Photos

Tongariro Crossing - an alpine route through a spectacular volcanic landscape. That's what they say on most advertising sites and materials. Sometimes they add a word "popular" and usually they avoid a word "crowded".
Be also aware of the following warning: "On a fine day, the views are breath taking, stretching as far as Taranaki, almost 140km away. On a poor day think twice before departing: transport operators may not run, and you likely won't see anything anyway."
First time I was there early March 2002 and that was a poor day. I did not bring any photos from the upper part of the route and I was happy I survived. Cold, wind, rain and fog killed all the pleasure of 17km and 8 hours walk. But I felt Tongariro Crossing is worth to see.

So I took the opportunity of being there again 6 months later. I took this shot on the afternoon before departing for the route.
What you see here are the 2 volcanos: Tongariro (1967m)on the left and Mt.Ngauruhoe (2287m)in the centre. The third volcano on this plateau - Mt.Ruapehu (2797m)was behind my back. November was a nice Spring season there so please note green on the plateau. On the mountains where we were supposed to be the next day there was snow, however.

Tech.note: scanned from the negative, cleaned with NI, cropped some part of the sky