Day 151 - Tongariro Crossing

Tongoriro Alpine Crossing is rated as one of the top 10 hikes in the world. It was here, where they filmed Lord of the Rings' Middle Earth sequences. Mount Ngauruhoe was used as Mount Doom in the movies as well. This trek is 19.4 km long and rated as "challenging". It was freezing when we arrived at 8 am and I ended up renting a jacket. The area was really foggy but stunning. It had an elusive air about it. Truly incredible.

The uphill climb for 2 hours wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Up at the highest point called the Red Crater it was absolutely freezing and the fog had moved in and I was walking through it. It was 1886m in elevation and the Red Crater was quite beautiful once the fog passed over momentarily. The view from here was absolutely stunning and a totally indescribable feeling of amazement overtook me and I realized that I'm really here.

It was all downhill from here on out. The first downhill part from here was pretty intense. It was really steep and all dirt and rock. Going down felt like snowboarding without a snowboard. Every time I stepped, I had to anticipate that I would slide. This happened all the way down to the Emerald pools. They were beautiful but still fogged over and an overwhelming smell of sulphur was coming out of them. The path evened out and then started to descend again. I realized that I had not seen a single animal living here, just plants of all sort depending on the altitude. At the end of the hike, I was pretty sure my knees were going to be mad at me as I had been walking inclined for the last 3 hours but hey, totally worth it!