Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Mt Doom
Its easier to spell Firstly, let me get one thing straight. I have never seen a full Lord of the Rings film. I saw a bit of the first one, but got thoroughly bored, and stopped watching. However, I recognise that the films are hugely popular, and being as this blog has been struggling for ratings recently, I figured a LOTR related title might pull in some extra viewers. Time shall tell.
Taupo is a town just a hop, skip and a jump south of Rotorua, and although quietish when I arrived, was getting itself ready for the ski season which was just around the corner. Being as I'm uninsured for skiing, I wasn't going to go anyway, as it would be just my luck to break a leg on the slopes.
But that wasn't going to keep me away from the snow. You see, Taupo is withing hitting distance of the Tongariro National Park, and there is one particular walk there, the Alpine Crossing, which is rated as being one of the best walks in the world. During the summer, any Tom, Dick or Harry can just turn up and scootle along the trail, which apparently can look like the queue at
Sainsburys on a Saturday afternoon. However, in the winter, the top of the trail becomes rather snowy and icy, thus crampons and all other means of technical wizadry are required to complete the trail.
To me, going on a guided walk is a little bit pointless, however unfortunately, access to Tongariro in the winter is controlled in a Mafia like grip by one bus company, so if you don't have your own car equates to 50 NZD each way from Taupo. Therefore, I signed up their guided tour, as it really wasn't that much more on top of that, and hoped for the best. With any luck, there would be a nice small group, and we'd be able to go at a good pace.
And it was a nice small group that assembled in the hostels reception waiting for the pickup. Just 5 of us, and I begun to think it might not be so bad after all. Then the bus came to pick us up, already containing about another 45 people, and as we set off there were various people complaining that they were so hungover, and had no idea what they were doing. Impressed was I
not.
Luckily, once at the park we were free to walk the first section at our own pace, as it didnt require crampons, so I could get away from the crowds and just enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery. For many people, the "highlight" of the park is Mount Ngauruhoe a beautiful perfect cone volcano, perhaps better known to hobbit botherers as Mount Doom. Apparently it plays a rather important part in the films, but I don't know.
Anyway, we reached the point where crampons were required, and I was happy to see that the wheat had been seperated from the chaff, and those who hadn't been able to handle the first section of the walk would be going in another group. This was excellent news, as changing weather conditions mean that it isnt always possible to complete the trail during winter, thus while they were good, we needed to push on over the most dangerous part. If we'd had to wait, there was a chance the weather could change, and we'd have to turn back. So it wasn't all just snobbish elitism on my half!
Crampons on, we continued to enjoy the beautiful views until the summit,
whereupon it was swiftly decided that the quickest way down was to slide down. Being a seasoned pro at sliding down a volcano, I got up some heady speed. From there, it was a pleasant walk down to the end of the track, although unfortunately the emerald lakes had frozen over, thus weren't so emerald.
Back in Taupo, I had a lazy day climbing a mountain for a good view over the lake, then it was time to push on down to the capital of New Zealand, windy Wellington.
Stewart
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0434s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb