Ok we left off at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which Lonely Planet rated as one of the top 10 day walks in the world. We packed our bags with water and snacks and headed out for our 21km (about 13 miles) trek at 7:30am. No water along the way so we had to pack a lot! The hike went across Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom from LOTR!) and crossed several active volcanoes, a crater, a glacier valley and several mountain springs. It was a lot of uphill hiking and climbing over rocks formed from lava.
At the bottom we wore shorts and Tshirts, but when we got to the top it was freezing cold and so windy! We could barely stand! There were no barriers on the top of the mountain, scary!
After about mile 4 we were pretty tired but we convinced ourselves to push through to see the emerald lakes that awaited us at the top! Beautiful! It took us about 4 hours to reach the top and we had a picnic lunch when we finally got there. There were three emerald green lakes and they were amazing. Except they smelled like rotten eggs from the sulphur in the volcanoes. Gross. You could swim in them but too cold today.
It took us about three hours to climb back down the other side of the mountain. So pretty! You could see for miles and miles because the land was so flat. We hiked over streams and saw tons of plants and birds. No animals though.
When we finally reached the end of our trek we were exhausted! Time for the hot tub :) Our hostel was kind of like the chalets at ski mountains back here and there were two jacuzzis outside. So we spent an hour relaxing our tired muscles in the jacuzzi. While we were sitting there hanging out talking to the other travelers, who waltzes by but out old bus driver, Dippy! Turns out Dippy was driving back to Wellington the next day as well and would be our driver for the rest of our tour. Small country!
After the hot tub, we cooked some frozen pizza and watched LOTR in the lodge with a group of fellow travelers who had also hiked the mountain today. And by watched I mean fell asleep five minutes in :) But we did get to see the Hobbiton scene we visited the day before! So cool! The first couple scenes of the first movie take place in Hobbiton. Unfortunately the actual set isn't as golden and sparkly and magical as the morning but still cool!
Then we hit the sack to prepare for our journey back to Wellington the next day. What a day!
