“Simply” Walking into Mordor
I can confirm that walking through Mordor is a treacherous and epic journey... most likely made worse by the threat of orcs.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 19.4km & 7 hour trek up and down a volcanic moonscape near Taupo, New Zealand. Some scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in this park. The scenery is absolutely stunning.
I stayed at a hostel in Taupo and took a shuttle up to the park with some German and Brazilian girls from my hostel dorm room. Our early morning hike with hundreds of other tourists began under a blanket of fog that slowly melted away to reveal the Tongariro Volcano we were to climb as we walked through a mossy valley. After huffing and dying up a steep rocky ascent, we reached a red crater. Although above the clouds, there was still more climbing remaining to get out and over the crater.
Once finally at the top, the fog had crept back in and our views of the geothermal Emerald Lakes and Mount Ngauruhoe, “Mount Doom” in LOTR, were thwarted by mist. It was a bummer to miss Mount Doom- I’d been hoping to throw away 2018 into its fiery bowels. But I guess it was taking a day off- bathing in condensation instead of fumes.
After sliding down a loose scree hill and doing our best to avoid slipping off the side or running into the many other tourists, our walk continued past Blue Lake, then down, down, down through the Alpine track. Even though hiking up the mountainside was strenuous, heading down the simple path was long and tedious and seemed to never end.
The next day I couldn’t feel my legs. But I felt like I could slightly relate to Frodo...like a tiny bit. I know he was dealing with some other stuff. But hey- this was a taste.
