It was a misty morning as we started our trek through the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. With the marshlands on our left and Mount Doom on our right, I was beginning to feel like I'd been thrown into the final scene of The Lord of the Rings and it was bloody awesome! My inner geek peaked as the sun burnt through the clouds revealing Middle Earth's most feared volcano in all its glory. The sheer enormity was quite overwhelming and standing in its shadows, I've never felt so small; about the size of a hobbit in fact!
Though we had no Ring of Power to worry about destroying, we did have our own quest of equal importance: making it to the Emerald Lakes in time for our lunch! And this was no easy task. The initially flat terrain soon right angled into a steep upwards climb, suitably named 'The Devil's Staircase', and once those phased out they were replaced with a dusty rubble which slid beneath us with every step. As we hauled ourselves higher the air became thinner, the wind colder and my flashbacks to Rinjani increasingly vivid.
Once we finally reached the top though we were rewarded with the most breathtaking views. Looking in both directions was like staring down upon two different realms with fierce red craters behind us and glistening green pools ahead; our very own diamonds in the rough.
The agreed lunch spot was in sight but these little gems were further than they seemed and the pathway went downhill from there, not only literally but figuratively too. We slid and skid as far as we could before collapsing onto our bottoms and tobogganing down with about as much elegance as a herd of orcs.
The Emerald Lakes were just incredible and we ate our picnic in absolute awe. I couldn't understand how something so beautiful had been kept so secret but the world suddenly seemed like a much better place. We'd have loved to have stayed there all day but still had four hours of walking left ahead of us.
The next part of the trek was past another volcano, this one very much active and a constant threat. Our guide had told us to turn and run at the first sign of black clouds but having practically skiied down that last rubbly hill, we didn't fancy our chances at running anywhere! Luckily we caught it in a good mood though and it puffed only lightly as we hurried by.
The rest of the way back was completely bizarre as we covered just about every landscape imaginable. One minute we were enclosed in a blossoming forest and the next exposed in a baron terrain. Reflecting upon it is like watching a sequence in a film where different settings are used to represent a long journey. In our case, however, there was no camera trickery to help us along our way and we really did travel a long distance. At the highest point we reached 1,900km and walked a total of 19km in just over 6 hours. It was no Rinjani but we were suitably exhausted for our day's work and felt we deserved the feast prepared back at the hostel, large enough to feed a whole fellowship!
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