Today is the beginning of our 3 day backpacking expedition in Tongiriro National Park, which has reached international acclaim because one of its mountain peaks had a major role in the LOTR films as the infamous Mount Doom upon which the eye of Sauron peers across the world. Here's a pic of it I took from the car.
On the drive we had a short delay caused by a bunch of sheep crossing the road.
Tongiriro National Park has several multi-day hikes that you can do, and we were planning on doing the Round the Mountain Track, which goes around a large volcano called Mt. Raupehu. Adam had been told that we could do it in 3 days if we hiked about 8 hours on day 1, 11 hours on day 2, and 11 hours on day 3. I was a little skeptical of our ability to do this since my Lonely Planet NZ book said it was a 4 to 6 day tramp with 4 days for the really fit but 6 for most. Nevertheless, we set off.
The first day was quite rigorous. For the first couple hours the terrain was up and down but not very steep, so I didn't think it would be too tough. However, after a few hours we got into the more serious terrain. It was still up and down, but now the hills were much larger and the climbs got pretty steep and rocky. However, the thing that made the hiking most difficult was the fact that we all had to carry backbacks to carry all the stuff we needed for three days. Even by packing light, I still had to bring warm clothes, sleeping stuff, food, and water. My pack must have weighed about 50 pounds, so it was pretty heavy. The packs are designed very well to make it easier to carry such weights, but it's still over a third of my body weight and thus requires a lot more energy to go up those hills with it on. In addition, it was really hot out. While some people don't like the heat, I love it. Plus it allowed me to snap a bunch of great photos. Here are a bunch. The first is me with my silly floppy hat (function over form).
The first day was pretty tough. I hiked for about 9 hours or so. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed all of the great views. There was some unrest in our group concerning whether we would all be able to make it to the day's destination, but we all made it. I felt pretty strong and was the second person in our group to get to the hut where we would sleep around 8:30 pm. However, the last few members just made it around 9:30 pm, which was just after the sun set. Fortunately they made it without having to hike in the dark with headlamps.
Because the hike was much more rigorous than anticapated, we decided that it would be unrealistic to hike 11 hours on day 2 and 11 hours on day 3, so we decided to go back the way we came because it was not possible to give ourselves another day since we had a scheduled trip to do on that fourth day. I would have loved to have gone all around the mountain, but it just was not feasible with our given timeframe. I guess that is why this is a pilot program.
Nevertheless, the next 2 days of hiking were very nice. The second day was overcast and a bit rainy for some of it, which was both good and bad. I felt much stronger, and I finished the hike back to the hut we passed yesterday in about 5 hours with Philip and Andy. One interesting thing I learned was that just a little bit of rain can cause rivers to flow much faster. We had to cross a few rivers on the hike, which yesterday just involved wading across them. However, today I had to work together with Philip and Andy just to make it across one or two of them since the water was flowing much faster and certainly could knock us over if we weren't too careful. It was a good learning experience for me. Here are some more pictures from day 2.
Day 3 was pretty easy. We just had a 2 hour hike back to the parking lot, and our time at Tongiriro was over. Overall it was a good experience, but it could have definitely been planeed a little better. Again, that's why this is a pilot program. Here's a group pic at one of the huts.
After Tongiriro we drove to a town called Manueka and set up our tents for the night (see below). Tomorrow we would be heading out on a 3 day expedition kayaking and rafting down the Rangitikei River, so this evening we went to the raft shop to get set up with gear and also get dinner.
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