QUEST!

So this past weekend a few friends and I took a trip north to Mount Ngauruhoe at 2285 meters around 7,000 feet, to do the Tongariro crossing, which is a 8/9 hour hike over roughly 20 km or 13 miles. Mount Ngauruhoe was where Peter Jackson filmed Mount Doom. We decided to take same adventure as Frodo and Sam did and cast the ring back into the fires. (haha) We started our journey late Friday afternoon, we hopped in the car and grabbed some groceries for the weekend. We arrived late that night made some dinner (dinner of champions a pasta dish) had a few brews and played a few games of hearts.

The next morning we were up early (6:00 a.m. ) to catch the shuttle to the base of the mountain. We arrived at the base around 7:45a.m. and started our long trek up. It was a prefect and when I say perfect I mean PERFECT day to hike. Not a cloud in the sky, awesome temperatures the whole day, the sun was shining bright and hardly any wind at all. The first 1/3 of the hike was gradual uphill with a few flat areas. Once we were in the crossing we decided to take it up a level and go off trail to climb the summit. (which is not recommended for the faint of heart or on a windy day) No wind and four guys with nothing to lose we started our climb. It took the four of us 2 hours to reach the top. The views from the summit were amazing! You could see for miles in all directions. They did have a bit of snow at the top (rare for this time of year) which made for good sledding down the mountain. It took us, well me 40 minutes to make my way down the mountain (the others ran down it in 15 minutes) After out success we decided to take a lunch break (PB&J's)  before continuing on the 2/3's of trail we had left. The next 5 hours took us up, down, through mountain lakes, rainforest, volcanic caters and beautiful grasslands.

We had a shuttle to catch back to our hostel at 4:30 and I keep my watch on American time (to keep a sense of home with me) and not taking daylight savings into account we ran part of the way until a little old lady told us it was not 4:15 but actually 3:15. Needless to say I felt pretty bad, but only until we found the best waterfall/rest area we could possibly hope for and soaked our feet. Right off the tail and nobody but the four of us. It was a great ending to a long hard day's work. That night we met some MORE Penn State people (haha) and had the rest of our beers while conversing on the days events. I made homemade mac and cheese, everybody seemed to enjoy it!

This week is my last week of classes before break! I will be heading to the South Island for a few days to see some friends and then on to Aussie the week after. As always hope all is well stateside. New Zealand is awesome and I am enjoying every minute of my time here!

April 12th, 2011