One does not simply walk into Mordor!

You have to take a bus first.

We woke up at 5 AM, it was dark and cold and we were still half asleep. We'd packed our daypacks the night before so all we had left to do was to get dressed and brush our teeth. After waiting for the bus for a few minutes we were picked up and dropped off at another bus which took us to the Tongariro National Park (AKA Mordor). Maps and descriptions of the track were handed out as we were snoozing in the rising sun. We got our breakfast from a little cafe down the road; a bacon and egg pie and a huge muffin. The meat pie didn't taste too great but it provided us with a good amount of energy for the day. Our pack was filled with 2L of water, a 750mL isotonic drink, 4 buns, a can of Pringles, 2 bananas and a whole lot of muesli bars. Combined with our hearty breakfast we reckoned this would be enough for a long day of walking. As we reached the start of the track at 7:30 the sun was hanging low in the clear blue sky and was blinding our eyes. The track quickly changed from a field with some small bushes and plants to a brown wasteland, nothing in sight but brown stones and rocks and of course the mountains looming in the distance. As the column of hikers slowly moved towards the base of the mountains the sun burned on our heads and soon you could see people taking off jackets and sweaters where-ever you looked. As gentle and flat the first part of the track had been so steep and harsh was the second part. It was a winding road up the side of the mountains and soon it has us gasping for air and drenched in sweat, but we persevered and after half an hour we reached a flat part of the track once more. To our right loomed a giant volcano with a track running straight up it's steep side, the climb up looked grueling and the sign said it would take about 3 hours return. Fortunately for us we were after the second exit where we were hoping to find Mt. Doom. We continued onwards through what seemed to be the base of a giant crater, mountains looming over us from almost every direction and eventually the road wound upwards again. Slowly we made our way up the road, breathing heavily and sweating even more than during the first climb. Once we got to the top we reached another intersection, the one where we expected to find Mt. Doom. The name on the sign was completely different from the one I expected to find however, and we figured Mt. Doom wasn’t there after all, we decided to take the trip to Mt. Tongariro anyway (that was where the side-track went). As soon as we set out on the narrow path we were exposed to winds in excess of 50 km/h. The heat we felt while walking in the sun through the valley seemed far away now that the winds were chilling us to the bone. With the wind pummeling our faces we walked to the top of Tongariro and rested there for a few minutes, enjoying the view. On the walk back to the main path our ears were starting to hurt from the raging cold wind so we walked the rest with our hoods on, we must have looked pretty silly, but it kept our ears warm and protected from the wind. After we got back to the intersection it was only a small way up before the track went down again. After a few minutes we reached the highest point of the track and looked out over a site called “Red Crater”, it was (as the name implies) a giant crater covered in red dust or dirt. There was some sort of chimney sticking out the side of it, and it looked like it exploded recently, with pieces of rock lying about it, though this probably happened quite a while back. The way down from this point was covered in at least a few feet of black ash and you had very little grip as the ashes shifted when you put your weight on it. Most people were carefully inching their way down, doing their best not to slide and fall on their face, but me and Jasper soon discovered that it was much faster, and safer too, not to fight the sliding and instead use it to your advantage. It felt a bit like langlaufing as we raced our way past all the other hikers. Eventually we reached a point where there was a large gathering of people in the middle of the road, there was a man lying on the ground with a towel over his head. We weren’t sure what was wrong with him, we suspect it was a heat stroke, but with so many people already standing around him we figured it was best we moved on and not add to the growing crowd standing around him. When we got to the bottom of the track we reached Emerald Lakes, two acidic lakes bright green and blue in colour, and ate a bit of lunch before continuing. We continued on a long windy road that started off flat but slowly made its way up for the last time, we were pretty exhausted when we reached the top but with the assurance that it would be all downhill from there we continued without stopping. After another very windy road downhill we reached one of the two cabins on the track, and found a huge group of people sitting there for their lunch. It was about 1:20 pm when we got to this hut, the next bus would leave at 2:30 and the sign said it would take another hour and a half to get to the end. We didn’t feel like waiting an hour for the next bus so we decided to go for the 2:30 bus and set out at a murderous tempo. Jasper with his long legs walked in front of me and I was struggling to keep up with him as we passed numerous other travelers. Eventually we reached a part of the track that seemed to be half staircase and made good time racing down the stairs. Then suddenly, after walking through wastelands for 6 hours, we entered a dense forest. The road here was extremely windy and riddled with stairs. It only took us about 30 minutes but it felt like we’d been in that forest for hours and hours when we suddenly broke through the trees and entered the parking lot. With legs heavy and tired from our murderous tempo we stumbled over to our bus, only to find that the bus driver wasn’t there and all the other people were sitting in the shade waiting for their bus. We raced all that way for nothing and had to wait another hour before the bus driver arrived to let us all in. As we were sitting there in the hot bus with the smell of sweat and feet almost tangible around us, the bus driver announced that we were going to wait for some more people and it wasn’t until 3:45 that we finally took off.
Exhausted and with a rosy feeling we started to doze off as the bus took us home. When we got back to our campsite we limped to the kitchen and ate our remaining buns for dinner. After a shower we collapsed on our sleeping matt and didn’t wake up till 10 am the next day.
My muscles felt a lot better than I’d expected but jasper seemed to have a tough time getting up. When we went to the internet café that day we found that Mt. Doom was in fact the first turn, the big giant volcano we passed, and we decided we were going to rest up a few days and then go do the track again and climb Mt. Doom.

