WHAKAPAPA VILLAGE – TE KUITI (via a trek across the Tongariro Northern Circuit), 23 May 2024
It’s a weird feeling knowing things are almost finished. Given how far we’ve travelled this week, you’d think that time would slow. It’s been quite the opposite. It seemed only yesterday morning that we were in Queenstown, not back where we were mid-Week 1.
In Mordor.
A pretty damn beautiful Mordor though.
I woke up early to have a long chat with my partner, which was lovely, albeit hard in so much as distance always takes its toll. We usually would have seen each other by now if this was work related, but nearly there and not before some amazing adventures.
Today’s plan had been on the cards from the very first mock schedule of the trip: to trek across a large chunk of Tongariro National Park. While hiking the mountains or volcano couldn’t be done (the volcano is sacred and, therefore, a Maōri protected space), we could follow a huge track that leads around the base of the volcano. To do it all would take 10 hours, and one section is closed now until November and summertime due to passing up and between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (the volcano/Mt. Doom), but the Northern circuit from Whakapapa Village to a tiny hut outpost (and bothy. Basically, a free house to stay in should you need) called the Mangatepōpō Hut. A 5.5 hour return circuit through lush forests, sweeping plains and climbing steeply down and up and over streams, hills and ridges.
Sign. Me. Up.
Jon started the first 20 minutes or so without me as I spent time on my call and then getting ready to go, but the moment I left the road and set foot on the track, it was impossible not to listen to Howard Shore’s incredible score for The Lord of the Rings. There are so many places we could see the location and Middle-Earth, etc., this was even more amazing in that it wasn’t a location other than the volcano itself (shot in summer without snow). It just was Middle-Earth, it felt it. Like Tolkien’s UK, but just that little bit more fantastical and uncanny. I think that’s why I’ve loved Aotearoa New Zealand so much. I’d definitely live here. Especially in or around Wellington/North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui).
After a while, Jon left. He was flagging and didn’t want to lose too much energy for our drive tonight, no matter how much shorter it was. It was great to have him laughing with me for the first 90 minutes, though. I said I’d keep going and complete the circuit, then be back for a lot of ramen and a LONG shower.
We left each other at a stream, one climbing back, the other climbing forward and with one last, little wave as just tiny heads poking up out of the shrubs. We parted. Now, I was alone… and getting closer to Mount Doom, covered in clouds.
The Northern Circuit, incidentally, isn’t for the everyman either. It’s a true *trek*. Nothing you need to be super in shape to pull off, but it’s steep, muddy, and requires at least a solid level of outdoorsy-ness to do, I would say. It’s for the Aragorns and Legolas’s, or the most Tookish of Hobbits (one for the book nerds there).
As I crept and snaked my way closer I was fascinated by the change in the ecosystems, the flora around me (ugh, I sound like a Victorian dandy) changed from tall trees and green shrubs to suddenly become dark red and mossy and close to the ground. It was amazing! Like travelling to a new map on a game or a new world. Science, b*tches!
At last, after nearly 3 hours of Trekking around the base of Mt. Ngauruhoe, I saw the tiny speck of Mangatepōpō Hut in the distance. My little safe haven in the Land of Shadow. Luckily, Sauron didn’t make me hit the deck quite so gracefully as he did Elijah Wood.
That’s when I saw it, on the peak of Mt. Tongariro and travelling slowly down its peak, misty and swirling. Rain.
A large spell of rain and hail was coming, and most of my single track back to Whakapapa Village was made up of streams, mud banks, and paths designed first to be irrigation and outflow ditches. In short, getting caught in a rainstorm back home gets you really, really soaked and cold. Out here, if any of the streams really built up or the mud got too slippy, I’d have no way short of walking cross-country through thorns and ferns to get home. Not good.
…I was ecstatic!
One, because I knew I could reach the hut in 25 minutes before the rain and hail.
Two, because I thought if I used the hut purely as a bathroom break, I could outrun the storm, it was only forming between the mountain and volcano and I was sat in the valley between them. It would take me 40 minutes to clear out of the valleys and into the plains and ridges again, where the rain would be mild or not hit.
And three, because now there was risk and risk makes an adventure fun as all hell.
As promised, I reached the hut, checked in with Jon, hit the bathroom, and then, having tapped on the eaves, turned around and made my way the whole way back, blasting the latter half of The Two Towers score as I did, before just enjoying the sounds of all the nature.
The rain and hail did hit pretty hard, but not too drastically, and before long, I was clear of it. Some streams had swelled, but I made amazing time. I did half the trek back in an hour, down from 90 minutes.
So, leaving at 10:45 I arrived back at 16:30 at the door to the van, which I dubbed Imladris/Rivendell as it was the Last Homely House [East] of the Mountains today.
I felt, and still feel, so proud of the things I’ve done on this adventure. Trekking, bungy jumping, off-roading. It gives me such an amazing confidence boost that my body and I are far more capable than I realise!
Once showered and fed we packed ourselves up and made our way just a short drive for an hour down out of the mountains to Te Kuiti, which is just a short drive away from the Waitomo Glowcaves, a universally well-known place and phenomena worth every chance to witness. We were never leaving Aotearoa without it.
Trouble is…
We’ve never been one’s for doing things by halves!
– Jake,
26 May 2024
P.S. Jon is also writing about his version of events over on his Tumblr page, Misplaced Midlanders! Check it out!
The Long Expected Journey 