Mordor

Part of me feels horrible for stripping the Tongariro Alpine Crossing of its actual name and instead calling it [Peter Jackson’s] Mordor, but the other part of me appreciates the ability for a place that actually exists to so accurately depict what is, for all we know, fantasy. Also, I’m conscious enough to know that Mordor doesn’t actually exist (YES IT DOES), so I’ll let myself have fun with it. Emily and I didn’t wake up in Tongariro National Park this past weekend expecting to actually walk the path to Mordor, but what do you know, we did. Let me take you through the events that led us there.

We had read that doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of New Zealand’s “great walks,” was a hefty journey that is less easily traversed during the off-season months (May being one of them). The tramp itself is about 19km long and is expected to take 6 hours and 20 minutes to complete. The weather changes easily, and for this weekend the forecast was looking pretty dismal, so we decided to instead do some shorter walks around the park that weren’t quite as perilous.

Our shuttle driver from the National Park Village into the actual park drove past the turn-off to the small town that served as the centrepoint for the smaller walks we were going to do. There were two other groups in the shuttle with us, so we figured that he was just going to drop them off at the beginning of the big walk and then loop back around to drop us off. So we drove for several kilometres and the landscape started to become more and more gorgeous and as the sun rose higher in the sky the weather became more and more appealing. As mountains and hills and valleys appeared around us, we started to wish that we were prepared enough to do the crossing, but alas, we were not.

The shuttle reached the beginning of the track, the driver got out and gave the seven of us in the vehicle a low-down of what to expect for the day. There were no other hikers at the car park and the weather looked excellent; he said that it would be a great day to do the crossing. At this point, Em and I realized that our driver had forgotten that we had previously said that we would only be doing the short walks. I turned to Em to see if we should say something, but it turned out she was reading my mind. When I looked at her, she mouthed: “LET’S DO IT.” And so we did it.

Our travels are generally rather well-planned, so there is little room for error or for things to go awry. However, this was one “accident” that turned out to be absolutely glorious, as I will let the pictures explain. We set out, unsure if we had enough water (we did), confident in our food supply (no one has ever said that a Jackson will go hungry), and optimistic. I’ll let my sister’s photographs narrate our journey.

This was the beginning of our walk. That’s Mount Ngurahoe in the background, also known as Mount Doom in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The mist rolling in… added all the more mystery.

Me seriously geeking out at the fact that I AM STANDING IN FRONT OF MOUNT DOOM.

So volcanic and just beautiful I don’t even know what to say.

“I’m glad you’re with me, Sam.”

Delightfully desolate.

So yeah a volcano we passed by just erupted in August and is still active. We felt like Shrek and Donkey trudging off to save Princess Fiona (sulphuric).

The red crater. Looked like a slice of red velvet cake. And just the fact that these colours occur naturally is awesome.

Headed down to the Emerald Lakes.

Magical.

Again, I just loved how the landscape changed so much within five minutes of walking.

The steaming volcano.

We got rained on for probably an hour and a half pretty steadily, but that did not dampen the experience at all. We ended up finishing the crossing in 5 hours and 45 minutes (go us). I actually cannot describe how happy this walk made me… and not because the landscape was somewhat recognizable (though not all of it is pictured in LOTR). I was happy because of the wonderful mistake that it was that we actually ended up walking it. And just the fact that we jumped into something so spontaneously without really planning ahead of time for it… I will be the first person to tell you that planning ahead is essential, but sometimes things just happen and when they do the resulting experience can be enchanting and wonderful and awe-inspiring.

Of course, you might end up getting into a little tiff on the slopes of Mount Doom with someone named Gollum, but luckily that didn’t happen on this journey to Mordor.