There was very little running, but the pace was enjoyable (approximately 11:20). I think doing it as a run would be phenomenal, saving the western leg from Whakapapa Village to Mangatepopo, which is a dull grind with poor trail conditions. My cohort would be welcome on future endeavors, so hopefully I have found someone who is interested in continuing to go outside.
I think the photos capture the scenery fairly well, so I'll leave the trip report there.
Awesome! I can't wait to run it with you some day! It is interesting that their estimate is so far off. I wonder if that includes smaller trail branches, or simply reflects poor Kiwi surveying? How much distance does the extra leg around Ruapehu add? We may need to do this at least 2 times, because I will undoubtedly endeavor to map it the fist time. We can shoot for sub 5 hours on the second. :)
ReplyDeleteI am actually not sure where the 55 km number came from. It could have been an estimate of my own from a map. It could have been posted by some other user. Department of Conservation posts distances in terms of hours, not length. Thus, the Northern Circuit is 3-4 days with a total of not less than 17.5 hours of walking (when summing estimated travel times).
DeleteApparently you cannot currently comment on pictures. This should not be the case, and I am trying to remedy the problem. One issue with trying to fix this is that when I sign into Picasa it looks nothing like the new Google+ layout that everyone else sees. If anyone out there really wants to investigate this issue, see if you can comment when signed into Google+ versus when not signed into Google+, and let me know.
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