Hiking through Mordor

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Hi everyone,

Today I surprise you with an actual holiday story I would like to share. I can assure you not to be worried, there are no cut-and-paste bits from my proposal and no short lists. Nevertheless, I cannot promise it will entertain you. You have to find out for yourself...

So... last week two colleagues and I did some field work at this beautiful dairy farm situated at an estuary near Auckland. We finished our work within two days and had one day left to go sight-seeing (fieldwork is such hard work). We visited some beautiful beaches north of Auckland and went for a bush walk. We saw some enormous hardwood kauri trees, of which only a few are left after the early European settlers cut them down with such great vigour.
At Turangi, on the way back to Palmy, it was time to say goodbye to Markus, my supervisor, and his Dutch colleague Carlo. Finally my 'real' holiday trip around the islands would start with Tongariro National Park.

Last Friday Felix (a German colleague at HortResearch) came up from Palmy to do the three day northern circuit in Tongariro National Park with me. For Irving and other movie buffs, this is where all the Mordor scenes in Lord of the Rings were recorded.
We started our hike at 14.00 and at 14.05 I was already regretting having put those extra Snickers bars in my bag... It was horribly hot and that 20 kg backpack was starting to feel heavier by the second. And mind you, we had not even started climbing yet! Halfway up the first climb we met up with Iris (another colleague) and husband who were doing a day trip here. We got the tip to set up our tent close to Mt. Ngauruhoe (for Irving and co.: Mt. Doom) in the first crater and decided that if we hurried we could still make it up to the top of this 35 degrees cone (without backpack). I mean, it was only a 600m height difference to climb anyway!
We found a good spot for our tent, dropped our backpacks and started climbing. I will not further comment on the inner battle I was fighting, but will only report here that we made it in about one and a half hour to the top. On top (2287m) the views were absolutely breath-taking and we had the mountain to ourselves! There was not a soul around and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.
Did I say sunset... it was getting dark, so we started rushing down the mountain sliding over the scree fields. Within half an hour we were back in the crater, but by that time it was pitch dark (mental note 1: 'should eat more carrots') and we had to use our headtorches to search for our backpacks. This, I can tell you, is easier said than done! Those stone fields we had to find, which seemed to stand out sooo much in day light, were nowhere to be found (or actually everywhere!).
After 45 minutes of searching I was already saying my prayers and probably passing the backpacks for the second time without seeing them. I decided to walk up to Felix and suggest to hike back down for two hours to the closest hut. Miraculously, right at that point Felix recognized the surroundings (don't ask me how) and walked back along the way I just came. Triumphantly he pointed at the backpacks and said: 'See, I told you we would find them! You did not doubt that, right?!'
Later that evening I got into my sleeping bag and was looking forward to a well-deserved, warm and comfortable night of sleep, mmm. Unfortunately my sleeping bag turned out to be not quite suitable for the cold nights in the crater, which led to mental note 2: 'wear everything you've got the next nights'.

The next day we continued along the crossing between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe and passed by the gorgeous Emerald Lakes. There we turned away from the crowded crossing (a one day hike) and continued on the circuit. The lack of fellow admirers of these stupendous volcanoes was very welcome, as we walked through a desert-like alpine shrubland. We ended our day in a beautiful valley with the brightest full moon I have ever seen...

The third day we hiked through a bushy area and afterwards continued through fields dominated by tussock, flax and heather (an invasive species, but nevertheless a beautiful addition), going in and out of river valleys. Our last night we slept looking onto Mt. Ruapehu (the ski mountain in winter).
After a scrumptious dinner of pasta from a package, we were chatting when suddenly a light appeared to our side (it was already dark). It was moving in a searching manner and coming closer. Felix and I went quiet and watched. My thoughts immediately went to Orcs and aliens but when I shared this with Felix he suggested that it might be more probable that this was a hiker trying to finish the track in the dark. He added:'I don't think aliens wear headtorches and I don't recall the Orcs using them either'. I was not completely reassured by this, but it did make sense in a way... Another plausible explanation for the light, which was almost equally as bad as an Orc, was that it could be a park ranger. He could have heard us while he was passing by. We were supposed to camp half a km away from the track, but we were only about a 100m away and this could get us a fine. So, we spend our last night in silence watching for strange lights... Nah, as we sat there quietly, the light disappeared after a while and we were safe...

The next morning we set off to finish our hike in Whakapapa Village. Here I said goodbye to Felix and started heading for the Coromandels...

to be continued...

PS: Yes, I know there is a black blob in the right corner of most of the pics, I had to bring the camera to a shop after the hike to have it cleaned. Such a shame, huh!

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Comments

[andri radiany]

heyho
shitttttt...... Marlies really rocks it ehh I assume your workstudy in Physical geography has completed. By now, you must have sufficient knowledge to move those marvelous mountains to Holland. Your flat country and boring people really need such a scenery.. You must agree don’t you? Ahh.. you lucky bastard, I am so envy But yeah.. one of us should earn the money to put bread on the table. I work my butt at this corporate business, and my honey is wondering around the world. Such a disloyal wife… Should switch turn next year. .. Well it is already breathtaking just to look at those pictures… really!!! I think I might pass out from euphoria if I really see it in reality, did it happen to you? I bet it almost.. Well honey, enjoy your holiday….. I am really happy that you are doing it… Andri radiany keep me posted