We slept the night before the walking in a motor campground at Whakapapa Village. Around 1300 meters above sea level, in the morning we had 1°C. Uyyy, we were not prepared for such a walk, for which everywhere there were warning signs about hypothermia and avalanches and other alpine weather dangers. While cooking at night, I read that in 1995 the Ruaperu volcano erupted, and that our car was staying just on top of the lava flow... mmm. Paths for emergency were posted, showing how to react in emergency cases, we should walk 15min to another hotel nearby which is high enough to scape the lava path. Funny though, that night at 3 am, a very loud siren set off, like the ones in the war time. Shit, we were in short pijamas, freezing and we should go quickly to this emergency safe area! But it was nothing, false alarm, as I noticed that nobody else was outside. I thought maybe we were the only ones that had read the safety instructions...
Next day, afraid of the weather forecast about winds of up to 90km/h and cold, we bought some warm stuff just before the walk: thick wool socks, gloves, thermal long underwear... That should do it, and it did. We had lovely weather, sunny but sometimes really windy and cold. But it was worth it, the landscapes were even more breathtaking that when you see them in The Lord of the Rings. The Volcano, its craters, the rocks still emanating steam and gases, and the emerald lakes were just amazing. Best images my eyes have seen up to now. Wait for the panorama pictures and the videos!
During the walk we slept in two huts, and we met some interesting people, a veterinarian Israeli, a whole school sports class with their teacher and an Australian. The last day it was a long walk, we did 8.5hours with the big backpacks... After that, relax... and assimilation of the nice images.
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