To Tongariro and Back...

Howdy from Wellington. We just got in a bit ago - enough time for a quick lunch and shower. Meeting some of Rose's friends tonight so we are really excited. PS (mostly for Cali) - I just blew my hair dry and yes - it was wonderful! I look like a real person instead of a dirty van-living hippy!

We've had a good couple of days but I wanted to be sure and post a recent experience. This took place a couple of days ago. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing and living it!

Thursday morning was an early one. We were up at 6:15 to pack for the 6 hour hike in front of us. We had spent the night in a village called Whakapapa and had arranged for a bus to pick us up early that morning and then return us to our van that afternoon. We were heading out for the Tangoriro Crossing - marketed as the best day hike in New Zealand and confirmed as so by Desirae.
We reached the trail head at 7:30 am and headed out. At first the land was pretty but far from spectacular. Thick shrubs covered teh low hills. Tiny purple flowers looked almost radiant against the settting of drab browns and drying greens. Lisa and I lamented the lack of sunlinght - photos come out so much better in beautiful rays of sunlight. Little did we know how happy we would be for the cool of the missing sun!
In the distance a large volcanic mountain rose before us. Shrouded in low, quick moving clouds and mystery for the first half hour, it became increasingly present as we walked on.
There were many hikers like us all donning polar fleece coats and some with walking sticks or trekking poles.
The first obstacle came as no surprise. After crossing a flat area we began to ascend the Devil's Staircase. Our bus driver that morning had warned us that this was the most trying part of our hike. Jagged rocks and great boulders made finding footing tedious while the continous steep uphill climb wore on your legs and the change in altitude toar at your lungs.
A short distance up, a nice Scottish man in his late 50's scampered up behind me and kept up friendly conversation until the trail widened enough for him to pass the two gasping Americans as if we were standing still. He was wearing only shorts and a light t-shirt - obvious signs of his dilapidated sanity or his amazing physical health. Maybe both. We trudged on.
Above us now towered the volcanic cone of Mt. ___. This volcano erupted a mere 500 years ago causing most of the formations, craters and colors we would see that day. The mountain itself was a ruddy red color with black shadowing. There was no vegetation. A sign at the top of the dreaded staircase said that you could hike to the peak and back in 3 hours. Only if you had a deathwish, I thought. The Scottish man and his son hurried past unable to contain their excitement to start up the mountain.
Midway up the staircase, I commented to Lisa that I doubted this path led to Hell because I was almost certain Hell would be more easily accessed. But we survived the climb and were granted a sunlit view of the valley below and the mountain above. The scenery had graduated from pretty to gorgeous in one ridiculously hard climb.
We then trekked across a barren crater that resembled what Mars must look like up close. We had the promise of a bus waiting for us on the other side of this hike to take us quickly back to our comfortable van. I can't imagine the courage of the men in the past that trekked this way with a pack of food and faith alone.
We started up another steep hill and that is when the wind hit. Gusty and treacherous, it blew around us in playful wips. Lisa tied her sarong to her head to protect her ears, giving her a Himalayan sharpa look. Add me and Boo's red bandana to that and we looked every bit the true travelers.
We crested the peak in blistering winds and got a good look at a horizon that was amazing in scale. The land below looked foggy and insignificant from here. Like a dream you have just before waking - the details a tangle of mist and sunlight.
Up, up, up. The wind was really whipping now! A straight drop on one side led to a crater that the brochure map warned "you would not come out of" should you fall orbe windblown into it. By this point my butt felt like an anchor so I was not too concerned with the windblown prospect nor was I brave enough to get too close to the edge.
Finally we reached our peak - and oh what a summitt it was. To our right was a crevice deep and jagged cut from a rich and somehow terrifying red rock. It was initimidating. Straight ahead but far below us were three lakes glistening in the patchy sunlight. The ground here was loose and when you add to that the gusty wind our descent was interesting to put it lightly.
The nearer we got to the lakes, the more vibrant their colors became. Much like the other sulfur infused bodies of water we've seen, the colors were living, vibrant shades of blue and green. The land was so bare around them that the colors absolutely lept out of them, pouring into your eyes like a sudden splash of color on a blank canvas.
We crossed another crater, dried lava flows creating an odd formation like a childs spilled Koolaid on a flat countertop.
The last lake and the largest was gloomy due to cloud cover so on we marched. Slowly life reclaimed the barren landscape. Flowers appeared and tufts of grass. The rocks and boulders gave way to sloping hillsides with periodic streams winding down.
I could bore you with the descent - how hard it was on my knees, how we wound up in a humid forest whose towering mossy trees seemed somehow stark and weak in comparison to the beauty we had just passed to get there. But I want to leave you with every ounce of amazement that I can give you.
Think about the phrase "breathtaking" and how we have commercialized and retailed it into just another word - then scrap all that and remember a moment when you turned your head, opened your eyes and truly lost your breath from the beauty you beheld.
That was today for me. It could have been the altitude or the difficulty of the hike - but no. It wasn't.
It was the beauty from the top...

Miss you all from the road...