On the North Island of New Zealand, there is a hike called the Tongariro Crossing that is very famous. It’s around 20km’s long and is a thru-hike which means that you have to either shuttle a vehicle or arrange transportation from one end to the other. You can also hitch-hike, but after a big day hiking it’s nice to not have to worry about trying to catch a ride.

When Hilary and I did the hike, it was getting towards the end of spring and the snow had just finished disappearing off of the top parts of the track. We were still in the earlier part of the season, which meant that it wasn’t overly busy on the trail. This also meant that the weather was a bit colder and more unstable. We were a bit worried when we began the hike in the thick fog, but after about an hour, the fog suddenly began to lift and we were able to see all of the volcanoes surrounding us.

Looking back though, the fog had a really moody feel to it that was quite unique. I remember a strange feeling that I had when we were doing the first part of the walk across the open swampy terrain that was made very eery by the thick fog surrounding us. Either way, at the end of the day we had some of the best weather that we could have asked for to do the hike and it ended up being a perfect day.