Tuesday, February 24: Rain overnight clearing to foggy and then sunny with patchy clouds

Tramping: 20.9 km

Danni’s ($200 for 3 nights)

• GPS

Nick had taken one bed of the triple that I had occupied and, unfortunately, he snored – mainly when on his back, so waking him & telling him to turn over produced a significant improvement. Towards morning the snoring also started in the side position, and not much else could be done, but poke him every now and then.

Just before 6:00 people started getting up. Two dormitories were separate from the kitchen but not by much and the third was in the bedsitter, so to speak. I boiled some water for coffee and had some salami, cracker and muesli bars for breakfast before packing my stuff outside. It looked like I would be starting the tramp today with Nick & Slater, all the others except Khalil were going in the other direction.

We pushed off around 7:30 and looking back from the first hill was a photo opportunity for another time: Sunrise over the Tongariro Valley, with fog covering the river and the sun from behind. What a pity that we had to push forward. After a longer plain we reached a lava tongue and from here onwards it was pretty steep uphill until the Crossing was reached. I left the other two behind at this point as I was coming into stride. Read more…