The Tongariro Crossing was amazing!! Summiting Mount Doom was beyond brilliant! It was an absolutely exhilarating experience! Wow was it INCREDIBLE!
Mom and Dad, you HAVE to go to New Zealand and hike the Tongariro Crossing! You would love it!
We began the morning in the dark and the cold. My hands were numb during the first half hour of our hike, and the silhouette of Mount Doom loomed darkly in the distance, backlit by the ever slowly rising sun.
It took Kearse and I an hour and a half to reach the saddle, which is making great time. The last shuttle to pick up the hikers at the end of the Crossing is at 4:30pm, which gave us a little over ten hours to do the entire crossing and the summit. I was worried we'd be pressed for time, so we trucked through the beginning ascent of the hike. By the time we reached the saddle (where you make the turn to climb Mt. Doom), the sun was just beginning to peek over the ridge.
We took a short break at the base of Mt. Doom to study the mountain side, develop a rough plan for getting to the top, eating a snakc, tightening our shoes and gear, and getting pumped up for the climb.
The climb up was definitely challenging- physically and mentally. But gosh was it FUN! I loved climbing on all fours, hand over foot, picking my way through the rocks, using my arms just as much, if not more, than my legs. As the climb got steeper and trickier, I started to remind myself to keep three points of contact with the mountain face at all times (climbing a mountain this steep without ropes was a bit unnerving). Basically my process was- grab a rock, test its stability, plan a foothold, go for the foothold and hoist, then look up and sight ahead to plan my next move and check my direction up the mountain.
There's no other way to say it, I got such a high from climbing the face of the volcano. This was a feeling that I hadn't had since swimming at Tech. It was like that extra burst of energy you get toward the end of an really tough set in the pool where you think you have nothing left but then you pull out this energy from somewhere deep inside you.
I took some photo and refueling breaks on the way up, but I had so much adrenaline that I didn't feel tired. It was exhilarating! I just couldn't stop thinking- How can it get any better than this?! Now I definitely know that my inner adrenaline junkie needs to spend over an hour scaling a mountain side rather than a doing three second bungy jump.
The weather during our climb was amazingly perfect! Clear blue sky and fresh crisp air with the clouds stuck down low in the valley and the sun not yet burning high in the sky was pure perfection! I got some great shots of the steeply angled scree and volcanic rock. Literaly we were climbing on rocks that had churned within the earth and exploded out of the crater opening years and years ago. Bright red rocks mixed with dark black ones, ah it was so fascinating.
We had some amazing views on the way up of the Tongariro Crossing and Mount Tongariro's Crater Plateau, South Crater, and Blue Lake (which we later got to see up close). We were way above the clouds during our climb, and there's nothing like looking down on a blanket of white when you're NOT in an airplane.
It took us an hour and a half to pick our way to the top. The last 100 meters was made up of extremely loose bright red rock that was just terrible to climb through. Oh but summiting was such a great feeling! The top snuck up on me so fast. All of a sudden I looked up and saw straight across the summit and into the gaping caldera of Mount Doom. The first thought in my mind- Does it get any better than this? ("it" as in, life, adventure, thrill, how can it get any better? This is amazing!). The second thought in my mind- Okay you can breathe now. Haha New Zealand had once again literally taken my breath away with its beauty.
Gosh staring down into the crater of an active volcano was unreal. The crater was huge and so deep! Rocks and scree filled the middle, and you can just imagine those boulders being hurled kilometers into the sky during an explosion. The wide brim of the crater was all red rock, and then inside of the crater all black rock. The crater also made for a really nice echo and it was cool to yell and throw rocks inside of it! Too bad I didn't have a ring to throw in like Frodo!
We wandered around the summit for about an hour. You could see the Tama Lakes on the other side of the volcano, which is something you don't get to see from the Crossing, so it was pretty neat to get to see those. We got an incredible view of Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Doom's tiny little glacier. I also stuck my face into the steam vents- haha the steam was warm, wet, and smelled like sulfur, kind of like being in a sticky sauna. Nice!
