Marching Through Mordor: Part 1 of 4

If you haven’t read the Lord of the Rings books or seen the movies, don’t worry, I’m not really a hobbit-loving, spell-casting, orc-slaying fan boy.Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the Lord of The Rings very much; just not to the point where I get made fun of by other people. But if you’ve read or watched them, then this destination will prove rewarding in other ways than just its natural beauty.

Tongariro National Park is located on New Zealand’s North Island about 330km south of Auckland and in close proximity to lake Taupo. The Tongariro National Park was established in 1894 and is the oldest national park in New Zealand and was the fourth national park established in the world. The active volcanoes of Mt. Ruapehu,Mt.Ngauruhoe, and Mt.Tongariro make up the majority of the park due to tectonic activities of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates. It is one of only 24 (out of 851) World Heritage Sites that have been established on both cultural and natural grounds, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESC). These are just a few of the cool facts about Tongariro National Park, so it’s hard to deny that this place is what New Zealanders call “sweet as”- their abbreviation for “sweet as can be”.

Day One
We headed for Tongariro from Auckland by car which took about 4 hours and 30 minutes. It’s also possible to take a Bus to Taupo, and from Taupo catch another short bus ride to Whakapapa. Our car rental turned out to $50 a day for 4 days, split amongst four passengers, it ended up to be the same if not more economical than the bus ride, but don’t forget to return it with a full tank, another $12-15 per person. Unfortunatly, if you do the 4 day tramp like I did, you’re only going to be using the car 2 out of the 4 days.

Once you get to Whakapapa you’ll need to stop in the Department of Conservation (DOC) Vistor Center if you plan on doing any multi-day tramps. To walk through the park is free, but if you’re staying overnight it’s $15 to camp and $20 to stay in a hut. While my group and I had plans to stay in a hut we ended up camping because it was a holiday weekend and the huts were full. In most case however, there is plenty of room in the huts. If you do decide to camp however, you still have complete access to the gas stoves and rain water in the hut, but make sure to bring a sleeping bag when camping. We found out the first night that once the sun goes down the temperature drops faster than Galileo’s cannon balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

From the visitor center it took our group of four to hike 3 hours to the Mangatepopo hut, the first of three that we stayed at. This section of the track was over shrub covered plains and river beds and proved not too difficult due to the dry weather. The DOC does advise however the track can take up to 5 hours in bad weather, and they’re not kidding. Your bum would be so caked in mud that you’d be able to bake mud pies for the whole group. The track offers great panoramic views of the three mountains and the grass lands surrounding it. We didn’t realize we’d end up camping right next to it, as it seemed so far off in the distance when we started.

We arrived at the Mangatepopo hut shortly after 6pm. We pitched our tents and headed to the “kitchen” to prepare what we’d be eating for the next three nights: pasta. We felt a slight sense of accomplishment toward completing our first day, so rewarded ourselves with an M&M dessert. Yum. The sunset was at around 7:30pm and was a great opportunity to enjoy the brilliant colors and hills off in the distance. The moonrise came shortly after sunset and provided equally stunning silhouettes of the ridge and Mt. Ngauruhoe.