Tongariro National Park part 1...

I awoke with a nervous excitement brewing as I knew the next week ahead would be full of challenging backpacking, exploration of a new place and time away from the valley. We left the valley at around 8am, but didn't arrive at Tongariro National Park until 6pm that night after making a mad dash to the Khatmandu outdoor apparel store in Hamilton. As we started the ascent from the carpark up towards the alpine hut where we would be spending the evening it was amazing to see the starc contrast between the farming land on one side of the road and near barren volcanic rock covered landscape that surrounded the bottom of Mt. Ruapehu. Hiking up with a fully loaded backpack along scree--gravel like rocky terrain by torches was definitely memorable as a faint and at times steady downpour of mist and rain clouded the air. Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings was barely in sight in the distance illuminated by a near full moon and that lovely aura that radiates when the moon is caught behind a billowy cloud. When we finally arrived at the hut we were pleasently surprised to find that we had the whole cabin to ourselves--we each claimed a bunk and began prepping for dinner. No meal tastes as good as the one right after a nice hike--that's for sure. That evening as the temperatures got near freezing, I found myself shaking and unable to warm myself up no matter how many layers I seemed to bundle myself up in.
The next day we woke up again bright and early in an effort to get to the summit of Mt. Ruapehu before the weather took a turn for the worse. We started off walking along the riverbed, carefully maneuvering our way through rocks and cold glacial waters...that whole morning I couldn't seem to shake a feeling of negativity that seemed to linger in the pit of my stomach--in other words hiking that day was definitely much more of a mental challenge than physical. That is the common theme for much of what I've encoutnered since being in this country--things might be hard physically, but I know I can do them...it is the mind that is the much more powerful demon that needs the reassurance. The hike slowly changed from rocky to ice as we found ourself walking straight up sheets of snow and ice, having to really stab our feet into the ground--mimicking crampons--if we wanted any real chance of staying vertical. The final part of the hike consisted of a scramble up some scree and snow that for every two feet you were able to hoist yourself up and over you went four feet backwards seeing as how getting any real good gripping of the terrain with one's hiking boots was rather difficult. All that effort to get to the summit was more than worth it as we were greeted by a scene straight out of mars with a huge crater right infront of us covered in snow with random pockets in the snow every couple of feet that gave way to the molten rock that laid covered in ice below. What started out as a fairly clear morning started to take a turn for the worse as the temperatures became blistering cold, the winds picked up and seeing the person right infront of you became increasingly difficult...but since we had made it to the summit we weren't planning on descending until we at least got the opportunity to chekout crater lake and see how the terrain had changed in the last few months--seeing as there had been a fairly recent landslide. Relying solely on Dagmar's familiarity with the mountain we were somehow or another able to make it to a cliff that in theory was supposed to overlook the lake...but because of the dense cloud coverage it felt more like we were being enveloped in the arms of a cloud in the middle of nowhere rather than just a few hundred feet from an enormous frozen lake. We tried to wait out the weather, but the longer we waited, the colder it got and the fewer provisions we had so eventually we made our way back down towards the hut. The hike down made up for the fact that we didn't get to see the lake--it was amazing as my spirits quickly lifted as we took off our rain jackets tied them around our waist and used them as makeshift sleds to slide our way down the icy ravine that seemed to span for miles weaving our way in and out of rocks, as the speeds picked up and innocent screams of laughter and excitement echoed through the otherwise quiet mountainside I found my face flushed and a smile from ear to ear.