2012-01-28
Although it's known as the adventure capital of the north island, my main interest in Taupo was the nearby Tongoriro Alpine Crossing hike. We had to wait through a storm for a couple of days, but it was worth it. The hike is through the barren volcanic scenery used as the dark land of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. We also did a crazy spur hike to the top of the volcano used as Mt. Doom in the movie. The volcano was just about as steep as it is humanly possible to climb given the loose pumice that covered the slope. In the movie, Frodo slides backwards as he climbs and it's exactly the same in real life: two steps up, one slide back, and don't forget to avoid the tumbling rocks knocked loose by hikers above. The cone at the top was slightly disappointing, but it had a very nice view. The wind at the summit was so strong we only stayed a couple of minutes before beginning the unreal descent. It was closer to pumice surfing than walking. It was all we could do just to try and stay on our feet as we slid down and we often weren't successful, scrapping our hands on the rough and jagged volcanic rocks as we broke our falls. In the end, we made it down without any major injuries, but did have a close call with a large tumbling rock about half way down. After the volcano, we were treated to blue and emerald prismatic lakes, which are often are found in volcanic areas. The sliding, falling, descent tweaked my sprained foot and I had to limp the last 10km to the end of the hike. I was just grateful that my foot had healed enough to do the hike at all.