Tongariro Crossing, Redoubt Walk, Swimming in Lake Taupo, Hot Water Beach, Huka Falls, Drive to Rotorua

Saturday we got up early to hike the Tongariro Crossing, a famous 11-mile walk up to the top of a live, steaming volcano. We looked down into the crater and could see another volcano 80 miles away on the coast. Ordinarily, one can walk across, but the volcano has been venting since Christmas and throwing the occasional hot rock into the air, so we could only walk to the top and come back.

Dawn bus ride up to the base

Volcanic formations along the walk up

Steep climb up to the top

Vent + Summit

This is where we ate our picnic lunch, overlooking these volcanic lakes. Note the steam rising from vents to the right of the biggest lake.

Jennifer at the halfway sign: 11.5 km, 3 hours 25 minutes from the Ketetahi Carpark, 8 km, 3 hours 10 minutes from the Mangatepopo Carpark

Rich on top

Steam venting from Tongariro

View driving down to Lake Taupo

We swam in the lake with bits of pumice floating in the water around us. It felt very good to get clean after our sweaty uphill climb. We  then drove around the lake to the north end and walked on a hot water beach, narrowly avoiding getting burned by boiling water bubbling out of the ground.

The outlet to Lake Taipo: Waikato River gushing down the chasm, Huka Falls

Another big day. After all that, it was again very late in the day, so we drove straight to Rotorua, reluctantly passing by some places we would have liked to stop.