It began this morning in Taupo with a 5 am wakeup call for the bus ride to Tongariro National Park. The bars were still bumping and thumping with New Year’s festivities, but I suited up with cold weather gear, attempting to be prepared for the Tongariro Crossing, billed as New Zealand’s most spectacular one-day walk.
Shot from a moving van after visiting the Seno Otway penguin colony, I just missed a Ñandu (similar to an Ostrich) that was running across the field. This…