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The Blissful Hiker is gifted with good weather while walking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the Te Araroa, but it takes a fellow hiker to slow her down and help her enjoy the spectacular surroundings.


In this episode:

1. Blissful leaves Te Porere Redoubt for the Tongariro crossing with four hiker friends in the middle of the night and is heartened when she sees stars, a good omen for decent weather ahead. 
2. Tussocky hillsides dotted with mountain daisies take her up to steaming calderas spewing sulfuric smells, ancient craters crumbling into malevolent jaws and lakes of a wondrous chalky green. 
3.  As if like magic, her friend Tom meets her and slows her down to savor the entire day before they camp together below the Devils Staircase in the Mangatepopo Valley.
4. On her birthday, the day opens clear with a glorious view of Ruapehu all the way to Whakipapa where the trail goes from good to awful just as the promised storms follow her all the way to National Park.  

MUSIC: Impresiones de la Puna by Carlos Gaustavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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