TA Day 81

TA Day 81: Sunday 9 March 2025

Mangaturuturu Hut - Whakapapa Village

Even though they had made a fire in the fireplace the evening before, we still slept "okay" tonight. Not great. Not good. But okay.

This morning was windy, and we didn't have to walk far which meant we were in no hurry - so we had another slow morning. The woman, who was going in our direction, started roughly half a hour before us. "See you later", a phrase used all the time in NZ - was something we actually meant this time, as we thought we might catch up to her later.

Once we got going, it again, felt so good to be on a trail that reminded us so much about the Scandinavian mountains. Not the vulcanic part, but the nature, lack of life, and the cold. It was a bit colder than what it usually has been like along Te Araroa for us and the gusts were strong. But hiking was fine.

Or well, until Lukas suddenly needed to urgently shit. We had probably walked about 2 km from the hut (and the long drop) when it became so bad that he had to run off to do his business...

We continued, and the gusts were luckily coming the right direction, so sometimes we got a bit of help when walking. Soon we had passed the woman we shared the hut with, and we didn't see her again after that.

Last part of today's walk, was some easy road walking, going downhill. We soon reached the hiking goal for today - Whakapapa Village. Here Kim couldn't help but stop by the Visitor's Center. Not just to look at all the interesting information there about Tongariro and vulcanoes, but also to use their bathroom. Lukas waited, as patiently as he could in the moment.

Then it was time to hitch again! Our third time. A couple of cars passed, and then we were picked up. We didn't even wait 10 minutes before a car picked us up. They were passing National Park so we could join. There we checked-in at the "Backpackers" and also picked up our resupply box with among some other things, our new shoes.

It was quite early in the afternoon still, so we didn't hurry a lot but still had time to do laundry, have something to eat and film a short video for YouTube.

Buy time passed quickly and it was soon time to go to bed again...

Today's:

Distance: 18.09 km

Ascent: 1106m

Descent: 404 m

Tent nights: 46/81

Weather: Windy and sunny