Tongariro Crossing Shuttles — Local services in North Island

Don't use Tongariro Crossing Shuttles....our experience of them was of a very poor service and unsafe, at a high cost. At the bottom we reccomend alternatives.

We were the first people on the first bus of the morning. The journey out was fine. Nice bus, though the seatbelts were faulty.

First bus back was due at 1.30pm, which is too late, people are gathering at the finish by 12. We waited patiently for the bus, looking at every bus which arrived in the small parking area, but none branded Tongariro Crossing Shuttles.

We noticed that some other people who'd been on our bus earlier had now left. Another guy with us phoned the company who said that the bus had been and gone, with a different company name on it. We had certainly not been given any warning to look for a bus under a different company name. Very unhelpful!

We waited for over for 2 hours, while everyone with the other companies has long been collected.

We saw a bus arrive branded 'Tongariro Volcanic Adventures' (another name we'd seen online) and when we asked, this was the bus we needed. We had seen this bus at 1.30 but dismissed it as another company. This was raised with the driver who dismissed us with... 'oh, people love to complain' and admitted that people say this all the time, but it clearly hasn't been addressed in any way.

Drivers from other companies had walked around the gathering of walkers and ensured that they had everyone, but not our driver.

After 2 and a half hours sat in a baking hot dusty car park, we were very disappointed!

The bus back had no seatbelts at all, and the driver was texting and making phone calls while driving. He mounted the verge a couple of times.

Summit Shuttles and Tongariro Expeditions seem to have very regular and bigger busses....go with them instead!

We contacted Tongariro Crossing Shuttles to express these concerns, which could have been easily resolved. An apology to us would have sufficed, and the confusion would be solved by the morning driver just letting people know to watch out for a different bus. We didn't...

We used the shuttle which was great getting there, guy was very friendly going up and chatty and the car would be at the end of the track which is great. The weather wasnt too good so i asked one of the workers if they thought it was ok to do, they said it was based on the met weather and said it should clear so we decided to try. We got just before red crater before we had to turn back as it was very foggy, windy and rainy. Lots of people turning back saying its alot worse up higher. Even a guide said he didnt think it was going to clear and would proberly turn back (which he did) Once back at the start we got the shuttle back which we had to pay for. That wasnt an issue although they charged $50pp which was more than we had paid to park our car and get the shuttle there. When i questioned it they said yer but coming back is $50each rather rudely. They driver then proceeded to tell the bus that we should have just carried on as its more sheltered on the other side of red crater. Im surprised they are allowed to let people go up when the weather is like that. Obviously our decision to do it in the end but we thought it wasnt very safe to carry on and to be charged that much and be told we should have carried on really annoyed not only us but other...

Absolutely can not reccomend these guys enough. Our original shuttle company cancelled our trip due to the high velocity winds on the trail, but my wife and I were determined to do the hike anyway. Our car was at the Ketetahi car park and we finished our hike at the Mangatepopo car park. There we met Bill who very kindly let us hop on the bus and took us back to their headquarters at National Park Village where we were able to arrange for transportation back to Ketetahi. On our ride back to Ketetahi we had the pleasure of riding with Lyle who knew a ton of information about the surrounding area.

These guys seemed to be one of the few shuttle services who did not cancel their trips, which ended up saving us from walking from Mangatepopo back to Ketetahi after the grueling hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is. My only regret on the entire day was not booking a shuttle with these guys...