Tongariro 2

As we reached what appeared to be the top of the ridge it turned 90 degrees and we had the shock of looking straight down into the jagged, red, vaginal wound  of the Red Crater.

Steam rose from the ground and there was a smell of sulphur.
We made our way forward along the narrow ridge again, with nothing between us and the drop into the crater on the right hand side. This time when we reached the true top we were faced with a long scree slope running steeply down to the Emerald Lake.

Most of our fellow walkers went down the slope at a snail's pace but we'd had previous experience of scree walking, in Kaikoura. On the way down I slid out from behind, around, and back in front of 2 girls who were making painfully slow progress. I heard one of them say
 "Wow! What was that? Does she have Jedi powers or something?!"
I'll admit to feeling a bit smug because those girls were at least 30 years younger than me.


Walkers like ants on the scree slope

 The sun was now out and the mist and drizzle had gone. We had lunch sitting beside a second - Blue - lake in the sunshine before continuing along the track to begin the descent on the other side of the volcano. Now the landscape changed again. In contrast to the arid, lunar landscape of the craters and lava fields we'd passed through there were grasses again and the beginning of bush but always in sight was another steaming vent in the volcano's side which was sending out impressive billowing clouds.

In the distance we could see Lake Taupo, the legacy of a huge volcanic eruption in about 186 AD. The lake is the size of Singapore : so vast that when we first saw it from the side of Tongariro we thought we were looking at the sea.
There was now a long down hill trek, through bush that grew thicker and higher as we descended and with detours to avoid damage to the track caused by recent eruptions and volcanic mudslides to the place where we could catch the shuttle bus to take us back to the campsite. The buses were picking up at 3, 4 and 5 pm, although our driver had taken a note of all our names and said that noone would be left behind on the mountain. However, he warned, if he had to make a special trip after 5 to collect some straggler there'd be an extra charge.
As we came down the track in the hot sun we realised that we had a chance of catching the 4 o' clock bus. By the time we emerged in the car park where there were crowds of walkers waiting wearily for their transport, we were practically running in the effort to be on that bus - in spite of our sore feet and aching calf muscles.