Mount Ngauruhoe

Our holiday in New Zealand was coming to and end and there was really only one outstanding item on our itinerary. Margie had missed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing last year and had had her sights on ticking it off her list in 2016 before we headed on to Australia. She had missed out on another challenging walk back in Scotland last October, when an ankle injury meant she sat out the 60th birthday celebration crossing of the Five sisters in Kintail, so the Tongariro Alpine Crossing had become an even more important event. Catriona and I planned a detour to take in the volcano Mount Ngauruhoe which the Crossing passes. It is a near perfect volcanic cone and one of New Zealands most active volcanoes at 2287 m high and adds an additional 6km on to the !9.4km of the Crossing so not to be undertaken lightly. More importantly perhaps, it last erupted in 1975. Those of you who are Tolkein fans may recognise Mt Ngauruhoe as it found recent fame as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings film. So the scene is set for tomorrow.