Mission Accomplished: Mt Doooom!

Hello all!

Well it's been another great week in New Zealand. Last week was pretty uneventful - just the usual classes. I handed in my first essay in New Zealand for my NZ culture class about the class differences that existed during the period when just the Maori were in NZ. In my NZ culture class we learned about politics (which I have an exam on tomorrow) which was actually way more interesting than I thought it would be. It made me think back to my AP US History class learning about how their political system works and how it differs from the US one. We also talked about how NZ is anti-nuclear which led to some trouble with their relations with countries (like the US because they wouldn't let US ships come here if they had nuclear weapons on board). We also learned how NZ stopped being so reliant on England (which really started because England switched to the EU and started using that currency and traded with the other EU countries rather than NZ). It was really fascinating to hear about how NZ really became independent and developed their own national identity. Now I just have to write an in-class essay exam on it tomorrow!!

Anyways the real excitement of the week was this past weekend when about 18 of us set out to climb Mt Doom! For those of you who have not seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy (myself included) Mt Doom is where the ring gets thrown at the end of the movies and it is honestly the most intense hike (or tramp) I have ever done in my entire life! But I'll start at the beginning...

Friday January 22nd
The first van (11 of us) set out in the morning. We rented a 12 passenger van and after the initial shock of discovering that the van was actually stick rather than automatic, we set out of Auckland to the Central North Island region (overall it was 4.5-5 hours away from Auckland). We stopped after about a half hour at Pak 'n Save which is a huge discount supermarket to get some food for the weekend. We then had about a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to Taupo. Taupo has a huge beautiful lake in the middle of it and it is just absolutely gorgeous! We stopped off there and went cliff jumping. If you know me at all, you probably know that I do not like heights and jumping off things in general, so to say that I was scared out of my mind at the top would be a bit of an understatement. The jump was about 20 ft high but the water was really clear so it looked like you were jumping into coral that was at the bottom (but the coral was really much lower). Anyways I finally talked myself into doing it and it was really amazing!! The fall wasn't that bad and the only real problem was getting a ton of water up my nose. But the water was really nice and it was awesome. Don't worry there are a couple pictures that someone else took to document my jump so hopefully I can show them to you all soon! After a couple jumps we all piled back into the van and it started raining. From there it was 1.5 hours to Tongariro. Once getting there we set up our tents quickly so they wouldn't get too wet on the inside. We then went to make dinner and discovered that not only was it still wet, but there was also no fire allowed in the campsite so that shot down our idea for a campfire meal. We made PBJ and had some other odds 'n ends. We then hung out, played cards and waited for the second van to come (which had left after 3 so some people who had class on Friday could come). After everyone arrived (around 11:30ish) we went into our tents and to sleep (which wasn't an easy feat since there were 4 of us sharing a 3 person tent).

Saturday January 23
Saturday we woke up nice and early for our big tramping extravaganza! We piled in our vans and set out for the start of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The entire crossing is 19 km (about 12 miles), takes about 8 hours and is considered to be one of the best day-long hikes in all of New Zealand. The weather was kind of cold and rainy so I was outfitted with my rain gear and lots of layers. We started off by a stream which turned into marsh lands and we had some rocks to climb over. The scenery was just beautiful though with a lot of mountains surrounding us. About 2.5/3 hours in, we stopped for a bite to eat and for the start of the real intensity: Mt Doom, who's official name is Mt Ngauruhoe. Mt Ngauruhoe is the youngest volcano on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, is really steep and does not have an actual trail so we were pretty much blazing our own path. I really don't even know how to describe the hike up the volcano other than saying it was so intense and I really was not sure I was going to make it up and down alive. The terrain changed a lot and I learned that solid rocks were my very close friends. There was a lot of time when I was really rock climbing going from one rock to another. I had to just take it one step at a time for fear of getting too overwhelmed and afraid that I would fall. My group took breaks on the rocks as we were going up which was helpful and also nice because the view was simply spectacular. One of my friends I was hiking with is an earth science minor so (while we had our breath) she was telling me about the different terrain and rocks which was cool. We also ended up hiking through a cloud (which has always been one of my goals!) and through some intense wind. After over 3 hours we finally made it to the top crater, which was unfortunately covered in a cloud so I couldn't really see the crater. But some people who made it up before me saw the crater and it really is gorgeous. After the intense climb up I really wasn't sure how I would be able to make it down, but it was actually pretty easy. While heavily relying on the rocks to get up, coming down it was all about going through the volcanic ash and black sand - it was a little like skiing and just leaning back on my heels and essentially jumping down the mountain. It only took 30 min to get down but at the bottom my shoes were completely filled with rocks! At the bottom of Mt Ngauruhoe we had another 5 hours to get to the end of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which we had to do before nightfall (which luckily is really late here, but still we had to get moving). The thing that struck me on the rest of the hike was how much the terrain changed in a relatively short period of time. Throughout the course of the hike I tramped through: more mountains, emerald lakes (aka sulfer lakes), a desert, saw the south crater which was filled with water and was gorgeous, on a windy path through grass lands, through a hot springs resort area and then through a beautiful rain forest. During the end part we overlooked Lake Tongaririo which is absolutely beautiful! It was a really nice way to end the hike. I tried to take pictures of all of it so that you all can see it! Through the whole thing, my new hiking boots and I became quite close but my legs and feet are still not ready to forgive me from the sheer intensity of the entire 12 hour hike! It was a truly incredibly experience and I am so happy I did it (and survived it!). When we got back we headed back to the camp site and then some of us went into Taupo for dinner (because without the campfire there was not enough food for all of us) and then to sleep.

Sunday January 24th
On Sunday we left Tongariro and went back to Taupo. After stopping for a delicious brunch (delicious pancakes and this baked banana that was a bit like plantains) we went to the Huka Falls hot springs! However before getting there, we had to go through a park which was hosting the Taupo Jousting competition. While they were not jousting when we were walking through, there were a ton of people and midevil activities going on. We then went down to the water which was actually a big river that had really hot water running through it. We all sat/lay down on the edge of it and it was really nice because the water current rushing through would go from hot to cold pretty regularly which felt really nice on my sore muscles. After relaxing for a while, we piled back in the van and came back to Auckland. After reaching Auckland we had a BBQ for dinner which was delicious and I tried my first kumara which is NZ's sweet potato and it was delicious!

Overall it was a really fantastic weekend!! All of the pictures are posted online, here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/NZTongariro?feat=directlink

I hope you enjoy all of them! This week will again be pretty low-key and filled with work. Hope all is well with all of you! I would love to hear from all of you when you get a chance!

LOVE from the latest person to dominate MT DOOM!!