Making A Tongariro Northern Circuit Booking
You’ve decided to embark on one (or all ten!) of the Great Walks of New Zealand, ten of our best multi-day tramps (hikes) that will take you through our best landscapes. Yay, go you!! This post is dedicated to educating you about making your booking for one of the ten – the Tongariro Northern Circuit.
It was the first one that I completed back in 2018, and it’s one of only two in the North Island, too. The journey through volcanic valleys is what sets it apart from the others, and with so much of New Zealand’s beauty owed to geothermal activity, the Tongariro Northern Circuit is a great way to get into the heart of the Central Plateau in order to better appreciate all that.
This is your guide so that you know all the ins and outs before booking this beautiful adventure.
Is This The Tongariro Alpine Crossing?
No, there is a slight difference! The Tongariro Crossing is a day hike, and a better introduction to walking in this area if you are new to tramping (or ‘hiking’ if you’re from elsewhere!). The Tongariro Northern Circuit is a multi-day hike, and is the one you want to do if you are looking to complete an official Great Walk of New Zealand.
Both are located in Tongariro National Park, which is home to three volcanoes – Mount Ngauruhoe, Mount Tongariro, and Mount Ruapehu. They do overlap, though! Part of the second day is on some of the day walk’s track.
What Do I Need To Know About The Tongariro Northern Circuit?
The Tongariro Northern Circuit, (or just, ‘The Northern Circuit’) is either walked across four days and three nights – or three days and two nights, if you’re speedy! The track takes you from Whakapapa Village nestled in the shadow of Mount Ruapehu and leads you around through Mangatepopo Valley and over what used to be lava.
You’ll climb up to the Managatepopo Saddle and across and around a couple of craters. Stunning alpine lakes await you at the top before you descend into the Oturere Valley and into the Ngauruhoe foothills. Then, you’re on the ascent again (!), up to Tama Saddle this time, where more alpine lakes await you, before the descent back into the village.
It’s an up and down track (obviously) with lakes, streams and waterfalls glittering in the otherwise dry and volcanic valleys. The walk is 45 kilometres (or 28 miles) and you can walk it in either direction. We walked it at the end of spring (late October) which meant we had some snow on the track in parts, which was very pretty!
Being a Great Walk, it is so important that you have your spot booked before you go, if you are doing it between October and May (which is late spring, summer, or autumn). Its the most popular time to walk and you should only be doing the track in winter if you are very experienced in mountain conditions and expert knowledge of alpine equipment. In season, the hut wardens will check your booking, so make sure you pack it.
Booking Your Huts or Campsites
The three Department of Conservation huts along the track that you stay in are Mangatepopo Hut, Oturere Hut, and Waihohonu Hut. We actually skipped Mangatepopo Hut and had an extra long first day, ending at Oturere Hut. I was with some quite speedy trampers, and by far the slowest. (Grateful for my then-fiancé-now-husband who stuck with me at the back the whole track!)
I would fully recommend taking that extra day, though, and would stay at all three huts if I was competing the circuit again. You can enjoy the walk more, take your time, and stop for a hot drink along the track if you have your gas cooker near the top of your pack. It can get so cold out there when there is a wind up!
The Tongariro Northern Circuit, along with most of the other Great Walks, also caters to campers, and there are campsites at each of these three huts, too.
Department of Conservation Huts
The Tongariro Northern Circuit huts accommodate 20, 26 and 28 trampers respectively, so you may only be sharing with a couple of other groups of people. People are always approachable and are often visiting New Zealand from overseas. It’s always interesting to hear about where they are from and where else in New Zealand they plan to visit.
Tell Me About The Cooking Facilities
The Northern Circuit huts are well maintained and have cooking gas provided, although we often carry our own anyway, in case you end up having to wait. People don’t take long to cook their meals, however, as most are just boiling water, and it will save you space in your pack if you are ditching the gas.The official advice is to boil all water before drinking it (although kiwis often go in with a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude and drink it anyway) and you’ll need to bring pots and utensils to cook and eat with.
Tell Me About The Sleeping Arrangements
You have the choice to stay in the huts or to bring a tent and pitch it, for a lesser fee. In the huts, you’ll find the standard plastic mattress in a shared bunk room situation. Add earplugs to your packing list if you are a light sleeper. If you’re going to camp, you have access to toilets, water and sinks. You can use the facilities in the huts, which is great news, you just cannot sleep there.
