4-6 September 2020

Leader: Owen Cox

This trip to Tongariro National Park was planned to make use of a bit of snow travel. Seven of us travelled up on Friday and left the car park, by the Desert Road, for the walk into Waihohonu Hut at dusk.

We reached the hut not long after dark, after an hour to an hour and half pleasant walking. We had an early start to give plenty of time for the snow. Good frost and very light snow overnight. Given the weather of cloud and wind on the top and a forecast of worse to come and leaving our gear we decided to head to Oturere and then go up to Emerald Lake, in the snow, as a side trip. If it had been fine the plan was to go over the side of Ngauruhoe to South Crater and then to Emerald Lakes but as five of us did that in nasty conditions last year it was an easy decision to take the easier option.

We headed over the open spaces with wonderful views, including views of wind and cloud enveloping Ngauruhoe, to arrive at Oturere mid-morning for a brew. After morning tea we headed up to Emerald Lake. A bit of snow on the last steep bits with the lakes well iced over. We did the climb in crampons. We had lunch next to the top lake after where we experienced a bit of a whiteout. A bit cold for loitering so after a quick shuffle to Blue Lake we headed back down to the hut. The afternoon was warm enough for the snow to get a bit softer while we were around the craters. We arrived back at the hut about at about four. Plenty of room in the hut with just us, a family and another couple and the hut was warmed by the stove.

The forecast for Sunday was meant to be worse than Saturday. We did have a bit of drizzle on the way down but nothing serious. We went back via Waihohonu to arrive at the cars not long after mid-day.

A great trip with the weather not being as bad as forecast.

Those on the trip were:

Owen Cox, Marian Cox, David Williams, Marcia Goode, John Sturgess, Cathy Fraser, Jeff Franks