Tongariro - a retrospective

On our way to Samoa we spent two weeks touring the North Island of New Zealand. Our trip included four days hiking around volcanoes on one of New Zealand's Great Walks - Tongariro Northern Circuit (http://www.doc.govt.nz/Explore/002~Tracks-and-Walks/Great-Walks/Tongariro-Northern-Circuit.asp):
Day 1: Whakapapa Visitor's Centre to Mangetapopo Hut (with a side trip up Mt Doom)
Day 2: Tongariro Crossing to Ketahati Hut
Day 3: Ketahati Hut to WaihohonuHut
Day 4: Waihohonu Hut to Home
Highlights of the trip:
- Our 'short cut' down Mt Doom (a Pooley special and worthy of its own blog)
- Overflow at Ketahati Hut
- The Golden Girls
- Meeting a real Zimmerman
- Gourmet dining hut style, or how to make your fellow trampers feel even hungrier
At the end of the walk we spent the night at the Skotel beneath Mt Ruapeho - NZ's highest hotel - right in the path of a lava flow if the worst was to happen. We thought it did! About half an hour after we went to sleep (following a gourmet lamb dinner with ample red wine) the fire alarm went off and chaos ensued. We leapt up, dressed and shot out of the building like scalded cats, determined to ignore the assembly point and belt down the mountain in our car rather than drown in molten lava.
... it was a false alarm.