I Survived Mt. Doom… Just Barely!

After 3 days of bad weather I finally managed to get to the Tongariro crossing trek, unfortunately I wasn’t the only one. Buses filled with tourists filled the nearest parking area and made for quite a strange experience. Since New Zealanders are not very capitalistic and prefer to spend more time at home than at work the last bus back to town left at 4 even though the sun only sets at 9 p.m.

so many people!

so many people!

This created a sort of frenzy at the beginning of the trek since people wanted to make sure they had time to see it all. Politely, I tried passing as many people as I could to get to somewhere that didn’t feel like a German school trip. Luckily enough the meek quickly fell behind. Some couldn’t control their obsession of taking pictures, others needed to pee or drink or eat. Not me!

 

Smoking!

Smoking!

Since the volcano erupted the trek can only be walked halfway then one has to turn back the way they came. My plan was to sprint to the end and take all the pictures on the way back. So it was, that by 10 a.m. I got to the midpoint of the trek which meant I could either turn back and wait for the bus for 2 hours or attempt to conquer Mt. Doom.

Guess what I chose?

 

DOOM!

DOOM!

Group of elderly hikers

Group of elderly hikers

Starting up Mt. Doom I met a guy coming down who had completely lost the trail. That was not a good sign for someone with no navigation skills like myself. Then an elderly group passed me by. They were led by a smiling old lady (I like New Zealand feminism!). ‘How hard could it be?’ I thought and tried to follow in their footsteps. 20 minutes later there was no hint of a trail not because we had lost it, there simply was none. People were on all four trying to scramble up the mountain. For the first time I understood why a walking stick could help! Not that I had one.

There were two options, try to edge yourself up the slippery volcanic ash and pebbles or try to boulder up the rocky side. For me there was no dilemma. But let me tell you, this was real climbing, not that game with ropes I sometimes like to play; Jagged rock tearing at my hands, large boulders coming loose when I put my weight on them, stones from climbers above crashing near my head. I tried inventing some story to motivate me, but someone already wrote that story. A new found appreciation for Frodo kept me going for a while.

Remembering that most accidents happen on the way down I kept on asking myself if I have enough strength to climb down. ‘Hell no!’ was the answer my body was giving yet my feet kept climbing on as I got a glimpse of the famous obsession to reach the peak.

As I got close to the peak freezing wind almost blew me away and icy patches appeared in the shade but the real crazy thing was the hot misty vapour that was coming out of the volcanic mountain. There were stones that were hot to the touch!

The most beautiful view i'v seen!

The most beautiful view i’v seen!

mtdoomtop

At the top!

Finally I was there. I don’t know if it was because of all the hardship but I had the feeling it was the most beautiful view I have ever seen. It literally took my breath away forcing me to pause my constant cursing. But that wasn’t the end because up at the top people were talking about a volcanic crater just a little further. So I kept going, down and then up again crawling on all four again.

The crater!

The crater!

Then came the way down. I thought about creating a new sport, ‘mountain skating’, one tries to skate down the mountain attempting not to bring the whole mountain down with them. Using your butt is allowed!
Somehow, with my traction-less sneakers I managed to skate down to the rocky side again and began the long climb down, the bus deadline getting ever closer. At this point the ankle I sprained a month ago became the bane of my existence. Not that the rest of my joints hurt a lot less.

Eventually the mountain became less steep and the trail reappeared. The sign on the bottom read 2.5 hours to the car park. I had 1 hour before the bus was supposed to leave. All I wanted to do was crash on the ground and never get up but instead I gave the order to my body ‘go’ and somehow it still listened. Then there were just 5 km left. That doesn’t sound like a lot but every step I took was pure pain. I remembered from Karate special training that the suffering always ends and that it usually happens faster than you think and you are left with the feeling of “that’s it? I could do more”. This was not the case! Every turn I took I prayed to the god I don’t believe in that I’d see the car park, then I cursed him when the path just went winding on. Then I heard it, the beautiful sound of a marvellous car engine. It was pure music to my ears, civilization! I arrived at the bus at 15:55.

 

Some unrelated stuff:

The Cup!

Almost connected: One of the cool CS hosts I encountered is behind this great idea. The Tiki Wai cup which comes with an application that shows all public drinking fountains in new Zealand so people don’t buy bottled water that is very bad for nature and also give cool discounts in coffee shops/ pubs/ attractions. If you are coming to NZ check it out here.

 

 

2 thoughts on “I Survived Mt. Doom… Just Barely!

  1. הידעת שצבע שיערך משתנה מתמונה לתמונה? פעם את שחורה, פעם את ברונטית.
    לא קראתי במסודר את כל הפוסטים שלך (פאקיג חמש שנים, היכן היית כל חיי?) אבל כן יצא לי לקרוא עלייך והספקת די הרבה בחיים.
    מה שמפתיע בעניין שאת ניראת צעירה מאוד, לא יותר מ-25?

    אחלה טרק עשית! מה הייתי נותן בשביל קצת חו”ל >_< (האמת? טס עוד כמה חודשים לקוריאה אבל אהיה בעיקר בסביבה עירונית..)

    אז.. מתי את חוזרת לארצינו הקטנטונת?

  2. שונא כאשר הודעות לא מתיישרות לימין,
    עמך הסליחה, מהודעה הבאה אעבור ללעז…

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