Tongariro crossing and MOUNT DOOM

ahhh we had heard that there was a lot of Lord of the Rings stuff in NZ whatev. but on thanksgiving we got to see the mother of them all Ngurahoe or in laymans turms MT. DOOM.

after spending the night at a campsite in the middle of nowhere we headed into the tiny mountain town of National Park. We caught the 7:30am bus to the trailhead with like thirty other people and arrived just before eight. There were tons of people at the trailhead and we were soon informed that somewhere around 6000 people do the Tongariro crossing every day- and you could tell. My favorite group that was out there was a group of what looked like 10-12 year olds with their teachers and parents getting ready to do the 20km walk- i was just so impressed that they were out there ready to take it on and it made me think of camp. sigh.

The crossing takes you up through the saddle inbetween Tongariro and Ngurahoe and then back down the other side through sulfer lakes and eventually rainforest at the bottom. You could see Doom from the trailhead pritty clearly and we made it to the first hut in about 15 min walking straight towards the mountain, and we made it to the saddle in about an hour. There is no actual trail up Ngurahoe and once we got there we found out it is because its actually a giant black sand dune with snow on it. So the climb up was was really a crawl/scramble up a steep slope of sand- at least that meant we got to slide on the way down.

we had lunch at the first crater, exhausted by all the sand before heading the rest of the way over the saddle and across the ridge to the other side. when you cross you can the red side of Doom as well as the immensely red rocks of the red crater. Standing there you can really understand why they chose this location for Mordor. Its all a crazy rock landscape and the sulfer everywhere makes the ground warm in spots, and just the other side where the lakes are it turns the beaches and sand a mustard yellow color. Its really spectacular!

The decent was where it got tough because just when you think your almost there you have an hours walk through grasses and tundra and then another hour through rainforest. But you can hear running water almost the whole way and its a nice change from the cold alpine air in the saddle.

Afterwords we made it back in one piece, even though we had to wait on the bus forever for two jackasses that actually had just decided to hitch a ride back to town. We then drove from the park to New Plymouth which is a town of about 70,000 people on the west coast (in the knobby part of the North island) that recently won best town under 75,000 in the world! And so far its not bad. The coffee shops are nice, the beaches are crazy long and black with good surf and there are boardwalks and nature walks everwhere you go.

New Plymouth is also our first go at couch surfing. we are staying with a lovely woman named Jan who moved back here after 17 years in Dunedin and parts of Australia. She is full of energy and even got us to go on a beach walk with the dogs at 6:30am!

tomorrow we head for Mt. Egmont. YAY!