Date: 25-27th July 2014
Location: Tongariro National Park
Leader: Hamish Chan
Trampers: Jarra Parsonson, Hannah Brightly, Matthew Battley, Julian Bryant, Andrew Luey, Andrew Bergin, Leighton Watson, Roman Savko
Like all good trips, this one started with battling the usual Friday traffic to get out of Auckland. After a brief dinner stop at ‘Seven-Up’ in Huntly (for the amazing $10 fried chicken meal), we eventually made it down to Ruapehu. A not-so-short detour up to the USAC hut to pick up the alpine gear followed, and we finally arrived at Mangatepopo carpark well past midnight. After distributing the new gear, we set off and arrived at Mangatepopo hut in the wee hours of the morning, trying not to wake the trampers who were already there, before grabbing a few hours of sleep before sunrise.
We were up again with the sun, and were treated to clear blue skies. Following the flat, but picturesque track, we reached the ‘Devil’s Staircase’ which took us up the saddle between Tongarario and Ngauruhoe, where our adventure really began. We attempted to follow the markers up to the top of Ngauruhoe, slogging up through snow that was increasingly becoming mush under the heat of the sun. It was an absolute stunner of a day, with virtually no
wind, and once at the peak, we could see all around, reaching as far as Mt Taranaki. I will admit, however, that we only climbed the ‘secondary’ summit peak (about 5 m shorter than the peak on the other side of the main crater) - but we were also now able to see down the smaller, but far more impressive, secondary crater.



Unlike another group on the mountain that day who had carried skis up Ngauruhoe, we had to settle with sliding down the mountain - sliding down the steep slopes enabled us to descend in a fraction of our ascent time. A welldeserved lunch followed, and after a team huddle, we ended up crossing the South Crater before turning around heading back down to Mangetepopo to stay there for a second night.
The evening was spent eating too many burritos (how is this possible!?) followed by stretching, and card games (namely 500 and ‘Up and Down the River’). After having to tell another group that they couldn’t sleep directly on where we had previously placed out sleeping bags, we were able to get some sleep.
With the trip goal being completed on the Saturday, there was no need for the rain day, so we split off into a 2 groups, with some of us taking the track from Mangetepopo Hut to Whapakapapa village for a casual day walk and others spending the day skiing at Whakapapa – either way, we all made good use of the fantastic weather this weekend had provided for us! The drive home was broken up by a hearty meal at Burgerfuel in Taupo, along with a good soak in the Spa Park hot pools, before we arrived back at Auckland past midnight ready to launch ourselves into the week ahead.
Author: Hamish Chan
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