My experience of Tongoriro Crossing in Christmas 2024

During our 2024 Christmas break, me and my family flew to Wellington from Christchurch and then drove like 3 to 4 hours to do the 21km Tongariro Crossing, and let me just say, as it was my first ever longest hiking, it was very hard/easy for me.

When we started, it was actually kind of easy. The path was flat and smooth, not much action, I was thinking this might not be that bad. Then we reached a waterfall with fresh water running down the rocks. I Baba said it was drinkable so I tried some. It tasted weird. Not bad. Just mountain flavoured.

After about 10 minutes there I looked up and realised we still had a massive climb ahead of us. Our original plan was just to go up to Red Crater and come back the same way because we decided to just do a half loop.

But when we reached the top, the plan basically exploded.

The wind up there was insane. I am talking crazy fast that feels like 120 to 140 km/h. I am not even joking, I actually sat down and grabbed onto a rock because I thought I might get blown off the mountain. I said, “I would keep holding onto the rock and not move an inch and we should go back.” I was fully serious. People were just crawling to reach the top, it was a narrow and a gravelled path, felt slippery at the same time.

That’s when baba went into motivational speech mode.

He told us we could finish it. Looking at the map we then thought we already completed the hard bit now basically we just had to walk downhill to complete the whole loop. We kind of decided to pass the massive crater right at the top. He said we were strong. He said this would be a story one day. And then most importantly he promised Mum a new iPhone and me an Xbox, which was very overdue by the way. “We would eventually finish the track even if it was not promised” said Mom, it actually added a kind of bonus for us and the fact really motivated us. 

It was this super steep downhill section covered in loose volcanic rocks. At first we didn’t slide. We walked very carefully, stepping slowly and following other walkers so we didn’t roll all the way down the mountain. Every step felt unstable. It was like walking on marbles that were trying to escape.

Baba stayed with us and helped us about two-thirds of the way down, making sure we were balanced and calm. Near the bottom, when it wasn’t as steep, that’s when we finally started sliding a bit and our drink bottle fell down and slided to the end. That part was actually kind of fun.

And then baba did something crazy.

Because the car was parked at the starting point, he had to climb back up that same scree slope, hike back across the mountain, drive all the way around, and meet us at the other end. I guess crossing the crater downhill was a little easier than climbing back. Somehow he managed to reach the top. We could see him from the bottom of the crater.

He basically almost did the crossing twice that day. I think he only missed taking pictures around the blue lake but definitely captured the moment from his eyes.

Meanwhile, it was just me and Mum with about 12km still to go and only one bottle of water between us. We passed the lakes which by the way were not really bright blue like in the photos, more like greeny-brown but still cool. My legs were sore, the sun was hot, and the track just kept going and going. Some tracks were like running down stairs where you need to balance your body. All our body weight felt on our knees and the sun right above us.

After that came the worst part, the 6–7km stretch. It wasn’t dangerous. It was just incredibly boring. Same spiral path, Same rocky mountains. Same everything. It was so mind melting I nearly died of boredom. We talked throughout our journey, some useful, sharing some silly stuff, and met hundreds of people walking together. Some were fast, some were resting, refueling themselves.

My legs were basically finished at that point, but I kept going.

Then, about 5–6km from the end, near the start of the forest section, we saw him.

Baba. 

Standing there like an angel holding a big bottle of Keri juice.

He walked over, patted us both on the back and said, “Good job you guys.”

Those words still stick with me.

Me and Mum absolutely destroyed that Keri juice in seconds and then walked through the forest trail alongside a cool stream. That part was actually calm and peaceful. After all the wind and volcano rocks, it felt calm and fresh. We even stopped to take some pictures because it finally felt like we could breathe properly. I started taking big steps realizing it is now about the finish of the track.

When I saw the carpark, I actually started running. It really felt accomplished at the end, I was glad I finished the whole 21KM track.

Then boom. We made it. We had a long way returning back to Wellington, enjoyed the subway on the way which was really fulfilling our hunger and the best reward for a day.

I sat down and thought about the journey, how I wanted to quit at the top, how Baba basically did double the work, and how somehow we actually finished it. We then thought it would be more fun and less challenging if we had a lot of energetic supplies and extra fluids to carry with. It was a better learning for the next attempt I guess.

By the time I stopped thinking, we were already halfway back to Wellington.