Tongariro Crossing is the single most popular day trip in NZ attracting over 30,000 trampers a year. Mt Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe are two active Volcanos that have transformed the surrounding bucolic landscape into a pyroclastic wasteland. It also happens to go between two moutains used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings, Mt. Doom and Mordor. (By the way, the Kiwis are sucking every ounce of fame from those movies. There hasn't been a day where we haven't had someone say "And this is where Peter Jackson.....") We started the trek at 8:30 a.m. with ~300 other people up a relatively steep climb of 2400 ft to the top of the South crater.
From there we hiked across a ridgeline to the thermically-active Red Crater.
Volcanic gases spew from cracks in the lava encrusted walls carrying the distinct aroma of sulfur and brimstone. 
A quick drop in elevation takes you to the Emerald lakes whose color derives from minerals flowing from the volcanic effluent. The sight was amazing. But we quickly moved on because of the chilling winds. We made our way across a snow field to start our descent, mostly through Okahukura bush. The crossing was 17km in length and took us 6.5 hours to complete. Needless to say we were pretty tired that evening.
A quick drop in elevation takes you to the Emerald lakes whose color derives from minerals flowing from the volcanic effluent. The sight was amazing. But we quickly moved on because of the chilling winds. We made our way across a snow field to start our descent, mostly through Okahukura bush. The crossing was 17km in length and took us 6.5 hours to complete. Needless to say we were pretty tired that evening.
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