Tongariro National Park - and the Power Outage

Yesterday we left Wellington....well we sort of left Wellington. First we headed back to Mt Victoria so that I could dress up like a hobbit and pretend I was hiding from the Nazgul. The weather started off pretty awful again. It rained when we woke up, packed the car, when we arrived at the parking lot to where I needed to get to....it lightened up enough for us to go, and once we were under the cover of the trees the rain lightened up enough to not bother us/ disappeared entirely for the half+ hour we were there. Part of the extended time was I was wearing hobbit ears, and dressed like a hobbit. I hate to admit it, but I was embarrassed. I didn't really want people to see me - people just use Mt Victoria as like a place to run or walk their dogs or look over the city of Wellington and yes, we DID see a tour specifically there to see places used in the movie (I know this because they hung around the "GET OFF THE ROAD" bit for SO long. And the tour guide had stills from the movie.) But still. I was embarrassed. Eventually there wasn't really anything to do but just be seen and admit that yes - I am dressed like a hobbit, and here to take pictures. I looked amazing though, if I can toot my own horn. But once we finished my photoshoot, and ran back to the car before the rain could begin in earnest, we got lost, made some wrong turns in Wellington, but EVENTUALLY we were back on track and on to our next stop! We....well I....tried to stop and two other filming locations - 1. The place where the Nazgul's Fellbeast and the Mumakil fell in battle

2. Where Sam says, "This is it Mr. Frodo. One more step and it'll be the furthest I've ever been from home." The first one was a teeny bit of a hike and a cop was parked right in front of the turn off to the park, and the park had a sign that said "no unauthorized vehicles" but we could see it from the road, so we waved to it, and kept on heading North. The second one was on someone's private farm so We called it for LOTR location viewing and just went to a small town to look at some stores and get some lunch. I'm very excited for a necklace I bought, but will wait to show it off til later. And all the lunch places were closed or had very little options because we didn't stop to eat until 3 and it was a small town....but they did have Subway. So we had Subway! And yes, it was delicious. They're a very western/english based diet - we're trying "local" food as we can, but it's like....fish and chips, lamb, meat pies.....etc. We also got a second 6in sub to go to bring with us today! But more on that in a second. We realized in this small town that we still had like an hour+ to go to get to our airbnb, and I had told the guy we'd be there before 5....woops. I texted our new arrival and we booked it. The North Island isn't...or hasn't, been as show stopping with it's road side scenery as the South Island, so we didn't make any surprise scenic stops. We saw a lot of sheep and cows again. And of course, rain. In the town, the rain had abated which was nice, but it threatened the whole way to Ohakune. And the temps dropped, the wind picked up. We got here and had to unload in a slight drizzle, but that went away as we ran to town to get some groceries. We needed protein bars, bananas, etc for the hike. This airbnb is actually really nice. The ext has a beautiful garden, it has a hot tub! easy place to park and get out, the bedrooms are spacious, the living room is filled with couches and a tv, there's a fireplace, and the shower is huge! The only problem was the storm. The storm made the power flicker as we arrived, but then it kinda died down again until we had just finished dinner (we made it in the kitchen instead of going out) when the lights flickered several times, and then everything just died. The hot water died, lights, internet, it needed electricity, you were screwed. We got so lucky with that fireplace and all the extra blankets. The host helped us build a nice roaring fire and then (he also made bread which is DELICIOUS.) we were sitting in the dark at like....9:30? 10? So we were like...."Okay, bed time." I used my headlamp for a bit (always prepared!) but we charged our things with a power bank and slept. The power came on around 1, according to Sarah, because we accidentally left the kitchen lights on and her bed was looking right into the kitchen. I didn't know we had power until I woke up around 5. Because we had to get up early to get ready for our TONGARIRO ALPINE CROSSING We had to first get to a shuttle closer to the park, but we also needed to ear (of course) and pack our lunch (the subway sandwiches but also snacks) bring extra layers....Our shuttle was at 7:15, but of course it was 30 min away. So all this extra stuff just made us get up earlier than I'd like, but we made it to the shuttle on time, and then it ferried us to the beginning of the trek. Got a nice run down on it. 19.4 km, average time to cross is about 8 hours, the bus driver said he does it regularly in about 6ish, and a few summers back his 81 year old mother did it in 10ish hours. There were bathrooms along the trail about every two hours, and here there is a part that's windy, here is a part that means you're halfway, this bit is tricky be careful.... It was such a solemn bus ride to be honest, but he was so cheerful people lightened up as we prepared to leave. Then last bathroom before the trail, and we were off. Sarah insists that I'm the one who found this activity - I posit that I didn't, but I did advocate for doing it, because the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is an intimidating name, but the more familiar and more intimidating name most people have heard it called is Mt Doom. Now, the day sorta started looking a little bleak - gray, cold. But surprisingly, it became a beautiful day. But it's still a torturous hike. Mt Doom lives up to the name. It truly is volcanic - most recent eruption was 2012. And it's like, 4 hours of uphill and 4 hours of steep steep downhill. I wish I could say how amazing the experience was, how the scenery was so beautiful, the mountain air.... and I'm proud of myself for doing it, but right towards the end there was a sign that was like, "Hey, running late? Call your shuttle!" and it said we had another 45 min to go and for a second I wanted to cry. Like, seriously cry. Plus there are several signs that were like, "Was what you did too difficult? It only gets worse from here!" And they were right every time. It smelled awful pretty much the entire second half of the walk, (volcanic Sulphur to thank for that) and I'm just exhausted. I can saw I walked around Mt Doom, so cool, but damn it fucking sucked. Also, it's sacred to the local Maori tribe, so you cannot summit it...though as an active volcano that's probably for the best. And the scenery was very beautiful...when it wasn't covered up by clouds (2nd half of the day we had some suspicious weather that eventually rolled through, but completely blocked visibility for a bit.), or, when I just didn't have the energy to look anymore. At around km 15, I put my camera away and it stayed in my bag because I couldn't stop to take pictures. Stopping became a bad thing because if I stopped, I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to move again. I could barely make sure I wasn't tripping on things, and taking pictures on top of that? Absolutely not. I got some great shots up until then though? And the last 5 km was just....hell. It's steep, you're exhausted, and each km seems longer than the last. I couldn't speed up to save my life. Which is how we missed the 4:15 shuttle - by like, 8 min. I'm a bit salty about that. It's my fault for stopping, but if I could have just done better....but at least we had the 5:30 shuttle. So yeah, proud of myself for doing it - if you're reasonably fit it's a nice challenge to add to your list, plus you get to be in the area of Mt Doom, Mordor, and where Gollum fishes apparently. We were dying by the time the shuttle arrived, and we were so excited to get back to the airbnb and soak in the hot tub....BUT THE DANG STORM BROKE IT. Bummer. At least the showers were hot. So we called it an early night (except for me typing this) had leftovers and tried not to groan too much. We did 19.4 km! In about 8 hrs! (If you take out our lunch break) I trekked up some steep AF hills, and I'm proud of myself. And SO tired. So here's like ~~3 pics~~ jk way more cause I just clicked a lot anyways Bonus hobbit pic below this gallery! Gonna share the hobbit ones on insta when I have the hobbiton day done .