Tongariro Alpine Crossing

19km walking up and down, worth it? YES, but if you want a sporty challenge, try not to

walk, instead just run as long as you can. I was expecting something close to

the volcano walk I did in the Azores last Year, at least the exercise part ;) But the rest was nice,

specially the view, the lakes and the red crater.

You will start at 1100m, climb up to 1900m and after 19km the finish line is on 750m

Compared to Mt. Pico, this track is VERY well prepared.

Greg, we should try to do this in under 4hours ;)

One picture for my male reader.. Can't wait to see this eruption ;)

At the moment I find it a bit annoying that we are surrounded by German speaking

people (Germans, Swiss). Sure everybody talks about New Zealand and going there, but

really so many? I'm not traveling around the world for meeting them...

Screw you all, that's my once a lifetime vacation!!! ;)

Tanna Island and Mt. Yasur

We stayed on Tanna Island at Yasur Camping Ground and Tree House with
Thoams and his family. The location of this accommodation is
the best you can have, if you want to be as close to the
volcano as possible. The entrance to the volcano is direct in
front of the facility and you have a perfect view from his garden,
treehouse or dinning-room straight at the volcano.
Thoams and his family are doing a great job and will help/try
to arrange everything you need or looking for.
We stayed in both treehouse bungalows, the lower and the upor one, for a
couple of nights and enjoyed it. Two beds with mosquito nets and a terrace
with chairs. Surprisingly, other then expected we had
only a couple of mosquitos for the last two days. Payed a lot for deed repellent
and never used it... good for us!

 

 

Now the best part, the volcano itself ;)
Can't remember the last time that I had so much respect for anything.
 I was thinking all the time, "I don't belong here. Stupid idea
standing next to an active volcano, which is erupting at least every 15 minutes."
But that didn't stop me from going up there three times ;)
Getting me scared can be quite challenging, but there've been a couple of
eruptions... Oh I can tell you ;)
Impressive and breathtaking at the same moment

 

 

Muscle ache...damn volcano ;)

Yesterday we tried climbing Mount Pico and we succeeded.
Mount Pico is a stratovulcano and with 2351m the tallest mountain in Portugal

To be honest, I don't know if i had done this alone. There are 45 marks on the trail and i think i had my very low between mark 17-26. Sadly we had clouds all around us. So no nice view to Faial and over Pico itself. That was a bit frustrating, but there has to be a reason doing it again ;)

As I implied, climbing up was the hardest part for me, also others are thinking its climbing down. No doubt, it was hard too and because I had five big blister due to ill-fitting socks, it was really painfull the last 8 marks, but not as hard as the ascend ;)

Today the muscle ache in my thighs started, we will see how hard it will become in the next couple of hours. I hate muscle ache when it get's slowly stronger. I prefer going to bed, waking up and nearly can't move anymore. ;)

Anyway it was a great training and i would recommend doing this 

at your last day if the waether allow's it.