Beholding the ethereal beauty of an ordinary sun and moon: Encircling the fiery heart of North Island: Tongariro, Ngaurohoe, Ruapehu

I just got out of a six day tramp in Tongariro National Park, which encompasses the three active volcanoes of the central plateau: Tongariro, Ngaurohoe, and Ruepehu. I hiked part of the Northern Circuit (including Tongariro Crossing) and then Round the Mountain, starting from Mangetepopo, going clock-wise, and finishing at Whakapapa Village. This is a seemingly barren and desolate landscape, in stark contrast to the typically lush and verdant New Zealand, but it is truly one of the most spectacular and wild places I've experienced in NZ. It is home to rocks, rocks, and more rocks; waterfalls tumbling off lava cliffs; wetlands, tarns, and mud, mud, and more mud; old vents filled with clear water of turquoise hues; a dramatic red crater, huge old craters; Rangipo desert, the country's only one; steaming vents on mountainsides; old beech forests; rapidly changing weather including, while I was there, snow and hail pelting my face, hellacious winds, calm mornings, warm sun, driving rains. And of course, as near constant companions, the mountains themselves. When you're going around these mountains, you can't lose your way, and you know you've always got a friend.

I loved this place from the start. Maybe these photos will tell you why.

(By the way, did you know the volcanoes and indeed all the geothermal activity happening in the North Island is from the Pacific Plate sliding under the Australian Plate? This is the same Pacific Plate that's sliding past the North American Plate in California on the other side of the ocean and giving the state all its lovely earthquakes.)

Going up the Mangatepoto Valley the first day with low clouds.

Yes, I look a little laboured here; I was carrying six days of food! Even so, I ran out of oatmeal my last morning:(. Strangers like to ask if they can take my picture out on the trail. :)

The edge of the South Crater of Tongariro.

Red Crater! A dramatic red and black active crater.

Emerald Lakes. Slightly varying chemical compositions give these three lakes (old steam vents) different shades of turquoise blue.

From Ketetahi Hut: Lake Rotoaira, the slopes of Pihanga, and Lake Taupo in the back.

Mt. Ngaurohoe, aka Mt. Doom

Rangipo Desert.

lahar: volcanic mudflows

This was a journey of Ups and Downs indeed! "Are we there yet?", asked Kate and Luke, two trampers who came before me at Rangipo Hut. They loved permanent markers.