Day 18

Approach to "Mount Doom"
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Today is Waitangi Day, Every year on 6 February New Zealand marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. In that year, representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs signed what is New Zealand’s founding document. The day was first officially commemorated in 1934 and it has been a public holiday since 1974.

For some people Waitangi Day is a holiday; for many, and especially for Maori, it is the occasion for reflecting on the Treaty, for us it was one of the Best and hardest days we have had sop far.

yeah, Frodo was a bitch, he did it in the Cool of Night with rain, we did it in the blistering heat

Taken at the start of 'Tramp' (hike) at Mangatepopo Rd end
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After booking the Ticket with mountain Shuttle at the info booth yesterday we had preped all our equipment and food last night, all we had to do this morning was make sure we were up and ready to go at 0900 when it arrived. We set the alarm and woke up agonisingly at 0730 though we were both already awake at that point, showered we had a filling breakfast of cornflake and toast, when our bus arrived at 0855 we jumped on and after two more pick ups: two Girls from Germany and two elderly gentleman from Norway, we commenced our 40 minute drive into the Tongaririo National Park, to Commence the Tongaririo Crossing a one day trek across some of the most breath taking parts of the park.

One of the More 'Gentle Slopes' the tiny couloured dots at the top are people
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The adverts were not wrong as we drove to the park the impending image of Mount doom was an awesome sight to behold, and as we got closer it didnt get any less impressive.

As we were dropped of at the end of Mangatepopo rd, the Driver commented that we were extremely lucky the weather forcast for today was dry and clear - ther first time in two weeks we would not get an obsucred view (as it turn out we met people who were doing it for the second or third time because previously the weather had turned and they hadnt got the views.. you can see from our pics our views!!)

View from One of The plateau's
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We got out our Map, the route is broken down into stages and it gives rough time estimates on how long it will take each egment of the trip.. the first was 1 hr 30mins, we decided we go at a failty fast pace and see how the timiings fitted in with us, so of we raced and completed it in 1hr, we had a quick break at Mangatepopo saddle had a sanwich and carried on.

The walk was wanything but straight forward, sheer climbs, steep drops, loose gravel and any other kind of inhospitable terrain you can think off.. well to be fair we were climbing a Volcano... we passed loads of people and there were some people that passed us.. some even running it, the two norwegian guys actually asked us at one point if we were locals as it looked as though we did it everyweekend!! the spritely energy we had at the start soon went though..

Mount Doom and an Orc
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Some of the Climbs were agony after packing a comprehensive survival kit in out day sacks they were both waying quite heavy on our shoulders and i had a full Camel pak to boot, the sun was glaring and the wiond even more powerfull, we climbed and climbed and at every plataue it made it worth while.. i could try and describe the view but just check out all the photos.. the highlights for us both were the red crater and emerald lakes but all of it was worthwhile and impressive.

at the last hut, they say to allow 2 hours to get to the pick up at the carpark. we had really canned most of the legs and as we wanted to take the 6 oclcock and not the 1630 transport home, we chilled at ehe Keteahi Hut for about an hour and then set off....Wow, what goes up  really does come down, for an hour we headed down the mountain and very small steep steps, which tortured our knees like no end, we passed peoeple that had been on the 0600 oclock pick up (as opposed to our 0900) that were still stuggling, for the next half hour it was a steep slope through jungle with benches to rest every few hundered meters, eventually and thankfully we eventually arrived at the car park and Collpased after some streches to loosen off we notced an info board behind us.. untill theius posint we had been hypothisising about how log the trek was... applying Nate rule of about 3mph and the total time allowed 9.25 hours i reckoned the track would be about 20 ish miles.. it felt like it and we had done some speed to get where we were... however we were devasted to find out that the track was only 17km - about 10.25 miles... what??? man that has to be birds eye view!! oh well never mind.

Chillin with landscape
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We had arrived at the final car park at 1730 half an hour to wait for our transport, it was at this point i realised that i may have had abit too much sun and started feeling rough.. by the time the transpoirt arrived, i was constantly siping water to avoid throwing up, and when you REALLY need a piss as well that aint easy, fortunately the jpourney back was onyl about 15 mins, and when we arrived a cold shower, a lie down and some Cheeseburger Suasage and Chips certainly sorted me out!

i got on the Net wrote some of the previous entries and collapsed infcront of a tv with Caz, a Bottle of Beer and shared an enormous sense of achievement, it had been a great day and sunburn, aching limbs and sratched up legs aside, i'd do it again tmrw!!!!

Red Crater
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It was about this time we did decide, that yeah, Frodo was a bitch, he did it in the Cool of Night with rain, we did it in the blistering heat of the day!!