I had my whole world strapped against my back..

(Mt. Doom/Ngauruhoe looming in the distance of the Alpine Crossing)

We were greeted back to Ecoquest with heaps of work to do including a 3-essay/3-hour midterm, a research paper, and work journals a-plenty. We had to finalize our plans for the 3 day weekend (NZ's labour day weekend) by Wednesday, and although I was kind of burnt out from all the traveling and was concerned about finishing my work, when someone suggested the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and pointed out that this is our last major break until after the program, I knew that I had to go. That's why I'm in New Zealand right? Living it up. We would be at Ecoquest on Friday night to celebrate Janet's 21st birthday and then leave in the morning to drive south to the Taupo Lake area. We would then hike in for 3 hours, camp by one of the huts, and continue the rest of the walk to allow time for a summit attempt.

For anyone that doesn't know, Tongariro Alpine Crossing is another one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" making it the second one that I've completed since I've been in New Zealand. It's in an active volcanic area and the largest volcano, Ngauruhoe is Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings. So naturally, I was really pumped to go!

(A few of us in Grannie's on Janet's birthday. Kelsey, Drew, Sam, Me, and Emily)

No surprise, Friday night was a ton of fun. Started off well with a barbecue that the boys cooked up for us. It was also collectively decided that everyone would dress up a bit too. It was so funny to see everyone all cleaned up and fancy considering that we are all on a cycle of the same 5 t-shirts and pants, and are used to not showering for a couple days at a time when we're in the field. "Who IS that?!" was a phrase repeated throughout the night a lot. Sara Gassman and I spent the better part of the afternoon preparing a cake for Janet. It was a double chocolate and double tiered cake with buttercream frosting. With the limited resources we had (in terms of cake decorating instruments), I'm very happy with how it came out. We did the happy birthday ritual and Janet's childhood dream of receiving a letter from Hogwarts was complete, owl call, parchment, and all. The night was full of dance offs, baseball, outdoor mosh pits, intense tickle fights, Rammstein rock out sessions (Sarah got this one of me and Drew on video... it's hilarious), Scrumpies, darts, heart-to-hearts, a full moon (surprise?), and vent sessions. The last time I looked at my watch it was 2:30 and I headed to bed, knowing that our 7:00 wake-up call for our road trip was going to be quite rough if I stayed up any longer.

(Our group on the highest point of the actual alpine crossing, with Ngauruhoe/Mt. Doom in the background. From left to right: me, Chris, Kristen, Sam, Drew, Sara, Tasha, and Hope)

After getting a little lost, the eight of us were on the road by 9:30. With a few stops for provisions and bathroom breaks, we ended up getting to the start of the crossing around 3:30. We left the rental van in the parking lot, threw on our packs, and headed up the mountain. The majority of people do this hike as a one day (approximately 13 mile) hike in the opposite direction. The other direction involves less climbing and more descending, but since we wanted to split up the hike (to leave more time for exploring Mt. Doom itself), we did it in the more difficult direction. We heard a lot of sarcastic remarks from Kiwis finishing the hike as we were starting ("You're going the wrong way!" "Hope you brought your torches"). As I've learned over the past few months, New Zealanders are very against people going "against the grain," guess it's a cultural thing.

The first hour or so, we passed through some native forest, a mix of beech and the typical north island vegetation. It was probably one of the steepest sections that involved a lot of tedious stairs (I hate when trails are built that way). Once we got above treeline and regrouped the views were already stunning. For the first time on a hike in New Zealand, it was so hot that we all had to strip down to our sports bras (and shirtless for guys). We could see red rocks and steam coming rising from several areas in the distance, which one passerby told us were thermal vents and hot pools. I stayed with Drew in the front and led the way to Ketatahi hut in hopes of getting a jump start of setting up our tents to speed up the process. As we hiked we could see the hut in the distance. We crossed a few streams which were cloudy with erosion and quite sulfuric smelling. The slopes were covered in native grasses and you could see long patches of vegetation that was clearly regenerating from the pyroclastic flows of the recent eruption in 2007. After about 2 hours of hiking we reached the hut and set up our tents. The site was at 1450 meters (almost 5000 ft), which is the highest elevation at which I have actually tented, so that was exciting. The warden at this hut was actually a girl from Texas! It's always comforting to hear American accents. For dinner we made some delicious burritos with refried beans, salsa, avacados, rice, and cheddar cheese. We figured we didn't need to worry about packing light since the hike in was short and we only needed one big meal for the trip ;) Only the best. We watched the moon rise which was incredible; it was red/orange and we could see it rising over the mountains in front of us. When the sun set it got cold very fast, so the eight of us huddled into a 2-person tent and texture-fest ensued. I shared a tent with Sam and I don't think our giggles stopped until after 11:00, pretty late for a camping night haha.

