So this past weekend, a few of us die hards also known as Sarah, Jenna, Meg and I, decided to make another attempt at the Tongariro Crossing. We waited until the very last minute before going, just in case the weather wanted to hate on us again, but the forecast called for fine weather with light winds. Win! Jenna and I picked up our car in town on Friday and drove to Student village to get everyone. Obviously, I immediately had to parallel park with 5 or so uni students pointing and laughing.

Once we were on the road though, it was easy enough to forget we were driving on the wrong side and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of being able to stop whenever we wanted and not have to spend 30 minutes in the Rotorua visitor centre. Again.

We stayed at the Crossing Backpackers again and felt like we hadn’t even spent a week away. Friday night was spent playing pool (pretty terribly on my part) and getting ready for our 7:45am bus to the crossing the next day. The next morning dawned with clear (ish) skies and we got on our bus so excited to finally be able to do the hike.

Meg assigned everyone Lord of the Rings characters since we were in the land of Mordor. She was Frodo, I was Sam, Jenna was Gandalf, to some confusion since she hadn’t seen Lord of the Rings, and Sarah was Gimli, because she was wearing her red hair in a braid, haha. The only problem was we didn’t get to the beginning of the 20km or 10 mile track until 8:40am and our bus on the other side left at 4:30pm. The estimated time to complete the crossing was 7 to 8 hours and that didn’t include climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe or Mt. Doom (!), an extra 3 hour side trip. We had roughly 8 hours and there was no way we were skipping Ngauruhoe. The Fellowship needed to make it to the top of Mt. Doom. We made pretty good time to the base of Ngauruhoe, including climbing Devil’s stairs. Meg and Sarah flew up them while Jenna and I took our time a little bit.

Climbing Ngauruhoe is almost impossible to describe. There’s no real track and the best way to do it is to, well, scramble. Imagine trying to climb a massive sand dune,  that also happens to be an active volcano. There was so much volcano ash and lava flow that every step you took, you would sink back down the 45 degree slope a few steps. Also, the rocks aren’t anchored to the slope so every ten minutes of so, someone above you would whistle and start yelling “Rock! Rock!” and you’d see some boulder hurtling down towards you. One man was unlucky enough to get hit by one of these falling rocks and had to be taken off the mountain by helicopter since it smashed his leg. Finally, after a gruelling hour and a half of climbing, we made it to the crater. Everything was tinted red and looked like Mars but the cloud would clear every so often and you could see for miles over rolling hills and forests, reminding you that you hadn’t actually left the planet. Obviously, we needed to celebrate and had joked the week before about cracking a bottle of champagne at the crater. No one actually drank it, but who else can say they’ve sprayed champagne into the crater of a volcano??

Popping bottle ^

We didn’t think jumping by the crater was a good idea at first, but we got a great pic ^

The way down Ngauruhoe was, for me, almost as difficult as the way up. It was so steep with so many loose rocks and ash that every time I’d get into a rhythm, sort of like skiing, my feet would slip out from under me and I’d land on my back. I think Meg put it perfectly in her blog “slide, fall, eat shit, volcanic rocks up the butt.” I emptied so much ash out of my shoes, socks and pants at the bottom!

The rest of the crossing was beautiful. We climbed up to Red Crater and then down to the emerald lakes which are turquoise because of all the volcanic minerals. Some crazy hikers actually stripped down and swam in them which is a horrible idea because, a.) They’re sacred to the Maori, b.) They could easily be poisonous and c.) You’re on a windy mountain, with 11km more to hike and it’s FREEZING!

After the emerald lakes, we realized that we really needed to start booking it in order to make our bus. From the Ketetahi Hut, the sign said it was another 11/2 to 2 hours to the car park. We had an hour, whoops. Meg ran the rest of the way since she’s a champ but I decided on a power walk/occasional jog. My legs were ready to drop off at that point.

When we finally reached the car park, the bus said they weren’t going to leave without all their passengers and that we weren’t the last ones off the track, there was still about 7 people behind us.

Back at the backpackers we showered and were offered dinner by some really nice older people who turned out to also be from Hamilton and worked at the uni. Scalloped potatoes, lasagne, and mini quiches were really what we needed to end such an awesome and tiring day. Watching Return of the King followed dinner, which was a fitting ending to the trip although no one could really keep their eyes open to finish watching.

The next day, we said goodbye to the backpackers once again and headed to Waitomo Caves. Meg and Sarah went blackwater rafting, but Jenna and I opted not to and instead we limped (everything hurt) round the Kiwi sanctuary to see if we could finally see the mythical kiwi. They were SO CUTE, even if there were only two of them. We also found some ostriches on the side of the road which were a tiny bit scary…

Back to Hamilton and now I just have to write two papers before more adventures can begin.

Karen

Location: Tongariro National Park, New Zealand