Tell Me About The Toilets
Tongariro Northern Circuit Hut toilets are long drops – this is not the track for you if that’s a turn-off. Wardens maintain the facilities in season so you should be alright for toilet paper, but I always pack a roll anyway; it doesn’t take up much space, and you don’t want to be without it if there is a shortage.
Step One: Making a Great Walks Booking Account
One thing you’ve got to do before you can lock in your place on the Tongariro Northern Circuit is to create an account with the Department of Conservation Booking Service – unless you have one already. (If you do, make sure you can still log in and haven’t lost the password!)
Some of the Great Walks of New Zealand book out in minutes. I do not believe Tongariro Northern Circuit has risen in popularity quite to that point yet, but I would still recommend locking things in on the day bookings open, so as not to risk it booking out. Make your plans in advance of this date, so you are ready to go.
The link to the Department of Conservation Booking Service is https://bookings.doc.govt.nz/. You’ll be asked to sign up with your email and create a password. It used to be that there was one booking system for the ten Great Walks of New Zealand and another booking system for all other tramps. They have now been merged.
Step Two: Booking through your Great Walks Booking Account
Once you have your Department of Conservation Booking Service account all sorted out (ideally do it before the day bookings open; you don’t know how quickly those spots will go), you need to make sure you know the opening date for bookings, which is announced in advance each year for the upcoming season. Normally on that day, the Department of Conservation will open booking at 09:30am.
They have started staggering the booking opening dates, so that the system does not get overloaded. The day you can book one of the other Great Walks of New Zealand might differ from the day you can book another Great Walk of New Zealand by a couple of days. At the time of writing (August 2024), bookings are open for the coming summer (the season is late October 2024 until the end of April 2025) and the following year’s booking dates has not yet been announced, although it is typically at the end of May.
Know Your Party
Something you’ll want to have sorted before you attempt to book the Tongariro Northern Circuit is who you are going with – get people to commit to either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. If one person is booking for the others, they’ll need the first and last names of their party, their ages, (you won’t need their birthdates, however), and card details ready to go. If people are transferring money before you book, know that it could take 1-2 days to clear. Or, have them pay you back.
Know Your Dates
I would recommend having your chosen dates on paper in front of you and which hut corresponds with which date. Although it’s not hard, sometimes you can get yourself confused when you’re booking. This extends to having decided if you are walking for three days or for four. The four day option is three nights, remember, so if you were walking from November 3-7, your hut nights are going to be the 4th, 5th and 6th, with nothing on the 7th.
You’ll also wanted to have sorted out with your group if you are going to be staying at Mangatepopo Hut, followed by Oturere Hut, followed by Waihohonu Hut, or the other way around. It’s a circuit, so you’ll start and finish in Whakapapa Village either way.
Run Your Search
On the day that bookings open, be logged into the Department of Conservation Booking Service site and ready to go. It’s normally 09:30am in the morning when they open, but obviously check. You’ll need to refresh the page when it gets to that time, as it won’t happen automatically.
Load the page, find your dates in the calendar, pick the track you are booking, and the number of nights you’re staying (either two or three), and the number of people going with you. Click Search, and click on the green spaces that correspond to your huts and your dates.
If you’re booking campsites, make sure you don’t click on the row that specifies one of the huts. It’ll say if it’s a campsite or a hut on that row.
Select Your Dates
If you see any red squares with an exclamation mark, they’re not booked out yet, but they have less than 8 spots left, so two thirds full already. If they’re fully red, you’ll need to reverse your direction, bring your dates back or forward a couple of days, or be prepared to skip a hut and have a longer walk on one of the days.
The Department of Conservation Tongariro Northern Circuit brochure is extremely helpful with each section specified, the distance from point to point, and the time it might take you. You will probably end up with an 8 or 9 hour walking day somewhere if you skip one of the huts. For some, that’s too much. Others will think nothing of it.
Your selected squares should make a diagonal line; they can’t be in the same column, because one column is one date, so just check you’ve done it right, and click Reserve. Then you’ll be asked to enter names and ages for people in your group, but the system will hold your booking until the payment is through, so relax.
Make Your Payment
Huts on the Tongariro Northern Circuit are a bit different depending on whether you are from New Zealand or are a visitor from overseas. Assuming you’re going to walk the track in season (you really need to be confident if you’re doing a winter walk), a New Zealander will be charged $44NZD 🇳🇿 ($27USD 🇺🇸) per night. That’ll total either $88NZD 🇳🇿 ($55USD 🇺🇸) or $132NZD ($82USD 🇺🇸), depending on whether you are doing a three day or a four day walk.
