Tongariro Crossing 2003 - Part 3
On the 12th of April a bunch of us headed down to Tongariro National Park in the North Island of New Zealand to do the 17km Tongariro-Crossing walk which goes over the pass between two of the volcanoes in the park, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro.
Following are the 3rd set of three from the walk. See Also: Part1 and Part2
Note: Click on any image to see a larger one. They're all about 800x600 pixels and only fairly small. roughly 80k.
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Another wicked panoramic view of the region, this time looking towards the blue-lake of Tongariro. A group of English girls asked us somewhere near here if we knew where Mt Doom was, I don't think our replies helped them greatly. |
| After dropping over the lip you see above, you get this wicked view of the Emerald lakes. The mineral-water colour providing a pretty wild contrast to the barren earthy tones of the rest of the landscape. We had lunch near here and a German girl took a photo of us and the lake as she thought ... "Zat We Look Kind of Stupid" |
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Here's a shot from the side of one of the Emerald lakes. We were all thinking that the water would be hot coz of the steam that was seeping up from the ground, but it turned out they were cold which meant out feet didn't need to be exposed to passers-by. |
| Time for a break at the Ketetahi Hut on the downward leg of the journey. There were dozens of people resting here before the 2-hour trek downhill to the car-park. There was a hell of a queue for the toilet so I was glad to have gotten rid of the Pad-Thai curry already from the night before. |
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This IS NOT a view of someone sitting on the edge of the Ketetahi springs area, as it is marked as private land these days and your not allowed to go here, a pity really coz its the most active thermal area on the mountain at the moment. |
| On the way home now, and the setting sun made for some pretty dramatic views of the mountain pass we'd just spent the day walking through. Great Stuff !!! |
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