Once to Mordor and back

Finally, the time has come. We have based our entire plan on the North Island on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. In the past few days, we have checked the weather forecast at every opportunity.

So the anticipation is huge as we set off for the hiking trail at 5:45 am. Into the car, turn on the heater, and turn up the soundtrack of "The Lord of the Rings".

Still in the dark, we reach the parking lot at the end of the hike. From here, we are taken by bus to the starting point and thus the beginning of the trail. The half-hour drive sees the sun slowly rising, showing us what we have ahead of us today. Tongariro National Park contains three still active volcanoes, including the "Mount Doom" from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Our path today takes us 19.4 kilometers through the national park. The path leads from the starting point (at about 1100m above sea level) past "Mount Doom" and the subsequent highest point of the hike (1886m), before the path twists downhill to our camper (about 800m).

Together with the passengers of the other buses, we set off. The first kilometers are relatively flat. So we can take our time to admire the volcanic landscape and amuse ourselves with the very interesting signage along the way. Of course, we have captured the said sign for you.

Then it gets steep. Feels like 100,000 stairs (which is supposed to support the stability of tourists) later, we leave the "Devil's Staircase" behind us. We continue with rocky sections, where we are grateful for our hiking shoes despite blisters. But the steep climb is forgotten when we see the view from the "Red Crater", the highest point of the hike. We enjoy the view of the famous "Mount Doom" (which, by the way, is called "Mount Ngauruhoe"), the Emerald Lakes, and the surrounding landscape. The path to our camper takes us, with at least four times as many steps, out of the volcanic landscape towards the valley. Through "alpine landscapes" and rainforest, the diversity of the New Zealand landscape is underlined once again.

When we reach our camper after 6:30 hours, our feet, thighs, calves, and... well, everything is burning. We are glad that the dreaded weather in Tongariro National Park has shown its good side today and we haven't experienced the famous "four seasons in one day".

But even though we feel like this, our day is far from over at 1:37 pm. We still want to drive as far as possible towards Auckland today, as our camper has to be back at the Jucy car rental yard tomorrow at 12 pm. Thanks to coffee, beautiful scenery, and good music, we actually manage to get to just before Hamilton. At 6 pm, we park the camper at a small campground, eat the remaining noodles, and try to sleep. Not so easy when everything hurts.