This is one of New Zealand's great walks and it is indeed a GREAT WALK!

The trek is in Tongariro national park and walks between and around all the 3 volcanoes of the park, Ruapehu (exploding pit\pit of noise in English), Ngauruhoe (Throwing hot stones in English) AKA mount doom and Tongariro (Cold southern wind).

We headed out to hike this trail after the great walk season had already ended.
Meaning there are less people on the trek, the huts are non bookable (for better and worse), there are less facilities in the huts, it's colder and the weather is more likely to change for the worse.

We hiked this trail counter-clockwise which means we walked against most of the traffic on the trail.

We started the hike from Whakapapa village and hiked towards Waihohonu hut, the weather was a bit windy but fine all in all, We have already walked this part of the trail on a different walk so we knew what was lying ahead.
The views of the 3 volcanoes are just breathtaking, every once in a while you look up and see the mountains and are just hit with wonder.
The clouds wrapping the tops of the mountains, the rocky ground, the whistling wind just take you to a better place, both mentally and physically.
We got to the hut pretty quickly and got ourselves a bed, as the time past more and more people arrived to the hut, eventually the hut was completely full, some people even had to stay outside and sleep in the campsite.
As the darkness of night came we got ourselves ready and headed out to do some night photography, it was freezing cold! To the point my camera and tripod started icing up, it was a little scary, but it was so amazing. We loved every minute of it.

We started the second day a bit late, knowing that it is a short day, even at 10 am long after the sun had already risen the ground was still frosty, and the water within the ground had frozen overnight and made the dirt rise up, quite a special phenomena.
We went through the second day pretty quickly with a lot of stops just because we could.
We reached Oturere hut and things were a bit more relaxed over there, everyone had a place to sleep inside and we all got along pretty well.

We planned to wake up really early in the morning, at around 2am and start walking to get to the alpine crossing at sunrise. Unfortunately I had a bad headache and we had to sleep a little longer. We still woke up for sunrise and it was icy, cold and satisfying.
Because we were now higher up in the mountains and the temperatures at night were much colder we even saw puddles that got completely frozen.
The sense of wonder is rising by the moment. We had breakfast and started walking.
The third day of the trek walks down one mountain and then climbs and crosses in an alpine crossing (named Tongariro alpine crossing) between two out of the three volcanoes of Tongariro national park, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. The crossing is steep but it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, we walked next to sulfuric pools called Emerald lakes, they were magnificent to see, the we got stand on the top of Tongariro and look down into the crater of the volcano, it is jugged and dramatic, later, we walked next to Ngauruhoe, better known as Mount Doom from the "Lord of the Rings" movies, I can only describe the views as AWESOME.
Eventually we got to the last hut of the trek, Mangatepopo.

The last hut we've been in also has access from the road that is just 20 minutes away, but surprisingly it was the quietest hut we've been in.
At night I went out to shoot the night's sky and mountains in the dark. I think there is something very magical in those hours, especially when out between the mountains.
We woke up early and headed to the next and last 10kms of the trek, they were pretty easy and passed really quickly. The day was chilly and it was nice.
An easy finish to an incredible walk.