Tongariro Crossing Weekend

MUA Snow Club (2021/R6)

On February 11-13th MUASC had their first trip to attempt to hike the Tongariro Crossing. Unfortunately, due to cyclone Dovi hitting New Zealand the same weekend, the Tongariro Crossing was closed due to hazardous weather conditions and heavy rain. This meant that instead of hiking the Tongariro we had to settle with hiking the Taranaki Falls trail instead, a shorter easier trail to complete in the pouring rain. Luckily as it was still quite a lovely hike as it was humid despite the rain and so not cold at all! The water was rushing down like crazy due to the heavy rain, a lovely sight to see and quite special as normally you wouldn't go out hiking in such conditions. We had quite an interesting drive down to National Park, as it was pouring with rain and there were some slips on the road, we did, however, get to see many little frogs coming out due to the wet conditions, I counted 4. Our drive back was much better with sunnier weather and good road conditions, the reduced noise due to no rain also allowed us to converse better with everyone and get to know each other better on the 5-hour drive. We spent most of the weekend holed up in the sweet little Bach we hired, eating and watching the winter Olympics (Go Zoi!). Although we didn't get to hike the Tongariro, everyone still had an excellent time and said they were keen to jump on some future trips, whether hikes or snowboarding. Hopefully we can attempt to hike the Tongariro crossing again at the end of this year. Special thanks to the ASA for approving our grant for the trip which allowed us a greatly reduced cost. This made it much easier for members to afford the trip. Our next events are all planned out, so look out for our Snowplanet Evenings and weekend trips!