Fantastic day. I crossed the Crossing. I did the math, and I think I hiked about 15 miles today! Pretty impressive eh? The only longer hike I've done is Mt. Timpanogos, which I'd have to say is two or three times harder than the hike today. We arrived at the trailhead at 7:30 - the Swedes, a Chinese girl, and me. I started hiking with the Chinese girl, asked her what her name was, and she said that she chose "Rambo" as her English name. I said, "Rambo?" And she said yes. I told her I liked it. She then said that she picked it because you cannot see it in China. But it's easier to see in New Zealand or America. I said, "Really? Cool." And she said she saw it only once in New Zealand but it was beautiful. And that is when I realized her name was Rainbow.
I hiked with Rainbow for a few minutes, but she kept stopping to take photos, like every ten steps. I waited for her a few times, but when it was obvious that I was a much faster hiker, I stopped waiting. Maybe that was rude.
The hike was beautiful, and diverse. It started out green, and ran along a creek the color of rust. From there the trail went straight up. Wood stairs were built to help the climb. It was a lot of stairs. Walking over lava rock fields, on the edge of a volcano. Pretty neat. It kept climbing til we reached the South Crater at the base of Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings) - a huge, flat, open crater. It was crazy! We walked across it, and then further still, we climbed and scrambled another long stretch in dirt and pebbles and rocks. It was tough climbing up, but I'd say almost harder coming down.
Then we came to the Red Crater for a view of the Emerald Lakes and the Blue Lake. The colors of the water were incredible. And right there by the pools, an active volcanic steam vent. So cool! That's as far as we were allowed to go. The other half of the Crossing has been closed all year due to a volcanic eruption a few months ago. So that was a bit of a disappointment, but oh well.
Three hours in, ahead of schedule, I had time for a side trip. You could hike up to the Mt. Tongariro Summit, just another 3 km added to the hike. On a path that looked like Mars, it led to a really great view of the volcano/crater, and the other side of Tongariro. Up there I met Lisa, New Jersey traveler, just coming to the end of her NZ trip. I hiked down with her for a ways. She gave me some good suggestions on places to stay, things to do. We split up when we got to another side trip I wanted to try: scaling Mt. Doom! Pretty much scrambling up the face of the volcano to the top. But I started my ascent, and 15 minutes into it I turned around. It was just scrambling up a steep slope of volcanic ash and lava rocks. Two steps up, one step back. Not fun. I wasn't about to do that for another hour and a half, so I gave up. Hiked down the trail, met up with the Swedes for a bit. Frida and David. They wore matching hiking attire. David didn't say much, but Frida was friendly. She might have talked me into skydiving in Taupo. We'll see.. I told her that two of my favorite musical artists were from Sweden - Lykke Li and Peter, Bjorn, and John! She wasn't as excited about this as I was.. Anyway, I took off by myself when F and D stopped to rest. Reached the car park just before 3 o'clock. That put me at 7 1/2 hours total. Not bad. But then we waited until 5 o'clock for the shuttle.
I feel good. Not too tired, feet don't hurt. I was filthy, so it was nice to take a shower. Gotta plan for tomorrow now. Taupo!
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