Tongariro Alpine Crossing

We went on our first big hike of our trip. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of New Zealand’s biggest and most famous hikes. It also features some of the famous Lord Of The Rings filming spots such as Mount Doom or the kingdom of Mordor. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is split up into five parts. The first part is the Soda springs, the devil’s staircase, the red crater climb, the blue lake, and the Ketetahi hut. Being 20.2 kilometers it is by far the hardest hike I have ever done, plus I did it with my own pack. We also climbed 4000 feet of elevation and ended up 6500 feet above sea level at the highest point. The hardest point, in my opinion, was the red crater, hike we walked on uneven sliding rocks, next to a cliff, at a high elevation, and with an extreme incline, and at the hottest part of the day. However the view was quite worth it…

As we did on our adventure to Hobbiton, we were able to compare what we saw in the movies to what we were seeing. I can see why Peter Jackson picked this location for Mordor. It’s scary and there is volcanic rock everywhere. It’s like living on a martin planet! And at the same time there’s geothermal springs, emerald acidic lakes,

magma chambers, landslide areas, and steam vents, and then out of nowhere, there’s jungle! The climate was like nothing I’ve ever seen! This was a really, really hard hike, and during the hardest parts of the hike I thought I would have to turn back. Though I knew in the end there would be an amazing view, and as I said, it was well worth it! Our guide was really informed too, she knew a lot about the area, she had been working there for 25 years! She told us all about the maoris connection to the mountain. She also told us about landslides and different types of eruptions. In the beginning I was very confident, but the mountain is bigger than it looks, especially once you’re climbing it. By the end in the jungle you couldn’t really see the end anymore, and there was no view of the valley. so that made it a lot trikeir to stay encouraged, but we were only in the jungle for the very end. In all it was hard, but worth it. My shoes were a bit too big for me and they kept sliding around in the shoe. I will never forget how bad my toes hurt afterwards!