It’s half of that for children ages 5-17 years old ($22NZD 🇳🇿 per night, or $13USD 🇺🇸).
An international visitor will spend $66NZD 🇳🇿 ($41USD 🇺🇸) per night, totalling $132NZD 🇳🇿 ($82USD 🇺🇸) or $198NZD 🇳🇿 ($123USD 🇺🇸) per adult, depending on the length of your walk.
Once again, it’s half the cost for a child aged 5-17 years old.
If it’s getting a bit costly and you’re prepared to carry a lightweight tent, you can save a lot by choosing to camp. A New Zealander will pay $19NZD 🇳🇿 ($12USD 🇺🇸) per night, totalling $38NZD 🇳🇿 ($23USD 🇺🇸) or $57NZD 🇳🇿 ($35USD 🇺🇸), depending on how many days you make your walk, and an International visitor will pay $28NZD 🇳🇿 ($17USD 🇺🇸) per night, totalling $56NZD 🇳🇿 ($35USD 🇺🇸) or $84NZD 🇳🇿 ($52USD 🇺🇸).
Again, it’s half the price in both situations for children aged 5-17 years old.
Taking a baby? Take an under 5 for free. If you can pack lightly and pop the little one in a front pack, go you!
I also want to point out that if you want to mix and match campsite and hut bookings, you can! Some would say that if they are going to the effort to carry a tent, they might as well use it all three nights, but if you want to add a hut booking in there, go for it.
Tips And Tricks
1️⃣ I would recommend sorting the track bookings first, and worrying about your accommodation before and after, later. We were able to stay at a campsite in a dorm room the night before the track so we were nice and close for an early start in the morning. There’ll be lots of options, so your priority is to sort the track booking first!
2️⃣ The landscape here can be quite dry and well, brown, in the summer, so if you were wanting to tramp in shoulder season, spring is going to be preferable to autumn, just because of the possibility of snow on the track! We went early in the season, at the end of October, so I was fine walking in a teeshirt and leggings in the bush, and popped a thermal top on for our traverse across the snow.
3️⃣ If you are taking a big group and wanting to go on a public holiday weekend, have some backup dates that people can make, so that if you miss out, you can go straight into the other dates to avoid missing out again. We actually managed to get more than ten of us booked on Labour Weekend 2018, of all weekends! How we did that, I do not know.
4️⃣ The walks have increased in popularity since our borders were shut in 2020 and kiwis were forced to turn to our own backyard for our getaways, so if you are attempting this now, have a couple of you online trying to book half the group each. You’ll double your chances of succeeding, at the risk of only one of you getting some of you booked. Have someone book those that most want to go, and someone book the ‘maybes’ in the group, so if you only succeed in getting half the bookings, they can be transferred to the people who most want them.
Cancellations and Refunds
It happens! We’ve been through this process before.You can chat to Department of Conservation staff about your circumstances on the phone or over email.
This page of theirs goes into detail about cancellations and refunds.
Booking Your Transport
Yay! You’re going! The Tongariro Northern Circuit is actually a really accessible track, because you start and finish in the Whakapapa Village.
Getting In/Out
If you are driving into Whakapapa Village, free overnight parking permits are available at the Tongariro National Park Visitor Centre, which is in Whakapapa Village itself, just a few hundred metres from the trailhead (which is conveniently right across the road from the carpark). I’d recommend taking your valuables along to the visitor centre and hiring a locker for those.
Another option is to get yourself to the town of National Park, which is a 20 minute drive from Whakapapa Village (22 kilometres, or 13 miles), and use a shuttle company to get into the start of the track and out again at the end. I’ll provide options below!
The benefit of staying in National Park before and after the tramp is that it sits on the InterCity bus route, meaning you can bus in from most towns, and it sits on the railway line, so you could also take the Northern Explorer Train into National Park from either the city of Wellington, which is just over five hours south, or the city of Auckland, which is just over five hours north.
Something worth mentioning is that the option to shorten the circuit slightly is available to you, by starting your tramp at Mangatepopo instead (which is where the day walkers begin their alpine crossing).
Operators
👉🏻 Tongariro Crossing Shuttles, or TCS, charge $30NZD 🇳🇿 ($19USD 🇺🇸) for a one way shuttle from National Park village over to Whakapapa Village. Expect to pay $60NZD 🇳🇿 ($37USD 🇺🇸) for a return trip. Their timetable is here: https://tongarirocrossingshuttles.co.nz/tongariro-crossing-shuttles-timetable/
Skip past the Tongariro Crossing section, as that is the day walk. Northern Circuit is underneath. Don’t be confused by the Mangatepopo and Ketetahi options – they’re the start and endpoints of the day walk, but options for you too, if you want to shave a bit off the Northern Circuit. (But you’re here because you want to complete a Great Walk in it’s entirety, right?)
