Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Sorry I haven´t written in a while. It´s been a bit of a whirlwind the past few weeks and not been that easy to get on the internet. But anyway. Here I am. Although now in South America, I´ll try and do things chronologically.

So, where were we? Ah yes, nearly killing myself in New Zealand. Twice. Well, I think you´ll be pleased to hear that there haven´t been anymore near-death experiences as far as I know. Although I´m thinking of climbing an active volcano in a day or two. But the smoke coming out the top looks very friendly, so I think we´ll be okay.

But anyway, moving back to New Zealand. We did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is meant to be a pretty hard one day trek where you basically climb over MOUNT DOOM. (Go on, let me hear you say ´oooo!´). That´s the mountain from the Lord of the Rings movies to the uninitiated, although if you managed to miss the LOTR craze, God help you. Even if there´s an apocalypse you won´t know.

Mount Doom, or Mount Ngauruhoe to his friends, looks a lot friendlier without the charred landscape and evil fiery smoke. He was quite shy and hiding behind lots of clouds. Hence, quite hard to see, but when there were gaps in the cloud he was very nice.

We booked our trek and piled onto the tour bus (filled to the seams with middle aged Germans with LOTS of equipment) to be patronised for the half an hour drive to the start track.

Annoying preppy tour guide: ´Now have you got suncream?´
Louise: PER-LEASE! If you forget that, you deserve to fry. Besides, some people dig that leathery crocodile skin look.
Louise (out loud): ´Yes thank you.´

For the first hour we thought we had been ripped off, walking along nice little boardwalks with public toilets every 3km. We trotted up the ´Devils Staircase´with relative ease. ´Was that it?!´ I believe was the phrase. But pride always comes before a fall...after that things got a little tougher. We were going a lot faster than most of the group, so we reached the highest points when the weather was still a little wobbly. We literally walked up through clouds (which is chilly and doesn´t lend itself well to taking pictures or making cameras obedient, it seems), up to a plateau where you walk through the volcanoes. Awesome. It was all very peaceful and huge and awe inspiring and I felt like quoting some poetry until SQUELCH! Feet went straight through the snow, through the ice, and suddenly you´re calf deep in a shallow muddy lake. One of our co-walkers was so surprised that he tried to jump out of the hole he´d made, only to create another one on impact when he trip-landed, splattering the snow with mud. Hee hee.

The signs directed us straight through the middle of the lake. Not that we knew this at the time; all we could see was pretty white snow and markers clearly pointing out our path. Needless to say we all got a bit wet (once again, hurrah for waterproof socks). But the worst was yet to come. A steep, slippery climb up the side of the mountain to the peak, with gale force winds trying to blast us off the edge. It was freezing!! I had to cover my face with my gloves to stop my nostrils icing over. I don´t think I´ve ever been so cold in all my life. But, mercifully, it wasn´t for long. After about an hour in the wind, half-crawling up the mountain, we reached the peak! Cue big smiles and a very quick photo stop (´Look! We´re higher than the clouds!´). The downhill slope was mostly out of the wind but much more slippery. I was freaking out a bit as it all seemed a bit too familiar to the conditions where I nearly sledged off the edge last time. We took it as slowly and carefully as we could and luckily, this time, there were no mishaps.

The descent back to ground level was very scenic and warm, and a bit smelly with sulphurous steam rising out of the rocks. Mostly I was just relieved to be off the top and basically ran down the mountain in the desire to be the first female to finish. Once we got to the bottom it turned out one girl had gotten ahead of us at some point :( but never mind. I was savouring the fact that we had finished, whilst imagining those Germans all still wading through the lake at the top. We had to wait 3 hours for the rest of the tour group to catch up so we could all go home (kinda wished I´d brought a book!).

So there you go. I´d definitely reccommend doing it. Maybe on a slightly less windy day.