Walking on Mars

When I first got to the town of Taupo, I looked across the lake and there they were looming in the distance.  Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Tongariro with Ruapehu as a large and ominous companion.  For several days while setting up transportation to the Northern circuit I would look across and see them shrouded in clouds as I listened to locals telling me about the young asian girl who got lost and who's body wasn't recovered for several weeks, or the middle aged American couple who stubbornly ignored all warnings resulting in the death of the wife and a grieving husband left with the guilt of his stupidity.

My first day started off with my transportation never showing up.  There I was at 5:15am, the sun comming up, and no ride.  Just then a bus pulled up with about twenty foreign students who were doing the one day Tongariro alpine crossing.  The driver asked me if I needed a ride and off I went.

The first day was amazing.  I began my hike on a gradual incline with Ruapehu to my right and Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) in the Lord of the Rings film, rising to my left.  I walked alone in the land of Mordor, steadily up through a grey covered volcanic landscape with vivid crystal blue skys until four hours later I arrived at the Mangatepopo hut, eight and a half kilometers from the Whakapapa village where I began.  When I arrived there was a strange shirtless, heavily tatooed Belgian fellow sitting wide eyed looking up at the mountains.

The next day I set off on the Tongariro Alpine crossing.  My destination was the Ketetahi Hut, almost nine kilometers away.   The track begins at the western end by Mangatepopo Hut with a forty minute valley walk to the foot of the steep Tongariro saddle. This is a steep forty five minute ascent and the most difficult part of the track. There are many more descents and ascents throughout the day that take you past volcanic craters, the Emerald Lakes and along the edge of the Blue Lake.  Along the way I met up with two hardy Kiwi women, led by the intrepid and adventurous Linda.  Due to the looks of disdain at my apparent expression when they suggested climbing to the summit of Tongariro, I joined them on this additional hour and a half excursion.  The views from the top were spectacular and I upheld the image of American male strength, and stamina.   Inside I was crying like a little girl.

After finally reaching Ketehahi, Jimmy the hut warden entertained me with more horror stories of lost souls and emergency searches.  He was part of the team that descovered the dead American woman flanked by her sobbing husband.  The views from the hut looked out for close to a hundred kilometers across lake Taupo and beyond. 

The next morning I walked sixteen and a half kilometers to the final hut.  Once again the experience was surreal as I walked completely alone for almost eight hours. I walked through a volcanic waste land, encircled by mountains and active volcanoes in a land littered with strange neolithic formations and the ever present smells of sulphur emenating from steam vents that rise constantly from the surrounding landscape.

After a night at the final hut, I walked out another five hours (completely alone once again), and back to the village from where I started.  As I had no official ride back I decided to hitch hike the 60 kilometers back to Taupo.  I was picked up almost immediately by Grant, a Maouri fellow driving a red van.  He took me about two miles to the end of the road but was going the other way.  The next pick up was a couple on holiday from Wellington.  They took me about ten miles out to the cut off to Taupo and National Park.  The next fellow was a young Maouri chap called David.  He was a meat cutter, recently promoted form working in the slaughter house.  Took me all the way in to Taupo driving at a high rate of speed.  Good chap.