New Zealand: Tongariro crossing.

A lesson I learned visiting Mount Doom.

Okay, so in real life, it’s not called Mount Doom, and there is no lava flowing there…at the moment.

The mountain was named Ngauruhoe by the Maori and can be found on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North Island of New Zealand. It’s one of the most popular hiking trails in the country.

It was a place I visited during a week-long road trip from Queenstown in the south to Auckland in the north. I was on a quest to cross all the items off my bucket list before heading back to the UK.

I wrote about the overall trip experience here, but I thought I would get round to sharing some of the specific locations.

One thing that was right at the top of my bucket list was to climb Mount Doom. As a kid, I was a massive fan of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, and climbing that mountain was something I desperately wanted to do.

The way to see it is to walk the famous walking trek named Tongariro crossing. A relatively challenging hike that takes fast walkers about seven hours to complete.

I arrived at the town of National Park, yes that’s the name, and booked to stay at Discovery Lodge where I could park and sleep in my car. They organized transportation to the site. The gentleman who booked my trip ironically reminded me very strongly of Martin Freeman, who played Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

That was probably a coincidence, but I’m not ruling at that being in the job description.

I’ll link their site. (There is no affiliation link here I just thought they were awesome.)

The hike started very early the following day.

The guide had told me that the best way to experience this walk is by arriving at the start of the track at 05:35. I found a suitable playlist that of course, ended up being the cinematic score to The Lord Of The Rings movies.

I started at a brisk pace, as every hiker knows there is an unspoken race. For some utterly irrational reason, I had to stay ahead of the person behind me.

(Maybe that’s just me.)

In the end, I got a little far ahead of the other walkers. It was worth it because I found myself totally alone in an incredible and unique volcanic landscape. As the signage along the trail helpfully reminds you this entire area is still technically an active volcano, you can smell the sulphur in the air. Ngauruhoe itself has erupted 70 times since 1839.

The first part of the walk took around 3 hours, if my memory served me correctly, including a quick stop for breakfast (and second breakfast.)

Then after a particularly steep climb aided by embedded steel chains, I found myself at my first viewing spot. From the top of the red crater, you can view the emerald lakes below which were formed by water filling in the spaces created by explosions.

The weather on that day was far from ideal, and visibility was abysmal when I reached the peak of the viewing spot. A curtain of mist hung over the environment, shrouding the location.

I waited for a while, recording videos and soaking in the moment. Here I got a remarkable stroke of good fortune when suddenly, the clouds lifted just for a moment affording me a much better view of the surroundings.

After this, I pressed on and walked for another couple of hours. I was only a couple of hours away from the exit when a heart-wrenching realization hit me. I pulled out my map, which confirmed what was tying knots in my heart. I had already walked passed Mount Doom… I mean… Ngauruhoe.

It’s not that I hadn’t seen it. I’d been admiring it from the viewing spot earlier. I hadn’t realized it was Ngauruhoe and had walked right past it. What had I expected to see? Hobbits?

I was divided on what to do next. I was already tired from the walk; did I really have it in me to walk back and then hike up a mountain? But then, when on Earth would I get a chance to be here again? Ultimately, FOMO overrode my sensibilities, and I made a U-turn.

This was a mistake. I hadn’t realized how great my tour guide’s advice had been. Before long, I passed a trickle of people, which became a flood. The beautiful isolation and tranquility I’d taken for granted all morning vanished rapidly, and the trail became a carnival of walkers.

It’s nothing short of stupefying the extent that the vibe had changed.

Another surprise was waiting for me.

I made the long walk back and found myself back at Mount Doom, ready to cross something big off my bucket list, and then…..

“You’re going to walk up there?”

Somebody was waving for my attention.

I said I was, and he called me over and told me something I didn’t want to hear.

The mountain is sacred to the Maori people. Sure, there is no law against it, but it’s an act of disrespect to climb it. It’s supposed to be enjoyed respectfully at a distance. I went through a quick internal conflict again and in the end…I decided not to climb it after all. I don’t want to be the type of person who disrespects people’s rules about their own land.

If there is a moral to the story, this is it.

My decision, driven by FOMO, had come with a steep cost. I hadn’t realized how lucky I was to get the entire walk to myself for the whole morning. It’s the first time (but not the last) that I learned a critical travel lesson.

Seeking and expecting the perfect travel moment is a fool’s errand. Things rarely go as you wish and seldom look like they do in the brochure. You get unlucky sometimes and don’t get to do everything you want.

There is only one tactic for dealing with this.

Live in the moment and appreciate the experience that fate has given you. Be thankful for the places you end up in.

The last leg.

The rest of the walk takes you through some lovely forest and I walked at a bit of a pace as if I could get ahead of the crowds and recapture what I’d already lost.

I never got back ahead of the crowd and eventually emerged at a pickup point. There was a bus waiting for me to take me back to the caravan park. On the bus ride back, my legs aching as I’ve never known. I managed to finally reflect on how positive the whole adventure had been and even have a bit of a laugh at myself.

It’s funny telling this story now because back then I’d never even heard of Medium. I did know I should learn from the experience and one day I would share it with friends.

I may very well come back here someday and if I do I know to appreciate every part of the journey. I do hope if you wind up there you experience gorgeous weather on the day.

Thank you for checking out my story about this beautiful New Zealand location.

See you next time!