I was awoken the next morning at 6:30 to Drew outside our tent: "Hey guys, you might want to come out and see this." I groaned a bit to myself because I had a restless sleep, but Sam and I looked outside and the view was incredible. We were literally ABOVE the clouds. It felt like we were on top of the world. The air was crisp and the sun was beating down on our faces. It was the perfect day for a tramp.

(On top of the world)

We ate breakfast and headed up for the alpine crossing portion of the hike. We quickly passed the groups that stayed in our hut and left before us. After only half an hour or so of hiking, we were already seeing snow on the sides of the trail, and after another half hour we were hiking in the snow. It was pretty packed down so it didn't slow us down much. I was thankful to have the walking stick that I found the day before in some sections because we had to cross some narrow sections of snow/ice with steep drop offs that looked quite treacherous. It was just nice to have the added stability of my trusty walking stick. We saw beautiful emerald lakes as well as one larger frozen one. We each added our own stones to large pile on one of the ridges. After a few hours it was time to descend a little bit into what looked like a large snow covered desert. We saw one lone person in the distance walking towards us and realized it was Drew! He had gotten a little bit ahead of us as we stopped to take pictures and shed layers. Instead of taking the round-about trail down, we all slid down on our butts and sleeping pads about 300ft on this open slope. So much fun! I almost lost my walking stick but luckily Chris ran back up and retrieved it for me.

The next part of the hike was probably the steepest and was up an open, loose rocky slope. Somewhere along the way as I labored up with my pack, a girl and a guy were walking towards me and as they spoke I recognized their accents. The guy was wearing a Hartford Whalers hat! I stopped and asked them where they were from and they said just outside of Hartford! What a small world. They were just my age too, and we talked about the different things we were doing in New Zealand. It turns out they are here volunteering for different conservation projects and they had heard of Ecoquest. Next week they're heading to the South Island and I gave them advice on what they should go and see. After a few more minutes of excited chatter we parted ways, but it was so nice to meet other Americans my age here. Very comforting in a way, and it really shows how small the world is. After a bit more climbing, I made it to the top and waited for the rest of the group with Drew, snacking and sheltered from the wind behind a large boulder. This was where we got our first glimpse of Mt. Doom. What a sight! The anticipation of the whole hike to that point was totally worth it. It was covered in snow with certain bare patches along the higher ridges. As we got closer we visually mapped out a route we would take to attempt the summit.

(My lunch box on Mt. Doom)

We diverted off of the Alpine Crossing trail and climbed up a little ways to rest for lunch in a patch of alpine shrubs on Mt. Doom. Our field leaders warned us not to even think about summiting without crampons and ice picks, but we decided to give it a try anyway because the conditions were favorable and the weather was good. We could see a few people coming down the volcano too. Drew and Chris were the only ones that actually made it, while me, Tasha, Hope, and Kristen turned away after making it about 3/4 of the way up. The climbing itself was not very difficult, but I was concerned about the actual descending. I stopped climbing at one point to look around and take a picture (after 30 minutes of only looking at the ground in front of me) and it dawned on me just how steep it was. The ground was at well over a 45 degree angle and it wasn't possible to stand up straight. My legs got a little shaky as my stupid fear of heights (that I have mostly conquered, except in situations like this apparently) set in. I ended up stopping with Hope and sat down to enjoy the view and take it all in.

Although now that I look back on it, I know that I could have physically and mentally climbed to the top, I am satisfied with what I did do. It wasn't worth me panicking at the top or getting hurt somehow. The hike back down was actually very easy, as we made our way down on the snow and were able to slide down on our shell jackets most of the way! It was a lot of fun and I felt silly for being scared at first. I made a snow angel and when we rejoined the other two girls part way down I took a very relaxing nap on my pack. I've never been so warm with snow surrounding me. The rest of the hike was not very eventful, and we were mostly rushing down to ensure that we made it back in time for our shuttle. Every once in a while I would turn around and catch a glimpse of Ngauruhoe and marvel at its grandeur; just an hour or two before I was climbing, sliding, eating, and napping on its snow covered slopes and now I was back in the desert.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is by far one of the coolest hikes I have ever completed. I still can't get over how dramatic the landscape was, and the company of great friends made it even better.