Another day, another volcano, another adventure. Mount Tongariro is an active volcano, just under 2000 m high. It is situated in the Taupo volcanic zone of North Island.

During our pre walk briefing we were told about what sort of equipment to take and then what to do in the event of an eruption. At the start of the track there is a traffic light, indicating whether it is safe to proceed. There are sensors situated in the volcano monitoring the activity. We felt pretty safe after hearing this until they explained that it is not a flawless system. The last eruption was in 2012. There were no obvious signs and there were actually people on the track at the time. Luckily the ash cloud was localised and everyone was fine, but it sounds like a scary experience. We were told to keep an eye on the smoke: everything is good if it’s white, but if it turns black we were advised to run fast!

On the morning of the hike, the weather was terrible. Endless drizzle, of the sort I thought only occurred in Britain! Armed with lots of water, lunch and whole lot of warm clothing we set off. We had been told to expect the temperature to be as low as 3 degrees at the summit.

The bus dropped us off at the start of the 19 km long track. Apparently the bus company are responsible for getting everyone they deposit on the walk off at the other end. The driver gave us a stern talk about how challenging the walk is and what to do in an emergency. At this point two people got straight back on the bus!

The rest of us set off on the walk. It started very gently and we overtook the slower people. After about an hour the ascent started. By this point the weather was getting worse and we were starting to get into the cloud too. As we got higher the visibility lowered and we could only see a couple of meters in front of us. The final climb up to the summit was a steep scree slope. This was made even more challenging as a gale was now blowing.

We made the final push to the top, to find few people huddled having a snack. The howling wind didn’t make this an attractive option so we pressed on. The path then took us along a ridge. I can only imagine that the views from here would be spectacular but we were still in a cloud and I could hardly see my own hands so I can’t comment on that! After slipping and sliding down a scree slope, the clouds suddenly blew over and we were right next to the emerald lakes.

From this point on, the clouds would blow over and cover the view and then clear again leaving us with spectacular scenery. We realised that if we had walked slower, we would have had good weather at the top. Nothing made me want to walk slower in the bitterly cold wind and rain though.

We enjoyed the rest of the walk down, stopping to sit in the sunshine at a hut with a group of other walkers for a while.

We reached the end of the walk and realised that once again we had mis-timed it. This time though we were three hours early! At least that gave me time to write this post and eat the rest of the whole nut Cadbury bar, while Graham sleeps in the sun. If you snooze you lose!