We left Waitomo for Tongariro National Park. It was a 2 and a half hour drive getting there. The drive was nice and the park was lovely but it wasn’t the reason we journeyed there. Mount Doom. The fire and brimstone seen during the finale of The Lord of the Rings films all came from Mount Doom. The mountain itself, Mount Doom, is part of the National Park! More accurately, Mount Doom is known as Mt. Ngauruhoe, 2291 metres above sea level. Jill had heard about this great path called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 7 hour hike that included Mount Doom (I’m going to call it that instead of its actual name because it sounds way cooler) among its scenic detours. The only problem with it was that the hike was not a loop, its end point was several kilometres from the starting point so we’d have to catch a bus back to our car. Jill had another idea that I was instantly on board with though. What she suggested was that we start the Tongariro Crossing but instead of finishing it, we break off from the path and head towards Mount Doom, climb it and then go back the way we came to our car. Oh Yes! Mount Doom here we come!

The path up there was one of the most strenuous hikes I’ve done in a long time. I count it up there with the Inca trail in Peru and climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan. My whole body ached for days after it was done. And it was only the beginning. Soon after setting off, we passed beautiful rolling hills engulfed in mist and fog and quaint little streams. There was an instantly recognisable charm to everything we were seeing. This was Lord of the Rings territory and it was stunning. Even the rock formations were beautiful. The first major feature we came across was the Soda Springs. They were basically a collection of small pools but were being fed by a waterfall. It was pretty cool and the walk to get there (a minor detour from the path to Mount Doom), was interesting because I had to avoid the myriad streams coming off the pools. It was fun but Jill didn’t come. We’d been hiking for an hour or two by this point and Jill was getting pretty tired, she didn’t fancy the detour so just waited for me to come back. There was a lot of hard graft on this hike. Many steep, uneven, rocky climbs awaited us. We’d done a fair few of them already but we still had our energy and the benefit of an oxygen rich environment. I wasn’t that tired, not yet anyway. The soil we were walking on started off looking relatively normal, it felt sort of like dry mud but with more particulants. But this was an active volcano we were on (this being Mount Doom, I wouldn’t have had it any other way!) so the types of rock and soil we were seeing changed as we got closer to the base of the mountain. There were all sorts of dark igneous and metamorphic rocks around, huge amounts of black volcanic ash around too. There was actually a sign further up the mountain that said that all of the rocks and ash currently on the surface of the volcano were created during an eruption in 1975. Throughout the day, pretty much from the moment we left our van, there was a slow but steady rainfall lightly showering down on us. It didn’t bother us at first, it was actually quite nice since it was keeping us cool but as the day wore on it gradually picked up. It only really became a problem after lunch but by that point it was a pretty big problem. The path leading to Mount Doom was beating me down by attrition, it was death by a thousand cuts. Mount Doom itself though was just fucking savage. At no point during the climb did I think I couldn’t make it like Jill so pessimistically did about herself but it was sapping my energy like nothing else. I had to slow down to a snail’s pace to keep going but keep going I did. And I made sure Jill kept going too. By the time Jill suggested we stop for lunch I was feeling pretty weak, a little light headed too. Altitude sickness is not my friend. But after I ate something, I felt like I could do anything! It was like I had the strength and energy of an ox! This was definitely a good thing because I was going to need it. We’d been climbing for three hours already and both became a little demoralised when we saw that we hadn’t even reached the tough part yet. Compared to what we’d done already, the next bit looked like it was practically vertical. It was a very good thing I felt thoroughly energised, it gave me the mental strength I needed to go on. But back to the big problem. The rain had been gradually picking up all day but while we were eating it changed quite noticeably. We were getting soaked and there was another 3 hours to go on the toughest terrain of the whole hike. The volcanic ash was mixing with the water and slowly becoming like slippery mud, the rain wasn’t helping the grip provided by the rocks either. And when combined with the wind, had left us seriously chilled, Jill could barely feel her fingers any more. I kept looking up and reassessing the worsening conditions. After lunch, Jill was constantly saying we should turn back. I kept reassessing the conditions. I didn’t want to admit defeat but in my heart I knew that it was too dangerous to continue in rain like this. The low-lying clouds and fog were so thick that they were seriously obscuring our visibility. There were times as we were climbing that we couldn’t even see the path back down. This was not good. In the end we made a respectable effort, we were about 30 minutes from the summit but we didn’t make it to the top. With nobody else out there though it was just too risky. It would have been reckless to continue. I’m happy though, I’ve seen all of Mount Doom’s menace up close and personal and for all intents and purposes saw everything it had to offer. It’s a shame about the weather that day but it couldn’t have been helped. Despite becoming progressively more and more wet as we descended (it carried on raining for about 20 hours after we left), I think I appreciated the surrounding scenery more on the way down than I did on the way up. The mountains around us were truly beautiful. Beautiful in a way that I hadn’t seen before. I’ve been in environments like this on other hikes but New Zealand has an uncanny ability to constantly amaze and surprise me. The mountains around us were stunning and the way the wispy clouds were moving around them lent them an ethereal, otherworldly quality. There were huge mounds of snow on some of the other mountains, a stark contrast to the hotbed of volcanic activity that we were currently standing on. The rivers, the streams, small waterfalls, the hills, grass, plants, rocks, the clouds, even the rain and wind. It all came together to create an incredible, unique picture. Even though we didn’t make it to the top, I’m so glad we went. It was amazing and now I’m even MORE excited to do the Routeburn Track.