TRAMPING ABOVE THE CLOUDS!!

within the first couple of days of coming to new zealand i was having a conversation with someone who said something like 'im a bit sore because i went for a tramp yesterday'.. so naturally i assumed that he had spent the previous day at his local brothel, it wasnt until later that i realized that 'going for a tramp' meant 'hiking'.. when my friend rhys asked if id like to join him and 2 american cyclists on a 19.5km tramp across the tongariro crossing i was happy to say yes.. the 2 americans, barb and zig, are retired friends who have both recently ridden across the u.s. and were here in nz riding around and climbing mountains for a couple months.. fun people.. so on the eve of the hike the 4 of us got a room at a hostel in a town called national park near the center of the north island.. from here we took a bus up to the starting point and began the trek through miles and miles of highly active volcanic terrain.. there are 3 major volcanos here one of which left behind a crater that took us about 1/2 an hour to walk through, and they say that when it blew it wouldve moved the earth off of its axis... truly amazing, fascinating place with lots of eerily blue sulfuric pools and smoke coming from crevices in the ground all over the place.. it smelled like rotten eggs from all of the sulfur and there were spots near the lakes that would warm the bottom of your feet.. as we descended we went into thick native forests for about 3km.. beautiful day, up there in natural beauty with the caves in new mexico.. awesome