Date: 23-25 December 2021

Time: 3 days (34:15 hours)

Distance: Approximately 90km

Christmas time is usually a time for family. And while we are ‘orphans’ in our new home without any family to share the holidays with, we usually try to get into the mountains and away from the hustle and bustle of this time of year.

A good “gettin’ away from it all” for us is usually at least a five-day tramp. But this year we decided to do five days of fast-packing and hence cover more ground. First up is something I’ve been wanting to do since the first time we walked around these mountains (2010, 2013, 2016, and 2018) – a continuous trip around both Mt Ngarahoe and Mt Ruapehu, cutting out the stretch of shared track between the two mountains. The first question was, should we go clockwise, or anticlockwise. We opted to go clockwise.