Mission: Mordor
ADVENTURE
Yesssss, we're back on the North Island of Aotearoa!
The South Island was very beautiful but too cold for my liking. (I say that, but I thought I was going to lose my fingers during a hike a few days after taking the ferry).
We left Nelson on a Tuesday afternoon, to sleep close to the harbour because our ferry was leaving at 6:30 in the morning. But, halfway there, I received an email telling us that our journey had been cancelled due to a technical fault. Ah.
I also read that it's our 6:30 p.m. journey that's been cancelled. Well, yes, in English, it's 6:30 a.m. in the morning and 6:30 p.m. in the afternoon. There's no 24-hour system. So luckily I received this email, or we would have shown up at 5 a.m. for nothing.
Juliette was supposed to join us for the crossing, but she got stuck somewhere near Farewell Spit (you know, where I walked for four hours in the sand last time). It would take her about four hours to drive, but the van she's been travelling in has a big radiator problem and refuses to move.
Oh dear! We also have a little radiator problem that we thought we could ignore for a while and just add some coolant now and then.
Well, since we had nothing better to do and plenty of time, we decided to go to the garage. So we got redirected to a specialised workshop near the harbour, and the mechanic went out of his way to sort out the part we needed without having to change the whole radiator, helping us save a lot of money!
We patiently waited in a library for the repairs to be completed and finally received a message informing us that a new departure had been scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Perfect!
However, Juliette was still miles away. She'd refuse to leave her comrade (who really had the worst luck and always reacted very badly, attracting even more bad luck, obviously) and join us hitchhiking. So we prayed for a miracle to make her arrive on time.
Why am I telling you all this, when it has nothing to do with exploring this magical land, or some esoteric reflection? I'm getting to it.
In short, the tow truck arrived and the van was repaired in record time, allowing them to hit the road just four hours before the ferry departure. There were still a few twists and turns that made us worry for Juju, but she arrived just in time.
The point of this whole story is:
If the ferry hadn't been cancelled and then delayed by two hours, Juliette would have missed it, Dani and I would have shown up at the crack of dawn only to wait all day long and probably wouldn't have turned back to fix our radiator, so we would have missed this cheap opportunity (everything is more expensive in the North Island), and potentially would have blown our engine a few days later.
What we also learned from this is that, unlike Juju's travel companion, who spent his time getting angry and struggling to make everything go exactly as he had planned, thereby eliciting unproductive reactions from his counterparts and wasting his energy; by staying perfectly calm and letting things take their natural course, Dani and I rid ourselves of any form of stress, and everything eventually worked out organically.
So there you have it, and all of this was before even starting this new adventure!
So, I was saying: the North Island!
Back to Wellington four months later, and straight to Rivendell, which we missed last time we were in the area. Rivendell is an elven residential valley where the Fellowship of the Ring gathers before embarking on their quest.
Except that between the filming location and what you see with the movie's special effects, there's a world of difference. Really, it was like: "You see this tree? It appears in such-and-such scenes" with a photo to prove it. Except that in the photo, there's a huge waterfall behind an enchanting palace. In real life, well... there's a tree. In front of other trees.
But no regrets, Dani was overjoyed, and the walk was nice. Plus, I discovered that I'm almost the same height as Gandalf and that the Hobbits barely reach my waist, so it was worth it.
During the following days, we headed up to the centre of the island to explore the volcanic region of Taupo.
On the way, we braved the rain to see the natural pool where Gollum quietly swims before being captured by Faramir's soldiers. Very pretty.
The thermal town is built on the shores of the lake of the same name, which is the largest in the country, and the geothermal activity there is impressive. For several days, we were able to relax in the natural hot waters with multiple virtues, as well as explore sites with hissing and slightly odorous steam vents.
The Huka Falls, although not very high, are also impressive, with their 200,000 litres of water per second potentially filling five Olympic-sized pools in a minute. The term "huka" actually means "foam" and "sugar" in Maori. Which seems appropriate to describe the icy colour of these extremely pure waters with a high oxygen concentration (hence the colour).
After Taupo, our biggest challenge during this trip still awaited us: Tongariro.
Tongariro has been a protected nature reserve since colonisation (one of the first protected sites in the world, in fact), because the natural pools found there, as well as its peaks, are tapu, sacred to the Maori.
In fact, at the time of European settlement, the Maori chief responsible for the region directly ceded this land to the English crown, in exchange for the promise that it would be protected. Which was probably a wiser decision than to fight and risk losing this sacred land to the colonists.
We woke up at 5 a.m. (and encountered possums that were chilling in the middle of the road) to be on the first shuttle heading to the start of the hike. The driver gave us some recommendations to have a safe and good time, while respecting the land, then blessed us.
And off we went to explore Mordor (which is absolutely not as hot as in the movies) as the first light of day slowly appeared.
I knew it would be tough, even though I do sports, climbing isn't my thing. The ascent went better than expected, with steps to facilitate the climb. It reminded me of the climb of Piton de la Fournaise, which I found worse with its volcanic and unstable ground.
But, BUT, as we were approaching the summit, the wind intensified ++ and was absolutely freezing. It multiplied the efforts to be made (already quite substantial) and made me lose all feeling in my fingers (even though I was wearing gloves). I started to regret undertaking this alpine crossing and really wished I was anywhere but there. Really, I wasn't doing great.
Then came the summit, facing Mount Doom. The wind died down, and the Sun warmed us up. I survived.
And the view from the top is really worth it. We found ourselves between THE flagship landmark for anyone passionate about the Lord of the Rings, and splendid sacred natural pools reflecting the gentlest Sun. Magical.
I mean, it's also one of the most famous hikes in the country, so there were a lot of people, but it's the kind of sight you never forget.
Then a loooong descent, although rather easy, which we did in record time. We had decided to take the first shuttle, as it was a six to eight-hour hike and we were afraid of taking too long; but in five and a half hours, we had already returned to the car park and covered the 20km that made up the crossing.
We were quite proud, to be honest!
Then came a well-deserved rest in a rehabilitated ghost town turned campground and completely cut off from the world.
And on the following day, it's with next-level soreness that we headed towards our next house-sitting gig in New Plymouth.
Followed by two weeks at the foot of Mount Taranaki alongside Molly, the Labrador, which I'll tell you about soon.
❂ For now, thank you for reading. ❂
