Mount Doom

Jen here - 

I got back from Mt. Doom yesterday morning. We were supposed to get back the night before, but because of the insane flooding, our trip (already extended by 2 hours because of flooding detours = 10 hours of driving) was stopped in Kawakawa, about 17 km away from Paihia. There are only two possible roads that one can take north from Kawakawa; one, as Liz said, was covered by a meter of water and the other was blocked with who knows how much water.

In typical NZ fashion, there was nothing on the radio which roads were closed. In fact, there was nothing to suggest that there were roads closed at all. The only thing mentioned on the radio was that there had been serious flooding and that roads HAD IN THE PAST been closed. Nice.

So, thanks to massive flooding, we spent the last night of the trip in the Kawakawa park carpark. Next to a flooded public toilet. I had a rice cake for dinner.

Anyways! The rest of the trip was awesome. 

The Tongariro Crossing is 19.4 km (excluding the two mountains) and reaches a peak trail height of 6,233 feet. Supposedly, it is rated as the best day hike in New Zealand. As I haven’t seen much of New Zealand yet, I couldn’t really tell you. I can say that although the trail wasn’t beautiful in the traditional sense; with the barren and desolate landscape, there was this stark sense of beauty about it. It’s hard to describe. Hopefully the pictures below will do it a tiny bit of justice.

But the highlight of the day? Summiting MOUNT DOOM.  

When I woke up, I looked out the front room and saw Mt. Doom impressively silhouetted against the sunrise.  

My friend, who works for the Department of Conservation, then informed me that there’s no track up to the top. No track. No trail. No, “You should probably take this way.”

[Gulp.]

 The mountain (technically an inactive volcano that last erupted 36 years ago), became more impressive the closer we got. By the time we got to the base of the mountain, I was scared and excited out of my mind.  The mountain is 7500 feet and it LOOKED like we were in Mordor. The ground was covered in ash and lava rocks from the last explosion. There were no trees, no flowers, no birds, no green anything. Everything was a shade of red or black.

We watched about ten people already climbing the mountain. They had started to climb up the face of the mountain, following what kiiiiiiiind of looked like a trail leading up to the summit. All of them got about 2/3 of the way up and then had to turn back; it was too steep and dangerous to continue after that.

After watching other climbers, we headed to the left side of the mountain. 

Here was a trail of boulders and tiny rocks that looked like it continued to the summit. And so we clambered on all fours up and up the mountain, using only the rocks to pull us ahead. Often the rocks that you thought were lodged into the ash were not; you would grab one and it would dislodge and roll down the mountain, causing trouble for those below. When there was a space with no rocks, you would have to sprint up to grab the next rock, for unless you sprinted and pushed your body against the ash, you would fall backwards. Falling backwards was scary; there was nothing to stop you from rolling back down the mountain.

About ¾ of the way up we became enveloped in gusty clouds. Visibility was only 10 feet and the wind was blowing at about 35 mph. We continued to climb blindly, one hand over the other, not knowing if rocks up above were falling or how much farther it was to the summit. This was the scariest, most intense part of climbing.

After about 2 hours of climbing, we finally made it to the summit.

I was pretty happy.

Here at the summit, the wind was even stronger and it was hard to stand up without being knocked off your feet. I laid on my stomach and crawled to the edge of the volcanic crater and looked inside. Unfortunately because of the clouds, I could not see the lake at the bottom of the crater; I only saw a giant gaping hole.

After eating a sandwich, we started our descent down the mountain. This was almost scarier than climbing up. Ironically, we found that the safest, best way of getting down was by way of the steep mountain face we originally avoided. Others practically ran down part of the way (not as stupid as an idea as it sounds); I, however, found that the safest way down was on my butt. I almost scooted down the entire mountain.

At the bottom of the mountain, I celebrated. I had climbed Mt. Doom and had done probably the mentally physically hardest thing I had ever done…if that makes sense.

We finished the crossing, choosing to climb the other volcano that is not a part of the trail, Mt. Tongariro, as well. As we came off the trail to meet Laura, we both almost collapsed in mental and physical exhaustion. 

But it was a sweet exhaustion. An exhaustion that said, “Damn. That was awesome.”

The next day, we drove around the park and hiked a few less epic trails. :) We also visited a few Lord of the Rings location sites, much to my happy amusement.

The Black Gates of Mordor were here

 Mt. Ruapehu

 Mt. Doom in the distance

Stream that Gollum played in after catching a fish

This was the New Zealand I traveled thousands of miles for. Paihia is great, but it’s…..well….it’s not snow capped mountains. It’s not wide open plains of waving grass. It’s not bubbling streams and crashing waterfalls.

I can’t WAIT to start traveling.