I never knew about the Tungariro Crossing before I came to New Zealand, but I certainly know all about it now! While at Lake Taupo we had an extra day to do whatever we wanted so (of course) Doug discovered that we were only a bus ride away from one of the top ten day hikes in the world: the wonderful...the beautiful... the painful....Tungariro Alpine Crossing!!!!
This hike is ~20km (basically 12 miles) and includes several ascents and decents and what is known as the "Devil's Staircase." There are also optional add on parts to the hike you can do (which I thought we decided we weren't going to do----key word, "thought") Doug and I started the hike at 7am and had to finish by 4:30pm because that's when the last bus pick up was.
The first hour and a half of hiking was very scenic. I felt good! I had done sliding sands and the switchbacks already so my confidence in my hiking abilities was at an optimal level. The only downfall was that in the beginning I got chased by a huge queen bee.
I'm not kidding! It would not leave me alone. I used up quite a bit of energy running from it until Doug finally killed it (my hero). I had a banana in my bag so maybe it was out for me.
Eventually we reached the dreaded Devil's Staircase. Let me just say... I understand the name now. Talk about a work out! Those stairs seemed like they were never ending and our bodies were burnin'.
We did make it to the top (I had my doubts) and took a break to eat and drink a bit. It was a beautiful view. We were sitting near the bottom of Mt. Doom and we had about 4 hours of hiking ahead of us (or so I thought). Mt. Doom is a volcano roughly 8000 feet tall and was used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings.
As we sat there eating we chatted with some of our friends from Sweden. One of the Swedens, Victor, told us that he and his friends had decided they were going to climb Mt.Doom. As soon as he said that to Doug...... I knew.....that we were going to climb Mt. Doom as well (shoot!). I didn't really want to do it but I could see the twinkle of challenge and excitement in Doug's eyes. Despite my muscles screaming at me not to, I sacrificed my poor calves and went for it.
Hiking up the volcano wasn't terrible. It was hard because it was very easy to slip on the volcanic gravel. Eventually it turned into rock climbing because the rocks got larger midway through.
We got to the top and the view was spectacular.
It wasn't easy...pretty sure I went through every emotion on the way up there (Doug can testify to that).
We couldn't hang out at the top too long because we were on the clock.
The decent down the volcano was unexpectedly the worst part. To sum it up: it was scary...I flipped and rolled down before catching myself on a rock...I cried...Doug and I got on each other's nerves....we made up...we almost got hit by a large rock that was rolling down fast.... we had to jump out of the way.... we cut up our legs.... we made it to the bottom...and we survived.
I nearly killed Doug on the way up the mountain and I nearly killed myself on the way down.
And oh yeah, remember that banana I mentioned was in my bag? I obliterated it when I flipped down the volcano. It wasn't in a container so it got on everything in my bag-perfect! And we didn't discover the mashed up evidence of my fall until about 2 hours later when I asked Doug to get something out of my bag and he stuck his whole hand in it!!!(Karma, if you ask me.)
The rest of the hike went pretty well. We laughed a lot and saw beautiful landscapes and lakes.
I fell on my butt a few more times, so Doug got a few more laughs in than I did. The end of the hike was a lot of winding paths that went though a rainforest and ended by the road.
We made it to the bus by 4:10pm. Thankful we didn't miss the bus, we sat down and rested. We checked out our battle wounds and blisters and headed back to the hostel.
Once back, we decided to shower, change our clothes and join friends for a relaxing sunset sailboat ride.
It was the perfect ending to our day and we had a great time!
January 15th
The 15th Doug and I left Lake Taupo at 9:30am and boarded a Kiwi bus to head towards our next destination, River Valley. On our way there we made a few stops, one was to do a short scenic hike and the other was to see a waterfall. The hike was at another location where Lord of the Rings was filmed.
In the background of a picture I'm in, you can see Mt. Doom (remember, we made it to the top of that glorious, wonderfully-awful creation!)
Next up we stopped at the waterfall and decided to jump off of it into the pool of water below. Quite a few people had to do it before I made up my mind that I could. Doug was like the second person to go (such a fearless man). It was a baby compared to the 50ft jump he did in Maui with our friend Rob.
Finally I worked up the courage and decided to do it myself. Leaping off of a cliff is scary, but sometimes you need to scare yourself. Plus...I love the adrenaline rush.
After accomplishing yet another cliff jump, we road on the bus to River Valley where we stayed for one night. We settled in and made dinner (potatoes, onions, and sausage- pretty delicious if I do say so myself). We played cards that night and had a few jugs (pitchers) of cider beer.
January 16th
On the 16th Doug and I spent the morning in River Valley before traveling on to Wellington. River Valley is exactly what it sounds like. It's a lodge in the middle of nowhere right by a river placed in a valley.
We enjoyed hiking there and swimming in the river.
We jumped off small cliff/hill sides into the river, which was very refreshing!
There was also a sort of man-made pulley cart that could take you across the river. We had fun jumping from that as well.
Later in the afternoon we boarded the bus and road down to Wellington, which is a very vibrant and eclectic city (much more diverse than Auckland). We will be staying in Wellington more later on in the trip so I'll write more about it then.
January 17th
On the 17th Doug and I woke up super early so that we could catch the ferry to the South Island. We repacked our bags at the hostel and checked out before 7am. Luckily we had a little time and we were able to FaceTime our niece Violet!
We have missed her so much, so that got our day off to a great start.
We boarded the ferry and departed Wellington for a 3 hour boat cruise.
We both fell asleep for most of the boat ride. We had gone out the night before and needed some rest. When we arrived to the South Island we had a long bus ride to Kaiterteri.
Fortunately for us our bus made a pit-stop at a local winery. (There is a massive amount of grapes grown here.)
We did a little wine tasting and walked around before heading to Kaiteriteri.
The South Island has lots of rolling hills and beautiful valleys. We love it so far and are planning a trip to go hiking and camping here at the Abel Tasman National Park in the next week.
Hope you enjoyed reading! We both are missing our families but we definitely realize how lucky we are to be on this journey. Life is good! Make memories and have a great day :)...
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