👉🏻 National Park Shuttles is another operator based in the village of National Park. Much of their page is dedicated to transport options for the day walkers (they start at a different trailhead), but they also shuttle you from National Park village to Whakapapa Village (which is where you start the Tongariro Northern Circuit) so worth giving them a call.
👉🏻 Summit Shuttles will also do the trip for you but as most of their page is dedicated to the day walker’s shuttles (which goes from Mangatepopo to Ketetahi), it might pay to give these guys a call for pricing.
Train Transport
If you are wanting to get into National Park village by train, the longest stretch will be if you are coming all the way from Wellington, or all the way from Auckland. The Northern Explorer Train can be booked here.
Note that the train goes all the way from Auckland to Wellington one day, and all the way up from Wellington to Auckland the next day, so you’ll only be able to book on alternate days – something to pay attention to, if you have your track bookings already, as you may need to kill an extra day somewhere (easy, when you’re in the beautiful Tongariro National Park!).
A trip from the end of the line, ie Auckland or Wellington, will cost you $167NZD 🇳🇿 ($104USD 🇺🇸) or thereabouts for the one-way five and a half hour journey into National Park village.
Is There A Guided Walk Option?
Not really!
If you’d like to tackle this terrain with a guide, you can opt for a four day tour with Walking Legends, where you will pay $1950NZD 🇳🇿 ($1214USD 🇺🇸) for a small group guided tour over the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (that’s the day walk, which means you can stay in a lodge afterward, if that’s more your style).
It includes meals, gear and comfortable accommodation, however, this tour leaves Rotorua and Taupo and it’s actually four one-day-excursions into the Tongariro National Park, not one four-day excursion, (ie, the Tongariro Northern Circuit). If you want to tick off one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, you’ll be going unguided. (It’s near impossible to get lost though, so if it’s your first time, you’ll be fine!)
There are lots of other guided options in the park but they are really just for people wanting to do the day walk, so you’re on your own for the Tongariro Northern Circuit!
What Will It Cost Me?
Unless you skipped past the payment section above, you’ve seen the breakdown for what Tongariro Northern Circuit accommodation costs dependent on two factors – where you’re from (as there is a different rate for New Zealanders and for international visitors) and what kind of accommodation you are after (as campsites are cheaper than huts).
There is one more factor, and that’s whether you are skilled enough to go in the winter (which will save you lots of money, if you are very confident) or in-season (October to April).
To sum it all up, a New Zealander can stay on the Tongariro Northern Circuit in-season for as little as $38NZD 🇳🇿 ($23USD 🇺🇸), for two nights at the campsites, or as much as $132NZD 🇳🇿 ($82USD 🇺🇸), for three nights in huts.
An international visitor can stay on the Tongariro Northern Circuit in-season for as little as $56NZD 🇳🇿 ($35USD 🇺🇸), for two nights at the campsites, or as much as $198NZD 🇳🇿 ($123USD 🇺🇸), for three nights in huts.
The three Tongariro Northern Circuit transport operators listed above are all very similar with their pricing. To get in and out of National Park Village, a return shuttle will cost you approximately $60NZD 🇳🇿 ($37USD 🇺🇸).
If you are needing to catch the Northern Explorer Train into National Park Village, expect to pay somewhere around the $167NZD 🇳🇿 ($104USD 🇺🇸) for the one-way five and a half hour journey from either Auckland or Wellington (and a bit less that that if you’re not travelling from so far away).
Factor in the return ticket, too, depending on your post-tramp travel plans. You may be needing to spend an extra day in the park if you’re tramping and train dates don’t align by a day, but there’s lots of things to do in National Park (rock climbing, mini-golf, or white water rafting, if your muscles aren’t too sore).
If you have transport, and left a vehicle in either National Park Village or Whakapapa Village, I would heartily recommend the Tokaanu Thermal Pools ($8NZD 🇳🇿 or $5USD 🇺🇸) for a hot soak after your walk (a 35 and a 45 minute drive away, respectively).
Tongariro National Park is an incredible part of New Zealand and worth spending some time in. Being one of three of New Zealand’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, booking the Tongariro Northern Circuit is a sure way to explore this area to the fullest.
