The Tongariro Alpine Crossing: February 1988

When I was in the Army back in the late 80's-early 90's, I was fortunate to do two excellent tramps as part of our military training. One of them was the Heaphy Track in NW Nelson, the other was the Northern Circuit Track around the North Island volcanoes. Of course it wasn't called that back then as DOC had not developed the local track system to the fine pitch it has now.

Map of the Northern Circuit Track

Part of that circuit was the Tongariro Crossing. Two words to describe the walk back then would be rough and empty. It was literally a goat trail over the top of the mountain and apart from the other 9-10 guys with me it was completely empty. A major change from the massive crowds and generally good tracks of today.

I only have faint memories of this trip: I remember the weather was cloudy and moderately warm, we were concerned about rain for most of the day but we didn't get any. It was still, not too much wind...we were thirsty as we only had 2 liters of water each. Dusty, sore feet at the end of the day....sitting behind a big rock to eat some lunch and getting warm in the sun...

Here are a couple of scanned black and white photos from that time...I'm not too sure of the locations or correct order (it has been 26+ years after all...).

View of rock field from along the Tongariro Northern Circuit

View from the Tongariro Crossing Track

View from the Tongariro Crossing Track

Apart from the lakes, it looks almost Martian in black and white.

Climbing to Emerald Lakes??? It has been nearly 26 years...

From what I have seen and read there appears to be a lot more board walk and stairs on the modern track. Back in the 90's it was a rock and ash track, deeply rutted in places and steep.

As we were doing the whole Northern Circuit we didn't climb Mt Ngauruhoe or Mt Tongariro itself, these are side trips you can attempt if the weather is good and you know what you are doing. Given you have already climbed 1700 of the 2200 metres it is worth consideration.

We were poorly equipped: army uniforms and "outdoor gear" (ha ha ha...that's a good one Jon...outdoor gear...cotton uniforms, heavy woollen jerseys, PVC rainwear, ALICE packs (external frames, heavy and not waterproof) need I say more...), solid cooking fuel, army rations: not really suitable if a big storm had blown in, but that was the Army back then- you made do with what you had!

Emerald Lakes from high on the Tongariro Track

I was surprised when I found these photos again, I forgot they were black and white. Back in those pre digital days you had separate colour and black & white film, you were basically stuck with what you could get and what was in the camera once you loaded it.

It was obviously the type of film I had in my camera at the time.

I had a thing about black and white photos in the early 90's, people say colour is better but you get some amazing pictures with black and white film. I've got a few of the Waiouru Training Ground and me and my mates acting warrior, i.e. hiding in the tussock, driving Land Rovers, working the radios, sitting in an underground bunker, cooking army rations etc. etc.

Fun stuff when you are 21 or 22 years old.

Below is an elevation profile of the Tongariro Northern Circuit track.

Elevation profile of the Tongariro Northern Circuit

I enjoyed the track, and would like to walk it again sometime in the future, but am willing to call it a completed TaT section.

Cost breakdown for this section:

Tongariro Alpine Crossing/Whanganui River Journey (1990's)

These cost me nothing as they were part of a NZ Army exercise using resources provided by the army.