I arrived in Aotearoa in 2016, but for nearly a decade, I had never walked the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It’s often called the best one-day hike in the world, yet somehow, I had always left it for "next time."
Recently, a friend came to visit, and we finally took the leap.
The experience was more than just a hike; it was a sensory immersion. I felt like I was in a dream state for the entire seven hours. The landscape shifts so dramatically, from the ancient lava flows to the vibrant, almost neon "different colour tones" of the Emerald Lakes. The textures of the earth under my boots, rough scoria, soft ash, and the glass-like stillness of the water, reminded me so much of why I started oneone. It is the raw, unfiltered beauty of New Zealand’s clay and stone.
The Lone Sentinel While the landscape was vast, something caught my attention that felt out of place. In the "main topic" of our conversations here at Oneone, our native wildlife, I noticed something strange. At the very highest, most desolate point of the walk, I saw only one bird.
It wasn't a mountain parrot or a forest bird. It was a seagull.
The Investigation I couldn't stop thinking about why a sea bird would be sitting on a volcano, kilometers away from the waves. After some investigation, I discovered that these are Karoro (Black-backed gulls). Unlike most of their kind, a hardy colony has made the mountains their home. They are the ultimate opportunists, living in a "wasteland" where few others can survive, waiting patiently for hikers to stop for lunch.
Seeing that single white bird against the dark, volcanic red crater was a reminder of how resilient and surprising nature can be. It was the perfect "texture" to end a long-awaited journey.
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