Tongariro Crossing

So my day started at 5.15am when I had to drag myself out of bed to be ready for the bus picking us up at 5.40am and i'm thinking to myself whatever made me think this was a good idea! So we travel on the bus to our starting point and the guy next to me falls asleep on my shoulder - thin he felt a little embarrassed! Bless! We start the walk about 7.45am ish a time when we should all still be in bed! I wrap up nice and warm with lots of extra layers and my hat, scarf and gloves as its cold outside! Then about 10 minutes after we start walking i'l far to hot and have to take my extra layers off again! The walk starts off really nice really flat and very manageable. Then it starts to go up hill which is still ok to start with but then it gets to a part called the devils staircase (and as the name suggests its not very pleasant!) I thought I would never make it to the top at one point its really steep with lots of rocks to climb and overall very hard work and everytime you think you're nearly at the top you realise in actual fact there's more to climb! The poor guy I was doing the walk with would always be up the top way before me waiting till I finally reached the top! So we finally get to the top and there it is Mt Doom! So then we climb Mt Doom - yeah whatever - only joking - think you would have to be crazy to climb Mount Doom. It is covered in loose rocks and apparently you more or less have to climb on your hands and knees and for every one step forward its to steps back. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to climb and 15 mins to get back down - so I guess you just tumble to the ground and hope for the best! Then there is a nice crater to cross with very pretty views and another small uphill part which takes you up to the emerald lakes which are very gorgeous green lakes. The next part is downhill which was quite entertaining as its covered in loose soil so you pretty much slide down and somehow I didn't fall over! Then you come to the blue lake which is a big pretty and as the name suggests blue lake! After this its downhill the rest of the way but a Nice manageable walk and not steep at all. We stopped for lunch at a hut along the way which had a gorgeous view of one of the lakes with amazing scenery - we sat there for ages just enjoying the view! The last part of the walk is then through a forest area with waterfalls and a river - so there is a really good mix of scenery to see! All in all a very enjoyable day and worth the early morning start! I had sore legs the following day though!