Climbing LotR's Mount Doom!
Sitting here doing laundry after a crazy night last night. Jenny from China turned 18 and wanted us to take her out since she can now go to bars and clubs. I kept finding $5 tequila shots (which are usually $9), so things got a little fun.
Claire, Tuomas, Carolin, me, & Meg
I’m doing all of my laundry so that I can pack, as I head to the South Island for two weeks tomorrow. We’re ferrying into Picton and bussing to Abel Tasman, where we will stay for two days. Then we’re gonna travel around the coast.
SO, last weekend, I went 4.5 hours North to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which was about a 6 hour tramp through some mountains, around a crater lake, past the Emerald Lakes, and through plenty of active volcanoes. I traveled there with a group of around 30 from the International Student Society at Massey. We stayed in the Hobbit Motorlodge.
In addition to the initial Crossing path, we also took a four hour detour to the top of Mount Ngauruhoe, better known in popular culture as Mouth Doom from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. It took me about an hour and 45 minutes to climb to the top. There was no trail. We basically just had to climb up a steep slope through sand, volcanic ash, and rocks, sliding a few feet backward with each step, unless you found the very occasional rock that didn’t slide out from under your feet.
The highest point on Mount Ngauruhoe is 2,291 m (7,516 ft). I spent about a bit over an hour at the top, including lunch. It took about 20 minutes to literally RUN down the mountain. There was a sand path that most people use where you slide 5-6 feet downhill with each step. At one point, my leg slipped under me and I slid down on my knee, which left a nice injury.
We still had more than half of the Crossing to do by the time we got to the bottom, which was extremely exhausting to finish. Overall it was a 10 hour tramp and I was wearing brand new tramping boots, which was maybe a bad idea. BUT they’re surely broken in at this point.
