Tongariro and the Missing Orcs

I’ve wanted to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing since I decided to visit New Zealand. It’s an incredibly popular walk with over 800,000 people walking the crossing last year.Given it’s the spectacular setting of Mount Doom and Mordor in Lord of the Rings I can only see it’s popularity increasing. This wildly changeable and dramatic terrain is stunning to walk through and exhilarating given you pass between active Volcanos, emerald lakes, snow capped mountains and traverse lava fields and the red crater affording glorious views of lake Taupo and panoramic views of lush bushland beyond.Walking above 1900 metres over 19.4 km (more including the sumit side walks) and carrying a full day pack for any weather makes for a reasonable challenge but wow what a brilliant day.If you can’t tell, I’m high as a kite but have had to delay posting this blog. In order to get Wi-Fi in Whakapapa Village I had to stand completely still on my left big toe while muttering a whimpering please to the almighty WiFi God and even then, without a highly painful sacrificial cramp being offered a connection was unlikely.Anyway today was truly fantastic and if New Zealand has never been on your hit list I beg you to reconsider. Someone once said that New Zealand is like Scotland only on Drugs….I totally get it. There’s a sense of a familiar landscape here combined with tropical bush country, dramatic waters, lakes and mountains with trails and walking facilities like I’ve never seen but always dreamed of. The weather couldn’t have been more favorable. God (the real one not the wifi God) was truly out there today. Thanks for keeping a lid on that old nasty Mt Ngauruhoe (mount doom) and getting me down safe and sound. There were a few moments when the insipid sulpher smell and bellowing vents rising high over twisted volcanic rock prompted me to considered being up there during an eruption.Not a good thought….made me walk a tad faster and twist the old rosarys to snapping point! Seemed to do the trick though, as here I am raving about it. My only point of agitation was the lack of marching Orc army pounding along by my side, I swear I could almost hear them (actually that was more like my pounding heart) now that would have been proper fear. There’s always tomorrow to find Gollum or a stray Orc or two when I venture on a 5hr hike to the upper lakes.