Tongariro Alpine crossing

My road trip is always spontaneously decided. This time I just join in the fun and drove to national park for my very first hike in New Zealand.

We begin our road trip at noon time and arrive at the national park BBH hostel by evening.

We go cray cray over Alpacas which coincidentally was along the way to the National park.

Too bad the alpacas are so far away that we just gave up after a while and move on. Only to see another farm full of alpacas near the roadside at the opposite direction of traffic after 5 minutes drive from this farm.

Last stop at Macca's because we got too much time to kill XD.

Arrived at the BBH/YHA hostel and it is cozy in a 6 person room.

There's an indoor climbing wall too!

We start our journey at 6am but after a minor hiccups and only started hiking at 8am.

We had to hike the opposite way which is tougher.

The scenery was just breathtaking. 

Best group ever! Encouraging each other to climb further and higher.

The hike started with stairs for us so I did had a few hard times and did stop for a few times. hehe

Siew Hwei and I. Really grateful to know you and nice to have your cooked food and dessert. 

Not forgetting Wei Liang and his GoPro fotage. Our group was split into two. 

Enjoy the photos! 

Basically I was thinking, why did I put myself into this all the way up. Trust me, you will love it! 

Even crossing a mini waterway during our hike.

Probably around 2 hours then we started to see the peak.

Then we slowly saw Mt Ngauruhoe aka Mt Doom in the LOTR series.

Then we stop for lunch before rising to the peak. Eating sand all the way up due to hikers from opposite sliding down the path.

3 lakes and each of them distinctive by their own colour.

Took a lot of photos up there. 

Really love the view up here. I did my hike back in March and at this time, there is still snow in the mountain, 

Taken by Zhen Yick from a distance. Chris and I. 

It was cold in the beginning but warm afterwards.

We used 9,5 hours to complete the whole Tongariro crossing, Normally you can use  7-8 hours to complete the whole course. If you decide to ascend to Mt Ngauruhoe, please do allocate 10-12 hours instead and start your journey earlier.

 

 

 Happy go lucky bunch from Malaysia and Hong Kong!

 From the top, 3 lakes can be viewed properly. <3

 Please do plan your trip to Tongariro National Park - one of the day hike you can do in North Island in New Zealand.