Tongariro Crossing - Walking into Mordor

So I'm just going to warn you all that this post will be long...but it will be filled with a lot of pictures! This is my trek to Mount Doom!! (Lord of the Rings for all you non-movie watchers out there). So after the kayaking trip, we headed over to the town National Park within Tongariro National Park.

We drove from Napier, which is on the East coast, and then we had to drive back up to Taupo and down to National Park. It was a really pretty drive because we got to drive through Tongariro National Park.

We got to our hotel, the Adventure Lodge, pretty early, but our room was ready so he let us bring our stuff in.

This is the building we stayed in. There were a bunch of rooms in here, and it had a nice sitting area with couches and a TV and fireplace. They also had tables set up to eat where they served us all of our food.

Then he told us to go and check out Whakapapa Village while he got all of our information ready. It was about a 20 minute drive from National Park, and it consisted of a couple ski lodges for Mount Ruapehu when there is snow on it.

The building behind the sign is the Chateau. It was originally a retreat where people would go to spa during the holidays. Now it is a nice restaurant and people can stay there who go skiing. 

This village had a pretty sweet visitors center. They had a lot of the animals on display. This is a picture of a Morepork or Ruru. I hear them outside of my window every single night, and I think they are so cute! 

The guy at adventure lodge had told us to go and take a two hour hike to go and see Taranaki Falls, so that's what we did! The hike seemed like some of the others we had been on. It was cool because we could see Mt. Ngauruhoe in the background which is what we were going to be hiking around the next day.

I snapped this picture while Courtney was driving so I think that it turned out pretty cool. You can't really see it yet, but that is Mt. Ngauruhoe.

Here are some of the rocks that we were able to climb on. They don't have many restrictions here, so you can really go anywhere you'd like. The waterfall is just to my right.

Here's me standing under Taranaki Falls! It's really the first time I've experienced a waterfall up close.

Here are the falls from a distance. It has been a pretty dry fall, so the falls don't have that much water. 

Another picture of the falls. I just can't get enough apparently! 

We headed back to National Falls after our walk where they have this wonderful huge kiwi bird on display.

That night, we decided to eat a little place called Eivins Cafe. Courtney got a delicious looking burger, and I got some delicious pumpkin soup! All the other restaurants in this little town were really expensive, but I'm sure most other tourists coming there are meaning to splurge.

The reason we came to this lodge was because my parents had come to the same one when they did the crossing. There were many things included in the Freedom Package that we got. One thing that was included was transportation to and from the crossing. Because they were possibly anticipating rain, they told us we were leaving bright and early at 6:30 AM. Part of our package also included breakfast, so we were up at 5:15 AM to dress ourselves. We were so thankful that Zac and Karien had lent us warm clothes, because everyone was telling us the weather can change so fast up on the crossing, so it was important to be prepared. I thought I was going to be cold, so I packed some extra shirts and pants in my pack (which surprisingly didn't weigh that much) and tried to dress myself appropriately. I ended up with a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a rain jacket, some shorts, and those sweet leggings.

This is the masterpiece that I came up with to keep myself warm in the morning. Style was never my strong suit, but it kept me warm for when I needed it! Keep in mind this was at like 5:30 AM, so I was extremely tired.

Our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and coffee. It was delicious and very helpful to begin the crossing on a full stomach! After breakfast we headed to the van and took a twenty minute drive to the start of the crossing! In the map below, we were dropped off at the end of Mangatepopo Road. This map has our entire trek, so I will be pointing stuff out throughout the rest of the post!

This picture is a little blurry, but it was really cool that we left so early because then we were able to see the sun rise over the crossing we were about to do!

The trek started off pretty flat through some brush and some swampy areas. 

This is the start of our journey after it lightened up a bit. I wasn't cold with what I was wearing. We ended up going up some stairs and that's where I started getting hot.

The first place we got to after about an hour was Soda Springs (as seen on the map above). I was getting pretty warm, so I took off my long sleeve shirt and my leggings. The wind was a little chilly, but it felt good to not have so many layers on at the same time. That wind jacket (something called a Mountain Designs jacket) was AMAZING! The purpose of it is to keep water out but to let water (or sweat) from within out as well. I couldn't even tell that I had taken off my long sleeve shirt that's how warm the jacket was. 

This was the first major set of stairs called the Devil's Staircase. At the end of the blog, I will show a picture of the elevation of the trek, but this was out first major incline up.

