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Published: November 4th 2006
Me and Mt.Doom (Ngauruhoe)
The famous Mt. Doom from Lord of the RingsA really early start (5.45am) to make sure we were up and ready for the bus trip to the start of New Zealand's best one day walk - the Tongarrio Crossing. It is a 17km, 7+ hour trek up to over 6000 feet, in the snow/ice!
On the bus we went to the back to get kitted out with boots, crampons, trousers and jackets, even gloves and hats if you needed them. This was all while the bus was in motion - Kiwis are so much more relaxed about Health and Safety than in the UK, where it has gone too far.
The cost of the guided trip, including the bus transfer and equipment was $85.
We got to our destination (Mangatepopo car park, near the Mangatepopo Hut) and started to hike in to the snow, under the gaze of the impressive Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from the Lord of the Rings films). The first hour of trekking was easy, relatively flat, in to an area called Soda Springs (imagined Fanta/Sprite bubbling up - nope :-( ), with the steep climb of 'Devils Staircase' approaching ahead of us.
I thought back to the 'Devils Ladder' in Ireland
that me and Emma climbed up a few years back (to conquer the highest mountain in Ireland - Carrantuohill), which was really steep and more of a climb, up loose boulders with a stream running down through the middle (still very proud of you on that one Em!) and was expecting something similar but covered in snow. When we got to the bottom of the 'Devils Staircase' I realised the difference - all in the name - ladder = near vertical, staircase is more like 45 degrees. Even so, walking up 45 degrees for 45 minute in snow is tiring, but thankfully not as bad as I had imagined.
At the summit of the staircase the terrain opened out to the flat bottom of the huge South Crater, with high 'walls' all around. See satellite photo
here. It was a huge flat area, ideal for snow kiting if the wind direction was good, and funnelled into the crater.
We had been walking for some time and were about half way across the crater when we saw the most bizarre sight. In a place so remote and devoid of any visible life, a small song bird was dodging and
weaving across the crater a few feet of the ground, chased by a small bird of prey, repeatedly diving (and missing) down on the smaller bird. Again and again, the small bird just managed to escaped the talons of the larger bird as they made their way across the crater. It occurred to me that there was no vegetation for cover for many kilometres in every direction! I was surprised the small bird had made it this far from cover and could only imagine how many (hundreds) times it had evaded the bigger bird's attempts to dive down and catch it... One or both would surely die of exhaustion before they reached cover...
As we carried on the smell of sulphur increased and reminded me what I was walking on - the crater of a volcano!
Once on the far side of the crater we started another accent, up Red Crater Ridge. At the top the snow had melted away, with the heat from the volcanic activity. So we sat on top of this snowless point, admiring the views, eating our lunch and warming our bums! We could see from coast to coast! See the video
here. After lunch the descent was great fun - on our backs sliding all the way down (See the video
here) - me and Andy racing (and
here), laughing all the way. At the bottom, after a good snow ball fight, we started to make a 'snow tart'. I was in charge of her nipples - a Spanish girl we'd met did the boobs and Andy was responsible for the dodgy hair do!
We were now down into the Central Crater and we crossed the flat to the top of the Rotopaunga Valley. From there we slid down the huge natural snow chute, all the way to the Kettahi Hut. It was such great fun, steering with your arms, sliding all the way (video
here). I got up at the bottom with a huge smile and turned to watch others sliding and laughing down the valley.
The final part of the walk was down out of the snow, past natural hot springs in scrubland and onto a woodland track that seemed to go on forever. After about two hours I made it to the carpark, second person back. I was handed a nice cold beer as I sat down
and untied my boots.
We were taken to our new accommodation - the Skotel - apparently the highest hotel in New Zealand, right on the edge of the Park. We had been booked in for a spa too - nice! I then had a evening meal of lamb shank - great way to end a really challenging and satisfying day - my best in NZ so far!
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Em
non-member comment
Sliding down on your bums???
I'd have shown you how to do it properly... on your boobs of course!!!! ;-) Em x