Marching Through Mordor: Part 3 of 4

Day Three

Taking advantage of a slightly shorter tramp planned for the day, we decided to sleep in a little bit and let the hut clear out a bit before making breakfast. We’d been eating English muffins with cream cheese and jelly for our breakfasts. It’s important to pack food that has a lot of carbohydrates and energy, but aren’t extremely heavy. We accomplished this by packing fruit, tuna, peanut butter, granola bars, pitas, and a lot of pasta. Most of our pack’s weight came from the food and water.

We set out from camp with clouds wrapping around the mountain, making for an eerie climb back to the Emerald Lakes. From the lakes we took the trail that headed toward the Waihohonu hut. The trek would take about 6 hours from the lakes, traversing what seemed to be six different ecosystems. On the way we descended narrow and steep trails, walked across a deserted crater, climbed over volcanic rock, treaded through black sand, trudged up and down rolling shrub lands, across dried up river beds, and wandered through a mysterious forest.

Physically less intense than the day before, the tramp proved to be just as scenic and made you feel as Tolkein had been here when he was dreaming up Middle Earth. I often found myself looking over my shoulder as to make sure one of my companions had not been secretly snatched by an orc or some other strange creature.

Around 6:00pm we arrived at the Waihohonu hut which is south east of Mt. Ngauruhoe and nestled at the base of a large hill with giant boulder jutting out through the grassy side. We set our tent up near a stream which would provide a soothing soundtrack for sleeping later that night. I don’t recommend going for a swim, being that it is mountain run-off that is extremely cold. It was the perfect icy temperature however to soak our sore and blistered feet.


It was Easter Sunday, so we had a nice dinner consisting of pasta, pepperoni, and trail mix; essentially the same thing we had been eating for dinner, but it was special nonetheless. And while I’m on the subject of food; food need to go somewhere after you eat it. There are these wonderful place called pit toilets at the huts, but one must remember to bring toilet paper, as it is not always provided. The toilets were surprisingly clean thanks to the hut wardens that stay at the huts during the busy months- but you can never really get rid of “the smell” in a metal box a little bigger than the size of a refrigerator.




The sun once again set for our last night in Tongariro National Park. On this particular night I decided to sleep outside under the stars of the southern hemisphere and leave the tent to the rest of the fellowship. It’s important to note that I was in more layers than an Eskimo. I was wearing shorts, warm pants, wool socks, long sleeve shirt, fleece, my winter parka, a wool hat, plus my mummy sleeping bag. Luckily with the help of my layers I didn’t catch hypothermia. I don’t really recommend doing this, because as I’m writing this my throat is currently feeling like sand paper. There was something serene about staring up at the twinkling night sky. Civilization seemed like a long forgotten memory.