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| Plodding along Dome ridge |
Our last mountainous adventure in New Zealand couldn't have been better. This was our last volcano to conquer on North Island, and it also happened to be the highest. Even though the Southern Alps has the biggest mountains NZ has to offer, Mt Ruapehu, which stands at 2797m, was the highest hill we explored in NZ.
The day after finishing the three day Tongariro Northern Circuit, the perfect weather window appeared on the forecast. There was simply no time to rest and recover, we had a volcano to climb.
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| Catching the chairlift up |
The ascent of the highest mountain on NZ North Island is actually quite modest at only around 800 metres of ascent. This is of course if you catch the chairlift up to 2000m, and having finished the circuit the day before we would have been foolish not to take advantage of this resource. I can say that my leg's definitely thanked me afterwards and I would have been nothing short of broken if we'd walked all the way up.
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| Shallow gully before Dome ridge |
With the dusting of snow the week before, the mountain was transformed into a beautiful winter adventure. The snow made for quick and easy ascending up the gully that led to the sharp Dome ridge.
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| Looking across the summit plateau |
Gaining the summit plateau as the cloud moved in below us, we were treated to another view across the tops of the clouds with the peaks still glistening above us. The view around the crater lake was sublime. There was a deep contrast from the cold white snow and the steaming emerald lake, but our day wasn't finished there. The true summit stood on the other side of the lake than the tourist track and it was time to venture from the track.
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| View across to Mt Taranaki |
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| View from below our high point, the mound in centre shot is the end of the tourist track |
Although the only people to be wearing crampons that day was us and a DOC ranger, we were so happy with our decision as the steep ice slopes onto the glacier was no place to be slipping. The romp across the tiny glacier and starting ridge was plain sailing, but when we neared the summit of the first peak we had to stop and reassess the conditions.
It was a warm day, the sun was beating down, there was little to no wind and the snow was suffering. Rime ice that had been plastered onto the rock was warming and melting, the snow was the consistency of boiled butter and things were starting to tumble down the hill side. Knowing that we had a knife edge ridge to traverse in warm Temp's and our turnaround time on the near horizon, we called it a day at 2680m.
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| Romping back across the glacier |
Although we didn't stand next to the highest point on North Island, the day was a perfect end to our mountainous adventures of New Zealand. It really is the land of the long white cloud, and has so many hills and mountain range's that you would need a really big stick to poke them all.
