{MATCHLESS} PHOTOGRAPHY wedding photographers » emerald lakes http://matchlessphotography.com/blog wedding and portrait photography in san angelo texas Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:56:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 tongariro crossing http://matchlessphotography.com/blog/2009/06/17/tongariro-crossing/ http://matchlessphotography.com/blog/2009/06/17/tongariro-crossing/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:48:48 +0000 admin http://www.matchlessphotography.com/blog/?p=772 The Tongariro Crossing is a very well known day hike in new zealand… possible one of the best day hikes, some say.  Usually you start at one end, hike the track which takes anywhere from 6-8 hours, then have a bus pick you up at the other end and take you back to your car.  Unfortunately for us, the busses don’t run in the winter.  Well, it’s actually a safety precaution – i think.  The Tongariro Crossing is pretty dangerous in the winter because of all the snow and ice on track – so you need to hire a guide to take you.  They will take care of your transportation as well as guide you through the crossing with ice axes and crampons.  Well, we took the cheap route.  We wanted to do as much of the hike as we possible could, knowing that we’d have to turn around and that we didn’t ice equipment.  We actually made it all the way up to the highest point and saw all the amazing lakes and views before we turned back.  Here are some of our photographs…

This first one was taken almost immediately.  This is some ice over a river.  Yes, it was pretty cold.

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Colin and I in front of Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom).

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The valley we walked in from.

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Just a couple more from the hike.

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One of the marking signs to show the way… i think this might help to see how windy it was!

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The emerald lakes… you can see why they got their name.  However, most of them are all covered in ice so this is all we got to see.  There is also a lake called Blue Lake that’s much bigger.  It was all frozen over as well.

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Colin and I at the top!  It was so chilly and windy I thought we’d turn into popsicles!

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One more from the top with Mt. Doom.
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By Colin and Andre’a Feldhaus

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