22.12.19 Mount Ruapehu, Rangipo Desert and a broken camper

Off to the land of Mordor! The night was freezing cold, and even though it's sunny, it's only 7 degrees Celsius shortly before 7 a.m. But by the time I finish showering, I can have breakfast in the sun overlooking the lake.

Only about a 1-hour car ride separates me from the volcanoes. In the Tongariro National Park, there are several volcanoes, including the mountain Mordor from The Lord of the Rings story. Since you can only conquer Tongariro as part of a full-day hike, but I always have to be cautious as a solo traveler not to take risks and sprain my feet, I'm going to Mount Ruapehu.

Five years ago, you could ride up here to 2,200m with a chairlift. Back then, I had fog and 5 degrees Celsius. That's why I want to go back here with this stunningly beautiful sunshine. So today, I'm wearing three jackets, a scarf, a hat, and two pairs of pants layered on top of each other. Only to find out that in the summer, only the new gondola operates, which opened in the winter of 2018 (in June).

You can practically drive in a circle around the volcanoes here and experience incredibly diverse vegetation. On the west side, you drive through a moon-like landscape of giant lava rocks to the base station of Ruapehu. When you drive around the volcanoes on the east side, there's the so-called Desert Road through the Rangipo Desert. And it's very similar to what you'd see there. Barren rocks and in the background, the massif of Ruapehu and the symmetrical cone of Mount Ngauruhoe, which at around 2,300m is the highest peak in this area. It served as the Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a menacing backdrop. On the east side, you also see steam rising from various craters. Today, however, only at one or two places. Five years ago, I saw a lot more of it. Ngauruhoe is definitely an active volcano, having erupted over 40 times in the past 100 years. But lastly, it erupted in the 1970s.

A harsh wind blows through this plateau, and it's quite exhausting to hold onto the steering wheel. Fortunately, I don't have to shift gears much because even just taking one hand off the steering wheel to shift needs careful consideration. Here on the Desert Road, there's no phone reception - I don't want to have a breakdown here, and I'm anxiously eyeing the warning lights that keep flashing. But the temperature remains normal, and the car keeps going. So what could it be? Just a loose connection? Anyway, I don't want to break down here. Even people who want to help here would also have no reception, and the nearest town is dozens of kilometers away.

After driving around 230km around the volcanoes, through the desert on the east side, over the seven mountains and at the seven dwarfs, everything is going smoothly - until the camper breaks down right in the driveway of my campsite in Ohakune and doesn't make a sound anymore. I parked the car to book and pay for my spot in the office, and when I did that and started driving the 80 meters to my pitch - the car didn't respond at all. On one hand, I'm relieved that it happened exactly here and not on the Desert Road, but on the other hand, the ladies at the reception don't give me any hope that it will be repaired within the next few days.

Remote diagnosis by the rental company: Some part that charges the battery while driving is no longer charging.

Sunday 6 p.m., no workshop reachable, the only one that exists is 15km away, but they're not answering. So it will most likely be tomorrow before anything happens, and if it needs parts that the small workshop here doesn't have, then the question is when I can continue. Because it's also Christmas here, and it's a holiday.

With the ladies at the reception, we push the camper straight onto a patch of grass so that I can stay there overnight and don't have to block the driveway. Let's see what happens next. Christmas could be interesting...