We camped the night before at a campsite off of Mangatepopo Road and the morning of the hike we drove to Mangatepopo Car Park to commence our hike. The majority of the hike was along the Tongariro Alpine Crossing - relatively moderate hiking - and the last segment was scrambling on the side of the mountain. The last segment was the toughest part of the hike, I'd label as Class 3 climbing because we were on all four limbs 90% of the time.
We drove to Mt. Ngauruhoe and the drive was full of random stops till our campsite near the trailhead.
Yesterday we left the South Island and entered Wellington again, our first stop, which was off of our direct route, was Putangriua Pinnacles. We stayed the night at a campsite near the pinnacles and enjoyed the sunset from the ocean.
After months of planning and research for my bicycle tour, the gear below is what my work and money managed to afford. I still didn't buy 30% of my intended gear and 3 days into the trip I purged 40 percent of what you see below. I will, eventually, have a list of the gear that I planned contrasted with what I actual took and a third one of what I carried with me after a few days of riding.
The map below is a composite of the data downloaded from Garmin and stitched together on google. My friend, Adam, is the one that's spearheading this map, so if you want to know how it's created let me know and I'll share his contact info.
Driving through Nelson Lakes National Park and ending the day in the center of New Zealand, the City of Nelson.
