Mt Tongariro – Cinderella and the Dancing Dinosaur

I looked down at my feet and realised I was having a Cinderella moment at Mangatepopo Hut on Saturday morning and trying to see if Anne’s boots would fit me like Cinderella’s glass slipper. I had got as far as tying up the laces before I realised something was amiss. Meanwhile Anne had been quietly watching me in amusement to see how long it would take me to notice I had picked up her boots instead of my own. They were both orange and black although I did start to wonder how my nearly new boots had aged so much overnight!

We found a foot trail at Mangatepopo Hut that led us up right onto the Tongariro Ridge. No bush bashes needed! I had told Anne the story of Tony and I getting stuck 100m away from the carpark in a frustrating bushbash after Tony had remembered going through it easily with skis on his pack.

It was an easy walk up the ridge as the clag rolled in around us intermittently. The snow line started just before the summit but it was still rocky enough that crampons weren’t needed. We sidled around under Tongariro as DoC advice is that climbing Mt Tongariro is disrespectful to Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

With the visibility reducing again and now in a snowy gully, it felt a bit like we were walking on the moon. 

While I thought no one was watching, I did a few pirouettes and a little dance because I was so happy about being out again for the weekend in the snow. Little did I know that Anne had captured the dancing dinosaur on her camera.

We made a plan to head towards North Crater which the others had never seen before and I had only seen in summer. The ridge just before North Crater at first looks impassable to drop down from but with some careful route finding there are a number of options that are more than achievable.

From North Crater we headed back towards Central Crater and finally got the opportunity to put on dinosaur feet for the steep descent. It was my first time on the Tongariro Crossing in snow and it was pretty magical, especially seeing the lakes frozen. We did a side trip up to admire Blue Lake that was completely frozen before wandering back towards the Emerald Lakes. The contrast here was stark – partially frozen lakes and a steaming fumarole! The descent was a bit icy in places so we took it slowly before we were among the desert sand.

Oturere Hut finally came into sight and we had debates on whether the fire was going and how many would be at the hut. We arrived to find a roaring fire and four other people. I immediately bagged a top bunk before realising it was made of slates so I lost half of my gear through the gaps between the slates onto the rest of the group on the bunks under me and spent the next 10 minutes quietly looking for a stray sock and blaming the aliens that have struck on a previous trip before finding it under the mattress. 

We had a fun game of Bananagrams with Dave using some debatable words before enjoying some star gazing.

On Sunday we woke to a lovely sunrise and dawn light on Mt Ngāuruhoe. We were just about to leave the hut and were doing a last check when Anne asked if anyone had left any ham hanging from the roof outside the hut. I thought I must have misheard her so asked her to repeat what she said. Indeed, it was a packet of ham just hanging there. We suspect it had been left by one of the other trampers who had left much earlier in the morning. We decided to carry it out so it didn’t just sit there and go mouldy. 

We had originally planned to head towards Waihohonu Hut then go off track around the Eastern side of Ngāuruhoe to South Crater but because of low hanging clag in that direction coupled with a strong icy cold wind we decided to retrace our steps along the Great Walk track. Lynsey had the ham, or “Hamon” as she had named it by then, along for the journey and was documenting Hamon’s progress along the track. 

Despite it being a steep climb above Emerald Lakes to the rim of Red Crater, I had on both pairs of my gloves as it was freezing and the forecast had predicted -8° C temperature with wind chill factor. I was still feeling very tired after a busy week at work so I felt like I was snailing up the climb but it seemed like I got up the climb quicker than I realised as when I looked back everyone was still further down. As I was sheltering from the wind behind a rock, I took my phone off flight mode as I was waiting to hear back from a friend about a trip for the next week, and a message came through from work asking if I could work the next day. I fired back a yes and a picture of where I was – the others laughed when they made it to the top of the climb to hear I had already started arranging my work week while waiting. 

Dave tried his hand at ice skating in the South Crater while Lynsey continued to scrapbook Hamon’s journey back to the car as Anne led us down the track. 

Trip Statistics:

Friday night – To Mangatepopo Hut
Distance: 1.6k
Time: 20m

Saturday – To Oturere Hut via Tongariro Ridge & North Crater & Blue Lake
Distance: 14.5k
Time: 7.5hr
Elevation: 1,069m

Sunday – To Mangatepopo Carpark
Distance: 14k
Time: 4.5hr
Elevation: 730m.

For more Tongariro National Park adventures go to: