My friend Colleen and I have been desperate to get out of Wellington. We've walked the streets, seen the sights, and sometimes it just feels like we could be in any city and we often forget we are in New Zealand. When I pictured going to New Zealand I completely forgot I actually have a full load of work to do for school. So most of my days are spent in my little room reading and taking notes.
Luckily, Colleen is just like me and can't be in one place too long without going crazy. So one night I brought my laptop in her room and decided to look at cheap bus tickets that would take us ANYWHERE outside of Wellington. I came across tickets to Tongariro National Park for REALLLY CHEAP but there was also a timer on the side of the webpage, and if I didn't buy the tickets within 5 minutes, the prices would go up.
So what does one do with the possibility of cheap bus tickets and only 5 minutes? Google Image it. So I googled Tongariro and got these amazing pictures of volcanos and neon-turquise natural lakes on top of them. It looked absolutely incredible and the neon pools jogged my memory and I remembered this is one of the places I wanted to go. SO based on an impulse, I bought the tickets to leave friday morning for a 7 hour bus ride and return again Sunday with no real plan.
But then reality hit.
Looking past Google Images to a more thorough Google search, I saw that this hike was an 8-hour hike. Nooot that big of a deal, I was actually really excited about it. But Colleen and I kept laughing and saying "what did we get ourselves into!"
Even more brilliant, it took us about 20 minutes to remember that it is WINTER! Google Tongariro Alpine Crossing (the amazing looking volcanic hike to the neon lakes- called the "Emerald Lakes"), and then Google Tongariro Alpine Crossing in the winter and it is a COMPLETELY different story let me tell ya.
On all the websites we looked at, there were warnings that Tongariro Alpine Crossing is an extremely vigorous hike in the winter and you need to be very physically fit (thanking myself for sucking up and paying for a gym membership at the beginning of my trip). Also you need special gear including, but not limited to, an ice pick and crampons.
I don't know about you, but I don't keep ice picks or crampons casually on hand.
So after having a long discussion about what the hell crampons are, we read further to discover there is a high risk of avalanches in winter! Fantastic!
In the end, we booked a tour guide since being crushed by avalanches didn't seem appealing, we don't own ice picks, and we still don't know what the hell crampons are.
Within a couple days of booking our impulsive trip, we were off! 7 Hours later, we arrived here:
Yes this real!
This is right outside the Hostel we stayed at. The hostel was $32 a night, and although we had to room with 4 other people, the cheap price was well worth it. (It also had a cafe, bar, restaurant, communal kitchen and jacuzzis).
Close up of one of the volcanoes. *This is Mt. Doom for all you Lord of the Rings fans!*
Saturday was the day of our big adventure. We got up at 6:00am, bought eggs and pancake mix at a local gas station, made them in the communal kitchen, and by 6:45am our tour guides picked us up and drove us to the start of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing!
This is what it looked like from the bottom, before we started climbing
Once there we were handed ice picks, crampons, and then we took off at a brisk pace toward, argumentally, the most beautiful place on Earth.
But of course, every rose has its thorns (or every volcano has its eruptions) and we were greeted by these cheery signs at the start of our walk:
Nothing like poison and avalanche risks for some pre-8 hour hike encouragement!
Right from the beginning the hike was incredible. The terrain was rough, as most of the ground is covered in old lava flows from previous eruptions. At the beginning there was little patches of snow here and there but mainly just jagged rocks and dead-looking plants.
Up in the clouds!
Here is Mt. Doom again, although it's not so doom-y up close.
The sky was incredible...Where the clouds meet the volcanoes!
This was the first major milestone in the trip. It was at the top of what they call the "Devil's Staircase". I think it's called that because it is quite steep and a vigorous climb, but I was so entranced with everything around me I hardly noticed.
Soon after, those little patches of snow/ice grew bigger and bigger and it was time for...........
........Crampons!!! They're giant spikes you attach to the bottom of your hiking boots to get a good grip on ice and snow. Thank God for crampons, is all I have to say. I would be tumbling down the volcanoes without them!
This is showing you how steep it was to climb up. We were told not to take pictures because we had to concentrate hard on walking, since we could fall and die at any second. But I made sure to snap some pics anyway, so if I were to fall to my death at least you all would have pictures!! (It's OKAY Mom, I made sure I was steady on the slope before taking any pictures.)
Some more beautiful sights!
This was taken almost at the top of the volcanoes we were on, its called the red crater. Because we were at such a high altitude (over 6,500 feet!) it was FREEZING but luckily, the rocks were really really warm because of the volcano underneath us.
Colleen and I on top of the volcano where we ate lunch!
After lunch we began our journey back down to the ground. How might you get down a steep volcano covered in ice, you may ask?
By sliding down it of course! I took this picture right before i sat down and slid going CRAZY fast down the volcano.
Down the other side of the volcano!
Oh yes, I forgot to mention I saw a volcano ERUPT! (just steam, not lava or pyroclastic material or anything THAT cool).
Oh, hey! Just another casual day in front of a volcanic eruption.
I guess that is why they have this sign?
This crazy trip is what began my fascination of mountains. There's something very humbling about being surrounded by giant, unpredicable structures. It's so easy to get caught up in thinking your problems or even day to day happenings are a big deal. As someone who suffers anxiety pretty severely and frequently, even small things consume me in worry and fear. Being surrounded by giant, incredible mountains is very comforting. Because when you're going through life, you feel like the center of the world. Everything that happens to you feels like such a big deal. But when you see that giant mountain in front of you, you realize you're actually so small and everything you're dealing with isn't as big of a deal. You're just a tiny human amongst these massive, jagged mountains and it's finally put into perspective that you have very little control over life, and that's oddly comforting.
You are going to feel fear, you're going to feel loneliness and the weight of a lot of different emotions, but no amount of fear or negativity really changes any situation. You will get into fights, you will fail some assignments...volcanoes might explode...but it's important to realize it's incredibly hard to control many aspects of life. As someone who is obsessed with trying to control every situation, I was extremely humbled being surrounded by the most fierce nature I've ever seen. When surrounded by mountains like these, all you can do is just look around and all you can think about is how amazing things are, just as they are. Drama, work, school...all that is nothing when you're standing on top of an active volcano.
Overall, it was an incredible day. Absolutely breathtaking. Every part of this journey made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to have this experience. Trekking around active volcanoes is something I never imagined myself doing, and is certainly the most incredible thing I have done in my life.
Oh, and I still can hardly move from how sore I am!
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