Here is one of the many pictures I took of myself with Mt. Doom in the background. There weren't even that good of trails to walk on. It was a lot of rocky trails and dirt paths, but it was fun! It was very adventurous.

We chose to spend the extra hour and 20 minutes to go to the top of Tongariro Summit. This path was mainly just walking around rocks and walking on the side of the mountain in dirt paths made by people. Ketetahi Carpark was where we were ending up. This sign is considered about halfway I believe.

This isn't at the summit quite yet, but it is on the way. It's fun climbing rocks. 

We made it! We are basically at the same level as Mt. Ngauruhoe

We stopped here to have a snack, and there was an amazing view on top of the summit. We were above the clouds!

Courtney took this picture of me, and I thought it was pretty cool! This was still on top of the summit, 6500ft! There was so much wind up there it was actually really cold! I was okay with what I was wearing at the time, but if the whole walk was like that I would have been unhappy.

This is me in front of the red crater. It smelt pretty bad around here because there was a lot of sulfur around this area. 

Here is a picture of one of the Emerald Lakes. There were two total that we got to see that are considered emerald I believe. I look cold, but it was mostly from the wind. That jacket did wonders though so I was content with being a little chilly rather than really hot.

I believe we were above the red crater, and had to walk down that path you see. It does not look as steep as it actually is, but it was crazy steep and really sandy. You had to make sure to dig your heels in until you find traction and then step down. I will admit that I fell twice, but it was mostly because I was too lazy to even try and stop myself. I group of people behind me laughed when I fell, so I made sure to catch myself all the other times.

Here is Courtney and I in front of the Blue Lake. It was so beautiful and the color was amazing.

Here we are with the central crater and Mt. Ngauruhoe in the back. In front of us is where the Blue Lake is. Behind us is a nice flat area we got to walk through which is the Central Crater.

I thought this was pretty sweet because we were in an active volcano hazard zone! They basically just tell you that if the ground starts shaking and you see black puffs of smoke that you should just run away and out of the hazard zone. Also, you should take shelter behind a large rock (or the hut if you can make it) to protect you from rocks being spewed out of the volcano. Courtney and I said we would probably want to take pictures first (although I'm sure we would have been smart in the actual event).

Here I am in front of Te Maari. This is the active volcano that erupted on August 6 2012 and November 21 2012. The crossing was obviously closed for a few months until they could determine it was safe for people again. 

As we were heading down the track, we noticed how swollen our hands were! I have pretty small hands, so I was laughing at how pudgy it looked. I couldn't even move my watch or my ring. It hurt to make a fist or to really use our hands for some things. 

This was the last part of our trek! It was about an hour once we got into the woods until the end. This reminded me of all the hikes I've been on thus far! We were antsy to get to the finish!

We made it! It took us 7 hours (almost exactly) including the extra hour and 10 minutes for the summit, so the regular walk probably took us about 5 hours and 50 minutes for a total of 19.4km. 

Here is another picture of our walk. Again, starting at Mangatepopo and ending at Ketetahi following that red and black line. At the red crater, you can see where we took our little detour to the Tongariro Summit. It's a cool little map to show us where we went!

Here is the elevation and distance chart for the hike we did. It starts from the right and goes left (We started at Mangatepopo and ended at Ketetahi. You can see the areas where we had to go up and where we went down. The red crater was where we had to dig our heels in, and right after soda springs is where the devil's staircase was.

This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was really cool to see all the different landscapes throughout the hike. Although it is long, it is something I would definitely suggest for someone to do if they ever came here. Because it is super touristy here, there are a ton of people walking the track. We were able to kind of get in front of huge groups of people since we set out so early, so it was nice not being overcrowded by a ton of people. Now I know I can say with confidence that I successfully hiked a mountain!

After the hike, we got a ride back to our lodge where we had a lovely spa tub waiting for us. They give priority to those who completed the hike that day and since Courtney and I caught the first bus back, we had first dibs on the spa! We only got it for half hour, but it was very comforting and relaxing for the joints and bones and muscles. Then we also had dinner provided to us that night. We had a grilled chicken with bacon and avocados, salad, beans, and some potatoes. It was very nourishing after our long walk! We just hung out and worked on some stuff that night, got continental breakfast in the morning, and then headed to the Waitomo Caves. I wrote about these in my previous post. 

This weekend was extremely eventful, and it is just how I wanted to be spending my weekends here in between teaching. I can't wait until next weekend when we go until Rotorua!

