Hiking around Mt. Doom

What an amazing, exhausting, incredibly hard, beautiful hike we did today. We had a super early start to make sure we were up, dressed and had driven out to our shuttle pick up point by 7:30am. We'd chosen to park in a carpark near the end of the track and take a shuttle to the start. By doing it this way we can take as long as we want on the track and not need to worry about rushing to meet a shuttle at a certain time at the end. One thing that was initially overwhelming was how popular this hike is. The Tongariro Crossing has been voted New Zealand's best day hike and this information seems to have reached every tourist in the land. We started off in almost a continual ant trail of people going single file or sometimes side by side along the route at a steady gradual incline. The first 5km of the 19.4km track was relatively easy. We took a 10 minute detour off to the side to see some waterfalls before looping back to the path. Then came our last toilet stop before the aptly named Devil's Staircase ascent began. Wow that was a tough climb and because of how many people there were it constantly felt as if I was going to slow so I kept pulling off the track to let others past. Nick is a lot fitter than me which isn't surprising given how much my weight has changed and how much he's been working out. I set the pace and he was very supportive at going at my own speed. I did have to stop to put some knee cream on which helped a lot with the strain being put on them with each painstaking uphill stair. It literally felt like this climb was going on for an eternity. Eventually somehow we made it to the next flat section which was an amazing achievement. Here we walked through a crater alongside the incredible active volcano Mt. Ngauruhoe otherwise known as Mt. Doom used in the LOTRs films. It was pretty amazing to see snow on the top even though it was boiling hot. After admiring a huge crater at the bottom of the mountain we then began yet another gruelling climb, only this time it was at a much greater gradient. The worst part was that you could see the top and how far you hard to go. As we climbed this red crater the scenery on either side of the ridge was breathtaking. I couldn't quite believe we'd made it this far when we reached the top and we rewarded ourselves with some lunch. Looking into the Red Crater was magical and you could even see a massive split in the side where lava had obviously burst through with fury at some point. After another small hill we stood at the highest point of the track looking down at the Emerald Lakes below. These sulphuric lakes each had their own beautiful shade of green/blue. We basically skied down the scree slope descent together and we spent almost 2 hours at the lakesides mainly because we saw a silly guy decide to film himself sliding down the scree off the track and get stuck. After watching him scramble around and getting a guides advice and help we eventually left him while he stood on the top of the ridge he'd climbed to taking selfies of himself. He'll have no idea the worry he put us and the guide through. After a little climb to the blue lake we were on the descent back to the car. Expecting this would be the easiest part was very naive of us because it went on for an eternity, and I really mean that. The path winded all over the mountain side with amazing views but it never seemed to end. Even when we entered a forest it still took ages to get out. We did it though and were back at the car by 6ish. We may have taken longer than most but we appreciated and took in the scenery in every location plus staying to make sure that guy was okay took a large chunk of time too. It was an amazing day and one I'll never forget. Not a bad way to celebrate 5 years of being together at all!Read more