Andi's Journey: From the Shire to Mordor in a Day

What took Frodo & Company 6 months to achieve we did today. We started out today in our own little corner of the Shire in what could be considered a Hobbit hole (it's a small place). Then we drove the 2.5 hours to Mount Ngauruhoe (which is Mt Doom in the LOTR movies) and climbed along the Alpine Crossing trail up to the South Crater (not quite all the way up, but pretty far nonetheless. I'm confident we could've easily made it before the 6 months were up). So we chucked a ring in and saved the world, no worries guys.

But in reality, I was feeling some sympathy for Frodo and Sam as we were climbing up. It was intense. My garmin registered 141 flights of stairs climbed. And we've been hiking every day since arriving so my body was already sore. My legs were very unstable by the time we got down. I was really hoping Gandalf would send in the giant eagles to bring us down, but no such luck.

The hike was very interesting though; the landscape was completely different than what we've seen of New Zealand so far. For the first part it was relatively flat and following along a bubbling brook but otherwise pretty barren; very unlike the lush green that we've grown used to, Then it gradually started going up over rocks or stairs. We were still following the water and it would flatten out in some parts where we would walk on a wooden path over the marshy area. Then it took a dramatic incline. This part was called the Devil's Staircase and the reason is pretty obvious. It was rough. We finally made it up to the crater and took some pictures before heading back down. Going down was almost worse than going up. All in all it took us about 4.5 hours. I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

Also, we had read online that it gets really cold up there so we had packed and prepared for that. It was a little chilly at the top but for the most part it wasn't at all cold. So we were ill-prepared for that. I had only put sunscreen on my face thinking the rest of my body would be covered. But when I kept peeling off layers I never thought to re-apply, so I've got quite the sunburn on my back and arms now. Oh well, it was bound to happen eventually.

After that excursion we needed to refuel and rest up, so we got some dinner in a town called Taupo, which is right off of Lake Taupo- the biggest lake in New Zealand. There were a lot of pretty views around there and we ate right by the water. We stopped at a cafe and I got some beef nachos while the guys got chicken parmigiana and we all guzzled some water. Actually, on the way to Taupo we played a water-drinking game in the car so that we would all re-hydrate a little faster. The game was that every time the road said to slow down for a curve we'd take a drink. That happens every few hundred meters here so we drank a lot of water.

Lake Taupo in the distance: