The Man From DOC - he say NO

And it happened again! That great Martyn/Kay event that is a lovely view
that you really have to go and see.....and the cloud came down and the rain
started. You'll note the lovely 'white out' effect behind the sign in the
photo. Its not a clever effect. As usual with us, it's the weather!

So we left Waitomo and the caves which were great (especially being as it
was raining - Martyn says his book is very good by the way) and headed East
in the hope that the weather would pick up or at the very least we would pop
out above the cloud level. Silly us.

We had this plan to do the Tongariro Crossing which is an 8 - 10 hour hike
through beautiful alpine plateau with lakes and all sorts. We thought it
might be a bit of a rush in one day but hatched a plan to maybe get to the
first hut bunk overnight and then finish it the next day. Got to National
Park village and the DOC office where you should register and check that all
is okay for walk. Weather = rain and 70 - 90km/h winds for the next 3 days.
Big sign says shouldn't do crossing in winds above 60km/h. Well that and the
fact that it was a white out and we wouldn't have seen any of the views
anyway put us off. Thought about doing the whole thing in one day but the
weather system was due to stay around for 3 - 4 days. Great.

Managed two little walks around the National Park as we decided to head off
to Taupo to see if the weather was nicer there! We might try Tongariro again
in a week or so...