It took us a little over thirty minutes to run down the scree of sand, rock, and rubble. It was crazy how we spent so much time getting up but got down in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, I was at the base of Mount Doom, emptying out my shoes and examining my cuts and scrapes, still in disbelief that we had climbed to the very top.
I must say that standing at the base of Mount Doom (and even seeing pictures of Mt. Doom) knowing that I had climbed it is one of the coolest feelings ever. However, it doesn't beat the feeling of actually standing at the top! What accomplishment, and all before 11am!
So now all we had in front of us was the remaining 14 km of the Tongariro Crossing! Lovely :) We walked through the dry South Crater and then up to the Red Crater at the highest elevation of the track (except of course Mount Doom). We took a break for lunch where I was so hot I could hardly eat. There wasn't a bit of shade on this section of the crossing, since we were walking along volcanos. The only vegetation here was moss. Haha there were no restrooms either, and finding some privacy was impossible (no trees or boulders and it was too dangerous to deviate from the trail), so it looks like I'm holding it most of the trip!
After lunch we walked down to the Emerald Lakes (craters filled with brilliantly turquoise water), then up to the blue lake, which is a huge caldera filled with water! It was awesome! After the blue lake, the remaining couple of hours were all downhill, yay! We descended through some intense Lord of the Rings looking territory- large rolling green hills littered with gray and lack volcanic boulders smothered in bright green moss. It was way cool!
It was also really neat how the vegetation changed from high up until getting to the car park. We saw only moss, rocks, and alpine scrub at the top of the Crossing and at the Summit. As we descended the vegetation changed to short brown grass, to shin high tussock, to knee high bushes, to shoulder high bushes, to trees just above head, and then to walking in a lush podocarp forest! So neat! We also got a lovely view of Lake Taupo on the way down, and we walked by the Ketehari hot springs and a warm water river flowing from the mountain side.
We finished the Crossing at 4:00 and had some time to kill before our 4:30 shuttle back to camp, so we soaked our feet in the freezing cold river at the base of the Crossing, it was glorious! All in all we spent 10 hours at Tongariro. The Mount Ngauruhoe Summit took us 3.5 hours (1.5 hours up, 1.5 hours at summit, 0.5 hours down), and the Tongariro Crossing took us 6.5 hours (1.5 hours to the saddle, 5 hours to finish the remaining 14 km after the summit including lunch and a zillion photo stops). Mount Doom was definitely the highlight of the day, and I'm so thankful for the fantastic weather that we had- clear blue skies, great visibility, low winds.
My overall feelings at the end of the day- sheer exhilaration, happiness, and a feeling of being just so blessed at having shared in God's creation in this way. He is such an artist.
Now I have thoughts going through my head about how in the world I will be able to return to my life in the States and start work. How can sitting in a conference room as a consultant compare to scaling the face of a volcano? How do I keep these adventures and these moments priorities in my life? I love these feelings I have- the momentum, the adrenaline, the happiness, the beauty. The feeling of being on top of the world, above the clouds.
I loved the closing decent with the view of Lake Taupo, the changing vegetation, and the shady ending in the forest. It was a great reward! Now my worries from the night before seem so lame, but that's exactly why I wrote them down- so that I could go back and read them and reflect on them I suppose. It wasn't as much of a "crossing" as I thought it would be. I don't have this feeling of moving into another phase of life or becoming a different person... but this experience is still powerful in its own way. It's powerful in that I have this yearning for more. More adventure, more thrill, more travel, more experiences. Today has caused me to ask so many more questions of myself in figuring out who I am and discerning the path that God has chosen for me. Yes, I'm looking forward to my work in the US- perhaps it is a stepping stone to finding something really fulfilling. I'm in awe that we did the summit and the crossing, but I don't have this final feeling of accomplishment... Haha let's do more!
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