Tongariro Crossing

Plateau Lodge

 When we got settled in Windy informed us that there probably wasn’t going to be a bus up to the mountain in the morning.  They were looking at the weather and the wind was just too high.  Ashlie wanted to make sure, so she woke up early to ask in the AM.  There really was no crossing the next day, so we bundled up for a day in.  We were informed after lunch that the mountain would be open the next day, but it would be rainy.  It said 1mm of rain, which I thought wasn’t very much.  Ashlie had gotten used to the idea of staying in for a few days.  She had looked at the weather and Saturday looked like a beautiful day to hike.  But I was keen to hike and get going to the next place.  I knew Ashlie was short on time and we both were short on money.  Staying at the lodge was only $30 a night, but the local grocery store was uber expensive.  I let Ashlie make the decision.  This was one of her big things for the trip she had been planning for months, and she was the one sick.  In the end she said we should do it.

the transport shuttle

The day started at 6 AM, the bus left at 6:50 to take us to the mountain.  We were told to have waterproof pants and good raincoat, also good shoes.  Our shoes were mediocre, tennis shoes used in the vineyard, and definitely not waterproof.  My rain jacket was a cheap plastic bag type thing I bought for five dollars and Ashlie’s jacket was a super nice hiking one.  Neither of us had waterproof pants.  I had jeans and leggings on and Ashlie had leggings and shorts, but carried spare clothing for later.  So we were kind of prepared.  I had so many layers (short sleeve, long sleeve, sweater, light jacket, rain coat) on because the wind chill was supposed to be around freezing on the mountain.  That’s actually not that cold for me, but when wet… it could be ridiculous.  

 

The misty beginning of the hike

  We got dropped off at the starting point and the weather was already misting and super cloudy.  Less than 15 minutes into the hike I stopped and put my cheap rain coat on.  Ashlie soon followed this example.  Even though the weather was a little drizzly and cloudy the scenery was gorgeous.  “It really did look like the Lord of the Rings”, as Ashlie put it several times.  Soon we were both tramping around in wet shoes and sogging pants.  I was a little luckier than Ashlie with the wet clothing.  My rain coat was quite long, so it covered my thighs and ass.  This meant that only my calves were soaking, and slowly getting cold.  Because Ashlie’s rain jacket was shorter (stopping just above the hips) from her hips down she was sopping wet and slowly freezing.  To say the least she was not amused.

looks mysterious

This was only the beginning of the hike.  As we moved on things got worse.  I was worried about Ashlie being sick and exposing herself to such shitty conditions, but it was my idea to go this day instead of waiting out the weather for several days.  The wind started picking up when we got to the begining of the main trail.  There was a sign with a warning on it.  It asked: Do you have appropriate gear? Is the weather ok?  Do you have enough food and water? Do you have appropriate experience or stamina to continue?  We answered no to all of these questions, except food and water.  For some reason we didn’t take the sign seriously.  We probably should have.

 

The beginning of the trail head was pretty mild; a little windy, a little rainy and a little rocky.  But as we approached the summit the wind picked up, throwing the rain and dirt into our faces and making it hard to stand at times.  At one point I told Ashlie we should turn back because I was worried about her health.  Just minutes before she had told me she couldn’t feel her butt or her legs, she was that cold.  She stubbornly told me “No, we started this we are going to finish it.”  We continued on and in a little while she had to change her tights.  We did this in open, wind whipping and rain falling.  Her legs were bright red.  I was worried.  She was worried, but we both decided we had come too far to turn around.  

We continued up and up and up.  Finally we got close to the summit and fell in behind the Taiwanese couple that had passed us on the trail earlier.  They had encountered the same problem we had, strong winds making it almost impossible to move forward.  We tried to wait out the strong gales, but every time there was a lull, the winds continued to blow just as hard a few second after.  It was clear that the weather would not calm down and we would have to press on regardless.

I have no idea.

 

At this time you could feel the cold to your bones.  The wet and the wind was making it almost unbearable.  I had it better than Ashlie and the Taiwanese guy (John) hiking with us.  He was shaking from the cold and Ashlie was trying with all her might to keep moving her legs, just to keep them warm.

We followed John’s (the Taiwanese guy) lead through the first of many difficult pieces of the trail.  This one was between the red crater and the mountain edge and I swear the winds were much higher than the predicted 35 kmh.  They were blowing us off our feet, forcing us to our knees to crawl in some places.  This part of the hike was excruciatingly difficult.  Every time I made it to the shelter of a rock I was huffing and puffing and thankful I had made it.   

At one point all I could think was “I don’t want to do this anymore.” Like a little kid.  I knew it was an unreasonable and unreal thought and had to push it from my mind.  When Ashlie followed me into the shelter of the bolder we told each other how scared we were and how we would help each other through it.  We knew there was no turning back, it was just as dangerous if not more so to cross those treacherous strips of land on the downhill.  We knew there would be no helicopter, the winds were too high, it wouldn’t be able to come.  So we plowed forward.  I lead as best I could.  I willed myself to move forward, sometimes on hands and knees.  It was during this time that the wind, constantly whipping at my clothing creating an ungodly noise because of my plastic raincoat, shredded the raincoat I was wearing.  This exposed my unprotected layers completely.  The deep chill was now creeping through my coat, sweater, and several shirts.

The summit, of coarse I didn't take a picture.  I was cold!

Thankfully we didn’t have too much further to go.  We went up and over the summit and then we started heading down the mountain once again.  We were still wet and cold but there was less wind and we were moving much faster.  Just on the other side of the summit we got to see the crater lakes and the sun peeped in and out while we moved through the volcanic area.  The rain was letting up as well, and being around the volcano was marginally warmer than being on the top of the mountain.  You could see the steam escaping from cracks around the lakes and the gravely sand track we were hiking down was warm, as I discovered the few times I fell on my butt.

 

The lakes were stunning, but obscured on and off by the cloud cover. Here are some what they should have been and what we got shots. I think you can figure out which ones we took.

 

Emerald Lake and Blue Lake

 Ashlie and I kept talking about “if only…” it were sunny, it was summer, it didn’t rain.  You get the idea.  The hike would have been much different.  *shrugs* Can’t change it now.   

Mt. Doom (Ngauruhoe) in the background.  I think this photographer did way better than I could have done.

 The other side of the mountain was much more relaxed.  There were less steep climbs, less rain, and it seemed like the wind had given up trying to put it’s icy fingertips into our insides.  So we gradually warmed up and got to enjoy some of the scenery.  We started joking and talking, and walking faster.  It was funny every time we saw a sign that said how much farther and how much time we had to hike we sped up.  Yet we always took longer than the sign.  We wanted to get off that mountain.   

I took this one.  Really pretty on the other side of the mountain.

We did eventually get to the end around 2:00.  This was an hour and 30 minutes before our shuttle bus came.  We were so cold we just called them, and the rest of our group came down.  Lots of others joined us at the bottom of the mountain as well, a few were seasoned hikers who thought nothing of it, but most were like us.  They were surprised and ill prepared for the adventure that awaited them.  It wasn’t the famous Mt. Doom we hiked, but it sure as felt like it and we would have if the weather had permitted it (it was closed that day).

We got back and hot showers were more than welcome.  Ashlie jumped into the hot tub as well.  Then we made dinner and crashed.