MORDOR!!!

 

Here it is.....Mount Doom, properly known as Mount Ngauruhoe and, no, I don't know how to pronounce it.

And here we are, in front of Mount Doom

on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which we managed to complete today.

Some stunning volcanic scenery which I think is referred to in the trade as 'lunar landscape'. See what you think. It was interesting picking our way through lava fields,

and the colours of the lakes are gorgeous...

but we did think the trek is a bit over-hyped, supposedly being one of the best day walks in NZ, if not the world. It was incredibly hot but that meant we had wonderful clear views. I (Karen) began to wilt a bit in the heat in the last half-hour, but then we had walked 12 miles and climbed just under 3000 feet; this took us about 5.5 hours with about 10 mins for a lunch break. (Such a short respite was not my idea, by the way!)

Sadly, there were no sightings of hobbits, orcs, elves, dwarves and, even more sadly, no Aragorn. But I live in hope.

 

Perched precariously above the lakes ...

Here's a snap of the map ...

 

... And here's the route.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the Editor on this one. Fine viewpoints from the top, views which are unavailable in the UK but the walk-in was tedious (mostly over duckboards) and the popularity of the route meant that I was never far from any number of under- or over-dressed 'trampers', breathing heavily and 'tramping' right behind me or, an occasional highlight, in the case of some clean-limbed Sorority girls from the USA, power walking ahead of me (can I say that post Savile?)...

I'm glad we did it but I wouldn't do it again whereas there are many routes in Scotland, for instance, which I would happily repeat.

Forgot to say that the second half of the Crossing was closed because of the volcano which erupted in the autumn, so you could only go to the halfway point and then double back. There were no more ascents, so we got the best of the views: there were nasty Mordorish-sulphur gases and smells emanating from the lakes. On the subject of eruptions, last night just before we went to bed, a terrifying siren sounded, and I thought "that's it, the volcano has erupted again, we'll have to evacuate"; the whole campsite assembled only to find out it was a practice fire alarm which they'd omitted to warn us about...

 

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