Current location:	Taupo, New Zealand
Current mood:	sore

Huka Falls and Tongariro Crossing
We're back alive from the Tongariro Crossing!! and I have officially been to the world's 1st 2 National Parks - Yellowstone and Tongariro!!! YAY!!! hahaha...let's start with Huka Falls 1st..

we had to walk about 2.5hours one way (the bad side about not having a car--speaking o which, cars here can go for $1000!!) to see the famous Huka Falls! haha when we reached there I was still saying: this cant be the falls coz it doesnt really look like one! we saw a grand amazing sight of lots of really blue water being squashed into a long narrow channel and frothing into lots of white watrer waves but nothing like what we expected to be a waterfall! but why then were so many people taking photos of it? in the end we found out that it really was the Falls!! how unique!! the force of the waters had cut into the rock many many years ago forming a deep narrow channel which all the water had to now go through... it was really an amazing sight because of the power and colour of the waters!! Will post up the pics when we get more time..

Next to the World's most famous 1-day walk-- the Tongariro Crossing! Covering a distance of 17km to be walked in about 7 hours, it winds up and through the 2 active volcanoes of Mt. Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe. Mt Ngauruhoe was actually formed 2000 years ago from an eruption of Mt Tongariro itself! and its still growing--still a baby volcano! in fact the nearby Mt Ruapehu just erupted about 1 month ago and someone lost his leg coz he was camping right on top of the volcano! ha..

the start of the trek was a gentle uphill slope but about 1 hour later it soon turned really steep..still we pushed on but it only got worse with the rock scree really mounting up on the track and causing us to step 1 step forward but only make half a step coz we would slide backwards. soon i had to use nearby rocks to help me up but bernard was doing better than me (sigh my fitness has really gone down the drain). not to mention that at this time, the winds decided to start blowing some snow in our faces and so we had to bundle up and put on sunglasses otherwise i can't see my way through (makes me think that in Singapore, we really just use sunglasses for the fun of it huh?)

after that gruelling 45 min we were finally up the 2 very steep slopes and almost to the top of Mt Tongariro! after that we realised that we had to come down the slope on the other side with the same steepness and rock scree on it as the one we had just come up!!! haah the guide then decided to help me take the "expressway" down then...he held my arm as a support while he practically dragged me down through all the rock scree and snow!!! Slipping and sliding, we sure made our way down really fast!! (and i only fell once haha) it was actually quite fun!

then we were in for a treat! facing the Emerald Lake (and another 2 lakes which i don't know the name of =p), we settled in for lunch (but first i had to wait for Bernard to make his way down the slope coz my lunch was with him! hehe) finally a stop!! i really love the part after this!! we decided to take a slight detour off the track and walked through this pristine snow-covered Crater with all the snow volcanoes around us!!! it was such a beautiful sight!!! and i really didn't mind that it was snowing at all!! it felt as it we were on an Antarctic expedition!!!! haha...and the snow was already ankle-deep and sometimes it dropped into my boots but everything was really great!!

Finally it was the downhill part after this! but the downhill part sure was long!!! took up about 3 hours i reckon! we passed by several steep snow slopes and we attempted to climb up abit of the way and slide down on our bums!! haha a really fun activity actually! even have a video of bernard doing that haha... it really was very pretty--including all the Tundra flowers and plants that i finally got to see for real (rather than in the geography text heh). then we went round and round the mountain...reminds me so much of that song "she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes" haha and as we went down, my mind started singing "she'll be pulling 6 white donkeys as she comes" haha...going round and round does things to your head! =p

suddenly we plunged into a green rainforest as we were going down! such a strange difference! but about an hour after that we finally reached the end of the track!! yay!!! we've successfully and safely completed the world's prettiest 1 day trek!!

honestly if not for bernard i don't think i would ever attempt these kinda things but its definitely a highly recommended experience coz at the end of the day, even though my legs are aching (and will probably ache even more tomorrow) the views are really spectacular!! you cann see all the alpine flora and the pyroclastic lava flows (all these stuff were refreshed in my mind by the guide of course haha...i will never had been able to identify the stuff myself) that are just only 30 years old (coz Mt Ngauruhoe just erupted 30 years ago) and the snow experience really was very very pretty!!!