3 days later we awoke at 5 am once more, gathered our stuff and boarded the bus to the national park. The weather looked to be great again with clear blue skies, but as soon as we reached the start of the track clouds loomed over us and there wasn’t a spot of blue left to be seen. The bus driver advised us not to climb Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) if we couldn’t see the top, if we did we might end up accidentally coming down it on the wrong side and end up somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We were determined however to climb and figured that if it were really that cloudy we’d just use our compass to determine what way to come down. As we were slowly approaching the exit towards Mt. Ngauruhoe the clouds got worse rather than less and we were pretty pessimistic about reaching the top with clear skies. As we were walking the track up to the intersection the visibility suddenly decreased dramatically and we could see water drops floating through the air; we were walking through a cloud. And then suddenly we broke through the cloud and sky was clear above us, below us we could see a vast white blanket of clouds obscuring the view but the way to the top of Mt. Ngauruhoe was clear. We both still hadn’t recovered fully from our last trip and we were already starting to feel the strain in our legs, so we decided to take a break before we tried the difficult climb to the top. When we felt we’d caught our breath we set out on the hardest track either of us had ever walked. From the crossing at 1500m it was a 700m track up the mountain to reach a total altitude of 2287m, it was steep and the surface consisted mainly of loose ashes; every 3 steps up were followed by 2 steps down. We climbed until our muscles burned and our veins pumped battery acid, then we climbed some more. The side of the mountain was riddled with loose rocks and every once in a while you’d hear someone yell “Watch out!” and see a rock tumbling down towards you, sometimes missing you by inches. Eventually the ashes turned into rocks and instead of scampering up a track of loose ashes you were now climbing up steep rock faces and over loose rocks. After an hour and a half of climbing, stumbling and slipping we reached the top intact, our only casualty was Jasper’s finger which he hit against a particularly sharp rock resulting in a bloody scratch. The view was astonishing; we looked out over field of clouds with patches of land visible between them. To my surprise I found that the rocks were partly covered in icicles, and in the centre of the crater there was a large pool of snow or ice. As we were making our way along the ridge of the outer crater I passed through a wisp of smoke and found it to be quite warm and foul smelling, apparently there were gas vents on top of the volcano still. When we made our way to the ridge of the inner crater we looked down an extremely steep slope into the actual crater of the volcano. We started to make our way down, the guide estimated it would take about 30 minutes, and found it to be extremely difficult. The ashes would keep sliding out from underneath us and the rocks would then cause us to trip while we were sliding down. Because of this the first 10 minutes were extremely hard and tiring, causing us to maneuver with extreme care. After we cleared the rocks and reached an area that consisted mainly of ashes and loose stones we could finally start sliding our way down; and slide down we did, we must have reached speeds of 15 km/h. The descend was an adrenaline rush and definitely not very safe but I enjoyed every last second of it. As we got back to the intersection it was 12:15 pm and the description mentioned that we had to leave red crater (which was at least 30 minutes from the intersection) at 12:30 if we wanted to make it to the last bus at 4:30. This caused us to quicken our pace despite our sore legs and knees and we were making good time. When we got to the same hut we stopped at last time it was 1:30 so it looked like we were definitely going to make it. We didn’t have the energy to race down the last part and the stairs were committing bloody murder on our knees but we managed to reach the bus by 3:30 a full hour before the last bus was going to depart. After waiting in the bus for about 30 more minutes we headed back to our tent, and before completely collapsing we soaked in the hot pool to loosen our muscles.
Now, after a day of recuperating, we’re trying to decide which way to go next though we’re probably heading towards Wellington to replace Jasper’s broken camera.

http://s713.photobucket.com/albums/ww138/lingonlas/NZ%206%20Januari/

http://s713.photobucket.com/albums/ww138/lingonlas/Raften/