mt. doom

After three nights and two days in Raglan, I packed up and headed inland to Taupo through Rotorua for some hiking.

I just drove through Rotorua but it seemed like a pretty ordinary town that prides itself on adventure activities like bungee jumping, some slingshot thing and my personal favorite - zorbing. I might have to come and try that. The only part I don't like from that video, is when they hose you down after you hop in. It looks like a scene from Shawshank Redemption or the Green Mile.

So I ended up in Taupo. Its a great town, same appeal as Rotorua but bigger and on a really big lake. They also have skydiving, a bunch of really great hikes and more water activities like fishing and jet boat rides.

The focus of stopping here though was the Tongariro Crossing. Its supposed to be one of the best day hikes in NZ. It covers a bunch of volcanic geography and amazing views. You can also do a sidetrek to Mt. Ngauruhoe, or better known as Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings (and yes, that is exactly what the mountain was like).

Anyway, its 18.5km without the trip up Mt. Doom, which I would guess was another 2km each way. I would guess its a 12 mile day with Mt. Doom included. I have no idea what the elevation gain was, but the top of Mt. Doom is just over 7,500 ft.

I took a shuttle from Taupo to the trail head at 5:30am and started hiking by 7:15am. The bus I was on was the first one there and by the time I reached the trail to cut off and try Mt. Doom, it was me and 3 other guys. Nobody had done the hike before. One of them was in jeans, another in swim shorts and the other it was his first hike ever. So we start going up this thing and its loose volcanic rock and sand and just miserable because it's at about a 45 degree angle up. It gets really steep and about half way up one of the guys above accidentally kicks a big rock loose and gave a shout to us below. It missed me by about 3 feet. Then we get to this rocky spine that's exposed to wind and it's howling at least 30mph, enough to the point where it throws you off your balance a bit on gusts. I started questioning if this was really a good idea to do with essentially by myself because I don't trust the judgement of these other 3 guys. I turnaround to see if anyone else is coming up and I don't see anyone. So I called it quits and turned around to head back. Within 15 mins, I started coming across a bunch of people headed up and I change my mind, because if these people can do it, so can I and when else am I going to do this?

Anyway, I made it, everything went great. It was a long day with perfect weather (70 and sunny) and with little breaks I was done by 3:45pm.

that's Mt. Doom on the horizon

this is when I quit going up Mt. Doom before changing my mind and going back up

top of Mt. Doom

volcano crater in Mt. Doom

view of the rest of the trail from the top of Mt. Doom

Red Crater  and the first time the pants went convertible (pants to shorts).

view on the way back down

I have no idea what I'm going to do next. I'll probably check out the surf reports around NZ, see if there's anything worth chasing down tomorrow and spend the rest of today resting. Week 1 in NZ is in the books. We'll see what week 2 brings me.

I hope this finds you doing well and in good spirits.