Lord of the Rings...

So this weekend was, probably one of the best of my whole life...(my dramatic side) but it was absoulutely amazing. I hiked the Tongariro crossing all 18.5 kilometers or 11.5 miles. For those Lord of the Rings fans, the Tongariro crossing is synonymous for Mount Doom from the actual movies. Now that I did this hike I guess I better actually watch the movies. I hiked with the Alpine club and we were supposed to dress up like Lord of the Rings characters, but since I have never seen the movies I passed on wearing a costume, but 2 people actually did dress up as Hobbits. (before this weekend I thought a hobbit was just one character, but I was proven wrong.


Now I probably should not have gone on this adventure because of the amount of homework I had due on Monday, but it was completely worth being up until the wee hours of the morning on Monday to get the work done.

So here was the plan, the group was leaving Friday night and staying in the Alpine club's (MUAC) hut. We would get up early on Saturday and head out for the tramp, come back Sunday to the hut and stay the night and then leave Sunday to come back to Palmerston.

I was rather worried about this tramp, becasue of how hard I found the Sunrise hut tramp, but the Tongariro is in like the world's top 10 tramps and I figured I would just have to endure, but I did more than endure and ended up actually loving it.

So we got off to a late start on Saturday and didn't actually get to the trail head until 10:00am. It was a group of 7 of us (2 guys: Sam and David, 5 girls: Terra, Rebecca, Capri, Rachael and me). The trail starts off very easy as it meanders through an old lava flow with lots of streams and waterfalls and you can see the fog shrouded mountains (mt doom) in the background. Start thinking to myself this is going to be a piece of cake. Then we get to it. I was told from some others that at one part we will have to go up stairs, like and hour and a half worth of stairs...this worried me. So after our stroll through the lava fields we get to the stairs and a feeling of dread hits me, but I think I can do this! Then change of plans! Hold on I didn't sign up for this...the group decides to go up the old trail, which by the way is not really a trail but the side of a mountain, that lovingly goes by the name, Devil's staircase. I instantly think well I could just wait at the car, I did have a driving lesson maybe I could even make it back to the hut...However, I decide to tough it out and even think I hid my nerves pretty well. We start up the rocky, volcanic mountain and I am actually enjoying myself and feeling way tougher than my fellow stair goers, feel like a real Kiwi! Determined to get to the top I just keep going up and up. Then all of the sudden I hear a loud bang and am rathered shocked, what was that and then I hear an are you alright? What just happened? Then it hit me that loud sound was me slamming my head into a rock! After my shock wore off, it did kind of throbe and was a little cut up, but I just laughed it off (it was rather embarrassing) and finally got to the top, where we beat all the stair goers by at least a half an hour. At the top we ate some lunch and continued to venture accross the mars like landscape. It literally looked like a different planet in some areas.
Ok and I definitely lied when I said sunrise hut was the windiest place, because the Tongariro is. We had another ridge we had to go up and when we get about half way up, it starts getting windy and Sam goes around to all the new people and makes everyone get out gloves, hat and wind proof jackets. Then he goes and ties everyone pack strapes and stings on their jackets down and I am thinking what is going on. They tell us stay away from the edges and stay low to the ground. We start heading up the next mountain/hill and that is where I found my new windiest place ever. You could lean into the wind like 45 degrees almost and not fall over. At the top we found a girl, clinging to a trail sign for dear life and our leader, Capri helped her get her jacket on so she could be warm waiting for the rest of her group. At the top you could see one of the volcanic crater, called red crater. The whole crater was a rusty red color and there were geothermal vents around us...some of them you couldn't see yet, but you could start to smell them...yummy! From the very top you could see the Emerald Lakes which was a group of three lakes that looked like they were the color of a blue highlighter. Never seen water that color before. Then through the wind we got to rock/sand surf down the side of this mountain. For those of you who don't know sand surfing is running, jumping, sliding, and falling down a sandy hill, LOTS of fun. At this point I felt I was on top of the world. I was running and frolicking with the view of the lakes in the background when I tripped over a rock and twisted my leg and came tumbling down. I felt the most intense and sharp pain, and inside went into panic mode of oh my gosh I will never get off this mountain...I took some deep breathes, did some stretching and was up and moving again in no time, but definitely pulled a muscle in my calf, could feel it the rest of the tramp and it still hurts. However, I did not let that get in the way of enjoying the rest of the trip. The way down we passed several more lakes and had some incredible views. The trail ended in what looked like a jungle and Terra got the worst case of sausage fingers I have ever seen, she could barely move her fingers. Somebody met us at the end and we drove back to the hut and had some diner, chatted a bit and went to bed.

What a great weekend, So glad I went instead of staying home and doing Homework!!!! Love Jane

P.S. I keep trying to post pics on here but for some reason it won't let me...maybe my pics are too big? any suggestions?