Hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing for Free!
You should definitely not miss New Zealand’s most famous walk once you are in the area. The views here are amazing. Before we left, we found out that we had to book an expensive shuttle to take us back to the starting point of the hike. We thought this could be done differently. Read how we walked the Tongariro Alpine crossing for free!
General information Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Tongariro National Park is very popular among tourists who come to New Zealand. Rightly so! Here you have the chance to walk over an active volcano. The best period for this is spring and summer in New Zealand (the opposite of the European seasons). In winter it can even snow here and we would certainly advise against walking the crossing on your own during this period.
The entire crossing is 20.2 kilometers long and you gain quite a few meters in altitude. You walk from point A to point B, so that you end up back at your car at the end (point B). To do this, you must first be dropped off at the start by a shuttle bus (from point B to point A). We walked the Tongariro Alpine crossing completely free, but from point B, turning around halfway along the route back to the car.
Park your Car
It is best to park the car along the side of Lake Rotoaira Road (see in our Google Maps travel guide New Zealand). During our visit (December 2023) we were able to park our car here for free. Make sure that you do not park beyond the prohibition signs and that you park in the direction of travel. Once on site, this speaks for itself.
Hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing for Free!
The Tongariro crossing starts a little further away than the parkinglot, so you will have to cover some extra kilometers before you reach the official starting/ending point. There are toilets and some parking spaces here. We strongly advise against parking your car here, because you have to be back within 4 hours. That’s impossible!
The path is self-explanatory from this point, but you could also use our route in the Google Maps map. The first part of the walk is still fairly flat. After this the real climbing begins. You are already seeing more and more of the volcanic environment! Once you arrive at the bottom of the volcano, the climbing really begins. You have to climb quite steeply via a path with all kinds of loose stones. We wore sturdy ankle-high shoes. After all the climbing and scrambling we were at the top of the volcano!
Normally the route runs the other way around. So you will encounter many people descending on the way up. That seems annoying, but it was doable! After looking around at the top, we also walked back down the same path as the others. In this way we walked back exactly the same route as we had walked before. In total we hiked for 6 hours, which means that we covered more kilometers and altitude meters (1390 meters) than when you walk the official crossing (over 800 meters).
Way 2 to Hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing for Free
Are you reluctant to make those extra kilometers and altitude meters? Then you could also choose to look for people who also want to walk the crossing. This way you can park one car at point A and the other car at point B. There are plenty of people at the campsites in the area who also want to walk the crossing, so you might be lucky!
What to Bring to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing?
There are plenty of packing lists for a day trip like the Tongariro Alpine crossing. We really recommend wearing sturdy shoes. Don’t come here in your running shoes without ankle protection. High shoes are nice, especially on the last stretch! Also don’t forget different layers of clothing. We started in the rain, had sun halfway through and it was very windy at the top.
You will find all relevant information for the walk on the DOC New Zealand website. You can also register here to hike the crossing. For the time being, this is only to check visitor numbers and is not mandatory if you do not want to book a shuttle.
