Day 49 - National Park

A morning waking up on the mountain. Very good. I’m on the opposite side of the mountain of where I started yesterday, and need to get back to that side today. 

Some bob ross vibes this morning 

This morning was a lot of board walks. A pleasant change from the ankle breaking rock field. 

11am photo, back into the rocks…

Mount doom coming back into view, this time from the other side of the mountain. 

Eventually after a grindy last few kilometres through the trees I reached the highway. Here I hitched my way back to National Park, concluding my time in Tongariro. An epic 3 days; 115km and an average of 1500m elevation per day. 

I booked us into the last beds available at the hostel and went straight to the bar. I sat down at a table where the previous patrons dishes were not cleared yet. The plates still had gravy covered fries left on them. I ate them all greedily. Probably the most hiker trash thing I’ve done yet. Fritz, an American guy who we met on the track, (non-TA) joined us for beers. Here we learned that he is driving to Whanganui tomorrow and can drive us there in the morning. What a stress relief. I was not looking forward to an another complicated hitching day.