Back in January blessed with clear sky and sunshine we took on the Tongariro Crossing as our welcome to 2011 adventure. Check out this blog for stunning pictures and artistic words of the same journey and check out my Flickr photos for a wee bit more information on the walk.
"Our earth is very old, an old warrior that has lived through many battles. Nevertheless, the face of it is still changing, and science sees no certain limit of time for its stately evolution. Our solid earth, apparently so stable, inert, and finished, is changing, mobile, and still evolving. Its major quakings are largely the echoes of that divine far-off event, the building of our noble mountains. The lava floods and intriguing volcanoes tell us of the plasticity, mobility, of the deep interior of the globe. The slow coming and going of ancient shallow seas on the continental plateaus tell us of the rhythmic distortion of the deep interior-deep-seated flow and changes of volume. Mountain chains prove the earth's solid crust itself to be mobile in high degree. And the secret of it all—the secret of the earthquake, the secret of the 'temple of fire,' the secret of the ocean basin, the secret of the highland—is in the heart of the earth, forever invisible to human eyes."
Reginal Aldworth Daly, 1926
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| The start of the walk is a gentle uphill towards the sun and over wonderful boardwalk |
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| With great views of Mt Doom |
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| Then it's up the devil staircase |
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| It did seem to go on for quite a while and I was rather proud of my slow steady approach |
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| A good rest spot at the top of the devils staircase |
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| Still going up and I did start to waver a bit by this point |
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| Another flat spot before the final climb |
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| Oh my, I have to walk down that.....It was great sliding scree |
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| But look at our view |
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| I turned around and was amazed at what I had managed to walk down |
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| As we descend the landscape gradually changes but the views remain wonderful |
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| Then nearing the end you hit a cooling forest |
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The End
All waiting for the bus....
There were lots of crowds like this, really is not a walk of solitude |
