I am planning to do the Tongariro Crossing with a few friends, I havent done it before and my other friends havent done it since ages ago.
My initial plan was to go up and stay the night in national park village, and read there are shuttles we can take that will take us to the start and pick us up at the end for around $25 - $35pp.

My other plan i had in mind was drive up early morning. Drop mates off at the start and then leave another car at the end and then stay the night in the Ketetahi hut or the Mangatepopo hut. This is probably a cheaper option for us as i assume it would be cheaper to stay in a hut then backpackers and also saves money from having to take the shuttle as there will be about 8 people going.

Does anyone know how long it takes to drive from one carpark to the other?

Also anyone stayed at those huts before? whats the go on paying the hut fees/passes or bookings?

 

Worth knowing that those car parks are not the safest places to leave cars.

I thought the huts on the Northern circuit did need booking during the summer - but the DOC site says they don't. Ketetahi is nice and cosy - summer lasts until 1 May - more on seasons for great walk huts here. Might pay to double check about booking with the local doc office?
 

 

Hi there,

Just came back from the Nothern Circuit and have stayed at both huts. You don't have to book them, ust go to the DOC office at Whakapapa Village and buy the hut tickets (20 bucks per hut, person and night -the grossing is part of a Great Walk, namely the Northern Circuit). I`d prefer Ketetahi Hut (awesome views across to Lake Taupo on a good day; the Ketetahi Hot springs are near the hut). We saw a spectacular moonset from Mangatepopo, though, and met Amelia Geary's mother who is currently working as hut warden at this very hut.

Safe parking is an issue, indeed. You could leave you car at Whakapapa and start from there (3hrs to Mangatepopo). We did so and found the car as it was at the time we left it 3,5 days earlier. 

Have got a (maybe) stimulating online-gallery with pictures of both huts (mangatepopo is just a tiny speck in the middle of nowhere :-) Hope this helps!

 http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Nicogoeskiwi

Cheers and have fun,

Nicolai

 

Thanks for the info Rob and Nicolai. Love the photos, cant wait to see it myself.

I think staying in the huts work out better then if we stayed in some backpackers and did the tramp in one day then drive back to wgtn on the same night.

Im not too worried about my car getting broken into. Will make sure theres nothing of value to steal of anything like that.

Well my plan would be to leave wellington early like 9am and arrive at national park at 1pm, then get things sorted like hut passes and drop cars off at the Mangatepopo carpark. Start the tramp at Ketetahi Car Park, i read it was about a 2 hour tramp to the Ketetahi hut. That should give us plently of time to get there. Then head off again in the morning and finish up at the Mangatepopo carpark. I assume this would be like a 6 hour hike and would leave us with time to get back to wellington. 

This sound like a solid plan? any obvious things i should know? Ive gone through the checklist on the doc website for things to bring and should be fine with the clothing department. Is a hut warden someone who like stays at the hut all the time? or someone that like just looks after the hut sorta thing.

Thanks for the help

Craig 

Getting your car broken into would be a good day!

 

Usually what happens at Mangatepopo is that you come back not to find your car but small pieces of your car spread for 3 km down the road where you then stumble across the burnt out carcase of what was your car still smouldering in a crumpled heap.

 

Craig Scott

Lol :-)  Yeah, man, unless you are the proud owner of a cool Captain Planet vehicle no one dares to touch...

A hut warden is commonly, as I just learned, a friendly lady (or guy) volunteering for DOC responsible for maintenance ana stuff and is staying at the hut over peak season. She / he will be checking your hut tickets and tends to entertain tired trampers with weird outdoor stories ;-)

Cheers,

Nicolai

I agree with Craig, I seriously wouldn't leave my car at M'popo as they are not the "tap in the little back window and unlock the car and rifle through the glovebox" type people they are like human keas - they will rip everything apart and then take a dump on it as well (they eat a bit better than keas so it's pretty messy). 

Probably stating the obvious but even though it's a popular tramp it is across a mountain that catches all the sh1t weather and there's no shelter en route.  If it is horrible weather and you're not following poles and millions of footprints your probably off route. 

 Also worth noting the hotpools at Ketetahi are on private land and trampers shouldn't visit them otherwise track access might get closed (as the track crosses private land).

---

Richie

You could park a car at each road end and if like you started out at Mangatapopo and got to Keteahi and the car was still there you could assume that the car at Mangatapopo was probably gone and save time by taking the desert road home. And if you were robbed of all your belongings except your undies by two guys with a shot gun at Keteahi I'm sure you could hitch home. Well my experiance ant Mangatapop was that the Subarau stationwagon was entered through a hole cut in the driveres door. (no doors or windows were broken but there was a person sized hole in the door) and the stereo and cd's were taken. Note the face of the stereo was under the seat and so were the cd's and nothing of value could be seen from outside. Megan had both the front and drivers side windows of her corolla broken by her stering wheel lock but the crooks didn't manage to break through the drivers side "a" pillar (though it had taken a beating with an ice axe) and so hadn't managed to get it out of the car park. My car had all its lights broken, a few extra dents, a broken window, the horn removed and half the dash riped apart. It was still there as not only did it have an imobileser but I had also taken the Fuel Pump Relay out. Chris's corrola was never seen again unless you count the broken pieces of lights and bumber in a ditch near a sharp corner along the road.

Yep, Mangatapopo is indeed a bad place to leave a car. Typically there are several piles of broken glass to be found in the carpark. Though I must admit it has been some time since I was last there ...

One one trip in order to advoid leaving our car unattended for the night at Mangatapopo (or Kiteahi) we decided to sleep in the shall shelter at the Mangatapopo carpark, and the following morning do a day walk to Keteahi hut returning back to Mangatapopo carpark. With light "day packs" this is quite achievable. Sleeping in the shelter is not strictly "legal" and when we got caught by the Mangatapopo hut warden we claimed that we were not sleeping but watching our car (the sleeping bags and roll mats were just for warmth and comfort). He was pretty understanding about this and left us to continue watching our car.

hmm that bad eh. well there must be a safe place somewhere to park isnt there? might do what Nicolai did and park in Whakapapa and start there. Otherwise might have to go with the bus option.

I did this (start Whakapapa) when doing the Northern Circuit - had no problems. We left from there late afternoon - spent the night - then started very early for the crossing section to avoid the rat-race.

where did you finish? did you leave a car at the end and if so where?

We had only one car - left it in the car park opposite the chateau - we looped back around via Tama Lakes.