Tongariro crossing

NB: see new post below this one first!

From Taupo I did what I thought was a walk that turned out to be a trek through the Tongariro National Park. It was bound to be a disaster right from the start as I set out at 5.30 in the morning after just an hours sleep! After two hours of walking we reached the base of a volcano which is possible to climb, there were only two people doing it ahead of me - everyone else deemed it too hard. But I decided to give it a shot... I caught up with the two people by about half way where they decided it was too difficult and dangerous and turned back. This left me on my own, but I wasn't going to give up now - I was already half way, right! So I kept going, the conditions got worse, it started raining and the clouds got thicker and before I knew it I could only see 5m around me. on top of this my shoes definately weren't up to the job and were worsening in state by the minute. It got ridiculously steep, 60-70% in some parts near the top and I slipped down a couple of times. I also had to dodge a few falling rocks - I thought I was gonna die! It was much scarier than a skydive or bungy jump or anything like that because there's a real danger of falling. I eventually made it to the top, took in the smell of sulphur and made my descent back down, falling a couple of times. It took me an hour and seven minutes to get up and 25 back down and it's supposed to take 3 hours return so I was happy with that if nothing else, especially the fact that my shoes were now ripped to sheds and filled with ash and rocks and my feet covered in blisters! Pretty nackered by now I remembered the fact that I had another 15km to walk to the end of the track! It was cloudy and miserable pretty much the whole way which sucked because normally the views are some of the best in New Zealand... anyway, that was my Tongariro experience!