Today we experienced THE highlight of our trail so far: the crossing of Mount Tongariro including the climb up Mount Ngauruhoe – the setting for Mount Doom in “The Lord of the Rings”.
The weather forecast for this week was truly uninspiring: rain, wind, fog, cloud, snow – everything you do not want for a mountain trip. The only hope lay with Tuesday, when the morning at least was supposed to be reasonably clear. To be able to make the crossing that day, we had to skip two days of walking and approach the crossing from the other side – trail logistics…
Which is why the alarm went off at 4:30 today, to catch as much good weather as possible – but hopefully nobody was under the impression that this is a holiday. And the forecast really could be relied on (in New Zealand, of all places!) and shortly before 5 in the morning we stepped out into a crystal clear morning…
The crossing of Mount Tongariro is one of the Great Walks in New Zealand and is also reckoned to be the finest day walk. The national park was busy accordingly.
The climb up Mount Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom from “The Lord of the Rings”, is a stretch that not so many people take on. For a good photo the view from below is enough.
We climbed for a good, strenuous hour through scree fields of lava ash and snow. At the summit at 2291 m it was extremely windy and cold. For the first time our Nano Puff jackets, gloves and hats came into use – we were beginning to think we had lugged them along for nothing…
The view of Mount Tongariro and the Emerald Lakes (crater lakes) was breathtaking! We are incredibly happy to have had such a wonderful day in Tongariro National Park – and are looking forward to the next Great Walk ahead: 5 days by canoe on the Wanganui River. We set off in three days!
