4/2/15 - Making our way northwards slowly, we continued meeting more new people. The greatest surprise meeting was a family we met in Palmerston North who had visited the UK with their children in 1974.

Having known my parents back in India they paid a visit to them . It turned out that that was the month I was getting married and attended the wedding. Who says co-incidences of the best kind don't happen - I certainly did not expect this to happen when having been married for 40 years I met them on the other side of the world. All this quite by accident.

7/2/15 - Tongariro Volcanic/Alpine Crossing - One of the highlights when touring NZ is it's abundance of it's walks (long & short) and tramps.
One of the most popular day walks is the Tongariro Crossing. I had read up on it, visited the i-site for information and we felt quite ready for the challenge.

The walk is 19.4 km (12 miles) over mixed terrain with climbing and decents. It is usual for people to park their vehicles in the car park @ the finish of the walk and take an expensive shuttle (30$ NZ for a 15 km journey) to the starting point. We decided to be different and start @ the end point, walk to the halfway point and walk back again, already knowing that we would have to do an extra 400 mtrs of climbing to allow for the higher altitude at the opposite point .

The day started well - dry, sunny and not too hot. The official advice is that the walk duration is 6-8 hours, giving one time to admire the views and take photos. It is best to take 2 ltrs of liquid per person, food and wet weather gear etc in case the day were to change suddenly as is likely to happen. Carrying all this adds to the challenge.

No sooner had we started and we found ourselves climbing. The views were everything that had been promised and before long we found ourselves past the half-way point. Weary but happy with our achievement we decided to turn back. The views on the way down were just as majestic with the plumes of smoke/steam rising from the active volcanoes.

We got back to faithful Champ after a walk of 10 hrs and a total distance of 23 kilometres (approx 14 miles). Tired, aching and sweaty but happy we made our way to the nearest campsite for a long hot shower, cook dinner and a well deserved night's sleep.

I wonder how much the legs and shoulders/back (from carrying rucksacks) will be hurting in the morning.