Sorry it's been so long since I've posted; I know you all have been dying of anticipation. Well, the short story is that I am still alive. As for the long story.... Keep reading and find out!
Today, I am actually going to jump back a couple weeks. Waaaay back to the last week of term break, and right after I finished my adventures in and around the Kepler Track (Yeah this post is a bit late). However, one needs time to recount one's adventures, especially if they involve travelling to Mount Doom and valiantly destroying the One Ring!
We are going to check back in on Luke's adventures right off Doug the Drag Racer (remember him) dropped him and Kyle off in Christchurch. We gave ourselves about a day to recover, eat, pretend to do homework, eat some more, and get a bit of shuteye, before heading in the opposite direction of our previous journey. Luke, Kyle, and Rachel woke up bright and early the next day to catch our Northward flight to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Upon arriving in Wellington, we met up with some other peeps, Savannah and Jailene, and explored the city for a couple days. We visited a few museums, saw the Weta Workshop (A special effects and prop company that worked on Lord of the Rings), and dined on some local food. The definite highlight of our time in Wellington was sitting in a local square, munching on an apple from a nearby farmers market, and listening to street musician Andy Gartrell serenade us for about three hours. Seriously though, he was an awesome guy, and played even more awesome music; check him out on Facebook and Soundcloud!
Now for a few pictures.
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| Look who greeted us when we got off the plane! |
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| Why are museums always so tiring? |
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| Weta Workshop! |
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| All kinds of cool props. |
Luke, Kyle and Rachel's plan was to pick up a rental car in Wellington around noon, and then drive to Tongariro National Park, to start the first leg of our tramp. However, we didn't end up hitting the road until about 6pm, and consequently, we actually started hiking at around 9pm. Luckily, it was a short leg to the first campsite, and we were all asleep by a bit after midnight.
Alright, time for a quick game of trivia. Guess who didn't bring a sleeping pad to Tongairo? If you guessed Chuck Norris, you're wrong, but close; he didn't have to deal with carry-on bag sizes when he jumped from the South to the North island. However, his close friend, Luke Jensen, did not bring one. Yeah, it was a pretty cold night. I was wearing all my layers, and my sleeping bag was wrapped in an emergency blanket to conserve heat. The sun and I woke up at about the same, and he watched gleefully as I shook the ice off of my rain-fly. He had every right to be gleeful though because he didn't have to ascend Mount Doom that day; he got to fly over it.
A couple hours of hiking brought us up onto the Tongariro ridge, from which we could climb up the steep side of Mount Doom. It was a grueling, hand-over-hand climb up a giant skree field. For those of you who don't know, skree is just a lot of loose rocks that really want to kill you. We managed to make it to the top, and it was definitely one of the best views I have ever seen in my entire life. We did some awesome skreeing on the way down, and made it to the bottom in about a sixth of the time it took to climb it. Now, skreeing is a lot like skiing. You are moving down a slope at high speeds; the only difference is if that if you fall, instead of hitting snow, you slam your face off a bunch of fast moving rocks. So gold.
Here's how I imagine the term was born:
Dude 1: Brooo, this is almost exactly like skiing...
Dude 2: Except there are rocks.
Dude 3: Brooo....so its like skreeing....
Don't have any idea how the i's became e's, but that conversation is probably close to word for word. But anywho, we finished off our ten hour day by arriving at campsite number two, and sleeping under the shadow of the now-conquered Mount Doom.
We awoke to our second full day, eagerly anticipating our journey across New Zealand's only desert. It was another long ten hour day, of nothing particularly eventful, just gaining a lot of ground. That night, we met a Kiwi named Philip, and the next morning I decided to hike with him since we were all going in the same direction. We absolutely smashed day number three; it was supposed to take us eleven hours, but we arrived at the next campsite in seven. We talked about all sorts of topics during our hike: books, movies, hiking, barefoot running, religion, politics, family, jobs, world peace, the cure for cancer, etc etc. It was kind of crazy how much we had in common, and we got along swimmingly. Since we weren't sick of each other yet, we figured we would finish off the last day together as well. At the end, I met up with Kyle and Rachel back at our rental car, after 50 miles of circumnavigating Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom) and Mount Ruapehu.
A quick flight the next morning back to Christchurch concluded our adventures on the North Island.
Photo credits to Rachel Cope on these pictures because she was smart enough to bring a phone charger. Check them out!
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| So majestic. Oh look, and Mount Doom. |
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| Yeah it's only a wee bit steep. |
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| Looking into the crater! |
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| When on Mount Doom... |
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| Some of the view from the top. |
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| A bit later in the day, after descending from Mount Doom. |
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| Looking back on Mount Doom. |
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| Next day, crossing through the desert. Mount Doom is getting further away! |
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| Dope Hut shot |
PS. You may have seen some lumberjack photos hitting up Facebook. That was my most recent adventure, and I promise I will be quicker about posting about that one! Check back in next weekendish.
Cheers!
Luke
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