Many visitors to Tongariro National Park pass by the Mangatepopo Hut shortly after starting the Tongariro Crossing, but without stopping. Most visitors here are preparing for an early morning ascent of Mount Ngauruhoe or are heading for the nearby climbing walls of Pukikaikiore. I spent many fun hours in the hut playing games or enjoying impressive evening light moods with views as far as Taranaki.
The core of Tongariro National Park was established in 1887 through a gift, making it the first national park in New Zealand and the fourth in the world. This far-sighted move was formally recognised a few years ago when it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, both as a culturally significant monument and a unique area of natural beauty. Today, the Department of Conservation successfully continues the tradition of preserving nature and culture. At the visitor centre in Whakapapa, visitors can find out everything they need to know about the park. Above all, up-to-date and practical information about weather, climate, trails, and huts is essential for anyone staying in the park.
The new day first takes me back along the Tongariro Crossing route to the crater plateau. Today, the magnificent theatre of nature presents a play of Shakespearean proportions on the stage of grand emotions. After the mountain so generously and proudly displayed its treasures yesterday, today it shrouds itself in thick clouds. Everything appears colourless and grey, and on such days, a depressive veil settles over my mood. The vast desolation, veiled in mist, awakens in me a desperate feeling of loneliness and being lost. Stripped of its meaning, the signpost for the Blue Lake stands by the wayside, surrounded by boundless grey. Thoughts and reality merge. The jagged boulders in the Oturere Valley suddenly transform into grotesque ghostly figures trying to lead me astray. Read more
Thanks to its central location and good transport links, situated halfway between Auckland and Wellington, the park is easy to reach. The main north-south roads run along the park’s borders: Highways 1 and 4, as well as the main railway line. Read more
The imposing Ruapehu presents itself as peaceful and alluring. Proud of its strength and size, it cloaks itself in the pristine white of the snow, lulls our ears with the gentle gurgling and splashing of streams, and enchants us with its soft glow in the evening sun. And people flock to it, climbing its rock faces, in winter skiing and snowboarding down its snow-covered slopes, and hiking through forests, scree fields, and even over glaciers right up to its peaks. Yet, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not only do the steep slopes have their dangers, with several mountaineers having fallen, or a bad weather front creating life-threatening conditions within minutes; lahars, avalanches of rock, water, and ice, have killed the most people to date. Read more
There are places where, upon returning, I realise just how much their atmosphere enchants me. One of these is Ketetahi Hut, which sits high on the sunny northern slopes of Tongariro and marks the start of the final stage of the Tongariro Crossing—the descent to the car park. I love lying on the terrace in front of the hut, enjoying the view over the wind-rippled surface of Lake Rotoaira, the lush green, forest-clad Kakaramea mountain range, and the silver mirror of Lake Taupo. The electrifying moods at sunrise or sunset are incomparable; those nights where the lights of Taupo merge with the twinkling stars into a single universe! Roaring hot sulphur steam rises from the nearby Ketetahi Springs, which doesn’t dampen the hut’s popularity for a rest, a spot of sunbathing, or an overnight stay. Consequently, it can get a bit crowded there on some days. Read more
At three in the morning, the alarm clock brings the short night to an end. Bright moonlight streams through the window of my quarters in the Mangatepopo mountain hut, yet outside, the dark rock masses of the Tongariro massif seem to absorb the gentle light. Joyful excitement immediately pulses through my still sleepy limbs, as conditions appear optimal to begin my long-awaited endeavour: the nocturnal ascent of the 2291m high Ngauruhoe volcano, to experience the sunrise over Tongariro National Park and New Zealand’s North Island from its summit.
The hikers in the hut are all still asleep, so in the peaceful silence of the icy autumn morning, all life seems frozen. But this superficial observation is deceptive, for the ground I stand on is extremely active. 150 km deep within the Earth, where the Indo-Australian plate slides beneath the Pacific plate, lies the origin of those eruptive forces that, with fiery power and destructiveness, continuously shape the landscape in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island. Read more
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