What a great way to finish the year – they knocked the bastard off! On Wednesday TRM helped to provide a shuttle bus service for the Wairarapa College team of 16 pupils and 3 Teachers for their end-of-year tramp to tick off their bucket list for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Wow – were they fortunate with their timing as shuttle bus services from other operators have been canceled for the next three days – Thursday, Friday (showers anticipated in the morning and possibly heavy in the afternoon), and Saturday (mostly cloudy, isolated showers turning to rain) – due to deteriorating weather conditions.

As indicated the kids were all well prepared with spare warm waterproof clothing, plenty of water and food, sunblock, hats and gloves, sensible strong walking shoes, sunglasses, first aid kit, personal locator beacon, etc., and made sure they all stayed together as a group with no stragglers. Everyone had read up about the Tongariro Crossing and had trained for over 20 km of high-altitude wilderness tramping in exposed conditions. They were fully prepared knowing it attracted more helicopter rescue missions than any other of the “Great Walks” and other tracks in NZ. If the weather was iffy they had already considered alternative options. That all added to the anticipation and excitement. They had all seen the NZ Mountain Safety Council video below.