We left Rotarua in the morning, this time it's a new bus and new people including Kane our bus driver. On arriving in Taupo we meet Adam looking rather tired and not too happy, he tells us about his crazy day getting lost on the Tongariro crossing and that Miles had to go home in the middle of the night. The Base Hostel where we stay is nice however being over the top of the bar isn't good when you have a 5am wake up planned, even with earplugs in you can feel your bed move with the base.

I left the others and started the assault on the mountain alone, the clouds had closed in so I only aimed to reach the cloud line and head back so I started with a bit of a jog, this only lasted a few minutes before breathing became an issue and it slowed to a quick hike.
As I climbed the lower slopes I met others doing the same and we all joined together to form a group of around 9, a couple of which were guys I had met on the Kiwi Experience buses on previous days. On reaching the ever lowering cloud line we all decided to continue to head up the slope until visibility was a little less, the guide map clearly stated to not go up the mountain if you could not see all of it due to cloud cover however once you start climbing it's hard to turn around and give up, although a couple of people started to head back. With the fellowship already falling apart and the angle of the slope ever increasing the intensity of the climb was getting to a lot of us, the footing was so loose that you would often slip and spent most of the time scrambling up the slope with our hands.
We had climbed for around an hour and a half now and visibility was exceedingly poor, occasionally you would hear others around but not see them so there was often a lot of calling around the mountain trying to work out where we were and how much further there was to go. At this point we were notified that it was about 40 minutes, then with everyone getting near breaking point one of the others cried out “For Frodo” and then started scrambling quickly almost at a run up the hill which had everyone laughing again.
At our next meeting we were told if we headed left then there was an old lava flow we could walk up that was stable and so less scrambling in the scree, so we shuffled across to this and then had a little rest and time for a snack. At this point the group had greatly depleted with just 4 left and Anders was worried about missing the bus so he turned back leaving 3 remaining, I shot on ahead wanting to reach the top soon as snow had started to fall. With the slope feeling endless I reached a point that was comfortable to wait for the others and on arriving I said I would go to the next lip and then we'd have to head back to reach the bus in time.


The rest of the walk we were just playing catch up as I had Bex's lunch and Tim's wife had walked on ahead when he climbed the mountain, the weather furthered it's efforts against us, seeming to throw at us everything imaginable, with the occasional break for us to take some photo's and look at the view.
A long day on the trek continued passing by other craters, some still active and the emerald lakes before the routes winds it's way around the mountains and into the valleys descending down what feels like a never ending slope into a thick woodland, crossing many now fast running streams before emerging into an opening filled with buses and we had finished. Another pool tournament & night above the bar in base hostel wasn't amazing but with everyone so tired it was less of an issue.
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