tear nearly dropped on the keyboard there).

I really think this could become a bit of a hobby and activity I will peruse in the next couple of years (at least on holidays).

The way back I hiked with Florian, one of the Germans who was working in NZ and was travelling on his own for a couple of weeks.

We had a good chat all the way to the Lift station again.

At one time we followed the wrong track for a while and found ourselves at the edge of a 100m vertical cliff, so we had to track back a good while until we merged back on the proper path.

Back at the base of the lift and in reach of a mobile phone mast, I texted my parents that I was back down. I just had enough time to go to the little bar and get a beer to enjoy in the sun when they already pulled onto the parking lot.

Perfect timing. They had circumnavigated the entire mountain and had lunch at a pick nick area while I went up and down.

We still didn't have a bed for the night and drove further south towards Wellington.

We stopped at little town on the coast called Foxton Beach, where we found a nice, very reasonable priced accommodation with a friendly owner.

Following one of his tips for dinner we went to a local restaurant (the only in town).

After dinner we thought why not check out the beach which should be just around the corner from the restaurant and drove up to the parking lot.

We were not the only ones there for a reason: A wonderful sunset on a clear sky.

Back at our accommodation we exchanged some stories of the day and Dad and I had quite a long night with deep conversations, a couple of glasses of whiskey and music by DJ youtube.