Hiking the Tongariro Crossing

On March 13th, I rented a car from a guy named Frank who constantly referred to me as "Madam." He runs a small rental car agency outside of Auckland and agreed to let 18-20 year olds rent cars, as long as it was clear that in the event of an accident, we'd pay 3,000 NZD. Not sure if you were meant to know that or not, Mom and Dad...
Anyway, I picked up a nice red automatic (!!!) four door from Frank's place and started south for Tongariro National Park two hours before rush hour traffic was even toying with the notion of making life a living hell for novice standard users. Take that.
I made it to The Crossing Backpackers at about 8pm, ate some dinner with my travel mate, and nestled into my mummy bag early in anticipation of our 6:45 bus to the trail head. At first, I thought I might have learned to deal with mummy bags. Thinking back to this past summer's expeditions in Seattle, my mummy bag and I had a rough start together. Sleeping on Shi Shi Beach one night, I awoke in a pool of sweat that my "zero-below" bag had caused. I went to unzip the zipper, which was all the way above my shoulder, but it suddenly got stuck somewhere around shoulder-level. And, being a mummy bag, the space was too confined for me to lift my other arm and somehow free myself from what had suddenly become a straight jacket. After 5 minutes of desperate fighting, I forced my other arm up to where the zipper had caught itself, took each side of the zipper, and ripped until I'd unzipped my sleeping bag down to the knee region. Cool air suddenly hit my chest and I felt as though I'd gotten a breath of fresh air after having endured Chinese water torture for hours. After that I had a lot of contempt for this thing.
So having reunited with mummy bag for round two in New Zealand, I zipped the zipper to about my waist- for I dare not zip any further- and tried to fall asleep. Well, the cool room started to get reeeeaaallly warm all of a sudden... so I unzipped further. Then I need to turn over, but when I did so I got all caught up in the inside lining. But I couldnt right the lining because...its a mummy bag. It's impossible to maneuver your feet in those things. So after tossing and turning for about 2 hours, I just layed the bag over myself and found that to be the only solution to this mummy bag saga. I didn't do that in the first place, Dad, because I would've been sleeping on a bare hostel mattress....yes, I anticipated your response.
Well 6:15 came, I popped up, boarded a bus and began the 18.5 km trek by 7:45 a.m. I was surprised with myself, seeing as Aly and I usually make it a habit of hitting the snooze button until about 10 a.m., throwing on some sort outfit, and wandering to the trail by 11 a.m., only to hit the summit just as the bad weather rolls in. Al, I'm feeling ambitious for this next summer... this whole getting up earlier thing is really beneficial for not having to run up the mountain in order to have daylight for the trek down.
I hiked at a pretty good pace for about 4 km, but suddenly at kilometer 5 it was as if someone had just yanked the terrain up with a string to a 45 degree angle. I felt as though I was climbing straight up and thought my heart would pound out of my chest. That continued for a whole kilometer, at the end of which, we'd reached the base of Mt. Ngaruahoe a.k.a. Mt. Doom for all the Lord of the Rings buffs. From there we had a nice kilometer or two to traverse a flat crater, then straight up a bit more to reach Red Crater, a volcanic black and bright red hole that had thermal vents seeping from it's rock walls.
After a lunch of pepper cheese and chicken sandwiches, We continued up a bit more to a breathtaking vantage point from where one could see for miles around in a 360 degree radius. The trail from there continued to three sulfurous mountain lakes, known as the Emerald Lakes. They looked a lot prettier than they smelled, I have to say. But they were bright turquoise and an incredible contrast from the Red Crater that sits beside it.
Another traversing of a flat crater, a walk by Blue Lake, a downhill stint for about 8 km past thermal vents in fields of New Zealand bush and I was done! We ended just in time to catch the 2:30 bus back to our hostel and book it back to Auckland that night in order for my hiking partner to get back for an appointment.
Since Tongariro, I've ventured across Auckland's bay to the quaint town of Devonport. I also celebrated an eventful St. Patrick's Day at Auckland's finest pubs- after attending all of my classes that day! Last night, my friends and I also brought a blanket out to the Domain and just sat and talked for a very long time, which doesn't sound like much but our conversations get pretty hilarious. I think a few topics were Dracula, our dogs, annnnd kebabs. So that was enjoyable. This Sunday I will be going canyoning and bringing a camera on this one would probably be a terrible idea, but I'll be sure to let you know the outcome, if I survive jumping, repelling, and sliding down waterfalls...