Tongariro Northern Circuit in one day (45.6km)

Length: 45.6km

Duration: 9:54hr
Elevation gain: 1'707m
Elevation loss: 1'698m

The Tongariro Northern Circuit is a 45km loop on the Northern Island of New Zealand and one of the nine great walks. We only had 5 days planned for our stay on the North Island (January 1st - January 6th, 2020) and wanted to see as much as possible during that time. Our initial plan was to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19km one-way hike that is much more popular than the Northern circuit, mainly due to the fact that it can be done in one day. However, the two tracks share about 7km of the same route, and this is the most interesting part of the hike where the blue alpine volcano lakes are located.

Prior to planning the exact trip, we reserved a camping spot at the Whakapapa Holiday Park. Once we realized that Whakapapa is the starting point of the Northern circuit, and that its 45km can be done in a day, we decided to do this route instead of the Crossing. Main decision points were that we didn't need to arrange a shuttle to bring us back to the start of the crossing, we would see the main interesting part of the crossing and the overall track will be less crowded.

We decided to get an early start at 6:30am, as the weather report was due to be super windy in the afternoon and we didn't want to risk being exposed to such high winds on the Red Crater Pass at 1'860m. Apparently, some of the shuttles were already canceled due to the bad weather, so we wanted to see the conditions for ourselves and if it was going to be too windy, we would turn around. It was raining over night, but the rain faded away by the time we started the trail.

The first 8km of the trail were super quiet, we didn't see a single person, there was no rain and the sky was clearing, what a happy moment. By the time we merged onto the Tongariro Alpine Crossing there were sooo many people, it was quite hard to run past them, so we had to do some speed walking during that section, it was going up the pass anyways ;)

For most part going up, the wind was manageable, it was coming from the other side, so we were protected by it. The big plateau (a crater) before the last steep section towards the pass was really beautiful and the scenery was like walking on the moon, definitely out of this world. By the time we reached the last section towards the Red Crater pass, the trail was going along the ridge and the wind really picked up. I think I never quite experienced such strong winds before. I secured my cap with my buff and was happy about my down jacket and hardshell jacking protecting me from the wind. The trail was quite wide, so there was no danger that the wind would pick us up. It was actually kind of fun hiking up with the wind ;)

The first section going down from the pass was steep and the gravel was very loose, so many people slipped and fell down. Nothing bad, just falling on your butt, happened to me as well ;) Just a small bruise. When going down you have a beautiful view over Emerald and Blue Lake, just breathtaking. We had a quick rest at Emerald lake before passing the lake and moving away from the Crossing. After Emerald lake, the Alpine Crossing continues to go straight towards Blue Lake, while the Circuits goes to the right around the Mount Ngauruhoe. Once we were back on the Circuit track, we were alone again, that was nice.

For the rest of the 25km we were basically running around Mount Ngauruhoe which was always in sight. The scenery changed again into more sandy terrain and we continued to head down towards the valley. At the Oturere Hut, we talked to the Doc hut manager for a while and to a family that was staying they overnight. The next break we did was at Waihohonu Hut, the last hut along the track. The hut was really beautiful and had huge windows so you could enjoy the view. The wind was picking up a bit more again and it was rather chilly. However, the sun was burning and I got a terrible sunburn on my hand, despite a lot of sunscreen. For the rest of the trip, we made sure to re-apply sunscreen every 2-3 hrs to prevent any further sunburns.

At around 4:20pm, we were back at the campground and completely exhausted. Fortunately, the campground store was still open for another 10min and we bought some super delicious and refreshing ice cream, what a great treat. In the evening we fuelled up with pasta, showered and were in our sleeping bags by 8pm. What a great, full-filling and exhausting day!