Other Adventures of the Weekend

This weekend was very fun-filled and jam-packed! It started off by going with some students kayaking for their outdoor education class. We took the school car, so I had to drive on the other side of the road for like three hours! It really isn't that bad, but it got confusing at some intersections knowing which lane to turn into. I was able to follow the bus so that when I was driving on my own it was no problem.

Here is the bus with all the kayaks.

This was our nifty little Toyota Corolla we got to take.

The first place the students stopped to go kayaking was Taupo.

This is Huka Falls just outside of Taupo. This is was just a minor stop on the way, and it is part of the river they were kayaking down, but obviously not the part they were doing.

This was the group that we went with. They are mostly Year 12, and they are all taking this outdoor education class.

The group was divided into two. Courtney went kayaking with the first group. They all had to wear those skirts and very warm clothing because they were anticipating rolling the kayak and getting wet.  

 While they kayaked, the other group went into the town of Taupo to explore. It was very similar to the main street of Thames, Pollen Street, but there were at least five of these streets. There were a ton of cafe's and clothing shops as usual. It was the largest town I have been to yet, and you can tell it's pretty touristy.

This is an example of one of the streets. It's very similar to the other towns but just way bigger.

You could pay to do this "Hole in 1" challenge. Obviously the main goal is to make it into the hole out in the lake. It seemed pretty hard, and I definitely wouldn't pay to do it. Apparently you get a prize if you make it, but I'm not sure what that prize is. 

Overall, Lake Taupo was huge. It was really pretty, and the town offered many activities around the area such as skydiving, parasailing, cycling, and different tours. The town was also filled with many motels/hotels for people to stay at. I'm glad I came to this town because I probably wouldn't have otherwise, but the main thing to do would be to shop unless you wanted to spend a ton of money doing all the extra stuff!

There was one part of the lake that had a nice beach for people to stay at. It was a nice lake to be on, and you don't see many houses on the shore like you would around all the lakes in MN.

The students were going on a harder kayaking trip the following day, and their instructor thought they needed more practice, so unfortunately I didn't get to go kayaking. Courtney did say it was pretty hard, so maybe that was for the best! I did, however, get to camp out overnight with the students. We started heading down towards Napier. We didn't quite go all the way, but this is where we camped out.

You can see our next desitination (Tongariro National Park) as well!

The students had to make sure they had packed a tent, and plenty of warm clothes. Luckily, two other teachers, Zac and Karien, made sure Courtney and I had plenty of warm clothes for our night, and Petro let us borrow some sleeping bags. We were in charge of cooking our own dinner for the night, so everyone brought little cookers of their own.

Here is one set up that some of the students had. These students decided to have a BBQ even though it was completely dark, so here they are cooking bacon. Other students just decided to warm up some pasta in their pans or whatever worked. It was pretty interesting seeing these students preparing all their food because I had never done anything like it before.

The tent we built and slept in was a three-person tent (like the ones in this picture), so Courtney and I stayed in a tent with the only other girl that went on the trip. 

In the morning, the students headed out bright and early for their second kayaking trip (which was too hard for Courtney and I), and we headed on to our next adventure, the Tongariro Crossing! That will be posted in another post, however.

On Sunday, our last stop was Waitomo Caves to go and see the glow worms! Besides New Zealand, glow worms have only been found along certain parts of the coast in Australia. 

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside of the caves, but we were able to get some outside. The tour starts off with a small tour through the caves and some explanations about the structures and a little bit of history behind the discovery of the cave. They are still unsure why the worms glow. They have some guesses, and I think they think it has something to do with a reaction of what they eat and possibly in their digestive system, but I'm not sure. After walking through the cave, they take you along a boat. There are cords on the ceiling that our guide dragged our boat through the water on. It was super cool! Almost like looking up at a ton of stars. 

I didn't take this picture, but this is basically what it was like. You can google a ton of pictures to see more similar pictures.

Our guide said that glow worms spend most of their time creating this string like substance in which they catch their food (other insects). That's why they are found in caves where there is water because then their tends to be more food. They feel the vibration of a bug hitting it and then know that they have something. Apparently the worms are about the size of a matchstick..

Here is a picture of the cave we came out of. It was pretty cool, and I know it's something I can't really do anywhere else!

You can see our boat heading back to go and pick up the other people.

This weekend was super fun, but very tiring! It was almost non-stop driving, walking, or exploring. Definitely worth it though because I got to experience so much!