This past weekend, Matt and I took a trip down to the central part of the north island. We’d be in this general direction before with our trip to Rotorua, but stepped into previously unchartered territory by travelling even further south, heading down to Tongariro to do the Tongariro Crossing.
I had spent the past week working in Mount Maunganui, which is about 2 hours outside of Auckland. The Mount, as it’s known, is a bit of a vacation spot in the summer months, and is somewhat of a retirement community during the rest of the year. It was a nice little beach town, and fortunately the weather was nice enough that I could get out and enjoy it a bit.
In the Mount, there is an actual “Mount” – a large rock (some might call it a mini mountain) that forms a unique point between two beaches. There are trails around it, which I ran around and can attest to the fact that they are lovely, and there are trails up to the top of it, which I have only heard offer great views and sore legs if one chooses to run to the top of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera with me, but the beaches and Mount were really beautiful.
The story behind how the Mount ended up in its current location is a bit of a sad Maori tale. My hotel for the week had a great number of really informative/cheesy books of local history, and one related the story of the Mount. My somewhat truncated summary is as follows:
In a long ago time and a land not so far away, there were three mountains, two boys and one girl. Both boy mountains liked the girl mountain, but only one of the boy mountains had a name. The girl mountain chose the boy mountain with a name, and the no-name boy mountain was devastated. He asked magical creatures who can move only at night to haul him away from his lost love. They hauled him away from the other mountains, leaving a scar on the land (aka a valley), and got him partially out to sea before the sun started to come up and they had to stop. There he sits to this day, known as the Mount or Mauao which means "caught by the dawn". Full story and more detail on the Mount here.
In any event, I left the Mount on Friday arvo (slang for afternoon) to meet up with Matt who was driving down from Auckland. Our rendezvous point was Matamata, a small town perhaps best known for Hobbiton. The hobbit towns in the Lord of the Rings were constructed in this area. A pic of the LOTR heritage is below:
After watching a bit of cricket in Matamata, Matt picked me up and we were on our way to Tongariro. Tongariro is a national park, so there are lots of trails and tramps, and the Tongariro Crossing is one of the must-do tramps in NZ, be it winter or summer. It’s a 7-8 hour trek, with other legs and branches to extend a trip on, from ground level to and through the some alpine areas of the North Island’s biggest mountain range. The trail takes you past two of the big mountains: Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro. Mt. Ngaruhoe is perhaps best known (albeit digitally altered) as Mt. Doom in the LOTR movies. Though it is a long hike and covers some fairly extreme terrain, it is a popular hike for people covering a wide range of ages (old guys with funny hats and very serious walking sticks included) and with a wide range of tramping skills.
Definitely was a great hike (and not just because of the Doomalicious Mountain) due to the great scenery and challenging track - though part of the challenge and the fun was dodging slower people up the mountain ;)
Matt and Mt. Doom:
Doomalicious red crater
Emerald (and sulfuric) lakes:
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